The Apple Mac mini features a 2.3GHz Intel Core i5 (2415M) processor with two independent processor cores on a single chip, a 3MB shared level 3 cache, 8GB of memory, a 500GB hard drive, and Intel HD Graphics 3000 with 288MB of memory shared with the system.

Connectivity includes a Firewire 800 port, four USB 2.0 ports, combined audio line in (digital/analog) and combined audio line out/headphone minijacks, a 10/100/1000Base-T Gigabit Ethernet port, 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 4.0, an SDXC card slot and an HDMI port as well as a new “Thunderbolt” port that is backwards compatible with Mini DisplayPort and likewise supports an external display at 2560×1600 and passes an audio signal as well. Thunderbolt also supports other peripherals that use the Thunderbolt standard which provides up to 10Gbps of bandwidth in both directions.

Compared to its non-server predecessor, the most obvious external difference is that this model lacks an optical drive, but it also has the aforementioned Thunderbolt port and is a bit lighter. Internally, it also has a faster processor, architecture, RAM and graphics as well as improved wireless capabilities.