No big surprise: the cooling system remains the same, the chipset including the GPU is also covered by a heatsink as expected. The RAM modules are SODIMM DDR2 and easier to access than in the G4-based Mac mini.
Now there is something weird: Why Apple has kept its Airport card for the Wifi whereas Intel and its Core Duo/Centrino platform have an integrated wifi a/b/g controller available?
We still do not know if the Core Duo is soldered to the motherboard, or on a socket. We would of course prefer the latter option, at least for future upgrading.
[Update] Good news!! And definitely a really good point for the Mac mini Intel: as shown on the photo published by http://nak.journalspace.com/ the Core Duo is on a socket; so One will be able in the future to upgrade its processor. A really interesting point for hte Core solo-based model.
[update 2] A xBench test comparing a core Duo and a G4-based Mac mini indicates that the Intel-based model is twice faster than the PPC-based model. Especially for the OpenGL test, so maybe one will be able to play some 3D games with this computer; even though the OpenGL test of xBench is far to be as accurate as real 3D games benchmarks.
The Core Duo Mac mini is also able to play H.264 1080p HD video; but nothing surprising since it uses CPU. But the Core solo might have problem to play full definition 1080p HD video.
