The Apple Mac mini "Core i7" 2.3 (Late 2012/Aluminum Unibody) features a 22-nm Quad Core "Ivy Bridge" 2.3 GHz Intel "Core i7" (3615QM) processor with four independent processor "cores" on a single chip, a 6 MB shared level 3 cache, and Intel HD Graphics 4000 which shares system memory. It does not have an internal optical drive.
The Mac mini Core i7 2.3GHz (Late 2012) was upgraded model for the Late 2012 range with the a 22nm, 3rd generation quad core "Ivy Bridge" Core i7 (3615QM) 2.3GHz processor. The quad core Mac mini was dropped from the Late 2014 Mac mini range, leaving this older model in a peculiar position of having a more powerful processor than it's successor.
Connectivity includes a Firewire "800" port, four USB 3.0 ports, HDMI, Thunderbolt, combined "audio line in (digital/analog)" and combined "audio line out/headphone (digital/analog)" minijacks, a 10/100/1000Base-T Gigabit Ethernet port, 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, and an SDXC card slot.
Compared to its predecessor, this model looks identical, but it has a faster internal architecture with a faster processor and faster RAM, albeit slower graphics, as well as USB 3.0 ports.