Mac Mini

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wavinwayne

wavinwayne

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Does anyone here use a Mac Mini? Apple sells two versions, priced at $599 and $799, respectively. I'm considering purchasing one for home use, and figured I'd ask for user opinions here first.

For anyone wondering, a Mac Mini is basically a tiny PC; the case measures 6.5" x 6.5" x 2" tall. You can use whatever mouse, keyboard, and display you want.
 
The only real benefit to the more expensive one is that it comes with 2gb rather than 1gb of memory and 320gb vs 120gb hard disk. They're OK for bopping around on the web, but the video is painfully slow for my tastes. You can get a much more capaple pc for less money, albeit in a less aesthetically pleasing form factor.

If it was me, and I absolutely HAD to have one, I'd get the cheapest one. Then I'd upgrade it to 4GB of memory and replace the hard drive with a 64gb solid state flash drive. That would make it a lot more snappy to use and would cost you about $225-ish to do yourself.
 
If you're feeling a little adventurous, Google "hackintosh": you can build a system that will run OS X and outperform the Mac Mini for less money.

There are also other retailers and manufacturers that make small footprint/ low power systems; onto which you could install a Linux based OS instead of Windows.
 
They look cool, but are rather expensive IMO. You can build a dang nice gaming PC for less than that.
 
Thank you all for your comments. It appears that none of the BITOGers is using the Mac Mini. I really didn't expect to find many (if any) folks who use one, since it is a niche product.

As far as the value/performance ratio of a Mac is concerned, it IS difficult to make a case for the Mac, especially for the average computer user (me). With that said, I am the type of person who, while I'm generally cheap, I don't mind paying a premium for a niche product that I find interesting. That's the category that the Mini Mac fall into for me.
 
Hey WavinWayne,

My wife and I have one that we purchased last year, so it's the model before what's available now. We've been happy with ours and would consider getting another one down the road. We just got the $599 version but will likely double up the RAM soon as 1GB is a little tight, even for non-demanding users like us. I wouldn't pay Apple's insane prices for extra memory, as others have mentioned you can upgrade the RAM and HD on your own for much less money. And you should be able to do the upgrades yourself, just look for tutorials on-line to familiarize yourself with how they come apart.

We use ours for browsing the internet, email, document creation and manipulation and to manage our photo and music collections. We chose the Mini as compromise, My wife is a long-time Windows user and I've been running Linux (Debian) on homemade boxes for years. We wanted something with a small form factor that was power efficient with an OS that's a bit more mainstream than Linux, however I was not willing to use a Windows machine. The Mini fit the bill and has been working out great for us ever since.

By the way, it's probably odd that my first post on and oil site has to do with computers... Oh well, hope it was helpful anyway.
 
Welcome Nate !!
welcome2.gif
 
Just did some research, on Macs. As others have said, Apple charges a big premium for RAM, but they do for everything else too. From what I've read, the 9400M in all the cheap Mac's is pretty good. Better then the integrated Intel graphics that a lot of low end computers come with. If your really worried about spending too much don't get a mac. But I think you do get a better computer then the cheapo $300-400 computers that some people compare them too.
 
Does anybody know if there is a way I could use splitter cables on my existing mouse, keyboard, and monitor, so I could run EITHER the Windows PC OR the Mac, with the same set of peripherals?
 
I have a mac mini. It has been my daily use email and web browsing computer from roughly 2003 (I have an older PPC one). It has gotten a little slow, as laptop components from those days were a bit lower performance. All the same, it has worked well and reliably. It is nice to be able to couple with whatever monitor I want, but bigger is always better, and I generally like the apple monitors.

Doing it again, Id look at the imac over the mini. My mini is great, but in the name of total simplicity, it is an additional box on my desktop. The imac can be had with a 24" screen, maybe larger, and is totally self-enclosed.

I'd recommend either. Ive not had a problem with my mini, and routinely leave it booted and on for a month at a time. Ive never had it crash, though sometimes safari would create a memory hole, requiring me to reboot. It runs just right for basic use, runs stable, is nice and small, quiet and energy efficent. I don't think you can go wrong...
 
Very good review, JHZR2. Thanks. Any idea if I could do what I asked about in my previous post?
 
Originally Posted By: wavinwayne
Does anybody know if there is a way I could use splitter cables on my existing mouse, keyboard, and monitor, so I could run EITHER the Windows PC OR the Mac, with the same set of peripherals?

Look for a KVM (Keyboard, Video, Mouse) switch. Some will also switch audio.
 
Originally Posted By: tmorris1
Originally Posted By: wavinwayne
Does anybody know if there is a way I could use splitter cables on my existing mouse, keyboard, and monitor, so I could run EITHER the Windows PC OR the Mac, with the same set of peripherals?

Look for a KVM (Keyboard, Video, Mouse) switch. Some will also switch audio.


Thanks. I'm an idiot when it comes to all the switches and such.

I wonder how my cable internet connection might be screwed up if I try to run 2 different computers using the same cable modem???
 
Originally Posted By: wavinwayne
Originally Posted By: tmorris1
Originally Posted By: wavinwayne
Does anybody know if there is a way I could use splitter cables on my existing mouse, keyboard, and monitor, so I could run EITHER the Windows PC OR the Mac, with the same set of peripherals?

Look for a KVM (Keyboard, Video, Mouse) switch. Some will also switch audio.


Thanks. I'm an idiot when it comes to all the switches and such.

I wonder how my cable internet connection might be screwed up if I try to run 2 different computers using the same cable modem???
You will need a router to share your internet connection with 2 computers.
 
No need for wireless, just get a wired connection.

Easiest thing? Some monitors have two or more input - my dell 2408 24" monitor has 2 DVI and 1 VGA. It never hurts to have the best monitor you can...

For the keyboard and mouse, just buy two USB switches. I use them to share one printer on two computers. No reason you can't use two of them to do keboard and mouse.

The apple keyboard and mouse connects the moue via the keyboard. Id imagine you could use the apple keyboard and a standard windows 2-button mouse.
 
You can get a KVM switch for $30. From what I have seen USB switches are a lot more than that. A KVM switch is a USB switch along with a monitor switch. The benefit here is that everything switches with a button push or a keystoke from the keyboard instead of flipping 3 separate switches.
 
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