Mac Mini

[kingrob]

Anyone using a mini for his/her desktop pc? Is it any good?

The spec looks a bit underpowered for end 2009, but we all know a Mac doesnt use all the resources a Windows pc does.

Think it should be cool to use with my Philips 24'' display + Microsoft wireless keyboard & mouse.

 

[phiber]

Specs are quite reasonable, and snow leopard runs very well. Currently using a macbook 2.4 with 4 gig ram, but even when it had 2 gigs it was more than enough. Really depends what you want to do with the machine though. The 2.5 with 4 gigs ram is MORE than enough, you can even throw a couple of VM's at it!

 

[kingrob]

Thanks phiber!

Just want to use it for surfing the web, write the odd letter, store and edit photos and listen to music.

The mini should be more than enough for what I need.

 

[koffiejunkie]

Yep, you don't need much CPU for that. Many people still using much older G4 models for that.

My only gripe with the Mini is that they still put 5400rpm discs in them (same as most laptops). I replaced the one in my old G4 with the biggest 7200rpm IDE drive I could find (120GB at the time) and upped the memory to the max. That made it fly

 

[kingrob]

I already looked at a video on Youtube on how to swop the hard drive of the Mac mini.

And while I'm there, I'll just pop in another 2GB of RAM.

*Few months ago I swopped the 5400 hard drive of my notebook for a 7200 RPM drive - and its the best bucks I have ever spent. A sluggish Vista changed into a super fast Vista.

 

[bwana]

I already looked at a video on Youtube on how to swop the hard drive of the Mac mini.

And while I'm there, I'll just pop in another 2GB of RAM.

*Few months ago I swopped the 5400 hard drive of my notebook for a 7200 RPM drive - and its the best bucks I have ever spent. A sluggish Vista changed into a super fast Vista.

I did it when I got one of the earlier Intel Core Duo Minis. It's an interesting procedure. Dont forget your putty knife.

 

[kingrob]

I did it when I got one of the earlier Intel Core Duo Minis. It's an interesting procedure. Dont forget your putty knife.

So you also reckon a Mac mini is worth it, bwana?

 

[bwana]

I bought mine as a potential back up machine but so far it has just used to rip, encode, and play movies - it should be plenty enough to do what you're wanting to do.

 

[koffiejunkie]

As much as I wouldn't advise anyone not to get a Mini if it'll do the job, I would rather save up and spend the extra and get the MacBook. Roughly the same hardware, with the same upgrade possibilities, but you can take it with you

 

[phiber]

Yep, you don't need much CPU for that. Many people still using much older G4 models for that.

Got a G4 (1.25 with a gig of ram), can still do this but my macbook does it better Gave it to my bro, using it to watch DIVX movies on his TV. Can't do 720p, but it does the job for him.

 

[koffiejunkie]

Got a G4 (1.25 with a gig of ram), can still do this but my macbook does it better Gave it to my bro, using it to watch DIVX movies on his TV.

Mine was the "silent upgrade" 1.33 GHz. With 32MB dedicated VRAM, 1GB DDR, and a 7200rpm disc, it made a nice machine. The reason I looked to a newer Mac at the time was that Apple dropped support for the older Minis from Aperture. And since my HP laptop packed up (again) roundabout that time, a MacBook was a natural choice.

Can't do 720p, but it does the job for him.

Yeah, that was borderline. Interestingly, if I managed to get the uncompressed video, it could play it back. But I guess decompressing and decoding is too much for it.