Mac Mini

[Neutron]

What do yall think of the Mac Mini?

With the new account I'm on at my job we have a mixture of Macs and PCs to support, so I need to learn the Mac OS.

My PC is over 3 years old now, and I've been looking to replace parts of it anyway. I've thought about getting a Mac Mini and setting up Boot Camp to dual boot between MacOS and Vista or XP.

Another reason to go this route is power consumption. My PC draws at least 200-300W idle. I've read the Mac Mini draws considerably less.

What do yall think?

 

[Foxbat]

I've seen reports that the Mac Mini draws somewhere in the neighborhood of 35W while running. You need to add a display to that, of course, but the base unit uses Intel's mobile Core 2 Duo CPUs and other low-E chips.

I wanted to get my Father a Mac Mini for his wandering lifestyle. Unless we got a 20" notebook, any screen on a typical notebook is too small for his 80+ eyes. The Mac Mini is the perfect size for his needs; all he needs is a monitor, keyboard, mouse, & printer at each of his destinations and he plugs in when he gets there.

If you're buying from Apple, go to the Refurbished section of their on-line store. Right now, refurb'd Mac Minis are under $500 for 1GB RAM & 1.83 GHz Core 2 Duo CPU, 80 GB harddrive, and Leopard. A combo drive, though. Or, for $200 more the 17" iMac with similar specs is the all-in-one solution for $699. $849 gets you a DVD+/-RW and 160GB hardrive 17" iMac. The iMacs include keyboards and MightyMouse where the Mac Mini is bring your own peripherals.

If it were me, personally, I'd go with the 20" aluminum iMac for $1,049. The iMacs are easier to upgrade the memory on than the Mini, and I like the clean look of the all-in-one design.

 

[dont24]

If you already have a keyboard, mouse and monitor , go for the mini in the refurb'd section. If you need to buy a monitor, I agree with Foxbat. Get a 20" iMac, if it's within your price range. Refurb'd section is a great way to save from cash. One thing about Macs. They hold their value very well.

 

[Van]

Everyone one that Ive ever met who has one loves them, small and quiet as a mouse, the only complaints Ive ever heard is the limited upgradeability but considering its size and what it can do its a good computer.

On a side note, Im trying to figure out how to get the legacy part of osX 10.1 to work so I can let my daughter play some good kid games, I've enabled the folder and even tried to install os9 into it but it wont work so Im baffled and my mac bible is no help.

 

[tonyp56]

As far as the Mac OS goes, it is a breeze, you just got to look at Macs as a different breed as they are...

In November 2000, the Mac tech left (quit her job) and guess who got stuck being the Mac technician at work? Me, LOL First week, I had to go to OSU and pick up 3 G3 AIO's, and fix them. That was fun, had to learn Apple Order, learn Mac OS 8-9, how to take apart a monitor basically and not get electrocuted (never broke into an all in one unit before this) all in a weeks time turn around. Even got to the point of being an Apple Certified Desktop Technician (more or less A+ with Mac OS stuff, not that hard at all). You might think about that if you are going to be supporting Apples, if you get certified you (at least your company) can order parts directly from Apple online or over phone, along with technical support from them (beyond normal customer care) that includes bullentins etc... In 2002, you had to take tests at a COMPTIA certified testing center, but Apple offers training and pre-test online. (was Mac technician from November 2000 to July 2002, certification expired in 2003, didn't have need to recertify, so never did)

So yeah, it is very doable, once you get the hang of it, Apple's are very easy to work on and to use. There is no real user controllable setting like there is in PC's (no device manager or device drivers etc...) Either they work or they don't, if they don't, just have to figure out why, and then order new parts etc...

Good luck... Never worked on Mac Mini's, or used them, but can't see them being any different than their larger siblings (IMAC's, and pre G4 AIO's). Got to say, Apples are so much easier to operate, but if you like being able to modify stuff, update drivers etc. you can forget about it when it comes to Apples.

 

[LER]

I've got a PowerPC MacMini that my daughter has usurped from me.

It's a very nice box. HOWEVER, if you are buying one, get the most memory in it when you buy it as getting into that case is, from what I've heard, a bear.

LER

 

[Foxbat]

It's a very nice box. HOWEVER, if you are buying one, get the most memory in it when you buy it as getting into that case is, from what I've heard, a bear.

LER

I've heard that a putty knife is the best tool to pop the case open (I'm sure Apple has some pricey tool for this,) but working on the Mac Mini doesn't look like it's for the faint of heart:
Macworld | Mac Word | Opening up the Intel Mac mini

After seeing the $499 Mac Mini at the refurb store, I went ahead and ordered one to replace my Dad's Evergreen Mini-book. The Mini-book is showing its age as it can't support more than 256MB of RAM, plus the cooling fan sounds like a Dustbuster...

 

[johnmac59]

I would also recommend that you get the max hard drive space available, especially if you are dual booting. If Mac Mini's are as hard to work with as people report, you won't want to mess with upgrading the hard drive later and you will need the space if you start using the Mini as your main box for a while.

Then again, you could tinker and swap the hard drive while you are becoming an expert.

 

[shanewalker]

As far as the hard drive issue, I wouldn't worry. Just get an external that matches the Mini footprint and put your apps/media on that to reserve room for the dual-boot OSs if you feel a squeeze (several good solutions are out there from Lacie, Newer, etc.). That's what I'll be doing if I get a Mini in January as I'm thinking I will.

The 'sealed' Macs actually are expandable...most PC folks just aren't used to relying on real 'plug-in-play' expansion w/ USB and Firewire external boot drives and such, which we've been able to count on in the Mac world for a looong time now. But if you do decide to crack it open, as I did my old Powerbook, to upgrade HDD or optical drives or memory...it will work without the dreaded BIOS update, etc. hassles that you may fear coming from the Windows world. Just set up a bootable external firewire drive and clone everything back, or do a base OS install and use, say, a Retrospect backup for a simple system restore.

In my world, it's my Toshiba Qosmio laptop that seems to be limited in its expansion options...I don't trust that I could similarly crack open the box and replace the drives, and besides, XP doesn't seem to like spreading apps onto externals and it doesn't, as most PC laptops don't, support bus-powered Firewire externals and the like.

 

[johnmac59]

Yeah, you are probably right. It is all just the fear of the unknown.

 

[Foxbat]

I've been playing with the MacMini I got for my dad. I think I'll stick with my Mac Pro, but I think he'll like it.

I did read on the BootCamp installation PDF that it is for a new installation of Windows, no restoration of an existing Windows machine. I had hoped to put the Windows XP Home system he's been using for the last four years on the Mac Mini and if he needed to go back for something (Lotus software, eesh) he could. However, it's not looking good since Apple wants the SP2 version of the Windows XP disk, and specifically warns about installing an original or SP1 version of the disk and trying to upgrade.

At this point, I might go ahead and try it anyway, but I may end up wasting my time. I'll make a backup of the Mac Mini's disk and go for it after Christmas.

I can see where this would make a nice HT machine (DVI output, optical S/PDIF in and out, Front Row media player) since it is very quiet and would disappear in most HT set-ups.