finally going for the 1st mac... need advice or answers on the purchase directly

finally ... i'm going to pull the trigger (in two weeks.. have first to check out the resolutions of the screen)

few questions (because i'm not sure myself/have no clue)
first: configuration
i've configured both a 1,25 and a 1,42 and with upgrading the hd on the 1,25 ,it's otherwise essentially the same machine except the 1,42 and the~50€ higher price..so i ask is it worth it ?
Mac mini 1.42GHz
+80GB Ultra ATA
+SuperDrive
+512MB DDR333 SDRAM - 1 DIMM
+Bluetooth + AirPort Extreme Card
+apple basic keyboard
878.98 € (including taxes etc.) (edu prices only for the bto upgrades the base unit didn'T get cheaper at all looks liek apple calculated _close_)

so i'm left with at least 120+ € for additional stuff ( one being perhaps a new good mouse..)


2nd question what resolutions do work in mac osx:
i plan on running it with 1152x864 (i don't know if 1280x1024 is possibly on the screen at home... can't test it untill february) it's not a very common resolution so i hope anybody know

3. additional hardware + software question :
what is essential..what should get with it (aka. ordering through the store..i get edu discount)? first i thought about getting the office student version ... but 100€ only for excel (don't care about another email client) seems to much for me over iwork...and then i thought about iwork...i'm not typing that much documents or making presentations so it wouldn't be that important ..should i save those 60€ ?
hardware:i know i'm gonna buy a usb hub sooner or later but i won't need it in the beginning (i will come later back for that 😉 )
i calculate something around 40-45€ for a good mouse but i'm perhaps not buying it immediatly so that leaves me with perhaps 100€ ..what mouses with more than 2 buttons do you recommend ? and do Linksys wireless router work fine with airportexpress (i need an internal switch so the grt-54 (?) is my current choice) without flaws ? what hardware(below 100€ preferable) i don't know about do you recommend me ..like a good external compatible firefire/usb2 3,5 harddrive exclosure (i have a few hard drives left it should be compatible with pcs) ... because if i don't need anything else i might add an ipod shuffle with 512 mb or save up for an ipod mini or apple car at the end of the year

4.iDVD support dvd+r etc. but when choosing the BTO upgrade it only mentions DVD-R ..can i burn normal files on dvd+r media (with the OS) or do i need to buy additional hardware or software for that ? i'm a little bit confused

5. billing: i've read the bill is gonna sent via mail and then you have to transfer the money from your giro-bankaccount,then get your order sent..does it work without a hassle ? how long does it take to get the bill sent to you ? (european members here ?) i have no credit card (nor do i know somebody who has) so that's not an option

i was configuring & looking for stuff in the apple store for hours yesterday... i was hardly able to sleep because i was so excited..for a computer with a radeon9200 and perhaps an internal laptop drive ... any further advice recommendations are highly welcome

i'm a student so additonal budget is limited to perhaps 1000 - 1050 perhaps more if i get any money from my parents (not much perhaps 50€) so keep the price reasonable

i might have the change to purchase a 15"lcd for perhaps 100-150€ but i'll have to wait for the price i can get..it only has 1024x768 resolution should i considered that ? or go with wireless network...oh so many questions

chv400 said:

I have a B&W with a 9200 and i run my monitor at 1152x864 and i Just checked and it is also able to do 1280x1024.
i think the mac mini comes with all the software you need to start running and it includes appleworks which is a word processor speadsheet presentaion database drawing painting app with lots of other stuff. So you should be fine with software for now.
I'm not sure about your other questions though.

Click to expand...

thx for the answer i just looked it up and found the old description for appleworks

i just looked around on the apple store for software and came about the thing that you need quicktime pro to watch dvds fullscreen without any button etc. visible ..true ? or work some other dvd-players flawlessly ? i would prefer a one programm for that
is it worth 42€ ? i know it's downloadable ..if i buy it with my mac can wait untill it arrives ?

thx for the confirmation on quicktime i guess i will simply stick to some 3rd vendor programm (which isn't strange to me as a windows user)

for the CPU i'm leaning more towards the 1.42 because i'm going towards dvd burning more with it
i don't have and so do the other 3 family computers(mother,sister and since few weeks younger brother) so i will be making backups from time to time with it and my father has been looking at digital camcorder for quite some time now

it's a hard decision..at the moment i'm in my budget and still have room for additional purchases could stretch it a little bit as well so at the moment i think i'm going with the 1,42

for other additional software i was thinking about toast ..but i heard that you can burn quite a bit of things with the os directly so if it isn't a must then i'll wait later on that as well (they listed the compability now on the german site for those dvd+ etc.)

so that leaves only questions about the experience with the billing, external hard driver enclosure, and the 3+ button mouse 😉 (i found talking about the linksys via the search looks good enough)

thx for everybody helping checking off some questions of my list

edit(and i added an kvm switch on my wishlist)