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Mac Mini + 24" Cinema Display

Paulywauly

Paulywauly

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 26, 2009
766
0
Durham, UK
Hi everyone,

just returned my new imac 21.5 inch due to the fact that the case was giving me shocks and it was scratching discs, im pretty hesitant about getting another as this forum is littered with recent imac problems. :(

The 2.53 Ghz mini looks really good for my needs, low power consumption (as its on 24 hours a day) easy upgradability, easier to fix if broken and the mini owners in these forums seem to love them! Im tempted to get one of these instead but i will miss the iMac screen.

The Mini in the store was attached to a 24 inch cinema display and it looked amazing, but its pricey....

has anybody had any experience with a mac mini+24 ACD setup? what do you think of it? Anybody have any other thoughts or alternate ideas?
 
techound1

techound1

macrumors 68000
Mar 3, 2006
1,977
7
It will be a sweet setup for you and I think you'll really like the self-upgradability of it. Go refurb! You'll save $100+ on the mini and you can snag a 24" LED cine for a savings of $300. You can also save $20 on a refurb BT keyboard. Huzzah!
 
W

willieva

macrumors 6502
Mar 12, 2010
274
0
It all depends on what you want to do. The mini is a great computer but if you're going to be doing memory intensive things(like running virtual machines) then it will quickly get slow. And 4 gig is the max. The 24" is overkill for most things. It's wider than necessary for browsing or editing documents, but not wide enough to have multiple windows opened side by side. It's very nice for photos and video.

A mini with a 20" screen is all the computer most people need. I'm running a mini with a 24" screen(free from work) but if they offered it to me again I'd just get a 20".
 
MacMini2009

MacMini2009

macrumors 68000
May 22, 2009
1,728
0
California
willieva said:
It all depends on what you want to do. The mini is a great computer but if you're going to be doing memory intensive things(like running virtual machines) then it will quickly get slow. And 4 gig is the max. The 24" is overkill for most things. It's wider than necessary for browsing or editing documents, but not wide enough to have multiple windows opened side by side. It's very nice for photos and video.

A mini with a 20" screen is all the computer most people need. I'm running a mini with a 24" screen(free from work) but if they offered it to me again I'd just get a 20".
Click to expand...

The Mac Mini unofficially supports 8GB of RAM.
 
T

tchockey

macrumors member
Feb 9, 2010
59
0
hi
You will love the mini and 24" cinema display, I have a 27 i7 and my daughter has 21.5. plus have mini with 24" I put xm25 160 ssd in it and it works great. I like the 24 display best out of all the displays for every day use. The mini is the best bargain mac has.

you also can do a macbook pro with 24" display. The market is flooded with preowned macbook pros the last 2 days., with great deals to boot. Then you have more options.

One very big positive about mini runs super cool and quiet. Very upgradeable and fun to do.

The imac i7 I can cook eggs on it.

good luck !!!!
 
T

tuna

macrumors 6502
Apr 11, 2010
388
0
Why the hell pair a Mac Mini with the Apple brand monitor? I understand that you have to buy the Apple computer to run OSX and to be in the Apple ecosystem, but $899 for a 24" 1920x1200 monitor is an OUTRAGEOUS price. I bought a 24" monitor 1.5 years ago for $250. Yeah, its a lower quality model, but the point is that you could definitely get an equal quality monitor to the Apple Cinema Display for under $600. And you could easily spend much less than that considering that you probably aren't doing graphic design on that Mac Mini.
 
Staindsoul

Staindsoul

macrumors 6502
Apr 13, 2010
393
31
Texas
tuna said:
Why the hell pair a Mac Mini with the Apple brand monitor? I understand that you have to buy the Apple computer to run OSX and to be in the Apple ecosystem, but $899 for a 24" 1920x1200 monitor is an OUTRAGEOUS price. I bought a 24" monitor 1.5 years ago for $250. Yeah, its a lower quality model, but the point is that you could definitely get an equal quality monitor to the Apple Cinema Display for under $600. And you could easily spend much less than that considering that you probably aren't doing graphic design on that Mac Mini.
Click to expand...

Definitely agree. We all know Apple's computers are top notch, but $900 for an LCD? That's just paying for the brand name. Put it against a $250 LCD monitor and justify the extra $650 (which alone is enough to buy a MacMini)
 
T

tchockey

macrumors member
Feb 9, 2010
59
0
hi
By no means am I justifying 900.00 for a 24 inch display. that said !
You can't compare a 250.00 to the 24" cinema display. Then it wouldn't matter what monitor you had, you can't see anyway.

If you are someone on the mac all day, the best money you can spend is on a quality monitor. You can pickup a refurb for 599.00 or purchase a preowned one for under 600..

so here 599.00 refurb 24" cinema + 2.26 refurb mac mini 499.00 key & mouse 100.00 so for around 1200.00 and you have a pretty great little system.

About the same price as his 21.5 imac that he didn't like give or take.

if you are going to spend the money on a mac, why wouldn't you spend some extra money for your eye's.
 
T

tuna

macrumors 6502
Apr 11, 2010
388
0
tchockey said:
hi
By no means am I justifying 900.00 for a 24 inch display. that said !
You can't compare a 250.00 to the 24" cinema display. Then it wouldn't matter what monitor you had, you can't see anyway.

If you are someone on the mac all day, the best money you can spend is on a quality monitor. You can pickup a refurb for 599.00 or purchase a preowned one for under 600..

so here 599.00 refurb 24" cinema + 2.26 refurb mac mini 499.00 key & mouse 100.00 so for around 1200.00 and you have a pretty great little system.

About the same price as his 21.5 imac that he didn't like give or take.

if you are going to spend the money on a mac, why wouldn't you spend some extra money for your eye's.
Click to expand...

Because you could get the Samsung brand 24" monitor which probably has the same exact LCD panel underneath for less than $400 brand new.
 
T

tchockey

macrumors member
Feb 9, 2010
59
0
well if that makes you happy then, thats ok at least it's not a 250.00 monitor. Samsung's are not bad monitors.
And then you can spend 100 to 200 for software to calibrate the thing.
 
Staindsoul

Staindsoul

macrumors 6502
Apr 13, 2010
393
31
Texas
tchockey said:
well if that makes you happy then, thats ok at least it's not a 250.00 monitor. Samsung's are not bad monitors.
And then you can spend 100 to 200 for software to calibrate the thing.
Click to expand...

So you are implying cinema displays are calibrated and samsungs are not? Or any other brand for that matter.
 
ssmed

ssmed

macrumors 6502a
Sep 28, 2009
875
413
UK
Mac Mini and 24" ACD

I have used this quite a lot although usually I have my old Apple 20" with the mini. It is a fine combination (I have the 2.53 with 4GB RAM and 320 GB HD running 10.6.3 & Windows 7 in bootcamp). My biggest complaint is that the hard disk is notably slower than any of the other portable drives we use. If you have Apple laptops as well it is a great way of having extra screen space when you need it for them that a iMac does not provide anywhere near so easily.

HTH
 
Paulywauly

Paulywauly

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 26, 2009
766
0
Durham, UK
Thanks for the input folks, i think i'll defiantly go with the mini. Its that much cheaper and easier to repair i doubt i'd even go for applecare which would bring the price down. The cost of ownership would most likely be alot less too over a few years as it would be on all day every day doing things for me e.g. encoding etc. so the much lower power consumption would be great.

The cinema screen was more of an option, i was just impressed with it due to its size and great viewing angles in store. the viewing angles being especially important as i plan on using it to watch videos in bed rather than have a TV, i have a fairly new 22" samsung t220HD but its vertical viewing angle is poor and distracting.

The overall impression here is that the Cinema Display is unjustifiably expensive, can anybody recommend alternatives???
 
E

endophilin

macrumors newbie
Feb 1, 2010
10
0
In reference to a monitor to go along with the Mini, I would suggest a DELL U2410 IPS 24 inch monitor. It is an excellent matte display and has several input options. The Apple display is good but is very glossy. But they are both IPS displays with near identical features i.e. 16:10 or 1920x1200 etc. Furthermore, you can only connect equipment that are of the recent Apple pedigree.

My two cents ......
 
V

Vlajko

macrumors newbie
May 2, 2010
8
0
MacMini2009 said:
The Mac Mini unofficially supports 8GB of RAM.
Click to expand...

it really does?
seriously?
I'm about to get me either new mini or used 20" iMac..

kinda leaning more to mini,but if damn thing can hold up 8GB of Ram then i might stop leaning and get it!
 
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