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What should I pay for a Mac Mini?

S

sl33t

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 12, 2011
139
0
Cleveland, Ohio
I am looking to get a Mac Mini. This will be my first Mac. I would like to use it for internet browsing mainly. I plan on upgrading to a new mac mini when the next generation comes out so I could then use the old one as a media server. I've been looking at this one in particular: http://www.ebay.com/itm/160713476883?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649#ht_500wt_969
Is this a good deal? Will it work good for what i wish to use it for? Please give me some feedback. Also, my budget is $200 and i plan on upgrading it to the max amount of RAM. Please give me your input.

-Sl33t
 
Go for it. Teamed with the G4 build of Camino (web browser) this machine will be happy to be a web surfer. Max out the RAM and install 10.5 Leopard and youll be set. Dont expect Flash to work decently though!
 
Thank you for the quick feedback! I'll be very happy to get this and am very excited to get my first Mac :)! I will probably use camino but would this be able to run chrome? I use chrome on my pc and it is definitely my favorite browser. However, I'm very willing to sacrifice it if camino will run better.
 
You won't be able to run chrome. And Camino will be fast anyways! Hope you enjoy your first Mac and welcome to the club!
 
The good thing is that it comes with all accessories and software. I have one of those models and they are a little on the slow side. The 512MB or RAM is a little on the low side for OS X 10.5, but that is easy and quick to upgrade. The factory hard disk is a little slow as well, as it is a laptop hard disk. It would be something a lot of fun to learn on and tinker on, but don't expect it to compare to current technology in regards to speed.

As the other poster said, I would see about getting Leopard and putting the RAM at 1GB. If you don't already have the RAM and/or a license for Leopard and need to buy it, it may put your investment up to a little more than what it would be worth.
 
I use to own a similar one...i would say save your money and buy a intel one...reason

with 1.25GHz and only 512 and original 40 gig (slow drive) it's gonna be...well slow!

to make useful..your gonna need to spend too much $$$

-1 gig ram (max it will take)
-new harddrive...and ide drives are getting $$$$
-your gonna want osx leopard

adding the $179 asking price and the cost of the upgrades,you would be better off finding a newer intel mini...
 
Ok, Thank You for the feedback everyone. I'm still going to think about it but taking into consideration the extra things I would need, I think I might just save my money and get the new 2012 Mini when it is released.
 
sl33t said:
Ok, Thank You for the feedback everyone. I'm still going to think about it but taking into consideration the extra things I would need, I think I might just save my money and get the new 2012 Mini when it is released.
Click to expand...

It matters what your going to use it for, if its mainly for web browsing then it will be fine if you max out the ram. the i processors are overpowered for most peoples needs. you could get it cheaper, here is a better deal http://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-Mac-M...0422057?pt=Apple_Desktops&hash=item3a6f00bb29
 
AQUADock said:
It matters what your going to use it for, if its mainly for web browsing then it will be fine if you max out the ram. the i processors are overpowered for most peoples needs. you could get it cheaper, here is a better deal http://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-Mac-M...0422057?pt=Apple_Desktops&hash=item3a6f00bb29
Click to expand...

The G4 ones would get bogged down even watching youtube if you're viewing at 720. It will get bogged down playing facebook games. It will not support recent flash plugins or newer software. Considering the lack of keyboard and mouse on the linked item, I wouldn't recommend it over $100. That model was around $400 new. You can find G5 towers for $300 and they're much much faster than this machine. Neither is that reliable (G5 tower or G4 mini). The G4 towers were better in their own time.
 
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Ok, I've decided to just save for the be Mini. I will also be needing it for a little bit of video editing so I'll need an intel based one. Thank you for the help everyone!
 
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