Planning to buy Mac mini

Standard Mini is good for what you want. If you read all the posts here and the buyers guide you'll see the Mini hasn't been updated by Apple for quite a while, so many people will say wait. I use a 2009 Mini (upgraded Ram to 8gb and larger/faster HDD) for pretty much the same usage. It runs all the latest software.

If you want to save some money try and find a 2012 Mini for sale used (they hold their price well you may be surprised by how much you have to pay). I would suggest you get an Apple wireless keyboard (a few special keys which are very useful), you can just re-use your existing monitor. I have an Apple magic mouse which I like, also trackpad is an option. You can use a normal "windows mouse" although Apple have some nice mouse gestures which are useful. Do some research to see what you think.

You can buy MS Office for Mac. You can use OpenOffice for free. You can read/write most basic Office files using the free Apple applications (Pages, Numbers, Keynote). In my view for normal documents Pages is better than Word. If you do big spreadsheets and want macros then Excel is better. You can run a Virtual Machine to boot into Windows if you want but I would suggest you just kick the Windows software habit given your usage, you won't regret it.

I understand all the normal torrent apps run perfectly well on a Mini and does VPN software

Tantmay said:

Thanks

Any idea what software is used to install VM on Mac?
and what are the available torrent clients on MAc?

BR
Tanmay

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Hi, for VM you have Bootcamp (free, but you need to reboot for using it), Paralells, VMWare Fusion or VirtualBox (free) and for Torrent, well, you have qTorrent, Transmission and many others.

One of the better (non-bloated) Torrent clients is this:
http://deluge-torrent.org/

It is opensource and cross-platform.

Free apps included link here

Yes Numbers (excel equiv), Pages (word), Keynote (Powerpoint), Preview lets you create/write pdfs as does Pages, iPhoto is great for managing photo collection and synching with other devices.

I switched over from Windows in 2008, never looked back. Most of the things you need are free or if you have to pay they are much cheaper than MS/Windows. Plus of course they work better (IMO). OS upgrades are free now and Mac users tend to run the latest software (I read 60% of Windows machines are still running XP for instance)

Also I use VLC (free) for movie playback, most decent free software has a Mac version.

Tantmay said:

By the way

since I come from a Windows background, we get access to many softwares free of cost. Most windows application installers are freely available on net

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Yes, if these applications are freeware or opensource freeware.

Microsoft Office is not free. Some brands of computers have sometimes the MS Office Basic (crippled) versions of Microsoft Word, maybe Excel and Powerpoint installed. Or they include on of the trial versions of MS Office. But after 30, 60 or 90 days you need to activate them/buy a license.

Neither way, the "real" versions are all commercial packages, that you need to pay for a license.
Or subcribe to Office365 service. Which isn't free either.

The freeware Office packages are:
- LibreOffice
- OpenOffice
- SoftMaker FreeOffice
- Kingsoft Office Suite Free

opeter said:

Microsoft Office is not free.

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Given the BitTorrent client questions, I suspect the OP wasn't particularly concerned about a legitimate copy of MS Office... (yes I know there are legitimate uses for BitTorrent, just as there are perfectly innocent explanations to give your girlfriend's dad why you're in her bed at 3am... )

Yes Jimmy, just like on a PC you can use a Mac and be a software thief too!

Tantmay said:

is this is a configuration to go for?

Processor: 2.5GHz Dual-core Intel Core i5 Processor
RAM:4GB DDR3 RAM
HDD: 500GB HDD
Intel HD Graphics 4000
Thunderbolt Technology

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For watching music, listening to movies, text writting etc. it is OK. Also it can run light/older games without bigger problems.

Tantmay said:

is this is a configuration to go for?

Processor: 2.5GHz Dual-core Intel Core i5 Processor
RAM:4GB DDR3 RAM
HDD: 500GB HDD
Intel HD Graphics 4000
Thunderbolt Technology

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Yes, fine for what you want including the streaming. It will run better with 8GB RAM which you can add yourself. It's easy to add external drives too (via USB3) and if you wish it's easy to make them the boot drive.

If you can afford it, get the i7 instead of the i5.

Also - rather than buying new, consider an "Apple-refurbished" Mini. This will save you some money.

Keep an eye on what's available in refurbs by using this page:
http://www.refurb.me/us/

Another VM to consider is CrossOver (which doesn't require a copy of the WindowsOS to run).

It doesn't necessary run all Windows programs but it will run all MS Office programs. However, it will run all Windows games.

You can download a free try-before-you-buy version.

http://www.codeweavers.com/products/crossover-mac

For your demands any from the 2009 and newer will do. I would lean toward a new entry model as it offers USB3, 2 sata 600 bays, FW800, warranty. The dual core/4 thread i5 will offer plenty of oomph. If you have an extra 200 bucks, you can also take the i7. 2.3 model will do fine. Don't buy memory updates and drive updates at Apple, do them yourself (easy).

For downloading: use uTorrent. It is lightweight and the only client I know that does not make a mess when selecting certain files from a torrent only.
For Windows: use Virtual Box. Although Bootcamp is free and comes with the Mac, the usability is awkward. It needs reboots all the time and you must split your hard drive. With VB you can make an auto-growing diskimage for Windows, and if it gets too big, you can easily move it to an external disk.

Just be aware that Apple will probably upgrade the Mac mini in a few months when Intel releases Broadwell CPUs.

blanka said:

For downloading: use uTorrent. It is lightweight and the only client I know that does not make a mess when selecting certain files from a torrent only.

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Transmission is the cleanest simplest easiest, most uncluttered yet incredibly powerful bt client for mac. Selecting individual file works flawlessly and it downloads at a very fast clip while using minimal system resources.

Yvan256 said:

Just be aware that Apple will probably upgrade the Mac mini in a few months when Intel releases Broadwell CPUs.

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We've been hearing that a Mini refresh is due "soon" for 18 months now

Jambalaya said:

We've been hearing that a Mini refresh is due "soon" for 18 months now

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Yep. There's almost always a "newer/better/upgraded version coming in just a few months".

Jambalaya said:

We've been hearing that a Mini refresh is due "soon" for 18 months now

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deeddawg said:

Yep. There's almost always a "newer/better/upgraded version coming in just a few months".

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Except that now, Intel CEO promised Broadwell PCs on shelves for holidays. And given past cooperation, I'm pretty sure Apple will be the first in line to get the new CPUs.

So yes, a new Mac mini (Mac nano?) is due soon, but we now have a known calendar target to go with this prediction.

Yvan256 said:

Except that now, Intel CEO promised Broadwell PCs on shelves for holidays. And given past cooperation, I'm pretty sure Apple will be the first in line to get the new CPUs.

So yes, a new Mac mini (Mac nano?) is due soon, but we now have a known calendar target to go with this prediction.

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The holidays are 5 months away, a few of us here believe a Mini refresh is for 2015 as other models will get the Broadwell first. "Soon" can mean many things, I believe a new Mini is 9 months away at least.

Intel claims Broadwell will provide a 30 per cent power reduction over the previous generation chip, while providing the same level of performance.

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http://www.itpro.co.uk/mobile/22111/intel-broadwell-release-date-specs


If this is true, I'm wondering what Broadwell would realistically give us as opposed to the Mac Mini we have available today. I haven't watched Intel's roadmap - so I am not sure exactly what Broadwell would do in a mobile chip besides save power and give a modest boost in performance. Of course video performance will be much better than we have today.

I guess I am trying to convince myself that if a new Mini doesn't show up soon, purchasing the existing Mini wouldn't be the worst decision one could make. What really hurts is that I don't *need* a new Mini, but would like to add another Mac to the house...

OldMike said:

I guess I am trying to convince myself that if a new Mini doesn't show up soon, purchasing the existing Mini wouldn't be the worst decision one could make. What really hurts is that I don't *need* a new Mini, but would like to add another Mac to the house...

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If you don't need one, wait.