Well, I "snapped"...

I had been waiting for january MWSF since september for a new computer or monitor, but today I snapped and bought a max upgraded mini with a 23"...

I hope I wont regret it.

So far the mac mini is impressing me, and it seems faster than my 1.6ghz pentium 4 (except the video card, hurg it suck). I'll have my monitor tommorow, cant wait

Quick question, is it possible to transfer my applications from my ibook to the mini with usb instead of the recommended firewire?

Ive been unlucky and got the old model, but I dont mind, I just wanted something to run osx on my nice monitor ; Still, I would be happy if I could manage to load a few instruments in Kontakt 2 and stream them from sibelius 4, so far it works on the inner soundcard, but I have to test how much it can take and compare it to my pc. Now I got a mess of 3 keyboard and 3 mouses, 2 crt and the upcomming 23" ACD on my desk... Gotta get rid of some stuff before I get a tumor or something from all the radiations.


Edit, I tested ut2004 demo and it didnt run too bad in high resolution with the details lowered, had a frame rate above 25 fps in 1600x1200 so 1900x1200 should be near the limit of playable.

mduser63 said:

Is there a reason you didn't go for a 20" iMac G5 for less money?

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Yeah, I need the higher resolution of the 23", I plan on getting a powermac in september and I want to keep the monitor.

Josh396 said:

Seems like a good reason to me.

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Yeah, It will be great then. I didnt have enough money atm, and I realy needed some computer running osx to finish my thesis becose windows do not deserve a 23" ACD. But while being at the shop, I "accidently" bought the more expensive mini, I was supposed to get the cheap one, but I wanted the dvd burner, and they dont do upgrades there beside ram.

Anyway, the mini realy suck for games, I shoudnt even have tried it. Gotta wait for a ps3...

Edit: Tiger is cool, I wonder in how many years windows will have all thoses Widgets.

Hey, yes I got the ACD 23", its quite amazing, has 0 dead pixels but has some slight white leaking when viewing and all black image but unnoticable when you look at colors.

As for games, well, I think I'll use my pc until I get a ps3... the mini doesnt cut it; Tried call of duty and it was unplayable, ut2004 works suprisingly well at half res, and I'll get sims 2 for my Gf. Still, Playing guildwars and Hl2 with my pc in the acd display is quite nice in 1900x1200 or 1900x1080.

not sure about the USB thing... but might as well just use a standard ethernet cable to connect the 2. Thats what I do... it works pretty well. Not as fast as firewire... but I only use it every once and a while.

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Yes I have an eternet lan, but the migration assistant ask for firewire (I want to transfer application authorization. Is there a special way to do so?

Overall Im quite happy, and I got apple care, so If the leaking bothers me I'll give them a call.

Bubbasteve said:

They already do, it's called Konfabulator

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lol. I tought it was a joke...

For me the dell was the same price, since it didnt have a student discount on it. I use the ACD mostly for music composing, having a nice looking design is much more inspiring and make my studio look better. Poor value? Im just wowed when Im in front of it.

Even so, I played half-life 2 in 1900x1080 and it looked REALY amazing (I was also impressed to find the acd hd doesnt stretch that resolution like the other non-native resolutions, but keeps the black borders on the top and bottom.

I didnt notice any kind of trail or blur, so far so good. As for the mac mini, well I waited too long already for that unconfirmed update, and I took a chance. The truth is, it runs the 23" fine for almost all application except games, and the gpu suck so much that having 64 megs on it wont make a big difference.

Edit:
The 23" has a harsh reputation on the net, and that slowed me down quite a bit in my buying process. But it was probably due to the first generation of old models, mine seems almost perfect and is certainly perfect for my needs.