Airport Extreme or Mac Mini?

[hithere]

Hallo everybody

I have an old gigabit wireless base point that simply never delivered, so I decided to go Apple.

I can't decide between 2 alternatives:

1) airport extreme
2) mac mini (connected to the ethernet and used as a base point)

I know there is a 400 dollars difference, but if wireless performances are comparable, these money would buy me a full new machine, so I would be happy to top up the bill.

That's the question though: do you think there is much difference in terms of wireless range, speed, reliability... between these two solutions?

If it is not enormous, I will get a mac mini, otherwise I'll go for an airport extreme and save for another day (my house is some 200 square meteres on two floors, the wireless base point would be roughly in the middle).

Thank you very much for your opinion.

 

[MLeepson]

I'd personally suggest just getting the Airport Extreme. It's cheaper, and it can do almost the same exact stuff. Remember, you'll need a display for a Mac Mini, which is even more $$.
If you're wanting to wireless backups, you can get Time Capsule (one step up from AirPort Extreme, if you will), which can work automatically with Time Machine or as a regular external hard drive. (AirPort Disk)

 

[ErikAndre]

I also prefer the AirPort Extreme. In fact, I just stopped at my friend's place and typing this post from their AirPort Express which is plugged into their router. I also own an AirPort express and take it with me to hotels when needed. Not too shabby, really.

The only thing with the AirPort express... its still a 802.11g... it hasn't gone n yet. The Airport Extreme base station (like the one your considering) has 802.11n. I hardly notice any lag with the express so the Extreme must have equal performance, plus the additional "n" performance as well.

 

[hithere]

Thank you very much for your advices.
I decided to to cheap and eventually invest in the future for a new computer.
I found a refurb airport with a nice discount and bought it.

I am looking forward to plugging it!

Thank you very much again