All In One Computer (Mac or Pc)

Any application you buy though the app store you can also use on the mini for no additional cost.
You could also order from B&H, Mac Mall and others to avoid sales tax.
Mini may be easier for you to support.

 

I assume you are looking at desktops and particularly all-in-ones just for simplicity. Of the choices i think the mini makes the most since, as you will be able to continue with your flow of macs and particularly any apps you purchased.

My other suggestion is to think about a laptop. This will obviously depend on your daughters school district and their particular rules and so forth, but many schools are incorporating laptops/tablets into the classrooms (it probably also depends on if you would trust her with one at school also). It may not work at all for you, but it might be something you could think about depending on where you are and how her particular school incorporates technology.

 

I agree about the laptop. And it might be more versatile since you could use it on occasion. Nice to have for viewing photos and playing music, and for the sprout to use in the car and on trips to view Frozen or whatever. And school, as noted.

Some Windows laptops and netbooks are ridiculously cheap; I've had a couple of Acer refurbs that worked great and only cost about $300US.

 

Just get the mini. I bought the first mini G4 back in 2004 and since then upgraded to the Core2duo version in 2009 and after bumping the RAM and putting in a big SSD it is still running really well. Once you've got the screen, keyboard and mouse in place, swapping out the mini at upgrade time makes the whole thing really future proof, plus I trust my 7 year old on my Mac where he has his own account with parental controls turned on and a white list of websites he can use, plus the timer activated so he only gets two hours a day. All in all, a Mac is a much better place for a child.

 

If you've been on a mac for that long, would you really want to place your daughter into a cheap Windows system? I had my wife and son on cheap Windows systems and regretted every moment. In 2012 I moved everyone off of them. It cost some money over a few months, but it was well worth it. In the 2 1/2 years since I did that, I've had no issues with them saying their systems didn't work.

Consider looking at a refurb unit from apple to save money. Maybe pick up a monitor off ebay. In all seriousness, the constant issues that inexpensive Windows PCs have is not worth the trouble. You get what you pay for. Give your daughter a good system and get her the mac or spend the money and get a higher grade Windows system. You'll sleep better at night and get less grief...

 

Always Mac.

 

Always apple

Apple make the best AIO computers, it's pretty much undisputed no one else comes close.

The processors and the screens on those 2 in you OP are dreadful and trust me so is windows 8.1.

I've just had to install it on my macbook (for study) and it is atrocious in 3 weeks I have yet to shut it down without an update happening, it is so unintuitive as to be obtuse. The multitouch gestures are awful, the whole thing looks ridiculous and navigating your PC is a maze of stupidity.

I would recommend you bought a 4 year old iMac rather than either of those 2. Get one cheap and throw in an SSD and it'll be far better than either of those 2 you linked. Even one of the dual core low level new iMacs would be a better bet if only for the screen and the performance from the macbook air chip is surprisingly good.

 

I don't think specs need enter the decision. You'll always find a PC with better parts for a lower price, but it's a false economy considering the use you anticipate. The only thing "better" in this case is the amount of RAM and HDD space. The CPUs on the cited PCs don't measure up to the Mini's. By the time your child uses up 500 GB you'll be able to afford an external HDD. Macs also make better use of RAM, so it's likely the 4 GB Mac will perform similarly to the 6 GB Lenovo.

But you're not buying parts, you're buying a system that you'll have to support for years to come. "Daddy, please help" may be a very common phrase around the house. Will you be an effective helper/teacher when you're not familiar with the operating system? Do you want her to start out on Windows and have to re-train her to OS X sometime in the next few years (for that matter, learn what you'll need to know about Windows right now)?

And with more than one computer in the house, there are real benefits to being able to sit down at either computer to do what you need without encountering cross-platform issues. And if you've ever had to fix an iTunes problem on a Windows machine, or root out some adware...

 

Good call. As far as Windows goes, download VirtualBox and install Windows inside that and snapshot it so you've got a clean version just in case something stuffs up. Personally, I use VMWare Fusion but that isn't free although it does have advantages if you're OK with spending a little money. You can even install a bootcamp copy and use that within OS X via VMWare by booting the same partition which gives you the ability to boot Windows for real if you need it or just open it in a VM for software which isn't performance critical. These days though there's very little software that is unique to Windows and I've not run into a website which only worked on Internet Explorer for many years now. If you can avoid Windows, do so.