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Buy mac mini or not?

S

shloosh

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 27, 2006
5
0
well guys.
now days i have an

amd 2600+
512 ddr333
r9700 pro 128mb
WD 80gb 7200 8mb
LCD Samsung 760BF

i thought about buying a new mac mini cause
i fell in love with mac osx....
this will be my new mini:
1.42ghz
9200 32mb
1gb ddr333 after upgrade
80 WD 7200 8mb from my pc + Conceptronic CHD3FWU FireWire ext case
LCD Samsung 760BF

i dont play any games anymore but the 9200 32mb is pretty sucks
i heard it cant even run the Tiger in normal speed.

its for internet,movies,music and stuff....

what are you saying?? im going to buy the mini somewhere between 20th to 30th of february... should i wait for the intel mini???
when will it comes out?


thx
 
First of all, welcome to the apple world! :)

While there were/are some minis shipped with 1,5 ghz G4 processors and 64 mb video personally I don't know how you can be sure to get one of these. Search in the forum, I think it has something to to with model numbers. You'll find a couple of threads on this topic.

No one knows when intel minis come out, my personal guess is sometime late spring or summer. According to rumors the ibook will be the next mac to go intel, and I think they won't wait too long with the 12"/13"?? and 17" macbook pro.

If you are going to buy an LCD along with your mini you should take a closer look at the imacs. From a mini + LCD screen to a 17" imac there is not much price difference and you get far more performance for your money. Also the intel imacs are out already so if you want the mac now (or in february) the 17" intel imac will be the better choice for you in my oppinion.

No matter what you buy, I'm sure you'll like your new mac!
 
emmmm

i allready have an lcd screen - samsung 760bf 17 inch

thats why im looking a comp without a screen.
apple has only mini and powermac...

powermac is very expansive for me...

maybe i should look for second hand 1.8 g5 powermac sp?
 
if you can wait then do...

If not then note..
The mac mini in its current form has a VERY slow hard drive and OS X loves ram so be sure to buy an upgrade to 1gig from a third party supplier.

I own a 1.42ghz Mac Mini (it was my first mac) it is fun to play with but everything from launching Office to tabbed web browsing takes a big hit on the slower nature of this particular unit...

I was able to gain full usage of the machine by upgrading to a 7200rpm hard drive and plopping in that full gig of ram.

.:: Edit ::.
If you can afford a second hand powermac G5 then go with that as they are leaps and bounds ahead of the mini.
 
as i said

im going to put 1gig in my mini
+
westren digital 7200rpm 8mb + external case with firewire

someone suggest me to buy G4 dual 1.25
what are you saying?

in second thought i dont think i will have money for g5 powermac....even second hand
 
I agree with jer2eydevil88. If you can wait a few months, you'd be better off. The next gen Mac Mini will be a helluva lot better computer than the current ones.
 
Wait and see...

If I were you, I'd wait for the next Mini.

I have a Mini 1.42GHz right now with 1GB RAM and stock 80GB drive. It's a very good little machine and I love its quiet, compact design.

However, I bought it nearly a year ago and the new ones are no faster (unless you happen to get a slightly faster 1.5Ghz model.)

If I were buying now, I'd probably stick it out. The current Mini might feel slower than your current machine.
 
errrr

the intel mini release can even take 6 months!!!!!!

i cant wait so long...

i think ill wait two months so i can pick up my 500$ salary.
than if the new mini will be releases i will buy it....
if not ill buy a used POWER G5 or new IMAC G5 and sell my lcd.

errrrrrrrrr
 
Dual Display Adaptor Soon For Mini...

There is a company named Tritton that has a USB 2.0 external graphics card to drive an additional display. They already have it working for the windows world and they are currently almost ready to deliver a mac version.

http://www.engadget.com/2005/05/13/tritton-usb-2-0-video-card-for-mac-mini/

From the article "If you're also a user of iMac, iBook and Mac mini, Tritton will be shipping a Mac version of SEE2 in early July to address the video port-less problem on these machines. "

Ed
 
i dont want and dont need dual display...

i rather sell my lcd and get more money to upgrade the imac

anyway i prefer buying a "stand alone mac" without a monitor.
mini or powermac.
it depends if the new mini will be released in 2 months.

what are the % for that?
 
I understand wanting the standalone CPU.

I agree that towers are worth every penny.

The reason I recommended the Intel iMac was to give you the best overall bang for your buck in a strongly future resistant configuration for as little
as $1199 (edu) + 3rd party RAM

If you decide to go for a tower, then you might as well set yourself up to be a future resistant as possible

A 2.0 dual core will hold you for YEARS!

If you can somehow manage the education discount then you're in to a serious computer system for $1799.00, but figure another $185.00 for a 2 GB RAM kit.

The other option to go for a used or refurbed AGP tower may save you some money, but then deciding on which model becomes greatly complicated. the dual 1.8's and 2005 Rev C 2.0's both used the crippled 4 DIMM prosumer motherboards.
If you're going for a used tower, then go for a model with the 8 DIMM motherboard.

If all this is making your head spin, then consider trying to catch one of the
current unadvertized upgrade minis with the 1.5 GHz processor and the 64MB GPU.

There are several threads here about which model numbers to look for, but they are out there.

A mini would allow you to get familiar with OSX while holding out for improvements over the next 24 months without putting you in the poor house.

Once you are completely familiar with OSX, then it may be easier to make a more informed decision on your next purchase.
 
I think the minis will be upgraded to the core solo processor in april along with the ibooks. If you can wait until april, then I'd go for that. If not, I'd try to find a 1.6 or 1.8 Ghz 2nd hand powermac. Don't buy the current mini - it's really getting pretty dated, and hasn't been meaningfully updated in its whole history.
 
Another thing to keep in mind is that the new mini, like the most recent PPC minis, may be quite underpowered compared to an iMac.

The mini platform is great, but it really doesn't allow for heat to get out of such a small package. So instead of Core Duo, we'll probably see Celeron M in the next mini, and the same issue also reduces the odds we'll see a decent performing video card in the next mini either, probably intergrated video.

I'm having a similar internal conversation with myself.

I'm having trouble with my XP destop and am probably looking at a full rebuild of the OS which isn't fun. So I'm considering my options to replace it with another Mac first. I'm currently leaning to a 17" iMac which I could give to the kids once the headless PM replacements are finally released... If I got the mini I'd go for the $699 model, and by the time I bought more RAM and an external 7200 rpm drive, etc... I'd be close to $1000, so why not get the better performing iMac?

I hope they don't have them in stock the next time I visit the Apple store, or I might just walk out with one....

B
 
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