Is the new Mac Mini worth it?

[Silencio]

Two reasons to max out the RAM on your Mac mini right after purchase:

1. RAM is dirt cheap and not getting any cheaper. Might as well spend the extra few bucks and get the full 2x2GB upgrade kit.

2. Getting into a Mac mini is enough of a pain that you probably wouldn't want to do it any more times than you really need to. Max that RAM now and save yourself another disassembly in the future.

The previous-generation Mac minis are awfully cheap and tempting at the Apple refurb store (when available), but the advantages of the new model are just too great to ignore.

 

[clyde2801]

Two reasons to max out the RAM on your Mac mini right after purchase:

1. RAM is dirt cheap and not getting any cheaper. Might as well spend the extra few bucks and get the full 2x2GB upgrade kit.

2. Getting into a Mac mini is enough of a pain that you probably wouldn't want to do it any more times than you really need to. Max that RAM now and save yourself another disassembly in the future.

The previous-generation Mac minis are awfully cheap and tempting at the Apple refurb store (when available), but the advantages of the new model are just too great to ignore.

1. I disagree with your first point. As you know, the new mac models take the new ram, DDR3. DDR2 is what many computers are still using, and what most manufacturer's are making. Since there's a glut of it, it can be had for as low as $40 for 2 gig sticks from bestbuy or officedepot if you can wait on a sale. I presume that when more manufacturers make DDR3, the price on it will go down as well.

2. I do agree with your overall point about getting the extra ram now rather than frakking around with a disassembly.

3. The only good point about a disassembly is that you could also put in a nice large 7200 rpm drive for noticeably better performance and more space if your skills are up to the task.

 

[iknowyourider]

I think there's only one Mac desktop worth buying and that's the Mini; but only if Snow Leopard's use of OpenCL is as good as Apple says it will be.

Otherwise, hackintosh.

CM, Maybe this is in context, and I've been wondering; IYHO, What should a guy do for basic computing?
1. refurb previous gen - $419 usd
2. clearance previous gen - $499 usd
3. new current gen - $599 usd

On another note, I upgraded my 1.83 C2D to 2 gigs and 160 with leftover parts. Tomorrow I should receive my 4 gig kit ($38 @ newegg) for the mini and my 500 gig for the MB . Then I can put my 250 or 320 in the mini.

 

[Cave Man]

CM, Maybe this is in context, and I've been wondering; IYHO, What should a guy do for basic computing?

Can you elaborate on what "basic computing" is to you?

 

[txnoob]

CM, Maybe this is in context, and I've been wondering; IYHO, What should a guy do for basic computing?
1. refurb previous gen - $419 usd
2. clearance previous gen - $499 usd
3. new current gen - $599 usd

On another note, I upgraded my 1.83 C2D to 2 gigs and 160 with leftover parts. Tomorrow I should receive my 4 gig kit ($38 @ newegg) for the mini and my 500 gig for the MB . Then I can put my 250 or 320 in the mini.

To me, the performance advantages of the new gen are significant, depending on what you do.
But if you decide on the previous Gen, I see no reason to spend more on the clearance vs. refurb.

 

[iknowyourider]

Can you elaborate on what "basic computing" is to you?

email, internet, youtube, word, handbrake, ripping music into itunes, playing music with itunes, quicktime movies, VLC movies...

 

[Cave Man]

email, internet, youtube, word, handbrake, ripping music into itunes, playing music with itunes, quicktime movies, VLC movies...

For the bold-face items above, if (1) Snow Leopard does what Apple says it will and (2) Apple makes it easy for developers to incorporate OpenCL, then I'd say the new Mini is substantially better than the old one. The GMA950 simply cannot be used for such processing activities. OpenCL (i.e., CUDA) will permit access to the 16 processing cores of the 9400m, and that alone will make the new Mini much, much better than the old Mini. But at the moment, we only have Apple's word. This is why I'm waiting for SL's release before I buy a new Mini.

 

[iknowyourider]

To me, the performance advantages of the new gen are significant, depending on what you do.
But if you decide on the previous Gen, I see no reason to spend more on the clearance vs. refurb.

I think that's a great answer. If it was for me I would probably get the biggest newest. I would love to see 4 friends get mini's but they're hard to sell to.

 

[iknowyourider]

For the bold-face items above, if (1) Snow Leopard does what Apple says it will and (2) Apple makes it easy for developers to incorporate OpenCL, then I'd say the new Mini is substantially better than the old one. The GMA950 simply cannot be used for such processing activities. OpenCL (i.e., CUDA) will permit access to the 16 processing cores of the 9400m, and that alone will make the new Mini much, much better than the old Mini. But at the moment, we only have Apple's word. This is why I'm waiting for SL's release before I buy a new Mini.

Sounds like a good reason for me to wait too. I would love to see ssd drop in price too.

 

[a19]

Hm.

Well, things are getting really complicated. I think I left out a really important point that txnoob seems to have pointed out:

...The issue with this statement is, besides going the "Hackintosh" route, you cannot get the Mac OS any other way. Not only that, a lot of the apps for casual users are so well integrated and much easier to use and cost much less than PC alternatives. iLife and iWork as examples. There's nothing as easy to use as iWeb, iMovie, or iDVD for the PC. I would argue that iWork is not an adequate replacement for MS Office Suite, but it's also Half the cost or more. The operating system is the prime jewel on the Mac platform. So to me what you really need to decide is do you want a change to a new way of computing, or do you want a faster computer on the same platform. You can have a computer 3 times as fast as a Mac spec wise, and still be stuck with Windows. From what I understand, the OP is fine with his current windows machine, and more that he wants to try something new.

It really is true, and what I really want is to experience the Mac platform. My problem is that I have a computer that works fine, so there's no real driving force behind spending $600 on another computer.

You guys have been really nice in pointing out the advantages of maxing out the RAM, or just bumping it up, because 5 years down the line, newer programs will demand more memory. Unless of course, Apple comes out with the newer Mac Mini, and I'll be posting here again, asking you if I should buy that then.
Don't worry

Also, the problem with the old Mini is that it does not feature the GeForce 9400M. Without it, it'll be impossible to run the games I can already play (albeit with a mediocre framerate).

I think the only profitable decision would be either to wait and buy a mac mini refurb as flopticalcube mentions:

If you don't NEED to upgrade you should probably wait. In six months or so they should start appearing on the refurb site for up to $100 off and you may be able to snag one with Snow Leopard by then.

Or to buy one now, but somehow put my current computer to good use. (I don't think selling it would get a lot of munnies)

Aye, confused again.

Thank you once again for helping me out My experience on MacRumors has been surreal

 

[a19]

Just for the record

First off, thanks to everyone here.

I forgot to post during the initial excitement...and then later, I just got lazy, but I went ahead and purchased the Mac Mini in August that year. Seems kinda awkward to reply to this post after two whole years, but hey.

My experience has been pretty top-notch. I used to just stare at the Mini when I wasn't using it just because it was so beautiful. The OS is great, and I went on for the Snow Leopard upgrade as well.

I've embraced the iLife and iWork suite for everyday work, and gaming hasn't been much of a problem either. A lot of my favorite games didn't run natively on the Mac, but this thing called CrossOver did the job most of the time. So, no dual booting Windows.

Everything has been working great, except maybe the fact that this computer seems to run out of space rampantly. I don't even know where it goes! I've got a 120GB HDD, but I'm left with a little over 15GB right now.

Anyway, thank you guys again. By the way, this is the 2GB RAM version.