Is your Mac Mini your main computer?

[dubhe]

My mini is my main computer and it is on 24/7 (though auto sleeps at midnight). I also use it as my music server via an Airport Express hooked into my stereo and the remote app on my iPhone.

I have an old 15" samsung display at the moment, going to upgrade later this year, I also have my bedroom TV plugged in the other display port fir watching movies in bed 🙂

I'm waiting for something new on the laptop front, maybe a redesigned Air, and then the mini will be relegated to dedicated media centre.

 

[opeter]

do some of you leave your minis ON 24/7?

Sometimes. But it won't go sleep (disabled network wake up) and I don't know why... only the display goes to sleep 🙁

Anyway, yes, my Mac mini is my main machine (I don't have any other computers and I don't plan to buy one).

 

[clickgr]

My main computer is a Mac mini and my secondary computer in my living room is again a Mac mini as HTPC.

 

[googdot]

do some of you leave your minis ON 24/7?

I have a G4 mini that I run headless in the lounge as a music server (access via screen sharing/VNC when I need to). It is on all the time, 24/7 and has been going strong this way for a few years now. No issues whatsoever.

 

[pastrychef]

do some of you leave your minis ON 24/7?

Yes, mine is on 24/7.

Also, I finally got a working TVersity setup running on my Mac mini. It streams to my Xbox 360 through Wifi (Mac mini is connected via gigabit ethernet). It works great for SD stuff, but, alas, the 1.83GHz C2D is too underpowered to transcode HD content fast enough. I may have to upgrade the CPU if/when I have a bit of expendable cash.

 

[J&JPolangin]

....the 1.83GHz C2D is too underpowered to transcode HD content fast enough. I may have to upgrade the CPU if/when I have a bit of expendable cash.

...is that the last version that you could change the CPU on, I thought the intel CPU's were all fixed to the logic boards...

 

[pastrychef]

...is that the last version that you could change the CPU on, I thought the intel CPU's were all fixed to the logic boards...

The newest Mac minis (the ones with Nvidia GeForce 9400M) have the CPU soldered on the main logic board. The Mac minis that came with GMA950 had the CPU socketed.

 

[gianly1985]

I voted NO because I use it as a media center.

But as far as I'm concerned, a MacMini 2009 could be an excellent main computer.

It can take 8gb of RAM (thanks to the new firmware).

It has a Penryn 2.13ghz-2.26ghz cpu which is enough for 90% users. (c'mon, today people buy ATOMs 🙄)

Put an Intel x25-m G2 inside the Mini and you get the best desktop for most users, DEAD SILENT, low power consuming, blazing fast (with the intel SSD), ridicolously small footprint (16x16cm) but still dual monitor, 5 USB, fw800 and optical unit. And NO ATOM/ION sh*t.

It is the best possible desktop for people not doing gaming or heavy CPU-stressing activities.

 

[dyn]

My main gripe is that the cpu is too underpowered than I had realized. It really labors when using Handbrake. And, I seriously doubt it'd be ok if I were to run a guest instance under vmware.

I've got a Mac mini 2009 with the 2.0 GHz cpu, 4 GB ram and an OCZ Vertex 250GB ssd. It used to have the stock 120 GB hdd. The vm's are stored on an external firewire 400 500GB disk. Because the vm's are running on the external drive it does not really matter whether the internal drive is a ssd or a hdd. Either way, the mini runs various vm's at the same time really well. I can have Ubuntu, WinXP, Win7 and FreeBSD vm's open at the same time. However, I do notice when the vm's are doing I/O intensive stuff since that will slow them down but not my Mac mini. I also thought the 2.0 GHz cpu would be really slow but that it does it quite well actually. My old MacBook with the Core Duo 2 GHz and 2 GB of ram used to run vm's quite well as well but it was limited to 1 or 2 depending on what I was doing with other OS X applications.

My MacBook Pro early 2008 has nearly the same setup: 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo, 4 GB of ram and the same ssd. It used to have a WD 320 GB hdd. On this machine I run the vm's from the same disk as I run OS X and all my other software (for obvious reasons 😉) and I can tell a biiiiig difference from using the hdd or the ssd. With a lot of I/O the machine would come to a crawl when using the hdd but it just keeps flying when using the ssd.

I'm guessing the I/O is what has the most impact by far on the performance of ones vm's. Running it on an external disk or on a ssd will give you quite a performance boost in both OS X and your vm's. I believe that I can get more performance out of the mini if it were to support 8 GB of memory, more than a faster cpu.

That same Mac mini is also driving a Dell 3008WFP using the mDP-DP cable from Circuit Assembly and does that really well. I'm really amazed at how well the Mac mini can keep up with the MacBook Pro. In my opinion both machines are really fast (and yes, 4 GB of ram and the ssd contribute a lot to that fact).

 

[Jackintosh]

Yes. Latest 2.26 Mini is my main and only computer. Why would anyone need anything else?

 

[reebzor]

uh... it depends what you mean by "Main computer"

My mini was definitely my main computer, but now it's moved to the TV where it's a HTPC.

I still use it more than my macbook though...