Just got my mini

[keymoo]

Hi Guys,

I've just unpacked my mini and got it all set up - wow, that was easy! I'm all networked up and typing this message using the mini. I'd like to access and transfer all my files from my Windows machine which is on the same network.

The mini's ip is 192.168.1.100 and the windows machine is 192.168.1.2. How do I browse the windows machine's hard disks?

Thanks,
keymoo

 

[baummer]

Since you're on Tiger, go to Finder > Network > and you should see Mshome (default Windows workgroup name, unless you changed this). Then click Mshome, and it should have the name of your Windows machine, and click this and to the right you should see a Connect button. Click this and it should connect.

Note that you need to have the Windows machine setup for home networking as well as having any and all files/folders you want to transfer configured to share. (To share a folder/file, right-click, select Sharing and Security, then tick the box that says Share this folder...)

 

[JzzTrump22]

Or at the top of your desktop it says "Go" then go to "Network". If everything is set up properly you should be able to see your other machines.

 

[jeremy.king]

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/54704/

 

[keymoo]

Thanks guys, all sorted!

 

[wnameth]

congrats on the mini purchase, that is awesome!!!!

 

[sk8erboy]

Keymoo, how is your mini working out? I am thinking about getting the same mini with the same specs. Is there every any major or minor lags? What programs do you used with yours? Is there any features you wish you had put in before your purchase? Was it worth the purchase? Anythings you regret? Was the "switch" facile? What type of monitor are you using, and lastly where did you get your mini?

THANKS SO MUCH
sk8r

 

[Ringu]

My GF has the same mini. She was using Illustrator and photoshop on it tonight, with safari open and mail and no lags so speak of. I'm impressed with it.

 

[keymoo]

Keymoo, how is your mini working out? I am thinking about getting the same mini with the same specs. Is there every any major or minor lags? What programs do you used with yours? Is there any features you wish you had put in before your purchase? Was it worth the purchase? Anythings you regret? Was the "switch" facile? What type of monitor are you using, and lastly where did you get your mini?

I bought it from the Apple.com/uk site. I ordered the 256MB version and ordered 1Gb crucial RAM separately from crucial.com. I then upgraded it soon after the mini arriving. It is a very fast machine for my needs, I am impressed. I can't believe the size of this thing, it's tiny! When I showed my wife OSX, she said, where's the base unit? I pointed out a tiny thing on my desk, and she said "Is that it?"

It is also VERY quiet. I will no longer have to put up with my droning PCs whirring away, in fact I plan to strip them down and sell the parts on eBay shortly. I am currently going through the process of moving my docs over and it all seems great.

I use it for office applications, photo library, internet, email, newsgroups, usual home type stuff.

I really am very impressed. I've been using windows since version 3.1 and it was only since Tiger came out and the fact that my machine kept crashing, that I decided to try a Mac. What a great idea that was!

I will still keep one PC for things that I cannot do on the Mac as I use Windows software in my work.

The only thing drawback is that there is no audio out socket - the sound from it is pretty awful and I don't like wearing headphones at home. I'm also missing the Home and End keys of my PC - I'm sure there's an alternative but I haven't found it yet.

keymoo

 

[sjpetry]

Welcome to the lighter side of computing.

 

[feakbeak]

The only thing drawback is that there is no audio out socket - the sound from it is pretty awful and I don't like wearing headphones at home.

The Mac mini does have an audio out port, it's just a standard mini-jack that can be used with headphones and most multimedia/computer speakers. Did you mean that there is no digital audio out like on the PowerMacs? The one internal speaker is dreadful, you just need to pick up a pair of computer speakers - they can go as cheap as ~$20 depending on the quality you desire. I picked up a pair of Swans M200 monitors for $170 on newegg.com. Great speakers! I've talked about them more in-depth within other threads here on MR if you want to search.

I'm also missing the Home and End keys of my PC - I'm sure there's an alternative but I haven't found it yet.

This drives me crazy too. Here is quick link I found with some info. I still haven't found a perfect solution that always works, I don't think one exists.

sk8erboy, my mini is mostly like the OP. I purchased mine directly from Apple with 256 MB and upgraded to 1 GB of Crucial RAM myself, no problems there and the extra RAM does wonders. I'm using my mini with the Dell 2001FP and it's a great combo. I don't have any regrets about my purchase.

 

[sk8erboy]

The Mac mini does have an audio out port, it's just a standard mini-jack that can be used with headphones and most multimedia/computer speakers. Did you mean that there is no digital audio out like on the PowerMacs? The one internal speaker is dreadful, you just need to pick up a pair of computer speakers - they can go as cheap as ~$20 depending on the quality you desire. I picked up a pair of Swans M200 monitors for $170 on newegg.com. Great speakers! I've talked about them more in-depth within other threads here on MR if you want to search.

This drives me crazy too. Here is quick link I found with some info. I still haven't found a perfect solution that always works, I don't think one exists.

sk8erboy, my mini is mostly like the OP. I purchased mine directly from Apple with 256 MB and upgraded to 1 GB of Crucial RAM myself, no problems there and the extra RAM does wonders. I'm using my mini with the Dell 2001FP and it's a great combo. I don't have any regrets about my purchase.

hmm sounds good to me;
how is the graphic card going? Is it good enough to run Tiger smoothly? (With all the 'ripple'/special effects.
If i go with the mini, im also thinking about upgrading RAM on my own. How easy was it? and How long did it take.. Thanks again for all the feedback.
SK8r

 

[Poff]

I'm also missing the Home and End keys of my PC - I'm sure there's an alternative but I haven't found it yet.

keymoo

+ <--- = home

+ ---> = end

Except in Microsoft Office, which uses the keys placed where home and end keys are on a Windows keyboard.
Hold shift in addition to the other keys to mark part of the line from where your cursor is. Except in Safari where option + shift + arrow will change tabs. (This is a thing that annoys me bigtime! )

there ya go!

 

[spinne1]

+ <--- = home

+ ---> = end

Except in Microsoft Office, which uses the keys placed where home and end keys are on a Windows keyboard.
Hold shift in addition to the other keys to mark part of the line from where your cursor is. Except in Safari where option + shift + arrow will change tabs. (This is a thing that annoys me bigtime! )

there ya go!

On my Mac, I tried your key combos, and got "back" in Safari with your first one, then "forward" for the second one. I then tried the same combos except with the UP and DOWN arrows instead of the LEFT and RIGHT as you gave, and it went to TOP OF PAGE and BOTTOM OF PAGE. Original poster, is this what you mean by Home and End? I don't use Windows, so I don't know what those keys do.

 

[feakbeak]

hmm sounds good to me;
how is the graphic card going? Is it good enough to run Tiger smoothly? (With all the 'ripple'/special effects.
If i go with the mini, im also thinking about upgrading RAM on my own. How easy was it? and How long did it take.. Thanks again for all the feedback.
SK8r

The GPU on the mini is weak, no doubt. However, it pushes my 2001FP without a problem. The Expose and Dashboard movements are fairly smooth, I'm sure they could be smoother on an iMac or PM, but it is not choppy. There are no ripple effects in Tiger with the mini because the ATI 9200 w/32 MB of RAM is not supported for all of their hardware accelerated stuff - it's just eye candy though all the features work the same. While it would be nice to have all the eye-candy, I can't say I miss it - just not that important. I don't do any gaming on my Mac mini aside from playing some StarCraft now and again, but that game is so old I obviously have no problems with it. I do some photo editing with iPhoto and have played with PS Elements a bit, no problems there either. I haven't done any video editing to speak of other than just messing around with iMovie to try it out, so I can't speak to the performance there.

As for the RAM installation, it wasn't that difficult at all. From start to finish I would say it took me about 15 minutes maybe. I could have done it faster I'm sure but I took my time to ensure I wasn't damaging anything, plus I took some time to check out the internals of the mini. The only tricky part is opening the case. You will definitely need to use a putty knife or similar tool. You can find videos on the internet illustrating how to do it, that's what I went by and didn't have any issues. I did make a small ding in the plastic with the putty knife. It was tiny though, only about 1 mm dent just where the plastic meets the aluminum case on the bottom when I was trying to wedge the putty knife in. I don't really care though, it's small enough that you would have to look for it to see it, plus it's on the foot of the unit so nobody would ever see it anyway. For saving me over $100 USD, I'll take my small mark.

 

[keymoo]

As for the RAM installation, it wasn't that difficult at all. From start to finish I would say it took me about 15 minutes maybe.

Yes, took me about the same, but I didn't mark mine I used the videos and stills on the internet, just do a google search and you will find instructions easily. I'm wondering if anyone will buy the old 256MB chip - I'll stick it on eBay and see what happens.

Right, Home and End keys. When typing a document, let's say you want to go to the end of the line --> press End on a PC. If you want to go to the top of the page in a document, press Ctrl-End. If you want to select the current line and the caret is at the end of the line, press Shift-Home. That's the kind of functionality I'm looking for.

 

[Poff]

Right, Home and End keys. When typing a document, let's say you want to go to the end of the line --> press End on a PC. If you want to go to the top of the page in a document, press Ctrl-End. If you want to select the current line and the caret is at the end of the line, press Shift-Home. That's the kind of functionality I'm looking for.

Then you should try the key combinations I posted in my previous post. Works like a charm.


Don't remmeber how I discovered them.. I think it was just a random accident. But things became much easier after.

 

[sk8erboy]

wow thanks for all the help fellows,
just one more quick question..
how much did you end up paying for everything ??
including the extra ram.. keyboard.. lcd etc.
again, your all very helpful

sk8 r

 

[feakbeak]

wow thanks for all the help fellows,
just one more quick question..
how much did you end up paying for everything ??
including the extra ram.. keyboard.. lcd etc.
again, your all very helpful

sk8 r

My Mac mini (1.42 GHz / 256 MB / 80 GB / SuperDrive / AE + BT) - $800.
1 GB Crucial RAM stick from newegg.com - $200 (RAM prices have dropped sharply this year, much cheaper now. )
Mac Wireless keyboard - $60
Logitech MX510 (after failed trial of wireless Apple mouse) - $40
Dell 2001FP - $530 (shipping/taxes included)
Acoustic Energy Aego2 quality 2.1 mutlimedia speaker setup that I've had for several years - $400

That's $2030 total, but I don't think my case is typical. My speakers and display cost almost $1000 and my Mac mini is about as pimped out as it gets. You can get a much cheaper display and speakers. If you are looking to get a fully-loaded Mac mini you may want to consider the iMacs. The recent revisions are great! I know many people would think I'm an idiot for getting this setup. I was very tempted by the iMacs, but I really hate all-in-one designs. So for as much as I like and praise the iMac G5 I just can't bring myself to buy one because I don't beileve in the concept. If AIOs are okay with you, I would strongly consider the iMac. I considered the entry level PowerMac too since I don't like AIOs but with 1 GB RAM, AE and BT it would have cost me $750 more for the PM over the mini. Since this was my first Mac experience I wanted the cheapest non-AIO Mac I could get - this is it. My next machine will be a PowerMac most likely.

 

[beige matchbox]

I'm sure i'm missing something, but my keyboard has a home and end key

 

[Poff]

I'm sure i'm missing something, but my keyboard has a home and end key

excluding Microsoft Office, those buttons will take you to the top or bottom of a document, whereas the home and end keys on a windows computer takes you to the beginning or the end of the line on which your cursor is currently placed.

So, they will work as home and end keys in Microsoft Office, but that's the only place in the Mac-world that they will function that way.

 

[sk8erboy]

My Mac mini (1.42 GHz / 256 MB / 80 GB / SuperDrive / AE + BT) - $800.
1 GB Crucial RAM stick from newegg.com - $200 (RAM prices have dropped sharply this year, much cheaper now. )
Mac Wireless keyboard - $60
Logitech MX510 (after failed trial of wireless Apple mouse) - $40
Dell 2001FP - $530 (shipping/taxes included)
Acoustic Energy Aego2 quality 2.1 mutlimedia speaker setup that I've had for several years - $400

That's $2030 total, but I don't think my case is typical. My speakers and display cost almost $1000 and my Mac mini is about as pimped out as it gets. You can get a much cheaper display and speakers. If you are looking to get a fully-loaded Mac mini you may want to consider the iMacs. The recent revisions are great! I know many people would think I'm an idiot for getting this setup. I was very tempted by the iMacs, but I really hate all-in-one designs. So for as much as I like and praise the iMac G5 I just can't bring myself to buy one because I don't beileve in the concept. If AIOs are okay with you, I would strongly consider the iMac. I considered the entry level PowerMac too since I don't like AIOs but with 1 GB RAM, AE and BT it would have cost me $750 more for the PM over the mini. Since this was my first Mac experience I wanted the cheapest non-AIO Mac I could get - this is it. My next machine will be a PowerMac most likely.

totally agree with AIO unites. Basicall if one piece breaks ( monitor/hd) then everything else has to go in trash. Still pondering how i will make my switch.. i think im leaning towards the imac but still can be persuaded by the emac.. or the mini. for some reason the imac design isnt that appealing.. i think the emac is more 'appleliscious' than the imac.

 

[beige matchbox]

whereas the home and end keys on a windows computer takes you to the beginning or the end of the line on which your cursor is currently placed.

so they do, you know i've been using PC's for a long long time, and have never noticed that lol

Most likely because i've only ever typed a couple of documents on a PC, so I'm used to the mac way of things,

Thanks for clearing that up