Looking for some advice on buying Mac mini.

[JohnnieH]

Hello I hope someone could possible help me with a computer buying question. I plan on buying a Mac mini to use in my entertainment/media center, also plan on sometimes using a Happauge pvr with the mini. I keep hearing a new Mac mini is scheduled to be out sometime this summer, so my question is should I go ahead and by the 2010 mini or wait for the new one? I have heard Apple has no plans of putting blu ray into newest computers, have also heard only thing that may change in new mini is different processor.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your time...

 

[OttawaGuy]

Hi JohnnieH,

Do you need to buy something right away? I would wait a few weeks if you can. MR has a buyers guide https://buyersguide.macrumors.com//. It suggests that you wait.
I concur with the guide.
The Apple World Wide Developers Conference is June 6-10, sometimes this gives us an indication of what will happen in the near future.

I'm sure others will chip in with better answers.
Cheers.

 

[Bill.the.Cat]

...Mac mini to use in my entertainment/media center, also plan on sometimes using a Happauge pvr with the mini. ...should I go ahead and by the 2010 mini or wait for the new one? ...have also heard only thing that may change in new mini is different processor.

Along with a processor change would probably come the loss of nVidia graphics--not sure if that matters for you. If your needs are only media center (XBMC, VLC playback, etc.) you'd really see little to no benefit from a newer model; it might consume 9W at idle instead of 10W. If you're going to be doing lots of transcoding (e.g., Handbrake) you will want to wait for the newer model. However, if your PVR dongle has hardware encoding you'll be fine with the current model.

You can get a refurb mini right now for $599 direct from Apple. Saves you $100, comes with full standard Apple warranty, and will be indistinguishable from brand new with slightly less fancy packaging. In fact, you can still occasionally pick up refurbed previous models (with 9400m graphics) for $429 or $499 depending on processor clock speed. Those will also do media playback of just about anything.

 

[JohnnieH]

Thanks

Thanks for the reply. Mostly the mini will be used for such thing as Netflix, iTunes and MLB.tv. As the PVR it will be use sometimes to record Xbox 360 footage to upload to YouTube. My main computer will still be my 2010 iMac; the mini will be strictly media center. I am leaning towards the current mini because of the NVidia graphics card. Current Mac mini sound good for what I plan on using it for? Thank you both so much…

 

[Bill.the.Cat]

Thanks for the reply. Mostly the mini will be used for such thing as Netflix, iTunes and MLB.tv. As the PVR it will be use sometimes to record Xbox 360 footage to upload to YouTube. My main computer will still be my 2010 iMac; the mini will be strictly media center. I am leaning towards the current mini because of the NVidia graphics card. Current Mac mini sound good for what I plan on using it for? Thank you both so much…

Actually you can do Netflix, iTunes, and MLB.tv just fine using the $99 Apple TV 2. If there's a way for you to get your Xbox output to the iMac for occasional PVR duty you wouldn't even need to spend so much buying a Mini.