Mac Mini and PC peripherals advice

[Mr Baldman]

Looking at purchasing a 2nd Hand Mac Mini purely for iPhone SKD development. (well thats my excuse for buying one )

I come from a windows based web/desktop development background and have never bought a Mac before.

I only have one desk, so want to be able to switch between the Mac Mini and my desktop PC with minimal disruption, so have a couple of questions...

I currently run a DVI samsung monitor, will the Mac Mini be able to run through this without any adapters? i see a 'DVI looking port' on the back, is it standard?

also - keyboard and mouse. I love the Mac keyboard/mouse, can i use these on my PC aswell and vice versa?

 

[92jlee]

Looking at purchasing a 2nd Hand Mac Mini purely for iPhone SKD development. (well thats my excuse for buying one )

I come from a windows based web/desktop development background and have never bought a Mac before.

I only have one desk, so want to be able to switch between the Mac Mini and my desktop PC with minimal disruption, so have a couple of questions...

I currently run a DVI samsung monitor, will the Mac Mini be able to run through this without any adapters? i see a 'DVI looking port' on the back, is it standard?

also - keyboard and mouse. I love the Mac keyboard/mouse, can i use these on my PC aswell and vice versa?

Well done on choosing to convert! lol.

It depends what mac mini you are buying -

I wouldnt recommend a G4

I have a core duo 1.66 and that has dvi out

the newer 2009+ models do not have dvi out - they need a converter - I cant remember exactly what they are.. mini dvi possibly.. double check on the apple site.

The keyboard and mouse can be used on a pc yes, but things like the @ and " will be swapped and the eject and all the f keys wont work as they are shown to.

I think you can install the boot camp drivers to a windows pc to let the buttons like volume and eject work. Worth giving it a go.

Good luck!

 

[Mr Baldman]

I wouldnt recommend a G4

Good luck!

cheers

it has to be an intel based CPU anyway as the iPhone SDK only works on that.

thanks for all the info!

 

[steve2112]

The current Minis (2009) have both mini DVI and mini Display Port video outs. Both will require an adapter to work with regular DVI. I would just pick the one with the cheapest adapter. The previous model Minis (2007) had regular DVI out. As stated earlier, I believe the keyboard will work if you load the Boot Camp drivers.

 

[phairphan]

Minis come with a mini-DVI-to-DVI adaptor, so there's no need to purchase one. This port can't handle dual-link, so if you have a 30" monitor you'll need to buy the adaptor for mDP.