Mac MINI or Acer RL85

[Smiff]

Hi all, I recently won a £500 gift card in work and was going to buy a Mac MINI. In my wait for the vouchers to arrive and a little bit of research I arrived at this site. All was good, my mind was made up and it was just a waiting game which is where the problem came up....I discovered the Acer RL85. For the same price I can get twice the Ram and twice the memory. It's easily upgradable if need be as well.

My main use as stated on someone else's thread during my research is photo storage and organisation, a bit of browsing, kids homework, Plex, Netflix and Deezer. We all have iPhones, iPads, Apple TV upstairs for Netflix and we use the Xbox One for Plex and Netflix downstairs along with gaming.

The iPads tick tick most boxes but the photo storage and organisation is where the main problem comes in. Everything is stored in Google at the moment which does a good job but I want it all stored and organised locally.

Has anyone used both and if so what's your thoughts?

 

[Crosscreek]

My own opinion would be stick with the Mac or go NUC. Mac is probably the most reliable and will have resale value but expensive to upgrade. NUC has a 5 year warranty but would require purchase of RAM and storage drive and you can use Linux for free or purchase a Windows 10 license. There are mixed reviews on line with Ace.

 

[Smiff]

I'm restricted to John Lewis due to the vouchers so it's down to the Mac or Acer. I'm looking at either the entry or mid level Mac Mini vs the below

http://m.johnlewis.com/mt/www.johnl...ore-i5-8gb-ram-1tb-white/p2115938#page_loaded

The £379 Acer appears to be a similar spec to the mid level Mac. That said if I go down the Mac route I would wait until after mid March just incase there's an announcement (doubtful) at the next Apple event.

 

[adonis3k]

Sell the vouchers and buy a 2012 Mac mini lol

 

[Cory5412]

If this were my specific choice, I'd probably go for the Acer system. Given that it's not a portable computer, it'll be monumentally difficult for Acer to actually mess anything on it up, and the RL85 is pretty neat in that it has RAM slots and room for three 2.5-inch hard disks. Could be really neat if you're looking for something to set up some fault tolerant storage on the cheap, or you just want a small computer with a lot of built-in disk space.

I haven't used an RL85 specifically, but what I'll say about Macs and PCs is that given the same hardware, you're usually going to see the "PC" system last longer. The past few years in Mac OS X (where you can run 10.11 on a 2007 MacBook Pro) are sort of an anomaly for Apple, and Apple does a very poor job of saying whether or not this is going to be a new norm or if they're getting ready to discontinue support for a large number of systems.

On the other hand, there's nothing indicating Microsoft will be adding anything new to the Windows 10 hardware requirements for the next 10-15 years.

If your aren't buying for longevity, then it may also help to note that, again in my own anecdotal experience, given approximately the same hardware, a Windows PC will crash less and get more done faster.

Though, as mentioned above, selling the gift certificate to some third party, if you can at least, and then using the cash to buy a Mac mini if you end up preferring that system or you're more invested in Apple's ecosystem than anything else, may be worthwhile.

 

[Smiff]

Well it's been a long week or so and a lot of reading. A decision was made and it's a bit of a curve ball due to my wife's input of we should get a laptop so the kids can do their homework .

After looking into laptops and the above I decided on the Chromebook 2 HD. I was aware of Chromebooks but never really looked into them. With exception of build quality but at only £249 I can't complain it's an excellent little piece of kit. The screen is fantastic, battery is great and the Chrome OS just works a treat. I understand the limitations and that it's not for everyone however we will be connected to the interment 90% of the time so that's not an issue. Plex, Netflix, browsing and my photos are already in Google photos already just works. Also the dreaded homework box is ticked.

I have even walked away with quite a bit of change for a rainy day .

Thank you for all your time and input, it was greatly appreciated.