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Mac Mini Photos and Details

Ok but then again nothung to brag about.

Platform said:
How does the performance of iLife and other apps since some people have said that the HDD is too slow for big apps to work nice 🙄
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I would put it on par with the iBook. I don't own an eMac but have played around with them and would say the eMac is a faster machine. Installing iLife 05 did seem to take longer than I expected. Listen its not a speed demon but on the other hand its not really a dog. It was made for a cetain market and it does those things well.

http://www.123macmini.com
 
davesipaq said:
Thats why I preordered mine. It was quite funny, people were waiting in NJ for an hour and I walked up and said,"Anyone looking to upgrade the mini?" Everyones hands went up. I told them that the store wasnt going to do any upgrades and everyone was ticked!
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Yeah, no surprise to me.

I hope Apple are looking hard at their order trends and start to supply to stores direct a few of the most popular upgrade options in the box so less customers will be disappointed.

They will always be able to sell them, even if they have to shuffle them over night betwee stores for customers (like any other large retail chain will do) or work a little harder to convince would be purchasers of the value of bluetooth, wifi or the superdrive.
 
I drove an hour today to get one at the nearest apple store. This is my first mac, well kind of. I started off a couple months ago with a Blue and White upgraded to a g4 450.

I'm a Windows nutt that makes a living deploying software to Windows machines in a 70K client Enterprise. So I'll never be a total switcher. I love all computers!

Here's my initial impressions.

Size - incredibly small. My wife was expecting me to come in the door with a large computer and she almost fell over laughing when she saw me carrying the small box.

Audible - Super silent. I've never had a computer so quiet. The combo drive is kind of noisy. I can also hear the HD clicking once in while but its not abnoxious.

Speed - I was pleasantly surprised how well its running. I am new to Macs and do not have much to compare it to but it seems very responsive. I have the default 256MB RAM for now and I sure noticed it slow down when I was installing iLife05, surfing, and goofing in the prefs panel. I will be adding a 1GB stick as soon as I can.

Video - The 32MB will be fine for what I want to do on it. I hook up the Mini into a switch box that is vga (Not dvi). I think its loosing a little more signal than my windows machine or my previous blue and white did. I can't put my finger on it yet but it seems a little dimmer and fuzzier than it should be. I can live with it but I think I will be bumping my contrast up and down depending which machine I am using. I will try it without the switch box later. I suspect the DVI adaptor has something to do with it and if I was hooked straight into a digital input, it wouldn't be happening. Anyone have any thoughts on how to help this?

BTW - I have very sensitive eyes. I see things 90% of others don't. This includes the "rainbow" effect on DLP projectors and monitor flicker at 70hz (most people only see it at 60), so don't panic about my complaints ...

Conclusion - Two months ago I was shopping for a 800mhz - 1.2ghz machine used. I was willing to spend up to $800 for it. My Mac mini was $599 and I will soon add $200 for more RAM. I am very pleased with the value of this machine. Then when I factor in how quiet and small it is, I couldn't be happier, simply amazing!
 
im sick of people complaining about the mini's specs. apple didnt want to make the mac mini a completly decked out computer. its not intended for mac users who are willing to dish out $1500 for a computer, its made for your average ,dont know much about computers, windows user whos sick of spyware and viruses and wants something diffrent. plus the specs on a mac mini arent any worse than a budget pc, and if someone decides they need a better computer thats where the emac and imac come in.

_______________
-ibook g3 900mhz/40gb/256mb
-4g 20gb ipod
 
jiv3turkey748 said:
im sick of people complaining about the mini's specs. apple didnt want to make the mac mini a completly decked out computer. its not intended for mac users who are willing to dish out $1500 for a computer, its made for your average ,dont know much about computers, windows user whos sick of spyware and viruses and wants something diffrent. plus the specs on a mac mini arent any worse than a budget pc, and if some decides they need a better computer thats where the emac and imac come in.
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Thank you! Well said.
 
Nice post!

Warped1 said:
I drove an hour today to get one at the nearest apple store. This is my first mac, well kind of. I started off a couple months ago with a Blue and White upgraded to a g4 450.

I'm a Windows nutt that makes a living deploying software to Windows machines in a 70K client Enterprise. So I'll never be a total switcher. I love all computers!

Here's my initial impressions.

Size - incredibly small. My wife was expecting me to come in the door with a large computer and she almost fell over laughing when she saw me carrying the small box.

Audible - Super silent. I've never had a computer so quiet. The combo drive is kind of noisy. I can also hear the HD clicking once in while but its not abnoxious.

Speed - I was pleasantly surprised how well its running. I am new to Macs and do not have much to compare it to but it seems very responsive. I have the default 256MB RAM for now and I sure noticed it slow down when I was installing iLife05, surfing, and goofing in the prefs panel. I will be adding a 1GB stick as soon as I can.

Video - The 32MB will be fine for what I want to do on it. I hook up the Mini into a switch box that is vga (Not dvi). I think its loosing a little more signal than my windows machine or my previous blue and white did. I can't put my finger on it yet but it seems a little dimmer and fuzzier than it should be. I can live with it but I think I will be bumping my contrast up and down depending which machine I am using. I will try it without the switch box later. I suspect the DVI adaptor has something to do with it and if I was hooked straight into a digital input, it wouldn't be happening. Anyone have any thoughts on how to help this?

BTW - I have very sensitive eyes. I see things 90% of others don't. This includes the "rainbow" effect on DLP projectors and monitor flicker at 70hz (most people only see it at 60), so don't panic about my complaints ...

Conclusion - Two months ago I was shopping for a 800mhz - 1.2ghz machine used. I was willing to spend up to $800 for it. My Mac mini was $599 and I will soon add $200 for more RAM. I am very pleased with the value of this machine. Then when I factor in how quiet and small it is, I couldn't be happier, simply amazing!
Click to expand...

Although I am not new to Macs I agree with most of what you say. This machine is a winner. It is super silent and small you know these things are going to end up in cars. Pimp my mac!

http://www.123macmini.com
 
Agreed; nice post.

I ordered the Mac Mini last week at the Apple web site, now I gotta wait until the middle of February for it to arrive.

Anyhow I drove 25 miles yesterday in blinding snow to check it out for the first time at an Apple Store. Kind of stupid after I saw many accidents. It was worth it. It looks awesome. Can't wait until it arrives. It will replace my Dell Dimension 2350 desktop computer.
 
When it's all said and done...

Any chance of Apple offering a similar product in the G5 area? For those of us with little money but a big G5 appetite...
 
I wish people would stop talking about the G5 inside laptops. Why cry for the G5? -- whatever happened to innovation. What the Apple laptop needs is a new chip -- not the G4 or the G5, but a chip as fast or faster than the G5 that does not have the G5's heat problems.

If you keep crying for the G5 you might just get it -- a scaled down G5 that is half as fast as the PowerMac version, with less heat. Then you will complain about the laptops being handicapped.
 
Audio Input

From the article posted on PCWorld.com
it suggestes the headphone socket acts as an audio input socket as well.

Can anyone who's got a Mac mini confirm this?

Renko
 
While looking at the tech specs for the Mini's power adapter, I wondered. . .

What are maximum Power ratings for a PC system comparable to the Mini? (Does the Mini offer any power-savings over it's competition?)

I looked around at Dell.com but couldn't find any specs for their low-end systems. 😕 Either their website sucks or I'm dumb. 🙄
 
rikers_mailbox said:
While looking at the tech specs for the Mini's power adapter, I wondered. . .

What are maximum Power ratings for a PC system comparable to the Mini? (Does the Mini offer any power-savings over it's competition?)

I looked around at Dell.com but couldn't find any specs for their low-end systems. 😕 Either their website sucks or I'm dumb. 🙄
Click to expand...

At a max of 85 watts, that seems to be in the ball park of most smaller PC systems.
 
Bye Bye Baby said:
Any chance of Apple offering a similar product in the G5 area? For those of us with little money but a big G5 appetite...
Click to expand...

I'm sure that Apple will eventually offer a G5 in some of the lower end products. First IBM will have to have the capacity for increased production. Currently they are having trouble keeping up with the Power Mac and iMac. Eventually that will change and then prices should decrease.
 
picked up a $499 mini this morning at my local CompUSA store... will have to hold me over until my build-to-order mini with superdrive and BT come in... I am amazed at how usable the mini is with only 256MB!
 
jameskk said:
I am amazed at how usable the mini is with only 256MB!
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I bought my wife a 12" iBook last week, and am also surprised how smoothly it runs with 256mb. iTunes, Safari, Mail all run without a hitch. It even plays more GarageBand tracks than my G4 Cube with 1.2gb of RAM.

I would still recommend at least 512mb for anyone considering the mini, but it should be plenty useable for those who go with the stock config.
 
For me as soon as I run photoshop or any design apps it just chokes with 256MB. A 400mhz G4 (768MB) beat out the mini rendering a vector eps to 105mb. I know its a ram thing.

iLife apps do run well though with the standard 256 though.
 
areyouwishing said:
For me as soon as I run photoshop or any design apps it just chokes with 256MB.
Click to expand...

I think the standard 256 ram issue needs to be faced by Apple if they want PC users to switch. Every prebuilt model that Apple sells should have at least 512 ram (if not more). If PC users review a product in a product guide book subscription (ex. Consumer Reports) with standard prebuilt computer models from various computer companies and see test results that show that the macs don't perform well in certain apps, then people will think that macs aren't very fast. The people reviewing the reports don't know that the only problem is that the standard mac comes with only 256 megs of ram. Instead they will carry the thought on their shoulder that "macs are slow" which is far from true. How is selling macs with low amounts of ram a good marketing technique from Apple? I'd rather Apple add $100 to the price of each of their machines by making 512 ram the standard of each of their prebuilt computer models and give you the option to downgrade to 256 megs. This way they wouldn't have a "macs are slow" reputation. Macs are high quality and high quality is almost always more expensive. (Over a short period of time at least. 😉 ) It's just the way it is. I don't see where Apple thought that 512 megs of ram was less quality than $100. 😕
 
i have a daft question cause i havent seen a mini yet in person but were is the wirless go heard some one say its an arial that sticks in the conner. ill be honest this just about works out cheaper than buying a powerbook but all iam intrested in is space saving and audio work so is it worth splashing out our just going all hog and buying a laptop hmm ponders !!!
 
Sabenth said:
i have a daft question cause i havent seen a mini yet in person but were is the wirless go heard some one say its an arial that sticks in the conner. ill be honest this just about works out cheaper than buying a powerbook but all iam intrested in is space saving and audio work so is it worth splashing out our just going all hog and buying a laptop hmm ponders !!!
Click to expand...

The modules are internal, so you wouldn't see anything coming out of the mini.

As a side note... If you want to get the mini with bluetooth and thinking about AE later you will end up paying for the bluetooth twice because when you do an after market upgrade you have to get both because they come on the same little internal card, making your original internal bluetooth useless. This is the same for Airport Extreme.
 
I went to the Apple Store to pick up a keyboard in preparation for my mini arriving. Looking around I saw a table full of returned items marked down. I immediately saw a couple of Epson printers -- I like Epson printers but they seem to be cheaply made -- but I love the quality for photo printing, and the fact that they print on CDs & DVDs. Anyway, I already have an Epson 960.

But then I saw, under the table, a 20" Cinema Display, still in the box and original packaging, but previously opened. Now wouldn't that look good with the mini?

I caved. I now have a keyboard with nothing to plug it into -- and a beautiful monitor, also with nothing to plug it into. Maybe I should give them to someone. Or maybe not.

(By the way, I insisted on testing the monitor in the store to make sure it was up to spec.)
 
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