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New Mac Mini running Windows *only*?
- Thread starter Maury
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Why "Only" Windows?
You are only limiting yourself by not running both Windows and OS X. The new mac mini comes with Lion and Boot Camp free. If you want/need Windows just add it and select which one you want to use each time you start it up through Boot Camp. or run side by side with Parallels (just one of many programs that do this). Aside from that observation, the mini has several USB ports which equals flash drive compatible (in my opinion the most convenient way to physically store and transfer data, currently). If you need an optical drive there are several external CD,DVD and Blu-ray drives/burners on the market. You can even add an external drive with one click when configuring you mac mini for purchase through Apple. I would recommend waiting if you can because the mac mini is approaching its end of cycle if recent trends hold and a newer version should be available in a few months. The next update will hopefully include ivy bridge and should have a noticeable performance boost. If you don't need the boost the price should drop on the current version and you could save a few bucks.
You are only limiting yourself by not running both Windows and OS X. The new mac mini comes with Lion and Boot Camp free. If you want/need Windows just add it and select which one you want to use each time you start it up through Boot Camp. or run side by side with Parallels (just one of many programs that do this). Aside from that observation, the mini has several USB ports which equals flash drive compatible (in my opinion the most convenient way to physically store and transfer data, currently). If you need an optical drive there are several external CD,DVD and Blu-ray drives/burners on the market. You can even add an external drive with one click when configuring you mac mini for purchase through Apple. I would recommend waiting if you can because the mac mini is approaching its end of cycle if recent trends hold and a newer version should be available in a few months. The next update will hopefully include ivy bridge and should have a noticeable performance boost. If you don't need the boost the price should drop on the current version and you could save a few bucks.
I currently run my HTPC on a 2011 Mac mini 2.7GHz Dual-Core Intel i7. The original builds were on 2011 Mac mini servers, but I was trying to deal with a WMC issue and the servers were much better at encoding. Anyway, the HTPC role is essentially a server as its on 24/7, runs headless, RDP, and clients (Xbox 360 extenders). As a HTPC, storage space is very valuable and I can't have too many external drives hanging off. Therefore, I run it Windows only. I did save the original hard drive with OSX and connect it via Thunderbolt or FW800 for firmware updates.
Is anyone out there using the new Mac Mini as a Windows box?
I need a micro-sized server, and the Mini would be perfect. But with no optical drive, how am I going to get things onto it?
Happily running windows 7 professional only on the i5 2.5 ghz mac mini. straight install - use a bootable windows 7 USB key with the windows 7 iso on it.
Before starting use bootcamp to download the windows bootcamp install - it has all the windows drivers. Put this on a CD/DVD or save it somewhere, then after install you can either install all the bootcamp stuff or piece by piece install only the drivers that you want.
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