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Sam235

macrumors member
Original poster
May 29, 2011
95
0
CA
i bought a gaming desktop a while back when i used to be a hardcore pc gamer, now since i rarely game on my pc anymore i connected it to my hdtv so i can watch movies etc on it, i really don't find any use for it and i am really uncomfortable with windows, should i sell and go for the mac mini before the desktop loses its value, is the mac mini as good as every1 says? i want to connect it to my tv to act as a media server in my home ent. setup
 
Since you say you don't game, and don't like windows, a mac would be the logical option. I'd sell it. If you are planning on hooking it up to the tv and using it as an internet/network device, go for the current mini. If you need an optical drive for dvds, you'd need to find a previous gen that has an optical drive. The new one doesn't. If you have a collection of ripped dvds or something, just put a large hard drive in the mini you'd be fine.
 
If you still do game or like to play occasionally, I would recommend you buy the high-end Mac Mini as it has a dedicated GPU.
 
If you aren't gaming then yea, the Mac Mini would be your best bet. It has the integrated graphics card so you'll be able to play the current games at mid-low settings comfortably... maybe higher if you run in bootcamp.

However, if you want to game in the future or think you'll be doing some with that machine, get one with discrete graphics: you'll get better performance out of it that way.
 
i bought a gaming desktop a while back when i used to be a hardcore pc gamer, now since i rarely game on my pc anymore i connected it to my hdtv so i can watch movies etc on it, i really don't find any use for it and i am really uncomfortable with windows, should i sell and go for the mac mini before the desktop loses its value, is the mac mini as good as every1 says? i want to connect it to my tv to act as a media server in my home ent. setup

This is exactly what I did, I no longer play PC games, mostly just XBOX360. I had a pretty beffy rig and I was worried the mac mini 2011 would not have the same performance even browsing or editing photos etc. I also wanted to switch because I love the form factor. After alot of research I decided to take the plunge. I went with the 4GB core i5 model with the dedicated AMD graphics. It has worked great. OS X lion has alot of nice features I like, the only thing I miss from win 7 is the auto adjusting of windows when you drag them to the corners of the screen. I'm verry happy with the switch, this PC fits exactly what I need it for now. It is plenty fast and I haven't noticed a difference or slowdown in regular desktop use. I usually run about 8 different applications at once on it (mission control and expose handles those beautifully) and there is 0 slow down.
 
the only thing I miss from win 7 is the auto adjusting of windows when you drag them to the corners of the screen. .

BetterSnapTool from the App Store. It even has keyboard commands to instantly move the application (if it's resizable of course) to the left/right/top/bottom half of the screen or even full screen.
 
BetterSnapTool from the App Store. It even has keyboard commands to instantly move the application (if it's resizable of course) to the left/right/top/bottom half of the screen or even full screen.

Awesome, will definitely try this thank you.
 
No problem. There are free alternatives out there and, as a college student, I love free. However, I saw the reviews and various functions of this and, in the end, it is definitely worth the money.

WOW this utility is money, works exactly like windows, definitely worth the money. Sorry didn't meant to go off topic.
 
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