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Top Mac Mini Vs. bottom iMac
- Thread starter joesenior91
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I know stuff in England is spendy, but still: 114 pounds for a 17" monitor? How much more would you have to pay for a 19 or 20-inch? Here on the continent the 19s start around 170 Euros, including TVA.
WizardHunt
macrumors 68000
So I am in a similar situation, I wanted to go with a imac, but I don't have the $4000.00 to fix it up like I want for a 24 inch one. However if I fix up a mac mini for $1200.00 fully loaded then that is a big difference. I want to do video editing on mine, and I was wondering if this is the way to go to start with, I could always give it to my son later on if I needed to upgrade to the imac. What do you think? I need all the feedback I can get. 🙂
Hi WizardHunt,
Here's my 2 cents:
After debating buying the nice but expensive iMac, I bought the top-of-the-line mac mini at the online Apple store last week, for $1,024.00.
The mini exceeds my expectations, and I'm having a great time with it. It's my first Intel Mac, and is much faster than the G4 1.67 PowerBook I've been using.
I even got a great printer for virtually free after the $100 rebate (I recommend the HP PHOTOSMART C4280 All-In-One: awesome color printer/copier/scanner!).
Eventually, I plan to get either an iMac, a MacPro, or the next headless desktop Apple puts out. Then my mini will still be very useful as a dining room computer or as a TV server or whatever. I certainly don't regret buying the mini now and I'm sure I won't later, either.
You probably can't go wrong with an iMac, but if you want to save some money at this point, I can recommend the mini. I am even playing CIV4 on it, a graphically intensive game, although everyone says minis ain't got game.
Mine sure does!! 😉
Best wishes,
--Alice in beautiful Portland, OR
Here's my 2 cents:
After debating buying the nice but expensive iMac, I bought the top-of-the-line mac mini at the online Apple store last week, for $1,024.00.
The mini exceeds my expectations, and I'm having a great time with it. It's my first Intel Mac, and is much faster than the G4 1.67 PowerBook I've been using.
I even got a great printer for virtually free after the $100 rebate (I recommend the HP PHOTOSMART C4280 All-In-One: awesome color printer/copier/scanner!).
Eventually, I plan to get either an iMac, a MacPro, or the next headless desktop Apple puts out. Then my mini will still be very useful as a dining room computer or as a TV server or whatever. I certainly don't regret buying the mini now and I'm sure I won't later, either.
You probably can't go wrong with an iMac, but if you want to save some money at this point, I can recommend the mini. I am even playing CIV4 on it, a graphically intensive game, although everyone says minis ain't got game.
Mine sure does!! 😉
Best wishes,
--Alice in beautiful Portland, OR
WizardHunt
macrumors 68000
Thank you Alice for your reply. It is very helpful. I am going to buy the Mac Mini 2.0 version with 2.0 GB ram , 160 GB harddrive, with DVD rewritable. I think based upon all I been hearing it will work great. I hear that you get ilife 08 with it free. That is a great add on. I will buy the apple care too along wtih .mac so I should be all set. Thanks for your comments.
WizardHunt
macrumors 68000
How long did it take to get your Mac Mini? What drive option did you get?
It says 1 to 3 business days before shipment. I am just wondering if it took the whole 3 business days before they even shipped it out? Please include your shipping time so I can get some idea how long I will have to wait. I will be ordering the 799.00 version with 160 Gb hard drive 2 GB ram, and so on.
Thanks in advance for your reply.
The Mac mini now has a decent Core 2 Duo in it. It's fast. Unless you're gaming (and seriously, why game on a Mac?), the gma950 is fine and is Core Image/Video capable and can play Full HD videos. As for the hard drive, if you want decent speeds, get the biggest 5400 rpm drive you can - the more recent large capacity s-ata laptop drives are good performers. If you want a bit extra (and it really won't feel much difference) go for a 7200 rpm drive. I know this is not a custom option, but the minis aren't difficult to open. The other option of course is to get a matching firewire drive and boot from that - it's fast and gives you loads more space for a cheap price.
At the end of the day, the mini is an amzing piece of kit. It also has one big advantage of the iMac - your choice of screen. If you have a cinema display, a decent Dell or Samsung, it's going to look better than the 20" iMac screen with better viewing angles.
At the end of the day, the mini is an amzing piece of kit. It also has one big advantage of the iMac - your choice of screen. If you have a cinema display, a decent Dell or Samsung, it's going to look better than the 20" iMac screen with better viewing angles.
I got the 160 GB internal hard drive, the exact same mini you are getting it sounds like.
But since it is 5400 RPM (slow) I also ordered an external hard drive (7200 RPM) to go with it from Other World Computing:
750 GB NewerTech miniStack FireWire/USB Hub V2, $303.94 shipped.
I am booting from the miniStack (after re-partitioning and installing Mac OS) through firewire; it's faster that way than with the mini's internal drive. Another plus is that the miniStack gives you more powered FW and USB outlets.
I ordered my mini on the Apple website on 8/8, it shipped on 8/9, and arrived at my Portland home on 8/13. The miniStack also came very quickly, fits under the mini, and they look good together and take up very little space.
You're right, the mini comes with iLife '08. 🙂
By the way, instead of paying for .Mac right away, why not take the free 3-month test drive, then pay for a year at a discount?
Cheers,
--Alice in OR
How did you get...
How did you get a $4000.00 total for a 24inch iMac? Is that American dollars? Even with Apples obscene prices for memory and putting in a TB HD, it doesn't come to $4000.00. If you want to max out the RAM, order 2x2GB RAM from OWC and it won't cost you anywhere near that amount.
Also, if you are a student or associated with an educational institution, you can get a halfway decent discount on the hardware and software.
How did you get a $4000.00 total for a 24inch iMac? Is that American dollars? Even with Apples obscene prices for memory and putting in a TB HD, it doesn't come to $4000.00. If you want to max out the RAM, order 2x2GB RAM from OWC and it won't cost you anywhere near that amount.
Also, if you are a student or associated with an educational institution, you can get a halfway decent discount on the hardware and software.
WizardHunt
macrumors 68000
24 inch imac
4 GB ram
1 TB Hard Drive
Final Cut software ($299)
.mac
apple care
all comes to $4016.00
Yes I know I could save a bit by doing 3rd party ram but I heard people had trouble with that.
WizardHunt
macrumors 68000
So let me get this straight, you hooked up the mini stack and partitioned the drive in the mini stack and reinstalled the OS/X making it your boot drive, and then you reformated your drive inside the original mini? Can you give the exact steps to do what you did, so that I understand well. I can do it on a pc but mac is new to me and you threw me when you said you did thru firewire, not sure what you meant there. Also let me know how you told the Mac Mini to boot from the external mini stack instead of the drive inside the mini? Thanks
Cave Man
macrumors 604
1. Boot your mini off its internal drive.
2. Download the free program Carbon Copy Cloner and install it.
3. Plug in and power up your MiniStack (make sure the toggle switch is set to Firwire so it will boot from FW instead of USB2).
4. Launch Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility and format the MiniStack drive and set the number and sizes of partitions as you desire. Quit Disk Utility when done.
5. Launch Carbon Copy Cloner and clone your internal Mini's boot drive to the desired partition on the MiniStack. Make sure you set the "make bootable" option. This will take some time, depending on the size of the contents on your hard drive.
6. When done, launch System Preferences from the blue Apple. Select the Startup Disk pane and choose the bootable partion that you just cloned.
7. Restart your Mac Mini - it should boot from the MiniStack.
8. Once rebooted, launch Disk Utility and format your Mini's internal hard drive.
That's it! This is how I did mine, except that my MiniStack's drive is a single partition (now up to 500 gb) and my internal 100 gig drive has two partitions - a Mac OS install and a Win XP install.
WizardHunt
macrumors 68000
Cave Man did a great job of explaining this process, thanks Cave Man!
Let me borrow and personalize your steps to show WizardHunt my slightly different (but not better) version of this process below. By the way, the reason the MiniStack repartition is necessary is that otherwise the mini OS does not recognize it as a bootable hardrive, and you get "You cannot install Mac OS X on this volume..." alert in the Installer.
1. Boot your mini off its internal drive.
2. Plug in, connect to mini through the Firewire port, and power up your MiniStack (make sure the toggle switch is set to Firewire so it will boot from FW instead of USB2).
3. Copy the software pre-installed on your MiniStack to your mini internal hard drive.
4. Launch Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility.
5. Read the following Apple page and follow its instructions carefully:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303220
Using Disk Utility, format the MiniStack drive to GUID partition scheme and set the number and sizes of partitions you desire (one partition is also an option). Quit Disk Utility when done.
6. Insert the OS install disk that came with the mini, follow the instructions to install Mac OS to the MiniStack drive.
7. When done, restart your Mac Mini -- it might already boot from the MiniStack (mine did). If not, launch System Preferences from the blue Apple. Select the Startup Disk pane and choose the bootable partition that you just formatted.
8. Once rebooted, copy the MiniStack software back over from your Mini's internal hard drive.
Same general idea as Cave Man's steps, not better, just how I did it.
I do strongly recommend reading the Apple page that I mentioned:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303220
Enjoy,
--Alice
Cave Man
macrumors 604
Hmm, that's peculiar. I've not encountered this problem on a freshly-formatted firewire hard drive.
Apparently it was due to the fact that it is an Intel-based mini:
"If you're trying to install Mac OS X on a hard disk that you've connected to your Intel-based Mac, you may see this alert in Installer and be unable to select the disk for installation:
'You cannot install Mac OS X on this volume. Mac OS X cannot start up from this volume.'"
--quoted from article at
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303220
Cave Man
macrumors 604
I guess the operative word is "may". I had to do a fresh install 3 weeks ago because my friggin' Western Digital hard drive failed. (I'm 0/2 on those drives; and sticking to Seagate from now on.) I was able to reinstall from my Mac Mini installer DVD directly onto my MiniStack.
WizardHunt
macrumors 68000
So Alice, after you copy the miniStack software back over from the Mini's internal hard drive, then you reformat the internal drive after one is sure it will boot up normally right? Also when copying the software from the MiniStacker did you use Carbon Copy Cloner to do the copying? Sorry for all the questions but I am very new to mac.
Also curious did you use one partition? I usually do. This is all great information for me as I now know that I will get my Mac Mini on Friday.
I ordered it Tuesday and it will be delivered on Friday. I get my MiniStacker on Thursday so I should be all set. I only got a 500 GB version instead of your 750 GB. Thanks for all the help on this subject.
By the way I am open to any opinions that read this. So don't be afraid to reply.
Hi WizardHunt,
In my case:
1) I did not reformat the internal hard drive that came with my mac mini, because I saw no need to. I think people do this to have more than one partition, like to boot up from Windows which is not an attractive option for me. I have also read that some people always reformat new drives because of corruption that can occur during the jostling of shipping the drive to them. But I did not reformat my mini drive and am not aware of any problems.
2) I did not use Carbon Copy Cloner (I do not have or use that software) to do the copying of the bundled software from the MiniStack to the mini internal drive. I just dragged the software bundle icon from the MiniStack in one finder window into the mini drive in another finder window and it copied automatically, extremely easy.
3) Yes, I just set up one partition in my new MiniStack hard drive. But if you plan to boot up from Windows, then of course you need more than one partition. Not needing Windows, I do not see the need for more than one partition, speaking for myself.
4) About sleeping the mini:
You can easily sleep the mini by touching the power button on the back of it briefly (if you hold it down for 5+ seconds I think it turns off). My favorite way to sleep it, since the back of my mini is a little hard to get to (see cart description below) is to hold down on the pause/play button for several seconds on the little remote that came with the mini. That way, I can turn off my wireless keyboard and mouse, then sleep the mini. I keep my mini sleeping, not off, when not in use.
Glad to be of help. It's exciting that your mini's coming tomorrow! Please share your thoughts, impressions, and maybe some pictures of your little guy. I'll be watching for your report.
My mini is happily set up now in my dining room, where I can sit at the big table and look out over my low 20" HP lcd onto my ever-changing garden. I have a rollable cart on my right with my new "free after rebate" HP C4280 All-in-One on top, the mini on top of the MiniStack on the next shelf, another external hard drive on the shelf below that, with all the power bricks neatly on the shelves. I have everything, including a cordless phone, plugged into a surge-protected multi-outlet strip at the bottom of the cart.
I am using last year's wireless Apple keyboard and mouse, so the only cables on my dining table (besides a small phone cable) are 2 from the LCD monitor and one small one from the 2 speakers on either side of my monitor, bundled together with a Velcro strip. It's all very tidy, thanks to many Velcro-strip and short twist-wire holders keeping all the long cables folded neatly near their units at the cart.
I have the rest of the dining table to spread my project on, whether it's work documents or vinyl records and a new record player with built-in pre-amp that I'm using to digitize all my lovely old records (that's why I went with the 750GB MiniStack, each record takes at least 500MB of space).
Looking forward to hearing your mini experiences.
Cheers,
--Alice
WizardHunt
macrumors 68000
Ok, you say that you did not reformat the internal mini drive. How does the Apple software know which drive to boot from? And 2nd, how much space does the os/x take up on the drive?
That is cool. I am glad that I can drag and drop rather than install more software to do that.
I do not plan to install windows on my Mac Mini, no way, I am staying away from Windows.
That is good information to know. Thanks for telling me.
You can count on me sending pictures, I am excited to get my Mac Mini. I messed up however and ordered a wireless mouse when I thought I ordered a wired mouse. I called apple care and asked them if I use a apple wired keyboard which I ordered the older model from Amazon.com would it work with the wireless mouse. They said once I get it configured I would have no problem. I might have to use another wired mouse to set up the blue tooth but after that I should not have any problem.
My MiniStacker with the 500 GB drive came today. On the Apple site it says prepared for shipment so it should ship today, and I ordered overnight shipping so I should get it on Friday. After I get it set up I will place some pictures here for all to see.
Looking forward to hearing your mini experiences.
Cheers,
--Alice[/QUOTE]
Here goes:
1) First, Cave Man already explained how to set which drive to boot from:
"6. When done, launch System Preferences from the blue Apple. Select the Startup Disk pane and choose the bootable partition that you just cloned."
In my case, after I installed MacOS on my MiniStack, my mini automatically booted from it, which is what I wanted and saved me the selection step. But selecting or changing the preferred boot drive is extremely easy to do, just follow Cave Man's directions.
2) I don't know exactly how much space the os/x takes up on the drive, but I will tell you my MiniStack's status now:
my MiniStack capacity = 750 GB
available now after OS install, retaining MiniStack's bundled software (2GB), and a few of my other applications = 679 GB
therefore total used now = 71 GB
Sorry this isn't what you asked for exactly but it gives you some idea.
3) As for the wireless mouse, I was wondering how I would be able to communicate with my mini the first time I turned it on, but the mini is smart enough to deal with the mouse issue immediately on boot up. Basically, it shows you a picture of 2 mice, one wired and 1 wireless, and graphically encourages you to either plug in (through USB) your wired mouse or put in batteries and turn on your wireless mouse. In my case, after a few seconds it detected my wireless mouse, then my wireless keyboard, and it was (boom) up and ready to go!
I just hope that you love the mini as much as I do; it would be a bummer if after all of this you didn't like it!😉
Have fun,
--Alice
WizardHunt
macrumors 68000
Hi Alice,
I am sure that I will love my new Mac Mini. I really want to let you and Cave Man know that I appreciate all the help you guys gave me. Especially you Alice. I am still waiting for it to ship but hopefully it will still go out tonight on Federal Express and I will still get it on Friday so I can tinker with it all Weekend Long!!! 😀 I will send photos once I get it all set up. Check back later on in the weekend. Take Care.
Cave Man
macrumors 604
Don't sweat it, man. It's probably not that you're a Cave Man, it's just that you're not a woman. 😉
WizardHunt
macrumors 68000
Oh Don't worry Cave Man, I have a great deal of respect for you. Don't be so hard on yourself, it was just that Alice wrote more than you did. 😉 However I love the way your responded to that.