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used mac mini as a cheap temp substitue for a new MBP?

H

hassouni

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 10, 2008
76
0
OK, I'm not sure if I should post this here, but my first gen 17" PB had a long, slow death and is now totally toasted. The HD is ok--kind of--I can probably get everything off there that I need to. I recently graduated from university, will be starting grad school in the fall (hopefully), my parents have offered to get me a new laptop. I, like many, am waiting for Montevina. I know the arguments for and against waiting, and I'm waiting. However, I really do need a computer now, and a friend suggested building a cheapo PC desktop for about $200. Obviously I vastly prefer OS X, and I also vastly prefer portability. This got me thinking: used Mac Minis can be had for under $300, they're all better spec than my PB was, would this be a decent temporary solution?

Thanks for your input
 
Yeah sounds good but I had a mac mini once, and it was as good as i expected it to be, but i wasn't impressed with it. So i gave it to my sister in law lol.
In your situation, I would get one
 
I did the same thing when I was waiting on the C2D MBP's back in fall of '06. I got a mac mini and loved it. After I got my MBP the mini went to my grandmother. She didn't use it very much, so she gave it back to me a couple of weeks ago. I just finished setting it up for my parents, replacing their 9 year old Dell (it lasted that long, good 'ol SCSI hard drives!) I put Leopard on the mini, VMware Fusion running XP, Office '08, Quickbooks for XP, and a 500GB external hard drive for time machine. Runs beautifully. When I had the mini I ran the full suite of CS2 and had no problems. :cool:

Great and cheap stopgap.
 
Mac Mini

The mac mini is just as good as the old powerbooks. When I purchased one 2years ago, I used it as a home station, using my macbook pro as a mobile solution. The mini worked GREAT, it just didnt have enough ram. In your case, I would suggest getting one.
 
Thanks for all your input. Is there a reliable place to buy used macs, or is ebay/Craigslist the best option?
 
I totally recommend going down this path. I sold my (non-SR) MBP C2D in anticipation of the new ones being released. I bought a MacMini to tide me over (will function well as a media centre once I get my new MBP) and couldn't be happier. It's a great little machine.

No suggestions on where to get one i'm afraid, but best of luck.

Damo
 
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