Mac Mini as main setup?


Do you use a mac mini as a main/only setup?  

40 members have voted

  1. 1. Do you use a mac mini as a main/only setup?

    • Yes
      6
    • No
      34


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I am just curious as I am waiting to order my macbook. How many people only have an only use a mac mini for their setup?

Edited by Dane
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I don't have one, but I was actually considering possibly buying one for a htpc. The new integrated 9400m is much better than what came in the previous models. The limiting factor seems to be the 5400rpm drive, but that's in the Macbook also. So that is practically irrelevant. If you want Mac the Mini is great for the price. You could buy a different pc with similar specs for much less, but in terms of Apple computers they are a great deal.

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Mac Mini's are more capable than you may think. Like Stevo said, the 9400m is superior to the previous chips.

Hell, I still use a G4 iBook from 2004. For daily web browsing, blogging, iTunes, etc. it's beautiful. But that's not the point, the Mini is great and far better than the sum of it's spec sheet.

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Yeah like I said I was just curious as to how many people use it for their main setup, or only setup. Before I thought of buying a macbook, I thought about just buying a mini to replace my windows desktop and use it only. I don't know if I could have done that though.

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I have an old 2006 era one that came with a Core Solo CPU. I swapped that out for a T7200 Core 2 Duo, put 2GB RAM in it and it flies - use it at the moment as a HTPC. Uses the old ICH7/GMA950 chipset, and while it is now dated, it still does the job - currently running Windows 7 on it and its brilliant!

The new one is far superior to the old one. I think you could do it - if maybe you got a 500GB 7200RPM 2.5" drive in there (they do now exist, about ?90 I think), that could be a nice beasty PC that should handle everything, provided you arent used to the cutting edge and arent looking to encode vids on it a lot, or do anything too intense. Windows 7 or Mac OS X will run fantastic on it.

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I have an old 2006 era one that came with a Core Solo CPU. I swapped that out for a T7200 Core 2 Duo, put 2GB RAM in it and it flies - use it at the moment as a HTPC. Uses the old ICH7/GMA950 chipset, and while it is now dated, it still does the job - currently running Windows 7 on it and its brilliant!

The new one is far superior to the old one. I think you could do it - if maybe you got a 500GB 7200RPM 2.5" drive in there (they do now exist, about ?90 I think), that could be a nice beasty PC that should handle everything, provided you arent used to the cutting edge and arent looking to encode vids on it a lot, or do anything too intense. Windows 7 or Mac OS X will run fantastic on it.

Indeed, even if someone had a decent size external HD they'd be fine. I think what could turn some people away is the 1 gig of ram.

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Indeed, even if someone had a decent size external HD they'd be fine. I think what could turn some people away is the 1 gig of ram.

The mac mini is available with up to 4gb of RAM. 1gb is just the base config.

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I have a March 2009 (the new model) Mac Mini, just upgraded to 4GB of RAM compliments of Crucial (70$ and 10 minutes, literally!). It works perfectly fine for everything that I do, everything from Photoshop, iTunes, Mail, Firefox, Terminal, iPhoto, Cord, etc. I also just picked up dual 22" Viewsonics, the kicker being that one runs off the Mini DisplayPort and the other runs off the Mini DVI. Yes, they are are NOT mirrored, I have dual displays on this joker.

I also slung a 500GB Time Machine Drive as well as 2 WD Elements 1TB drives for other music and data. With a Bluetooth KB and mouse, that means I still have 2 USB ports available. 5 USB ports on a ~600$ computer is just sick

The only time I have ever seen any choppy video is when I try out some of the more GPU-intensive OpenGL screensavers. I am not a major gamer, I do most of that on my PS3.

So, to answer your question, YES, for what I do, it works just fine as my primary workstation. Oh, I also have a 2007 MBP that I wake up from time to time :)

If I can help any further, please let me know.

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I have a March 2009 (the new model) Mac Mini, just upgraded to 4GB of RAM compliments of Crucial (70$ and 10 minutes, literally!). It works perfectly fine for everything that I do, everything from Photoshop, iTunes, Mail, Firefox, Terminal, iPhoto, Cord, etc. I also just picked up dual 22" Viewsonics, the kicker being that one runs off the Mini DisplayPort and the other runs off the Mini DVI. Yes, they are are NOT mirrored, I have dual displays on this joker.

I also slung a 500GB Time Machine Drive as well as 2 WD Elements 1TB drives for other music and data. With a Bluetooth KB and mouse, that means I still have 2 USB ports available. 5 USB ports on a ~600$ computer is just sick

The only time I have ever seen any choppy video is when I try out some of the more GPU-intensive OpenGL screensavers. I am not a major gamer, I do most of that on my PS3.

So, to answer your question, YES, for what I do, it works just fine as my primary workstation. Oh, I also have a 2007 MBP that I wake up from time to time :)

If I can help any further, please let me know.

Nice! I never knew you could do dual displays on a mini!

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Nice! I never knew you could do dual displays on a mini!

Yeah you can. It's just 2 different port types, which probably confuses a lot of people.

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I used to use a Mini as my main computer before I got a MacBook Pro and Mac Pro. It's still sitting on my desk as a headless media server / torrent box.

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If you want Mac the Mini is great for the price. You could buy a different pc with similar specs for much less, but in terms of Apple computers they are a great deal.

In what way are they "great for the price" exactly? If you factor in the price of a Apple keyboard and mouse + display they're obnoxiously expensive compared to even the entry-level iMac which has better specs and build-in display.

I'm a Mac person but in my opinion the Mac mini is horribly priced for its specs compared to both the Mac and PC world.

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In what way are they "great for the price" exactly? If you factor in the price of a Apple keyboard and mouse + display they're obnoxiously expensive compared to even the entry-level iMac which has better specs and build-in display.

I'm a Mac person but in my opinion the Mac mini is horribly priced for its specs compared to both the Mac and PC world.

No, it isn't. Compare it to a similar spec/form factor pc and it's pretty much on par with the rest. The most similar one I've seen was the Fujitsu Esprimo. Not as stylish, but almost the same form factor and specs. More expensive.

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In what way are they "great for the price" exactly? If you factor in the price of a Apple keyboard and mouse + display they're obnoxiously expensive compared to even the entry-level iMac which has better specs and build-in display.

I'm a Mac person but in my opinion the Mac mini is horribly priced for its specs compared to both the Mac and PC world.

I doubt most buy all new accessories when purchasing something like a Mini. It's usually to replace another computer (so you would have a monitor already, mouse and possibly keyboard) or connected to a television.

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No, it isn't. Compare it to a similar spec/form factor pc and it's pretty much on par with the rest. The most similar one I've seen was the Fujitsu Esprimo. Not as stylish, but almost the same form factor and specs. More expensive.

Fujitsu Esprimo? I have a Fujitsu Siemens Esprimo laptop, is that what youre referring to?

Anyway, I been wondering, wouldn't a mini just blow away the idea of being simple and without a jungle of wires like a pc? You still connect it to monitors, kb, mouse, speakers, etc just like a pc, so what's the point, wouldn't it be better to get an imac for its all-in-one form factor? Simpler design, no wires, etc....

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Hell yes!.. It does everything I want it to since I added another 1 GB into it its running perfectly fine now.. before it used Virtual Memory which slowed the system down a little but now.. its running perfectly fine! Everything I need works very well, except gaming which really isn't a problem because that is what the 360 is for.

Mac mini as a main setup is the best thing I ever did with a personal computer.

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ive got mine setup as a media center and I pretty much do everything though it. Its the core duo 1.66 and I upgraded it to 2 gigs. It works perfectly except when I attempt to watch full screen hdtv through eyetv with progressive scan switched on. How easy is it to switch the CPU to a core 2 duo and do you guys reckon that would help?

cheers,

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I doubt most buy all new accessories when purchasing something like a Mini. It's usually to replace another computer (so you would have a monitor already, mouse and possibly keyboard) or connected to a television.

Every regular computer should ship with a keyboard and mouse by default and not given as a ?98 option when the hardware itself already starts at ?599. Next to that it isn't always that great to use a Windows-based keyboard in combination with Mac OS X.

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I've got an original ppc G4 mini that I use as my main setup (well, only setup - I have no need or interest for more than one computer at a time). It still runs superbly. In the four or so years I've had it, it must have crashed 5 times, possibly less.

Great little thing it is.

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Every regular computer should ship with a keyboard and mouse by default and not given as a ?98 option when the hardware itself already starts at ?599. Next to that it isn't always that great to use a Windows-based keyboard in combination with Mac OS X.

This is not a regular computer, it is meant for people who already have everything but just need the computer itself. People like me: if they supplied a keyboard and mouse by default it would be a waste for me since I have no use for them other than collecting dust. It doesn't say "bring your own keyboard, monitor and mouse" for noth;)g ;) I do agree with the fact that they should have the option to include keyboard + mouse at a smaller price when buying it together with the Mac mini, they could do that with the monitor as well. You're now paying the full price for keyboard, mouse and monitor.

The new Mac mini with the 2.0 GHz is a great machine for virtualisation. I have upgraded to 4 GB of ram and am running the vm's from the external firewire 400 GB disk (which is really nice since it takes a lot of the i/o load away from the internal disk). The 30" monitor unfortunately had to be hooked up with the far too expensive mini-DisplayPort to dual link DVI adapter (if Apple only used the normal DisplayPort standard I wouldn't need any adapter) but it is running fine with it. Very happy with this setup.

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I might be purchasing a Mac Mini, but not as a main computer, but basically something to hook up into my television so the family can browse the web sitting on the couch.

If only Apple didn't charge so much for the bloody bluetooth mouse and keyboards. $100 for a keyboard, and $89 for a mouse = :cry:

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