MWSF: Mac Mini thoughts

i am sorry but i read that the mac mini was supposed to work with every standard industry monitor according Steve Jobs, yet they re instated that to be almost every monitor now. apple just told friends of mine after sending them to service centers a few times for there problems with the mac minis video card that it sthere dvi adapters and they have no solution for this.

I just picked up the higher end model of the mini with a 512 MB upgrade for $616 on Apple.com. Thats right, with a student discount of $20 on the comp, $8 on the RAM and one of those $30 off coupons from thier Email's. Definetely a great deal, USE the disocunts!

I just picked up my mini. Thusfar it's not disappointed. I've got a spreadsheet that even when 'blank' is 5MB worth of macros. My athlon 3200 (1GB, ATI Fire Video) is appreciably faster than the Mini - go figure. However, the Mini's definately tolerable even with the base RAM. Warcraft III is definately playable, but I won't say it plays well. WOW would be a dissapointment. Q3 and Q3A both play very smooth at 1024x768 with eyecandy on, if you can call it that. I woulnd't game anything more demanding than these apps. I could say the same thing of a G4 tower with stock video. So, here're the facts. 1. You can't get a mac (new) cheaper than a mini. 2. Upstarts in the Mac world can find themselves in licensed versions of software (you could get a full blown copy of office and photoshop and still come in under G5 towers) at a reasonable rate. 3. Everything it doesn't do well is expensive to do well, except possibly disc tasks which with a good fast SATA drive are pretty decent.

As for the mac mini, I too was wondering about upgrades and getting audio into the box (as there is no "mic" or "line" inputs as with all other macs). As for getting into the box to perform upgrades, ScreenSavers TV used a sharpend putty knife to pry off the plastic case...and it worked very well too!!! They upgraded the HD with 100G laptop drive and put in 1G of PC Ram (ram from Mac is too expensive, you can get PC ram at more reasonable prices). The "audio in" isssue is going to cost you. There are a number of 3rd party boxes you can buy to get "audio in" via the Firewire port. If you are looking for balanced and optical inputs, check with a music store that handles studio recording equipment. there should be options ( example "M-Box" ). If you are happy with unbalanced inputs you can go for any 3rd party a/v box (example "Canopus ADVC series or others). You save a bit of money and also get a composite video input if you don't have a video camera with the firewire option. Your better option would be to consider a G4 or G5 tower if you are getting into Digital Audio or Video. Money spent to upgrade a Mac Mini is better spent on a Mac tower for A/V. If "audio in" isn't an option, then for $450.00 the Mac Mini is a cost effective box.

The Mac Mini is probably going to be a hit, but Apple should have options for cheaper monitors. Not everyone wants to dish out $999 for the smallest (20 inch is stilj pretty big) display Apple offers. It breaks the Apple touch of "continuity" to use Mac Mini with a Compusa usb keyboard and monitor from your Gateway or eMachines desktop. :) I hope Apple made proper research here, or maybe they expect people at the Apple Store to say "what the heck, just throw in that keyboard/mouse and display too". Not all PC owners are power hungry though. Most WinXP users don't care about 5 fans and PCI upgradability. They would of course care about a machine that makes sense. They bought WinXp because they're used to it, or they are afraid of compatibility problems. WinXP is a huge flop, mostly due to its lack of focus. Buy a new HP laptop and you see what I'm saying. The systray is cluttered with unnecessary icons, the desktop is cluttered with fake installed programs. On a HP I bought, there was a Quicken icon on the desktop. When I clicked it, it said "do you want to buy Quicken?". No thanks!

if i had the extra money i would get one and hook it up to a plasma tv, use it as a media center, hell with a bluetooth mouse + keyboard i might even surf the web in the livingroom, allthough it seems like it'd be kind of a slow machine. all it needs is video in, like HD or coaxial, and some new iSoftware for recording tv shows and viewing digatl guide.

Apple has created a machine which fits their switch campaign beautifully. You don't buy this as your first machine...you already have the keyboard, mouse, monitor,etc. and just want a sweet, inexpensive mac. How many people really need an audio input? Spend a little for more ram if you think you need it. If you need a digital audio out, buy an external firewire device ($99 griffin). For $500 bucks I'd recommend everyone give it a try for web browsing/media server. Remember though, you get what you pay for. There's a reason why the other machines they sell are so expensive.

This is basically a barebones machine for lower demand/entry level users, that is it's niche, if you are a power user apple already has products for you (if you can afford them). After a while most likely the luxury options will be made standard, liek the ipod got better and cheaper as Apple developed the product, i assume the mini mac will be the same. Just wait for the next couple updates for more features

I saw this on the BBC news website and immediately bought one - it's *exactly* what I've been looking for - an affordable mac. I already own the sundry items - just need a box. One thing I don't know though.. do macs support any kind of terminal server? The last one I used didn't. If not I guess VNC has been ported?

On use as a server: Can the critter be booted without keyboard, mouse and screen? I'd love to use it as a general home server. I'd presumably have to set it up to boot into the various services I want to use via startup-items, and use a cron job to make sure they are all still working. But none of the sites I've seen has discussed the server usage of the device.