The mighty mini

i bought my mini in july 2007, it was, cpu intel 1.66Ghz core duo, 512Mb ram, 60GB hard disk, combi drive, 802.11g wireless.
with in a month, i had upgraded the following, ram 2GB, hard disk to 160GB, super drive (to replace the combi cdrw/dvd), cpu intel 2.16Ghz core 2 duo, 802.11n wireless, plus added 500GB external and 500GB time port.
this was all done because they brought out a newer model in the august of the same year.
its now my main computer, to burn dvd's, stream films etc to my xbox360, surf the net, email loads of other things.
never had any problems with it.
thought of getting a newer one but, mine still beats some of the spec's of the newer ones.

Don't have a Mini yet, but I'm about to pick one up in the next couple weeks, to act as an htpc/file server/seedbox/remote backup system to compliment my MBP and a few PCs. Haven't decided whether to get a 2GHz mid 07 mini (refurb) or 2GHz early 09 mini (new), but I think it'll be able to do it all regardless (the difference is $120 CDN, but I'm leaning towards it anyway). Recommendations? Anything else I can make it do simultaneously? :)

My late-model Mini serves as my HTPC, running Plex. Content is stored on a 4TB Drobo and delivered via the MDP and Toslink to my HDMI switching receiver.

It's the world's greatest DVR, totally stable, kid-proof and the WAF is high. You don't even know it's a computer when you're using it, everything is done with a remote, so it's right at home in the home theater. Totally stable and on 24/7.

Getting the Mini is the best computer-purchase decision I've ever made. Plex is the key to everything in my setup.

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My Mac mini never lets me down at all, whether I'm on Windows or Mac OS X. It's certainly a reliable computer and I can get school tasks and other jobs done with it just fine. It never slows down on me either, especially when I run Windows XP. I have to leave Firefox running with 40+ tabs open to use up my 1 GB of RAM and seeing performance decrease. The 1.83 GHz Core 2 Duo processor is just fine for what I need it for as well. I never hear a peep out of it at all. The mini overall is a very quiet computer and never makes a sudden sound whenever I do more "hardcore" tasks on it, Mac and Windows. My two favorite parts about the mini are:

1. Being able to use this as a network computer; using it as a file server and displaying multiple web pages across my local network.

2. Using it as a media center; picking up my Apple remote and using it with Boxee, Hulu Desktop, and Front Row. I also have the ability to play and pause music on other media players on Windows as well, as long as they support hotkeys. I love how I have it hooked up to my TV as well.

I definitely recommend the Mac mini to a first time buyer. If you want to experience the Mac environment, but don't necessarily feel comfortable spending $1000+ on a iMac or Macbook, then I totally recommend the Mac mini. I absolutely love mine to death. It always saves the day.

I would personally like to thank TUAW for convincing me to finally push over to mac, what what is my first mac? thats right! a mac mini!

I have been a huuuge fan of apple for years but just never had the time nor the money to transfer over (I usually take the cheaper route and build linux boxs, out of old computers and Xboxs. but having had the first and second gen iphones, and now buying an iphone from italy. its time I gave the little guys a nice home to call their own.

Thank you TUAW,
Kasa

While I'm a dyed-in-the-wool Mini user (we have three of different vintages), I am more than a little disappointed in the performance of the latest model. I bought the 2.26Ghz version, maxxed out the RAM, swapped a 7200RPM HD, and this box is still sluggish, especially when waking up. I site there for minutes until I can use Mail or Safari or whatever. If I open a folder that isn't cached, it seems to take forever to load the icons in list view.

This behavior occurs whether I boot from the fast internal drive or from one of two 7200 RPM external drives (all three drives different mfrs) so I have to discount the HDDs as the problem. I've got over 100GB free space.

running OSX 10.5.7, Safari 4.01, display is a 23" Apple cinema.

When my MacBook Pro was in the shop, I brought my Mac mini in from home and it filled in as my main machine for a few weeks.

A great media center, and a great backup machine in a pinch.

I posted my Mini HTPC up on flickr with the TUAWmini tag, but it looks like I'm too new a user to show up in searches. Any way around this? Thanks.

I got my Mac Mini originally for iPhone development, but now I use it for everything. Mac OS X is the greatest and I'll never buy a PC again!