Advice on Mac Mini

[Pete Nov]

Looking to get a Mac Mini and wanted a bit of advice on the spec.

Is it worth £123 to upgrade 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo to a 2.66GHz? And is there much difference for the price?

As for RAM it comes with 2Gb as standard, and I've found on crucial.com that you can get 2x4Gb for £60. So thats already a saving of £180 directly from Apple.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Adam.]

What are you planning to do with it?

 

[Gaz.]

Dpending on the age of it, changing the RAM can require most of the thing being taken apart.

 

[Pete Nov]

General browsing, storing photos and songs. Odd bit of editing here and there.

 

[Pete Nov]

Dpending on the age of it, changing the RAM can require most of the thing being taken apart.

Already seen a video on YouTube and looks like a piece of cake. Literally take the back off, take the RAM out and put new ones in, just secured by two clips you have to press in to release.

 

[Gaz.]

Already seen a video on YouTube and looks like a piece of cake. Literally take the back off, take the RAM out and put new ones in, just secured by two clips you have to press in to release.

Not for mine it isn't!

 

[Adam.]

Already seen a video on YouTube and looks like a piece of cake. Literally take the back off, take the RAM out and put new ones in, just secured by two clips you have to press in to release.

I think he was refering to the old ones that needed a butter knife to pop the clips inside off. Here

Mac Mini's aren't the best tbh. I'd be tempted to go for the iMac i3 over that. Much much faster.

http://www.bestbuy.co.uk/product/10...mc508ba---intel-core-i3-500gb-4gb-memory.aspx

 

[Mitchell]

I was pretty tempted to get one yesterday, but did a bit of research and I think they are due an upgrade to the new Intel processors (i3 and i5) and Thunderbolt port addition quite soon, hopefully before / same time as Lion is released.
If you can hold off I would, as the processors currently in them are pretty dated now.

My Mac Mini will be plugged into my TV when I get it to replace the PC that is currently connected, browsing on the bed on a big screen FTW

 

[Pete Nov]

Only reason I didn't want the iMac is because, my Xbox is hooked upto my monitor and I wanted a Mac Mini to go with it, so I don't need a screen, this way I can switch back and forth the Xbox and Mac Mini.

 

[Dafthead]

Dunno, I got mine yesterday and am loving it, I went for the 4Gb but left the processor be, is handling my large blueray MKV downloads just fine

 

[Tom]

Update due, dont buy yet

 

[Pete Nov]

Update due, dont buy yet

Yeah I've just noticed they've been out a while so I'll hold my horses till the new one is released.

Thanks for the feedback.

 

[Pete Nov]

What do people think of the Track Pad? Is it better than the Magic mouse?

 

[Revels]

I don't think so. Mine went back. But some people love it.

 

[Tom]

f**king hated mine.

 

[Pete Nov]

What didn't you like about it?

Debating which one to get. I haven't used a mouse in absolutely ages so I'm swaying towards a Track Pad.

 

[Tom]

The click mechanism wasn't good unless its on a flat surface, you can tap to click but that sucks.

 

[beatjunkie]

Is this Mac Mini mega old? Good price tho? The £360 one....

http://www.albion.co.uk/cat/products/warehouse-cleareance/

 

[Adam.]

Is this Mac Mini mega old? Good price tho? The £360 one....

http://www.albion.co.uk/cat/products/warehouse-cleareance/

I have 8 of them sitting in my office at work. They are s**t slow, from 2009 iirc.

 

[beatjunkie]

No good for like a media sharing computer then? wanna sell one?

 

[Revels]

Mine is lower spec than that and it's fine. But all it does is play movies.

 

[Pete Nov]

So now they're out, what spec would you recommend to me?

Main activities will be browsing the web, listening to music, storing photo's and occasional editing.

 

[Mitchell]

I would say the base spec one is more than enough tbh. They don't have a disc drive now though just so you know.

 

[Pete Nov]

Yeah, thanks for the heads up.

Will I be able to share the drive from my brother's Macbook?

 

[Revels]

Hmmmm. Them getting rid of the disc drive in something which is used by a lot of people as a media player seems strange.

AppleTv upgrade is going to be mega I think.

 

[Pete Nov]

Went and ordered the mid range one in the end with 2.5GHz/4Gb Ram/500Gb HD. Will probably upgrade to 8Gb ram in the future as it's not that expensive and makes sense.

Ordered at 4pm today and it's already been shipped and will be with me tomorrow, great service!

 

[cava83]

The no DVD drive is rather disappointing

 

[Danny133]

Agree that no disc drive is a bit stupid.

As Dan said - ALOT of people use them for media - i was going to but now won't be

When do you think ATV3 is coming out?

 

[cava83]

Agree that no disc drive is a bit stupid.

As Dan said - ALOT of people use them for media - i was going to but now won't be

When do you think ATV3 is coming out?

It's just ridiculous, I know everyone downloads everything, but that is not the point and as to why one should have to buy an additional drive is ridiculous.

ATV3, people are saying September, if it doesn't have a disc drive now, would they do a 180 and have it on the ATV3?

Disappointing that it doesn't have two thunderbolt ports.

 

[Revels]

It's not ridiculous. The drives are very rarely used by most people.

The OS isn't on a disc anymore. When was the last time you bought software on a disc? It's not really needed. Physical media is dying.

There's absolutely no way ATV will get a disc drive. Never in a month of Sundays.

 

[Adam.]

All software we get at work now is digital. Bit of a pain as we burn it to disc anyways LOL

 

[Pete Nov]

Question regarding connecting my iPhone.

Will all of the data on my iPhone be wiped when I connect it to my Mac Mini? I had previously been syncing my iPhone on my brother's MacBook.

I'm not too fussed about losing the music, just the music and photo's, as I've heard horror stories of people losing all their data, when they connect their iPhones into a new computer.

 

[cava83]

It's not ridiculous. The drives are very rarely used by most people.

The OS isn't on a disc anymore. When was the last time you bought software on a disc? It's not really needed. Physical media is dying.

There's absolutely no way ATV will get a disc drive. Never in a month of Sundays.

I want my HTPC to rip my DVD's. I don't want to use my laptop and then to transfer it over, neither do I want some extra bulk by pluggin in a DVD USB drive. I want to be forced to download movies through third party mediums......

I agree, software and general stuff, everything is available as a download and they promote it that way, but not movies.

A lot of people use the Mac Mini as an HTPC and quite frankly, I would too.

I find my Apple TV too clunky and slow with XBMC.

 

[Revels]

Yeah, it's what I use mine for. I think there's a reason they've done it. The new processors/thunderbolt haven't taken up vastly more room. So the drive could easily stay.

They know what people use them for. They've ditched FrontRow and got rid of the drive. I'm hoping hoping hoping for an unlimited sub for iTunes. So you can stream whatever you want. They've got it all in place. It just needs studios/channels to agree.

 

[jenic]

They know what people use them for. They've ditched FrontRow and got rid of the drive. I'm hoping hoping hoping for an unlimited sub for iTunes. So you can stream whatever you want. They've got it all in place. It just needs studios/channels to agree.

Don't see it happening, not in England and with any new stuff included anyway

Best i reckon we can hope for is official support for iplayer, 4od, sky player etc apps and maybe unlimited streaming of old content for a fee like love film.

 

[jenic]

They know what people use them for. They've ditched FrontRow and got rid of the drive. I'm hoping hoping hoping for an unlimited sub for iTunes. So you can stream whatever you want. They've got it all in place. It just needs studios/channels to agree.

Don't see it happening, not in England and with any new stuff included anyway

Best i reckon we can hope for is official support for iplayer, 4od, sky player etc apps and maybe unlimited streaming of old content for a fee like love film.

 

[Revels]

Don't ruin the dream.

I've got a US iTunes account anyway. Going legit, even at 99c a show costs a bomb.

Those things might get added to AppleTv. Hacz0rz have got apps on them already, so it's possible. It's just the storage. Those you mention obviously wouldn't take up much room and Apple have more flash memory than Jesus.

Streaming is the future. Paying for things individually is just too costly when you watch a lot.

 

[cava83]

Ah, I see.

Well, I don't want to have to mess around. I can't see the huge advantage for them though, unless they have an ATV3 or something else on the way, it's actually rather annoying but there we are.

Just don't understand it myself.

Wish you could easily and natively stream a larger number of video types/codacs, there must be something going on, what happened to Plex could be the key

 

[Revels]

Plex is still going? I love it.

 

[cava83]

Plex is still going? I love it.

Sure is, but they got "bought" out by Apple, so I wonder if they will be linking it somehow with ATV3 / or their new apparent TV sets.

I feel that Apple could really be in with the home entertainment, but they need to do a couple things which won't happen;

1) Allow to play multiple formats
2) Stream of a NAS device

Shame the ATV2 doesn't quite cut it, without jail breaking it, even then it's not ideal.