Mac Mini for me?

Senior Member From : England OS : XP/Ubuntu

Hey guys, thinking of making the leap to mac but i can't afford to spend a grand on something i may not need all of. So what i want to know is whether the Mac Mini (Just updated) is good enough to handle image editing at most, i wouldn't play many games on it but i need a desktop for my room as my laptop is SLOOWWWW. And i want a more permanent set-up

Is it worth it? Or should i get a Windows Desktop?

Moderator From : U.S.A. OS : Leopard

mac minis are super sleek. i got one for my dad, to get him away from windows. its a great little machine, and a great starter mac, you would love it. there will always be power and speed snobs that say its not enough, but thats bull.

Resident Artist From : Devon, England OS : Vista

If you're going from a slow laptop, it's certainly gonna be better than what you've got now. You could probably get a better windows machine for the same money... but it's not a mac wink

Senior Member From : England OS : XP/Ubuntu

Yeah i was thinking about that, does OS X make all the difference in this situation? My laptop is 1.6ghz on Vista/Ubuntu and 1gb memory btw.

I earn £40 per week so my aim is to be able to buy it when my sister goes off for uni after the summer holidays in September. I'll probably spring for the 2gbs of RAM but i'm not sure i need the HDD space as i may as well get an external HDD...

Moderator From : U.S.A. OS : Leopard

its sorta apples and oranges, to compare mac and pc hardware. its just not the same.

Subject: Re: Mac Mini for me? March 3rd 2009, 6:37 pm

StupidGirl wrote:: its sorta apples and oranges, to compare mac and pc hardware. its just not the same.

your doing it wrong.. now it's the same cause the architecture used on Macs is the same used on other Pc's.. some years ago u could say that with no doubts (PowerBooks G4 which were PowerPC G4 Processors and so on) .. but now the only thing different is the Operative System, which consumes less resources (OSX) .. thus not needing top notch hardware.

Senior Member From : England OS : XP/Ubuntu

Oh also will it play nice with my Wacom Bamboo graphics tablet?

Moderator From : U.S.A. OS : Leopard

ruipalmeira wrote:

StupidGirl wrote:: its sorta apples and oranges, to compare mac and pc hardware. its just not the same.

but now the only thing different is the Operative System, which consumes less resources (OSX) .. thus not needing top notch hardware.

didnt yoiu just make my point for me? saying a pc has better hardware really means nothing. you cant compare pc hardware to mac hardware, cause they dont run them the same. you can have a mac with what pc users say is lesser hardware, but the mac still performs better.

Subject: Re: Mac Mini for me? March 3rd 2009, 10:17 pm

They upgraded it today btw

Subject: Re: Mac Mini for me? March 3rd 2009, 10:40 pm

StupidGirl wrote:

ruipalmeira wrote:

StupidGirl wrote:: its sorta apples and oranges, to compare mac and pc hardware. its just not the same.

but now the only thing different is the Operative System, which consumes less resources (OSX) .. thus not needing top notch hardware.

didnt yoiu just make my point for me? saying a pc has better hardware really means nothing. you cant compare pc hardware to mac hardware, cause they dont run them the same. you can have a mac with what pc users say is lesser hardware, but the mac still performs better.

What you cant compare is the operative system.. Cause if you put windows vista on a macmini, it will perform bad as any other "unbranded" pc with same hardware specs .

@ topic - if u want to play some games, the macmini with intel xtreme graphics integrated graphics card is not a good option, but if it's only for surfing, doing some photoshop work, office documents and listening to music it's enough.. I'd say install hackintosh on your laptop just so u can get used to MacOS, or even frget about the mini and buy a custom built desktop.. It's cheaper than any Mac, and you can play games with it (if u do a good choice of components).

Whatever u choose make shure u dont waste money tongue

Regular Visitor

StupidGirl wrote:

ruipalmeira wrote:

StupidGirl wrote:: its sorta apples and oranges, to compare mac and pc hardware. its just not the same.

but now the only thing different is the Operative System, which consumes less resources (OSX) .. thus not needing top notch hardware.

didnt yoiu just make my point for me? saying a pc has better hardware really means nothing. you cant compare pc hardware to mac hardware, cause they dont run them the same. you can have a mac with what pc users say is lesser hardware, but the mac still performs better.

Wow, never thought of it like that, cheers tongue

haha.
Well I'd go for a macmini, they are affordable and it will run leo fine, i wouldn't go into the hassel of custom built desktops, apart from your syncmaster wink

Senior Member From : England OS : XP/Ubuntu

Like I said, I won't use it for gaming, I have an xbox for that. I also don't want a big monster custom built tower under my desktop. If it runs photoshop without crashing every 5 mins it's good. I just need to check that my hardware will run on it.

Subject: Re: Mac Mini for me? March 4th 2009, 8:16 am

BOyOfWONDEr wrote:: Like I said, I won't use it for gaming, I have an xbox for that. I also don't want a big monster custom built tower under my desktop. If it runs photoshop without crashing every 5 mins it's good. I just need to check that my hardware will run on it.

it's like i said tongue

, go for the MacMini instead smile

, u get a compact machine, that can run those applications fine (I guess) .. but the price per Gigabyte of ram is extremely expensive tongue

Senior Member From : England OS : XP/Ubuntu

Yeah i think i will, but an extra £100 for 2GB model is ridiculous! I think i'll need it though, i'll stick to 120gbs and buy an external HDD for all my photo's and movies.

Subject: Re: Mac Mini for me? March 4th 2009, 8:53 am

BOyOfWONDEr wrote:: Yeah i think i will, but an extra £100 for 2GB model is ridiculous! I think i'll need it though, i'll stick to 120gbs and buy an external HDD for all my photo's and movies.

i don't know what u can do so you don't pay that £100 for a Gig of ram... maybe find some computer store that actually sells ram sticks compatible with Mac hardware and if they install it, and finally if u won't get warranty issues with that..

as for the hdd, go for a external of course.. here in portugal u can get a 3.5" 1TB external hdd for as low as 80€ or something around that

Resident Artist From : Devon, England OS : Vista

Yeah, you can get aftermarket RAM for macs... Kingston certainly does it, you can probably get it from others

Senior Member From : England OS : XP/Ubuntu

Seriously? Cool! I shall look into it happy

Resident Artist From : Devon, England OS : Vista

I'm sure I've seen adverts for Mac RAM...

EDIT: My bad, it was crucial, not kingston. £25 sound good for 2GB? happy

EDITx2: Link isn't working, it's on www.crucial.com somewhere tongue

Has someone turned off the BBCode or summat today? angry

Senior Member From : England OS : XP/Ubuntu

randomus_r wrote:: I'm sure I've seen adverts for Mac RAM...

EDIT: My bad, it was crucial, not kingston. £25 sound good for 2GB?

EDITx2: Link isn't working, it's on www.crucial.com somewhere
Has someone turned off the BBCode or summat today?

WOW! Thanks for doing the leg work. Yeah tiz about £25, may even stretch to 4GB's, not sure i'd need it though.

Regular Visitor

Crucial is a good site, everyones needs more ram! tongue

its a fact wink

Subject: Re: Mac Mini for me? March 4th 2009, 2:21 pm

A mac is NOT less resource intensive than windows, it just runs much smoother than windows and handles the memory better. I usually find my leopard install using about 14+ GB of virtual ram, you don't see that on windows now do you?

That's why as StupidGirl said, you should not be comparing how hardware runs with mac and with windows, they utilize it differently smile

Subject: Re: Mac Mini for me? March 4th 2009, 2:21 pm

randomus_r wrote:: I'm sure I've seen adverts for Mac RAM...

EDIT: My bad, it was crucial, not kingston. £25 sound good for 2GB?

EDITx2: Link isn't working, it's on www.crucial.com somewhere
Has someone turned off the BBCode or summat today?

that's somehow BETTER than paying 100 pounds just to have +1GB ram on a system..
and i'm sure kingston does build parts that are Mac compatible.. it's a matter of checking the stores that sell them, and ask if they can assemble it on a MacMini tongue