Mac Mini

[CornBoy]

I'm wanting to get a mac today for some development reasons. I have a couple of PCs and a Linux box all hooked up in a shared keyboard/mouse/dvimonitors arrangement, so the headless/appendage-less mini looks like an option.

The mini part scares me, is it a real mac, or is it a toy? What's missing in a mini that's absolutely essential to regular mac users. I'm a developer, is it going to frustrate me with slow speed? Trimmed off operating system?

It's not something I am going to use on a daily basis, but I don't want some weakness to get in the way when I do need to use it.

Advice?

[hampdenwireless]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(CornBoy @ Jul 28 2007, 10:52 AM) [snapback]486660[/snapback]</div>

I'm wanting to get a mac today for some development reasons. I have a couple of PCs and a Linux box all hooked up in a shared keyboard/mouse arrangement, so the headless/appendage-less mini looks like an option.

The mini part scares me, is it a real mac, or is it a toy? What's missing in a mini that's absolutely essential to regular mac users. I'm a developer, is it going to frustrate me with slow speed? Trimmed off operating system?

It's not something I am going to use on a daily basis, but I don't want some weakness to get in the way when I do need to use it.

Advice?
[/b]

The Mac mini is a nice little web surfing machine and good for word processing. It has a laptop hard disk so its speed is much slower when the $999 imac with built in screen. If you can spring for the Imac do so. The CPU in the mac mini is a core duo but not a core 2 due as the Imac has so again the Imac has another speed advantage.

[CornBoy]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hampdenwireless @ Jul 28 2007, 11:00 AM) [snapback]486661[/snapback]</div>

The Mac mini is a nice little web surfing machine and good for word processing. It has a laptop hard disk so its speed is much slower when the $999 imac with built in screen. If you can spring for the Imac do so. The CPU in the mac mini is a core duo but not a core 2 due as the Imac has so again the Imac has another speed advantage.
[/b]

Thanks. Yeah, a top end mini and an entry level iMac are about the same price, but you get so much more with an iMac it seems. I've already 2 monitors on the desk, didn't want a 3rd, but it might make sense, especially if I can share my middle monitor between the 2 systems.

It'll look like freakin' Norad in here.

[TJandGENESIS]

I have two MacMini's, along with my MacBook and iMac. And frankly, with enough RAM, the MacMini runs fine. MacMini makes it easy to work with digital photos, movies, music, and the web. It all happens with the Intel Core Duo. The MacMini runs up to five times faster than it had before. I would get one. Heck, as I said, I have two.

[CornBoy]

Good Grief!

My Linux box just went out. It must have had overheard me typing about bringing another *nix home and walked out to the pasture...

I knew I should have posted my original message from the windows box...

[DGCL]

I think the Mac Mini is fast enough for your daily activities. I have a first generation Macbook that I use as my primary computer, which has essentially the same specifications as the current Mini. I can use Final Cut Pro, Filemaker, VisualHub, Photoshop, etc. with no problems and when I get to the office I hook up the computer to a 22" Samsung display and it runs like a champ even with integrated video. The first thing you'll want to do, however, is upgrade the RAM to the maximum. I have 2GB of RAM in the Macbook and it really does make a difference.

I'm always amazed at how much less resource hungry Linux is compared to OS X and Windows. I have a $100 spare-parts computer with a Celeron 2.4GHz and 512MB of RAM and it feels just as responsive running Ubuntu as a brand new PC or low end Mac running Windows or OS X.

[slair]

I'm actually looking to buy a mac mini also. If you run across any good deals, post them here :P

[hycamguy07]

Check the apple store site daily for the refubished minis, they start at 499-900, and they come with most programs installed... Thats what I was going to do but for the same price I can get a new laptop (when you factor in the costs of a monitor/keyboard/mouse/ it adds up quickly)!

[hyo silver]

The <strike>MiniMe</strike> MacMini is an attractive little package that does everything the big kids do. The price can be close to an iMac by the time you add the extras, but if you already have all that stuff, as CornBoy does, it's cheaper. And, given his setup, probably less cluttered than adding another monitor would be.

[CornBoy]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hyo silver @ Jul 30 2007, 12:43 PM) [snapback]487474[/snapback]</div>

The <strike>MiniMe</strike> MacMini is an attractive little package that does everything the big kids do. The price can be close to an iMac by the time you add the extras, but if you already have all that stuff, as CornBoy does, it's cheaper. And, given his setup, probably less cluttered than adding another monitor would be.
[/b]

So I did wind up buying an iMac. It is a 17" one. It is sweet. I am having a little bit of trouble keyboarding, need to figure that out.

I do have 3 monitors on my desk now. It really does look like Norad in here. My left monitor is the main windows monitor, the right monitor is the iMac. The middle monitor is shared between the Mac and a Windows box, as well as a Suse linux box and Windows 03 server.

I installed XCode, and compiled up Ruby on Rails. Installed MySQL as well. Bought a program called TextMate, was recommended, trying to learn that. I am pretty pleased with performance and the machine. I pulled out one of the 512 sticks and replaced with 2Gb so I have 2.5GB memory.