What are they like? I wouldn’t mind experimenting with the Mac route and this seems like an easy and relatively inexpensive way to do it. Are they powerful enough for HD video editing?

Yup, not the latest model though. May be inexpensive for a Mac but relatively expensive in the grand scheme of things. Having said that i would buy another, mine sits under the tv doing media centre things pretty well and has a 10m hdmi cable to a second monitor for stw surfing etc.

No idea about video editing i’m afraid, not checked but i expect resale is pretty good if you don’t get on with it.

I sorted my parents out with one. Lovely bit of hardware – check the specs and i think you’ll find it’s basically a macbook in a different box so should be powerful enough for video editing now.

They’re not cheap though – if you factor in the cost of a keyboard (you can use a PC keyboard but it’s a bit confusing) and a decent screen the iMac starts to look like a good deal.

Mac Minis are great, and work really well as little home theatre computers, as ISBW states above. They can handle HD video, but for professional level editing, you’d be looking at a Mac Pro, which are considerably more spensive. For home movies and that, the Mini is fine.

Get RAM from someone like Crucial.com though, as Mac charge silly money for extra RAM.

Should do 720 video editing, but my Macbook Pro 15″ struggles to do 1080p smoothly, so i wouldn’t expect the Mini to handle it well at all.

Video question answered above, and I would consider the imac unless its the form factor of the mini that especially appeals to you. Considering the imac comes with a very good screen, keyboard and mouse it is actually good value.

One thing to consider is that the mac mini may be due for a refresh in the near future. Based on typical intervals between apples hardware updates it looks like the mac mini will have a spec upgrade in the next couple of months.

I appreciate that you can always hang on waiting for the next version but if your not desperate for it I would hang on a couple of months.

I’m pretty happy with my monitor, mouse and keyboard which is why I considered the Mini. Not in any rush so will hang fire. Still a lot more than PCs tho’.

I started my Mac experience last year with a new shape Mac Mini server for the same reasons – cheapest option for Mac as I had a monitor etc. Superb bit of kit (esp server model) as it has twin hard drives @ 7K2rpm and low power consumption in a very tidy package. Server OS does everything the client version does fine. Upgraded the RAM to 8Gb via Kingston for £100 which is massively cheaper than Apple. I use it for Media duties with Airplay and Rogue Amoebas’ Airfoil for wireless streaming to Airport Expresses round the house.

No probs video editing 1080P on the Mini, just takes a while to import and then export, just allow extra time. iMovie works well. Not found any software equivalence issues PC / Mac – there’s always something to do what you want… normally cheaper too.

Now I don’t touch my PC at all… it’s being reassigned to another member of my family.