Seriously considering one of these to replace my Linux net top (acre revo). It's starting to run v slow (done a rebuild and the mate desktop is painful) and I'm sick of using a vm for putting stuff on my iPhone and some other bits Linux won't do. I love Linux but being in an iPad and iPhone world I don't think it's the best choice lol.
Are the minis that good?? I like the small form factor of them so it can be put out of sight (like my revo).
It's main use is for web browsing (mrs likes a desktop), photos. Yes I know there are chromebooks but they aren't what I am after as I want to be able to use it with software away from the cloud.
I've been using à Mac mini for about 3 months now and think they are generally OK.
They are expensive as you'll want the Mac kb and mouse as well, then you'll want to add extra RAM, etc.
Pretty soon you are not far off the cost of a MacBook.
If it wasn't a work computer, I would never buy one as I like the portability of a laptop.
Hmmmm maybe I should look at MacBooks too.
I'm on my second (with an iMac in between). Decent quality apple computer in a smallish case. Better vfm than MacBook or iMac. I like my laptops truly lightweight, do use an 11" air on my travels.
Brilliant. I'm using a quad core with 16gb if ram from Crucial.
General graphic design. Newspaper production and video editing.
My brother has one as he already had a decent screen and keyboard/ mouse. He loves it. Converted him to Mac. Now my kids are starting to do their homework on a computer I'm looking at an iMac for a general family computer, but only cause I don't have a screen and keyboard., or I'd have god a miniMac.
We have them at work, very reliable, have never had a problem with them and we're running a Mac mini server now as well, it's a very tasty machine.
We replaced PC's with them and kept the screens and keyboards which work fine on the Mini's, small footprint, silent, fast, what's not to like?
I already have a HD screen and mouse + keyboard. Hmmmm mini+ More RAM. Is iTunes quicker on a mac? (Genuinely never tried it on one). I do like the mini's iddy biddy size. Decisions, decisons.
I have the entry level one which cost £500
I haven't felt the need to add extra ram so far
For your usage I would get the base model and extra ram later if required
monkeychild - Member
I already have a HD screen and mouse + keyboard. Hmmmm mini+ More RAM. Is iTunes quicker on a mac? (Genuinely never tried it on one). I do like the mini's iddy biddy size. Decisions, decisons.
Itunes has always appeared clunky on PC's to me, everything just works on a mac, speed wise you presumably mean on imports etc, which should be, but then that would be processor dependant.
It's not difficult to add ram later but get at least 2gb I'm running a couple on 1gb and they're a tad slow.
I've had one for a couple of years, got one of the last 2010-2012 ones with the optical drive at a discount. Had the optical taken out and a second drive installed in the bay. The retailer threw in an extra couple of gig of RAM they found, so mine has 1.1Tb in total, and 4Gb RAM. I got a BT keyboard and Magic Trackpad, and it sits under one corner of my Sony Bravia, enough space above to get a beermat between them! I use it mainly for playing music and backing up photos, etc, it's hooked up to my telly via HDMI, and to my Yamaha A/V amp with an optical TOSLink from the headphone socket, (something many people don't know about). It replaced a 2003 PowerBook, and I couldn't be happier with it.
I'm now looking into replacing the original 350Gb HDD with a Seagate 1Tb Hybrid SSD/HDD, which has 8Gb of solid state storage for the OS and apps, and also putting a 2Tb drive into the second bay, and maybe adding extra RAM as well.
Excellent little machine, unobtrusive, utterly silent, does everything you want a computer to do in a tiny little box.
I also control music playback via Remote on my iPad/iPhone, so I don't even need to turn the telly on to select my music.
I have one, already had keyboard and mouse from previous mac and don't need a disc drive. It worked out around half the price of an equivalent all in one mac.
Be aware that the Mac Mini is due an upgrade, allegedly in Feb to the Haswell chipset with vastly improved integrated graphics.
I've had myself a macbook for many a year attached to large monitor and find myself rarely using away from deck now due to the iPad so looking to get one myself. More processing power to your £££ than a macbook as long as your happy to be desk based and have suitable monitor.
I'm typing this on the top end MacMini server (2.6 i7, 16GB RAM, dual 256GB SSDs).
Really good piece of kit. Well worth every penny for me. The cheapest ones should be more than enough computer for most people. RAM can be upgraded after market with no faff and without voiding the warranty, so don't pay apple for that. I wouldn't want to use one for gaming, but I doubt thats a concern for you if you're currently using linux anyway.
Really pleased with mine, used primarily for web development work. I run a lot of VMs though, hence the high-spec build.
Have got two minis
One sits on a desk, and is our general go to machine for home use / entertaining the kids. The other (very early intel model) is running as a headless unit, no keyboard, no monitor - we vnc on to the machine to do stuff. This wee mini works faultlessly as a media server, keeping the households iphone and iPads up to date.
99% of the time we use iPads to browse/mail/Facebook
You might want to upgrade the memory - the new OS update crawls on my MBP with 4Mb. Might just be my machine though.
My last Mac was a Mini - was a great little machine, though it was one of the early intel's so upgraded to something a bit faster for work.
I have one of the recent models, no optical drive. Great little machine and suits my needs as a music aand other media dumping ground. They are get expensive onvce you add a wireless keyboard and track pad though
Having said all that, they do have a decent sized hard drive (well, at least compared to my old macbook). My main priority was not to be restricted with the storage of video/photo/music files, so a very neat macbook air alternative would have left me with the same storage issues as before.
Integrates well with home cinema AV gear, as well as all the other mac products obviously.
Have one of the newer i7 mini's here with 16GB of RAM (don't buy that from apple as it's stupidly expensive - and unlike the old mini the memory is very easy to replace) and one of the 1T hybrid drives. It's replaced an older Mac mini (the migration assistant thing surprised me in that it actually worked and copied everything over successfully from my old mac.) Very happy with it so far. Drives a big monitor. The trackpad things are pretty good too, rarely use a mouse now. Though iTunes is a bit rubbish whatever platform you're running it on.