Does anyone have a mac mini?

[tongue_of_colicab]

First of all it wont cost you 250+ to get it. Pretty much every store around here only sells the OEM version at ~99 euro's. Some wont sell it to you as officially it has to be part of a system but they will if you buy the cheapest piece of hardware you can get with it (like a fan or something).

MS won't really care about the average user upgrading. Those people will upgrade the ''natural'' way when they buy a new OEM pc after a couple of years.

Also, all the new osx releases arnt they more like upgrades anyway? (just asking, dont really now). The little i've seen of it, its not like the MS new OS like 2000 -> XP -> Vista/7.

 

[pcchen]

If you are already using Windows XP, you should be able to buy Windows 7 upgrade version, which is about the same price as OEM version. Of course, the ultimate version is expensive, but I think most people'd be fine with home premium (also ~ US$120) or professional (~US$200).

As for MacOS X, sometimes it's not a very big upgrade but sometimes it's big. But since Apple updates its OS much more frequently than Microsoft did (at least recently), each version looks like a service pack although if you see the accumulated results it's still quite a lot. Since Apple sells MacOS X cheaper (~US$30) that means you need to upgrade three times to match Windows' OEM price, so cost-wise they are probably quite similar.

 

[zed]

It arrived safe and sound. there it is sitting on an old mac I have (which weighs like 20+ kilos, man that piece of crap is heavy!, its nice when its running cause its quiet, unlike that black box u see under the desk which even though I made it quiet still makes too much noise) note its nearly the same size as the dvd player beside it (I go through DVD players like nobodies business, I wish someone could make a dvd player that would last like 3-4 years even with heavy use)

Ill prolly plug it in this weekend, check out OS lion (I know already I'll hate it, but I'll keep an open mind)
funny thing is already this week Ive won nearly $700 on the TAB (sportbetting) so its like Ive been given a free PC

 

[zed]

First of all it wont cost you 250+ to get it. Pretty much every store around here only sells the OEM version at ~99 euro's. Some wont sell it to you as officially it has to be part of a system but they will if you buy the cheapest piece of hardware you can get with it (like a fan or something).

the 250 was in NZ dollars
OK I look up 99euro thats 172 NZ dollars, thus Ive gotta pay them 172 dollars plus the price of a fan (or blowjob or whatever you suggest, nod nod wink wink) seems a bit dodgy, seems a bit wierd, MS is a multibillion dollar company but we'll give u a cheaper deal if you give the special handshake and offer your ass.
Now heres a weird thought how about just a plain price win8 costs $60 (no strings, no upgrades whatever) everyone wins, now tell me qa bad side to this?

 

[RudeCurve]

Uhhh so 800 euro's for a 2.5ghz dualcore, 4gb ram, a slow as crap 500gb hdd and a slow gfx card is the same as a i7 3.2ghz, mainboard, 16gb ram, radeon 6870 and a 1tb disk, case & psu for a little over 800 euro's? You are paying more than DOUBLE than what the hardware in that mini mac is really worth.

Uhhh but can you fit all of that crap in a case the size of the mini? Apples vs Oranges...

BTW the only Windows machines that fit into that tiny space are slow ATOM based crap...not even mini-ITX PCs are that small.

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

No true. In japan they got ''laptops'' the size of DS XL with proper intel cpu's in them. Made a picture of them, but can't find it atm.

Anyway that mac mini has intel hardware right? So there is no reason why you couldnt make windows box that size providing somebody builds a mainboard and casing in that form factor.

 

[zed]

wow it is quiet, I turn it on and I hear nothing. I first think its broken
They still haven't got maximize window working properly in the OS, e.g. goto the finder app & you can't maximize the window. Ive got to manually drag the windows border until its big enuf, maybe next OS version. (some programs it does work others it doesn't)
Only one display on it at the moment looks like I need a plug that goes from thunderbolt -> HDMI, bummer

mousespeed is too slow even when its on max, also the mouse wheel is backwards I can't seem to change that around

I see Xcode is a 1.7GB download
Ill try to download it this weekend (last day of my monthly download cap)

I still can't get over how quiet it is, this is how PCs were back in the old days (though then u had the monitor whining)
this would make a good little media PC if someones looking for something like that

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

If you want a mediaplayer there are better options at 1/3 the price.

 

[darkblu]

Been having a mini sitting unobtrusively somewhere in the corner of my desk since 2004. Have been using them for development/desktops/small servers/media boxes, but always in a 24/7 mode, i.e. once on they'd never go down. Never had a mini die on me, even the oldest G4 one is still functional, though I managed to kill its cdrw drive by physically kicking in (accidentally). The only times I've ever heard a mini's fan were when the room temp was mid 30C's or above. I've brought a mini with me in a backpack, plastic bag or in the trunk of the car to more than a few occasions, and as long as there's been a monitor/tv, mouse and a kbd at the destination, the mini's been good. Never felt the need to buy/build a 'proper PC' since 2004. That said, old minis were a bitch to upgrade - done a few mem upgrades myself.

The only thing that ever could replace my minis as an everyday desktop/workstation was the current generation of ARM-based nettops. But that's a subject for another thread.

 

[zed]

good to hear, yeah after this I dont think I want to go back to another PC where you can hear the fans,HD again. Honestly from the last 3 PCs Ive used I can hardly tell the difference between them, speedwise (even though each has been more powerful than the last) (unlike the old days where going from eg 90Mhz to 200Mhz to 433Mhz I noticed the difference instantly.

 

[Rolf N]

I agree, the Mac mini hardware is pretty awesome. I just find OS X abrasive. If I could only ssh -X into the Mac and pull those Xcode windows over onto a sane desktop environment, I might still own one.