Buy now @ $550 or wait?

[Sdevante]

Hey everyone,

I am anxiously awaiting the new Mini but am a bit disappointed it hasn't come out yet. I am debating on picking up a current model off Craigslist for $550 brand new rather than wait out Apple. I am intending to use this primarily for streaming content to an iPad.

At $550, is it worth taking the plunge and foregoing any cool upgrades on the forthcoming Mini?

Thanks!

 

[Rondofan9]

Hey everyone,

I am anxiously awaiting the new Mini but am a bit disappointed it hasn't come out yet. I am debating on picking up a current model off Craigslist for $550 brand new rather than wait out Apple. I am intending to use this primarily for streaming content to an iPad.

At $550, is it worth taking the plunge and foregoing any cool upgrades on the forthcoming Mini?

Thanks!

Well, I'm in the same situation. Although, I'm being kind of shady. I'm purposely ruining my $530 Asus laptop 3 times in a row so I can have $530 store credit. Which isn't a big deal, they'll resell the refurbished laptop for like $450 + I'll buy tons of stuff (and already have) from them in the future. I'm not hurting bestbuy at all. So I got another 2-3 months or so lol, so by the time I'm ready it will be out.

Anyway, depends. I want to get the mac mini then was thinking of getting a 1TB firewire drive (800mb/s) because teh 320GB internal wont be enough for all my pictures/columns because I'm a photojournalist and journalist. Although, I'm waiting to see if the mac mini 2011 will have USB 3.0 ports because those are 5,000mb/s (5 gigs, about 6 1/2 times faster) because to me that's worth another $100 easy.

Also, core 2 duo is starting to finally get out dated after many years of use. I expect them to upgrade to i3 if not i3 sandybridge which is a much better and faster processor. Beings that all the imacs have quadcore processors, I wouldn't put it past apple by having quad cores in ALL their products, it's definitely a good marketing strategy.

Next comes ram, it's really not important (like server having 4gb for the extra $300) apple charges $300 to get 8GB of ram when crucial charges $100.

Then comes size, personally I think I'm paying too much for any mac mini. Not because that's what all apple products are; overpriced; but because it is a compact PC. I wish they would make a version of the mac pro desktop for under $1,500. The cheapest mac desktops right now go $700, $2,500, and $3,500. Really a huge jump, almost a 350% price increase. So part of me wonders if they made a $700 mac desktop if it would be better (I'm implying the mac mini is priced higher because it's so small).

So maybe, theres another mac pro coming out? It's been 285 days since the last mac pro and the average days between releases is 258, so almost a month over due, that babies due date is passed!!!

So, I already kind of got into exterior. It's small, will it be smaller, or bigger? Which do you prefer, will it have an eject button ??? Discs have gotten stuck, and it's hard to get them out when the reason they're "stuck" is OSX is being a bitch and not ejecting it!!!

So it all amounts down... personally I would wait. Beings the last mac mini was released 327 days ago and its average is 258!!! 69 days past, 2 and a half months. The 2011 is coming out soon, I feel it.

For more info on release dates:
https://buyersguide.macrumors.com//

This is my first post, and it's rather long. Let me know if it helped you at all, and what you decide. Thank you!

 

[Diesel-Benz]

Wait. All the Minis are an extremely poor value.

 

[Xgm541]

Would you be terribly upset if apple released a new mac mini soon? For your purposes of streaming media, the current base model is perfectly fine.

Perhaps streaming to other devices might be a bit of a hassle for the mac mini because the c2d 2.4 ghz isnt the fastest processor out there, and I know using software which converts on the fly to play movies on my ps3 is rather annoying. But I know airplay is very good at that. Apart from that, it is the kind of machine to just let sit there and on 24/7.

 

[mstrze]

Perhaps streaming to other devices might be a bit of a hassle for the mac mini because the c2d 2.4 ghz isnt the fastest processor out there...

I use my 2009 Mini to serve iTunes content to my AppleTV and other computers and devices in my network. I have never had any issues. I have enabled wake-on-wireless and let it sleep when it's not needed, but it comes back when it is requested.

Speed is not an issue while 'streaming', believe me. Heck, I even host all of my iTunes content from an external USB 2.0 HDD.

 

[mstrze]

I'm purposely ruining my $530 Asus laptop 3 times in a row so I can have $530 store credit.

Really nice. Karma's a bitch, by the way.

The cheapest mac desktops right now go $700, $2,500, and $3,500. Really a huge jump, almost a 350% price increase. So part of me wonders if they made a $700 mac desktop if it would be better (I'm implying the mac mini is priced higher because it's so small).

You skipped a desktop model...the iMac. They start around $1200.

 

[Sdevante]

Thanks for the input everyone. Impatience got the best of me and I went ahead and picked one up. So far it's been great for its intended purpose, other than Netflix lagging in Plex.

Other than upgraded CPU and thunderbolt, I'm not sure what a new model is likely to offer. With this, I can hook up a large external HDD and should be good to go for at least a few years.

Plus the wife liked "inheriting" my Macbook Air.

 

[cocacolakid]

Thanks for the input everyone. Impatience got the best of me and I went ahead and picked one up. So far it's been great for its intended purpose, other than Netflix lagging in Plex.

Run Netflix in Boxee or a browser and you won't have problems. A LOT of people have problems with Plex. It looks purty but it's a pain and a resource hog.

 

[Sdevante]

Run Netflix in Boxee or a browser and you won't have problems. A LOT of people have problems with Plex. It looks purty but it's a pain and a resource hog.

That is on my agenda to try tonight. I didn't have any problems with Netflix in a browser, so I was surprised that Plex was so jerky.

 

[nebulos]

I'm purposely ruining my $530 Asus laptop 3 times in a row so I can have $530 store credit. Which isn't a big deal, they'll resell the refurbished laptop for like $450 + I'll buy tons of stuff (and already have) from them in the future. I'm not hurting bestbuy at all. So I got another 2-3 months or so lol, so by the time I'm ready it will be out.

this is genius!

honestly, at first, i was a little worried when i read this, but then you said: "I'm not hurting bestbuy at all." and i was totally like "PHEW!"

we all know there are only two ways to buy a mac mini:

1. kill your grandmother and take her money. (sure, she's leaving it to you anyways, but this way you get it now, without having to share any more of her precious last moments!)

2. steal it from "Corporatus the Destroyer", the big monster that stole it from you in the first place, and also eats baby's hearts at night! (of course, he's on his way to kill your grandmother, so it's really sort of a toss up.)

anyways, as you can imagine, we're all deeply moved that you love your grandmother so much as to purposely destroy your laptop because you decided the universe owes you a mac mini instead. what a sweet kid!

i really hope this works out for you and i don't think you're a complete loser!

stay awesome.

 

[iwan073]

LoL @ nebulos

Sent from my GT-I9000 using Tapatalk

 

[philipma1957]

Thanks for the input everyone. Impatience got the best of me and I went ahead and picked one up. So far it's been great for its intended purpose, other than Netflix lagging in Plex.

Other than upgraded CPU and thunderbolt, I'm not sure what a new model is likely to offer. With this, I can hook up a large external HDD and should be good to go for at least a few years.

Plus the wife liked "inheriting" my Macbook Air.

I hope that it works well for you. I am getting tired of waiting.

For:

A)new mac mini
B)new T-Bolt gear
C)Lion

I will try to stick it out as best I can.