First post. I just bought a Mac Mini.

[eutexian]

As per the title.. I'm now the proud owner of a 2011 Mac Mini and have to admit I'm rather taken by it.

My old PC which had served me well for almost 7yrs started to misbehave in November.. so, to be on the safe side I backed up all my important 'stuff' on an external HD and when a week or so later the PC had its first ever 'blue screen' - I thought 'thats it.. time to go shopping'.

I was all set to buy a new PC.. I wanted a small form factor case without any peripherals as I already had a good screen, keyboard, mouse and printer.. as well as an external Optical drive.

Went to the PC world in town and they had just what I wanted.. unfortunately the display model was the last in stock and they refused to discount it for me. So.. I walked out and later that day went to the other PC world in the hope they might have stock to sell. They didn't.

I was a bit disappointed and so as I was walking out I spotted the Apple display and went for a look, I've never really taken much notice of Apple... more because of price than anything else.. But, i like eye candy as much as anyone else. I saw the Mac mini immediately and was wondering what it was? A DVD player? what on earth??

Went for a closer look and was really surprised to see that it was a computer!! What?? That!! The price seemed extortionate.. but hey ho. it was very pretty - So I bought it there and then.

Got it home and was all ready for an evening spent getting the thing set up.. (I was still firmly in PC/Windows mode) it took longer to connect everything to it than to get it running.. online.. email set up and so on. Incredible!
I was reading the manual and saw how easy it was to 'up' the memory.. and so without a second thought ordered 8gig from Ebay.. the memory made by Crucial. And a day or so later when that arrived it was installed in minutes and all was well!!

Obviously buying the thing on a whim meant I didn't really know anything and so I spent the next few days reading reviews, watching youtube videos and so on. What has struck me most of all is.. when the 2011 model was first announced how many people bemoaned the loss of the Optical drive. A Disaster!! A BIG mistake. and so on and so forth. My eyes were popping.
I just plugged the one I had in... and that was it. sorted! So why is the lack of one 'built in' a disaster? beats me. These things aren't exactly expensive.

The only thing I've bought in addition (apart from the memory) is a full size keyboard.. the USB one. It seems more practical for my purposes than the wireless one.

And thats about it. I'm seriously pleased with my 'spur of the moment' decision and am slowly but surely getting used to the way Apple do things.

Love the way the mini is to all intents and purposes 'silent' - no fan sound whatsoever and it works really well with my Asus ProArt monitor. After transferring all the 'stuff' from the External HD I have.. I am now using that as a time machine. updating it once a week. Which is about right for me.

All the best.

 

[SR45]

Just about the same feeling when I purchased my first MacMini 2011. Got the Apple wireless keyboard however and upped the memory to 8GB and after a few days of learning a new OS and finding out how easy it is to reinstall the Lion OS from the internet or a clean install, I could not be happier now. No more PC's for me.

Best of luck to your new Apple and welcome to the forum

 

[AppleDApp]

Glad to hear you like the Mac mini. The only reason I could see people being frustrated with the lack of optical drives are those who have been using the mini as an htpc. The Mac app store and the availability of media and software only remove the need for an optical drive.

 

[shortcut3d]

Congrats on your new Mac mini. It's a fantastic primary or secondary machine. Very versatil and unobtrusive. I actually use two Mac minis for Windows Media Center and they are awesome. I have an external Bluray drive that gets tucked away when not in use.

 

[JoeG4]

Kudos to your first mac being a (sort of) impulse purchase. That was how I got my G4!

 

[Liquinn]

I'm excited about buying a Mac Mini later on today.

I've always wanted a Mac. They just seem to work from when I've used them at college.

 

[01jamcon]

Congrats, I'm glad you found a nice easy way to get round the lack of a DVD drive and didn't just start bashing the computer straight away without considering the price. Hope your Mac Mini treats you well for many years to come.

 

[Liquinn]

Congrats, I'm glad you found a nice easy way to get round the lack of a DVD drive and didn't just start bashing the computer straight away without considering the price. Hope your Mac Mini treats you well for many years to come.

Thanks!

I hope it lasts for 10 years, if not more. That would be good

 

[Cakeove]

Glad to hear you like the Mac mini. The only reason I could see people being frustrated with the lack of optical drives are those who have been using the mini as an htpc. The Mac app store and the availability of media and software only remove the need for an optical drive.

I am using a base mac mini 2011, VERY HAPPY with the performance. I don't need optical. I have an iMac and shares the drive.

But my big Movies and series collection are stored in a NAS Synology DS-410 with 8TB.

Who needs the dvd disc anymore!

 

[Liquinn]

I am using a base mac mini 2011, VERY HAPPY with the performance. I don't need optical. I have an iMac and shares the drive.

But my big Movies and series collection are stored in a NAS Synology DS-410 with 8TB.

Who needs the dvd disc anymore!

Nice. Do you have 2GB of RAM? I'm slightly worried this may not be enough but my Windows laptop runs Photoshop which my Mini is going to replace just fine ^.^

 

[balamw]

Do you have 2GB of RAM? I'm slightly worried this may not be enough

RAM is cheap and as the OP says easy to install in a mini. I find 4-8 GB more "comfortable" for multitasking various apps on Lion or Windows 7.

B

 

[eutexian]

Who needs the dvd disc anymore!

Indeed, All I've used mine for so far is to add music to iTunes from CDs. I only bought the DVD rom because my old PC was too old.. i.e., made before DVDs were common place and I needed one to load my Garmin software/maps. After which it was put in its box and forgotten. Its handy to have but I don't consider it crucially important.

I added the 8gig memory because it wasn't exactly expensive and is handy to have for use with Aperture. Also i must admit there was a certain amount of pleasure in paying £35 for the 8gig, when Apple are charging £320 (at the Apple store)

Incidentally, I was reliably (not) informed that you must use 'apple' compatible memory. This is false, The 2gig that came installed was pretty generic (hynix) as is.. if anyones interested, the HD.. a non-descript Hitachi. The 8gig (crucial) went in and was recognised with no problems whatsoever.

Have to admit I did um and aah over whether to go for the more expensive Mini... but in retrospect as I don't play video games, It seemed a little pointless. For my usage I doubt if the extra speed would have been useful.

One other plus point.. though a minor one is: No flashing lights!! My old box was forever flashing at me.. not to mention the over enthusiastic 'power' lights.. which in the end I taped over. just having this single and very subtle power light is great.

Anyway.. all is well. And I'm pleased as punch.

 

[imahawki]

I had a similar switching experience. I had a jacked up Windows install that was so bad I was going to have to re-install. I had all my personal data so it wasn't a big deal but I basically said "If I'm going to have to spend 3 days re-installing and configuring apps, I'm going to give Mac a try." I did and never looked back. I bought a 2010 Mini as a cheap "dip my toes in the water" option. When I later decided I wanted more power and bought the 2011 iMac. I was STUNNED when setup consisted of the normal process plus 30 minutes for it to copy over all my stuff from my Time Machine backups. What? There's no registry preventing me from simply copying over my apps and not re-installing apps? SWEET!!!!