Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
I've been using Minis as my main computing machines for years.

I currently own a Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz (2010 model) and have the following programs running at startup :
Libreoffice, Safari, iTunes, Mail, Twitter, VLC, Pixelmator, Thousand (2ch reader), uTorrent, Terminal, Activity Monitor, Text Edit, Console, and a bunch of widgets.
Safari often has 10+ tabs opened when I browse.
Sometimes, an extra program or two will be running on top of these.

Never a hick-up.
RAM is maxed out to 8 GB, though.

So I'd say if you already have a monitor/keyboard/mouse handy from your old PC, the Mini is definitely a viable option.
Upgrading RAM is pretty much as easy as putting a couple of coins in a jar.
Open the lid, throw the RAM sticks in, close the lid.
Just make sure you have the right kind of sticks, but there are tons of sources which will tell you exactly what you need.


i have the same model, i upgraded the RAM to 4GB months later but now i'm thinking to max it out to 8 GB, do you recommend that? or should i wait for when Minis come with SSDs as standard?
 
i have the same model, i upgraded the RAM to 4GB months later but now i'm thinking to max it out to 8 GB, do you recommend that? or should i wait for when Minis come with SSDs as standard?

They may not make SSDs standard on the Mini until the 2013 model.
 
A computer with those specs isn't worth 200 dollars.in 2014..let alone 800.

SSD prices will go down, but do you seriously expect a 512 GB SSD in 18 months to cost less than 100 bucks? (Considering your quote)

Seriously, I'm watching computer part prices for years now, and this wouldn't make sense from a marketing standpoint. Nobody cares if they could offer SSDs for such a price by then, they simply won't.
 
SSD prices will go down, but do you seriously expect a 512 GB SSD in 18 months to cost less than 100 bucks? (Considering your quote)

Seriously, I'm watching computer part prices for years now, and this wouldn't make sense from a marketing standpoint. Nobody cares if they could offer SSDs for such a price by then, they simply won't.

Oh I'm just talking the Mac Mini in general because I'm an ass.

But I do think SSD prices will drop pretty quickly as more and more OEM's start adopting them, maybe not that much. But I think we'll start to see them nose dive this year, or early next year.

Oh I miss the day when if you wanted a fast hard drive, a Raptor was your only option :D
 
SSD prices will go down, but do you seriously expect a 512 GB SSD in 18 months to cost less than 100 bucks? (Considering your quote)

Seriously, I'm watching computer part prices for years now, and this wouldn't make sense from a marketing standpoint. Nobody cares if they could offer SSDs for such a price by then, they simply won't.

well before the hdd flood it was possible to buy a new 3tb western digital hdd with a good 3 yr warranty from a few trusted ebay sellers for 99 bucks. Also 3tb hdds could be found at about 119 on amazon and slash or newegg on a 1 day promo.
I purchased a crucial 512gb ssd4 fo 329 from buy.com this year. 16gb of mac mini ram was 1300 about a year ago today if you are lucky you can get 16gb of mac mini ram for 85 dollars on a one day sale at newegg. so getting a 512gb ssd will get a lot lower. but how low? i do not know
 
I'd say go for the iMac. The 2GB RAM on the Mac Mini is so tiny, you'd have to upgrade it right away.

Also, a decent monitor with the quality of the iMac display would be very expensive, around $300 at least.

And then the iMac has the quad-core processor, which so far I've never had it run out of power. It just soars through everything I throw at it.

Finally, the integrated graphics means that you won't be able to as much on it as an iMac, and considering those points, the iMac is definitely the better buy.

The iMac also has a Superdrive if you want to burn a DVD for backing up photos or if you want to watch a movie off a DVD or even rip some music off of a CD.
 
How about Mac Pro Mini ?

mmp5.jpg
 
The machine will not struggle for your needs. I have a macbook pro with similar components and it's really fast. The bottleneck is just the HDD so I hope to upgrade to SSD eventually, but that only affects boot time, program loading, and a little bit of responsiveness. But once things are open it's super fast.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.