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iMac vs Mac Mini

The MacMini is a great machine. It does everything I ask it to outside of high end gaming. Recommend the base machine and then upgrade hard drive / ram yourself. When the iMac's update and you feel the urge to buy you could always sell the mini and get upward of 70-80% of your money back if not more or you could use it as a second pc / living room media pc / etc. Then again you may not even want to get the iMac:)
 
arcadeforest said:
The MacMini is a great machine. It does everything I ask it to outside of high end gaming. Recommend the base machine and then upgrade hard drive / ram yourself. When the iMac's update and you feel the urge to buy you could always sell the mini and get upward of 70-80% of your money back if not more or you could use it as a second pc / living room media pc / etc. Then again you may not even want to get the iMac:)
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Thanks :)
One of the key things that has always held me back from joining the Apple camp is that I wanted a computer where I could use 2 identical displays and until now, the only Mac that's had that possibility it the Mac Pro. Since then, I gave up and thought 'heck an iMac will do' until I learned that the new Mac mini can support 2 displays. I know by having a mini, I take a hit in the CPU Core Speed but I really hope I won't feel the need for the iMac.
 
MacFanUK said:
Thanks :)
One of the key things that has always held me back from joining the Apple camp is that I wanted a computer where I could use 2 identical displays and until now, the only Mac that's had that possibility it the Mac Pro. Since then, I gave up and thought 'heck an iMac will do' until I learned that the new Mac mini can support 2 displays. I know by having a mini, I take a hit in the CPU Core Speed but I really hope I won't feel the need for the iMac.
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Well I originally bought a 20inch iMac and returned it for the Mini. There was nothing wrong with the iMac and it was a beautiful machine but I just built a really nice high end gaming pc and couldn't really have / use both in a reasonable amount of space. I ended up getting the mini, upgraded the hard drive and ram, bought a nice 23inch Samsung monitor and wall mounted it above my desk for a little less then the cost of the iMac. I've been more then happy with the Mini. I use it for internet, iLife, etc.
 

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arcadeforest said:
Well I originally bought a 20inch iMac and returned it for the Mini. There was nothing wrong with the iMac and it was a beautiful machine but I just built a really nice high end gaming pc and couldn't really have / use both in a reasonable amount of space. I ended up getting the mini, upgraded the hard drive and ram, bought a nice 23inch Samsung monitor and wall mounted it above my desk for a little less then the cost of the iMac. I've been more then happy with the Mini. I use it for internet, iLife, etc.
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Hi, I'm wondering if you have the 2GHz Mac Mini? Also, what is the model of that Samsung monitor?
 
Go with the mini. If you ever decide to upgrade to a nice notebook, you could at least use the mini for a media center, whereas the imac would not be able to fulfill that purpose.
 
arcadeforest said:
The MacMini is a great machine. It does everything I ask it to outside of high end gaming. Recommend the base machine and then upgrade hard drive / ram yourself. When the iMac's update and you feel the urge to buy you could always sell the mini and get upward of 70-80% of your money back if not more or you could use it as a second pc / living room media pc / etc. Then again you may not even want to get the iMac:)
Click to expand...

if you are going to get an iMac for high end gaming you will still encounter issues... even with the 3.06
 
MacFanUK said:
I believe the screen is a Samsung SyncMaster 2333sw as it looks identical to the one I have.
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Nice call. Yes its a Samsung 2333. It's a great monitor color wise, video wise, etc. Not the highest end Samsung but I have been very happy with it.

I put two small holes in the wall, one behind the monitor and one behind my desk and just fished the cables through. Very clean looking, it looks like its floating above the desk. I run both my mac and pc through this monitor which is nice.
 
Mac mini!

I've owned more than 20 Macs for home and business and three of them were iMacs. Whenever problems cropped up, I couldn't open them up, and when it came time for a new computer, I needed a new monitor too! It was a real pain with no gain. These days, iMacs come with glossy screens, which I hate and would never own one. The only reason to settle for an all-in-one computer is if you need a portable.

The latest Mac mini is fast and very quiet, comsumes little power, drives two monitors if necessary, has fast graphics (enough for me) and takes very little desk space. Its only drawback is the minor difficulty of replacing its drive and RAM, but that's doable. As others have said, the resale value is very high so when it's time for replacement, it's easy and painless; almost profitable.
 
I'm going Mini too!

OK, I decided tonight to NOT go Windows for my upcoming upgrade. We're already 3/4 Apple in the house anyway, so might as well throw in the Windows towel (gladly).

I've determined that the Mac Mini (2.24/320GB) version suits my needs, although I would be a bit happier with a bit more juice and more disk space. Here's the Q: Should I buy now, or should I wait until October when the product upgrades are released?

If the Mini isn't getting any significant upgrades, then I won't bother to wait. But if it's getting more juice and/or a significantly bigger HD, then I'll wait. What are the rumors for October?
 
ed-hawco said:
OK, I decided tonight to NOT go Windows for my upcoming upgrade. We're already 3/4 Apple in the house anyway, so might as well throw in the Windows towel (gladly).

I've determined that the Mac Mini (2.24/320GB) version suits my needs, although I would be a bit happier with a bit more juice and more disk space. Here's the Q: Should I buy now, or should I wait until October when the product upgrades are released?

If the Mini isn't getting any significant upgrades, then I won't bother to wait. But if it's getting more juice and/or a significantly bigger HD, then I'll wait. What are the rumors for October?
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Buy now. The earliest time Mac Mini's can be updated is in February-June 2010. Apple may not even update it because of their track record on Mac Mini updates.
 
I agree, don't wait for any mini upgrade. It'll be a long time coming. Upgrade it yourself if you have to with a larger disk and more RAM, but don't expect a speed boost for quite a while.
 
ed-hawco said:
OK, I decided tonight to NOT go Windows for my upcoming upgrade. We're already 3/4 Apple in the house anyway, so might as well throw in the Windows towel (gladly).

I've determined that the Mac Mini (2.24/320GB) version suits my needs, although I would be a bit happier with a bit more juice and more disk space. Here's the Q: Should I buy now, or should I wait until October when the product upgrades are released?

If the Mini isn't getting any significant upgrades, then I won't bother to wait. But if it's getting more juice and/or a significantly bigger HD, then I'll wait. What are the rumors for October?
Click to expand...

As others have advised me, I wouldn't go for the higher end mini because it's not worth it. You're paying an extra £150/$200 for a bigger hard drive and an extra 1GB Ram - don't be fooled by the extra 128MB graphics as you'll get that when you upgrade the Ram in the lower end one anyway.

You can still upgrade the CPU in the lower end Mini to 2.26GHz if you wish - something I am considering, but it costs £120/$150 so not sure if it's worth it.
 
OK, that seals the deal. Thanks for the input; I'm going to buy right away.

And I'm going to look into the HD self upgrade option. Funny enough, the idea of popping a new HD into a Windows machine seems no scarier than brushing my teeth, but the Mac Mini seems so self contained and "proprietary" that I'm terrified! I'm going to search the forums for tips. Thanks!
 
ed-hawco said:
And I'm going to look into the HD self upgrade option. Funny enough, the idea of popping a new HD into a Windows machine seems no scarier than brushing my teeth, but the Mac Mini seems so self contained and "proprietary" that I'm terrified! I'm going to search the forums for tips. Thanks!
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It's relatively simple. Takes 20 minutes or so. The only difficulty is, you're basically working on the guts of a laptop, so things are very small. There are several videos online you can view beforehand to see how it's done.
 
Im buying a Mini for someone, its going to be a gift. Im going to buy the cheapest base model and upgrade it myself for them.

Can someone give me a link to a 1TB 2.5" 7200rpm drive, i've been looking around for laptop drives but cant find any. (UK links would be best).
 
ag55 said:
Im buying a Mini for someone, its going to be a gift. Im going to buy the cheapest base model and upgrade it myself for them.

Can someone give me a link to a 1TB 2.5" 7200rpm drive, i've been looking around for laptop drives but cant find any. (UK links would be best).
Click to expand...

There aren't any. WD announced a 1TB 5400rpm unit last week which is 12mm tall and therefore won't fit. Also when manufacturers announce drives it takes at least 6-8 weeks to end up available to buy sometimes much longer. Standard laptop drives are 9.5mm tall. Biggest you'll commonly find in this form is 500GB.

Give it 12 months and they will likely be a 1TB 7200 2.5" drive.
 
MagicBoy said:
There aren't any. WD announced a 1TB 5400rpm unit last week which is 12mm tall and therefore won't fit. Also when manufacturers announce drives it takes at least 6-8 weeks to end up available to buy sometimes much longer. Standard laptop drives are 9.5mm tall. Biggest you'll commonly find in this form is 500GB.

Give it 12 months and they will likely be a 1TB 7200 2.5" drive.
Click to expand...

The 750GB/1TB hard drives from Western Digital are 5200RPM.
 
awaiting delivery of the mac mini base model, with a 15% edu discount is very good value for money i feel :)

- upgrading to 4gb ram
- replacing hdd with 30GB OCZ vortex SSD
- all media on mybook studio edition 2TB

Nervous about opening it up though, seen some videos and i think its going to be fiddly
 
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