Mac Mini, iMac, or neither? And by next Tuesday!!

[Globetrotter]

I've just finished my University Dissertation, and now have some time off for the Easter break.

But! My dads birthday is next Tuesday, and he has been talking about how slow his (our families') nearly 7 year old pc is getting.

I was thinking of getting him the Mac Mini to complement the PC, but in looking at the prices, £399 + £499, the £399 looks pretty 'wimpy' in terms of bang for buck (1.83 + combodrive!), which means it really has to be the £499. Also, I'll have to splash out £30 more for the keyboard.

Which means £530 for the Mac Mini

Looking at the Refurb store I can get:

Apple Certified Refurbished iMac
iMac 20-inch 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo

20 inch (viewable) (1680 by 1050 pixels) Glossy widescreen

1GB (one SO-Dimm) 667Mhz DDR2 SDRAM

250GB 7200 Serial ATA hard drive

8x SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)

ATI Radeon HD2400 XT with 128MB of GDDR3 Memory

Built-in Airport Extreme (802.11n) Built in Bluetooth 2.0+EDR

Price: £659

I think our current monitor is around 20 inches.

I would love to have it by Tuesday next week.

Suggestions?

 

[ditzy]

Personally I'd get the imac. I don't think a computer really feels new unless you have a new monitor. If you add that to the cost as well the imac probably comes out cheaper.

 

[johny5]

Definately get the Imac, they are pretty good value for money on the refurbs right now.
you could always sell the complete pc to recoupe some costs.

 

[redundantsilent]

I personally dont like the mini, but they are the best for people transitioning from windows to mac because you can keep your same keyboard, monitor, ect.. If you don't mind a refurb, then the imac is definitly a better deal.