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The Mac mini isn't noisy until the fans hit 3000 RPM. This is running it at 200% load and with it on my desk. You're not going to hear it over what you're watching or listening to.

I was thinking more about the (3) WD books plus the mini running a movie to your tv. What's the over all sound like? Do you have it in a cabinet or entertainment center?
 
What's the noise like on those? seems like it wouldn't work well in a quite movie/tv watching situation. or have you become "fan deaf"? :p

The mini and the mybooks are in my office, not in the living room. The AppleTV is in the living room and that is very quiet (albeit hot, but quiet).
 
I was thinking more about the (3) WD books plus the mini running a movie to your tv. What's the over all sound like? Do you have it in a cabinet or entertainment center?
I have it on my desk at work. It's only about 2 feet away out in the open. I have my fans running at 2500 RPM and I can barely hear it at all. Unless you're doing 1080p you're not going to be able to hear the Mac mini at all.
 
I am getting one. I will be using it as a server (both media and web). Expected delivery date:15/08.

Placed the order for the low-end model yesterday, arrival 14-15 Aug. I do not need to burn any DVDs with this Mac, so it was perfect for me. Will be used as media player in my living room with MediaCentral, hooked up to my Sony 46" X2000 LCD and my Onkyo TX-SR605 receiver. Media stored on a LaCie Ethernet disk mini, connected to a Netgear WNR854T router. Since the entire path from disk to TV now will be gigabit, it will be interesting to play 1080p material...
 
The mini and the mybooks are in my office, not in the living room. The AppleTV is in the living room and that is very quiet (albeit hot, but quiet).

oooooh, well that sounds like a great set-up actually. It makes the idea of an apple tv more attractive to me (leaving possibly noisy drives and computers in another room).

But.. how do you play dvd/ts_video files from your mini through the apple tv? I thought it only plays itunes compatible video.
 
I have it on my desk at work. It's only about 2 feet away out in the open. I have my fans running at 2500 RPM and I can barely hear it at all. Unless you're doing 1080p you're not going to be able to hear the Mac mini at all.

In regards to the 1080P... can your mac mini run 1080P ok?? That's the one thing keeping me from buying one. I looked at some HD videos, and the mini would stutter or drop to around 12 fps when it was playing full screen 1080P.

How is it on yours? (which MM do you have?)
 
Does anyone actually use the Mini as a computer? Doesn't seem like it from what i've read on here.

Hey, I'm still on my Rev A 1.25 GHz Mini. Looking for an excuse to upgrade to something, but as I may move abroad in the next year or so it's likely to be a laptop, and whether it's MB or MBP depends on the specs at the time.

Still, part of the reason I haven't upgraded yet is I find this Mini perfectly useable. A bit sluggish with video encoding, and I have upgraded it substantially (external HD, DVD burner, USB hub, more memory etc.) so I have probably paid for it twice in peripherals.
 
Well I got the fully loaded mac mini.

- 2.33ghz Core 2 duo
- Airport "n"
- 100gb 7200rpm hard drive
- 2gb ram
- superdrive

Went into the future and bought it.


Ok, you got me. I upgraded my 1.66ghz base model mini. Piece of cake. Why wait right? Thing is fast.

And for all that don't know already. The mac pro airport n card is the same card that fits in the mac mini. Works perfectly. Its also the same card in the macbook and macbook pro if you hadn't heard. The only difference is you will be missing one antenae in the mac mini but I have not noticed any slowdown in speed. $40 from the apple store for the card.
 
oooooh, well that sounds like a great set-up actually. It makes the idea of an apple tv more attractive to me (leaving possibly noisy drives and computers in another room).

But.. how do you play dvd/ts_video files from your mini through the apple tv? I thought it only plays itunes compatible video.

Pigumon, I've taken the time (and a very long time it has been) to encode all of my DVDs into h.264 format using handbrake. It is a big time investment, but like I keep telling people, having -all- of my movies being accessible in a near "star trek" environment can't be beat.
 
Yup. Got one on Tuesday. I had an original G4 Mini that I used for my first desktop Mac at home. When my parents' PC started to die in Jan., I decided to give them the G4 Mini and bought myself a Macbook since I didn't want to buy a CD chip Mini. Have been waiting for a C2D Mini for months now.

I'm very happy with it and will use it for daily work (self-employed). I have it hooked up to a KVM switch shared with a PC box that I use for testing various Linux distros for my writing job. The only thing I think I'll change at some point is to throw in 2GB of RAM...

-- N
 
Just to follow up on some things, I started reading posts of users trying the enabler on the new minis with no success. Looks like it is indeed just a "g" card in there.

Heard the upgrade to "n" is simple enough, maybe I'll do that down the road when I upgrade to 2 GB of ram (going to replace one of the 1 GB sticks in each of our MBPs with a 2 GB stick and a la Apple, 'hand down' the old parts to the Mini ;) )
 
Pigumon, I've taken the time (and a very long time it has been) to encode all of my DVDs into h.264 format using handbrake. It is a big time investment, but like I keep telling people, having -all- of my movies being accessible in a near "star trek" environment can't be beat.

Wow that is a big Time investment... but i'm with you being able to access any movie at any time. Soon enough you'll be able to add more access points (apple TVs) and be able to access your stuff from any TV in the house!

Along these same lines, i'm really surprised no one (like sony) has added a gigbit ethernet port to their 400 disc dvd players. Imagine just loading up a player and not having to encode a thing (and it would be one of the few "legal" ways of doing it). They are cheap enough to be competitive to hard drives, especially if you start encoding HD dvds.
 
Well I got the fully loaded mac mini.

- 2.33ghz Core 2 duo
- Airport "n"
- 100gb 7200rpm hard drive
- 2gb ram
- superdrive

Went into the future and bought it.


Ok, you got me. I upgraded my 1.66ghz base model mini. Piece of cake. Why wait right? Thing is fast.

And for all that don't know already. The mac pro airport n card is the same card that fits in the mac mini. Works perfectly. Its also the same card in the macbook and macbook pro if you hadn't heard. The only difference is you will be missing one antenae in the mac mini but I have not noticed any slowdown in speed. $40 from the apple store for the card.


does the system not get hot with the hard disk speed being 7200rpm.
i upgraded my new 1.66 with 2GB ram and superdrive dl, after 2 days, next is hard disk 160Gb only 50.00 new ( thought about 7200rpm but thought may create alot of heat), then cpu may go for the 2.16Ghz duo 2 core. (not made mind up yet)
 
The mac pro airport n card is the same card that fits in the mac mini. Works perfectly. Its also the same card in the macbook and macbook pro if you hadn't heard. The only difference is you will be missing one antenae in the mac mini but I have not noticed any slowdown in speed. $40 from the apple store for the card.

Can you post the part number for us, just to make sure I'm looking at the right one? I have part number M8881LL/A for this link, but it doesn't say anything about 'n' that I could see - does it just require the enabler?

http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/wa/RSLID?mco=85A8FBC1&nplm=M8881LL/A

Thanks.
 
i cant believe the base model still doesnt have a dvd burner...what kind of friggin computer nowadays dont come with a dvd burner??

One where the manufacturer wants to get you to spend a lot more in order to get the $2 more expensive part (DVDR) you wanted....
 
I picked up one of the 2.0s after the event on Tuesday basically to replace my 1.66 model that has found its way to my father's desk (since their PC finally went the way of most PCs)...

The only thing that I'm mildly upset about is the fact that there is no 802.11n. But once I close on the condo next friday and move in, most likely I'll try to find a way to cleanly run wires to network it to the base station and apple tv.

*shrugs* so many people are upset with the mini "only" getting a speed bump. I'm happy that it did get a bump and that I don't have to buy a core solo machine and do the bump myself.

Awesome. Yeah.. 2.33 is more than fast enough for most people. My uncle still has an old g3 imac, it works great for mail.app, internet and itunes, which is what 90% of people use them for. You don't really *need* the fastest processor out there (although it is nice if you can afford the luxury).


kevinbal, i fully agree with you. I think it was great they decided to keep the mini and moved to C2D. I am looking for a media center for my living room....

I know tons of people use Minis as a Dvd player/ media center. It's a great use for them.


Well, it's fair to say the mini is a disappointment since all they did was push in a different CPU and fiddle with the options and pricing.

but they are soo cool!


... Does anyone actually use the Mini as a computer? Doesn't seem like it from what i've read on here.

I do at work. While I would not hook up a Pro Tools HD system to it or use it as my Main video workstation, they are great for most daily tasks. Are you one of those guys with the HUGE tires on your big truck?


The mini is also the media server for the Apple TV in the living room. I've got 2 (and soon to be 3) Western Digital MyBooks hooked up to it with all of my dvds encoded in h264.

Very Nice!
 
in two minds about a mac mini

...

want to use it as a media centre. but i wish it had the same menu as ATV, mostly for the YouTube streaming. very useful. but i'm praying that will be part of FrontRow 2.0 with leopard.

i have a 1080 TV. how does the mini cope at this resolution..? would the option of outputting the mini to 720 using SwitchRes, and letting me TV do the 720-1080 upscaling benefit the mini...?

also, is ethernet quicker than Firewire 400...? it's a shame the mini doesn't have Firweire 800 as you need an external HD to keep all the files eventually.
 
i dont like how they dont even give you the option to upgrade to a superdrive on the low end mac mini
 
Can you post the part number for us, just to make sure I'm looking at the right one? I have part number M8881LL/A for this link, but it doesn't say anything about 'n' that I could see - does it just require the enabler?

http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/wa/RSLID?mco=85A8FBC1&nplm=M8881LL/A

Thanks.

I walked into the apple store and asked for the airport card for mac pro. that is what I put in the mini. I have to find the box but that is the card. Nothing special. All apple computers use it. YOu can also use that card in the macbook and macbook pro. Its the same card for all. Yes, you will need the enabler.
 
i dont like how they dont even give you the option to upgrade to a superdrive on the low end mac mini

As I said above, cause it is a great way to force people to spend a lot more money just to get a DVDR. Called up selling and Apple is a MASTER at it....
 
Will CS3 run well on 2.0/1.8Ghz 2GB Mac Mini?

I've already got a DKM. I will be using it as a bridge gap until new iMacs come out next year. I can't see the new current iMacs in matte option coming any time soon. But I'm gonna wait until Leopard comes out.
 
The Mac Mini

I use my Mini (Core Solo, that I want to upgrade) for computing and some gaming needs.

What type procesor do I need to bump my Mini to a Core, or a Core 2. I'm looking for most inexpensive processor I can put in there, that would give me better performce.

Hugh



It's the same with the £700 MacBook. Still the SuperDrive Mini did come down in price by £100 - i'm very tempted by that one.

The combo drive version of these computers are priced and spec'd (crippled) in such a way so as to get you to spend more money on the better and more expensive model.


Does anyone actually use the Mini as a computer? Doesn't seem like it from what i've read on here.
 
Will CS3 run well on 2.0/1.8Ghz 2GB Mac Mini?

I've already got a DKM. I will be using it as a bridge gap until new iMacs come out next year. I can't see the new current iMacs in matte option coming any time soon. But I'm gonna wait until Leopard comes out.

hahaha, no.
Games on a mini, lol, that's funny! :)
 
The Mac mini isn't noisy until the fans hit 3000 RPM. This is running it at 200% load and with it on my desk. You're not going to hear it over what you're watching or listening to.

Does the Mini run hot like the new iMacs?
 
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