My Imac (2006) Is Dead.

[pep.pep]

It finally crapped out.

Time for a new apple product. I've been looking into a mac mini, and with the new update, I feel like now is the time. I was looking into the macbook pro's a while back, but I'm more comfortable with a stationary computer. I already have a monitor to use, and my mouse and keyboard from the Imac are still good to go (missing a control key, but nbg).

For those of you who bought the new mac mini, what are your thoughts on it? good purchase?

 

[Vermifuge]

It finally crapped out.

Time for a new apple product. I've been looking into a mac mini, and with the new update, I feel like now is the time. I was looking into the macbook pro's a while back, but I'm more comfortable with a stationary computer. I already have a monitor to use, and my mouse and keyboard from the Imac are still good to go (missing a control key, but nbg).

For those of you who bought the new mac mini, what are your thoughts on it? good purchase?

I'm atually coming from the same 2006 mini and I went to the dual Core i7. It's a huge improvement over the 2006. That 2006 mini was limited to 2 GB ram... So far i feel it was worth ever follar including the upgrade tot he i7
Dual Core

 

[Mr.C]

I went from a 2009 Mac Mini to a 2011 model and it's significantly faster with far better performance. I can only imagine what it would be like going from a 2006 Mac Mini to the 2011 one.

 

[dal20402]

I just replaced a newly dead 2006 Core Duo MBP with a 2011 mini (2.5 GHz i5 variant upgraded to 8 GB RAM). Overall a very good upgrade.

The processor is fantastic -- more than half as fast in GeekBench as my overclocked 3.67 GHz i7 quad-core. There is absolutely no need to step up to the i7 in my opinion -- the i5 is more than good enough for any use where you won't want a heavier-duty machine.

The 6630M video is decent, but not great. It will play simpler 3D games at 1920x1080 at good framerates, if the settings are medium. Cranking the settings at that resolution will stress it out. But it's better than any 2006-era mobile card.

The factory hard disk sucks. It's not that responsive and will only do about 70 MB/s in sustained transfers. Luckily I don't use this particular machine for anything heavily I/O dependent. If I did, I'd add a SSD and replace the spinny disk with a faster 7200 rpm one. Since you're coming from an iMac with a 3.5" disk, the factory HD may actually be a bit of a downgrade despite all the intervening years. I'd invest in a SSD or at least a 7200 rpm 2.5" disk before upgrading to the i7 CPU.

 

[shiekh]

Don't do what I did, fixed the power supply by swapping out the capacitors... now I don't have an excuse to update!

 

[pep.pep]

thanks for all the responses.

i did notice the 5400rpm HD, and would most likely upgrade to a 7200rpm HD. The SSD is just too expensive right now.

Are you able to open the thing up and change the hard drive at a later date?

 

[fa8362]

thanks for all the responses.

i did notice the 5400rpm HD, and would most likely upgrade to a 7200rpm HD. The SSD is just too expensive right now.

Are you able to open the thing up and change the hard drive at a later date?

Keep in mind that the mini has a thunderbolt input. So you can use a fast, bootable external if you desire. Beats the heck out of taking it apart.