Need Mac Mini Advice

[ILikeTurtles]

I want to buy a Mini to connect to my LCD for Plex, Hulu and iTunes Movie rentals.

I was considering a used - Core 2 Duo, 1.8 GHz, 2 GB ram, and 80 BG drive. Will this be powerful enough for my needs, or would I be better buying the current version?

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[spinnerlys]

It will be powerful enough.

Maybe consider getting an external Firewire or USB HDD to store your movies on.


And you should use a more descriptive thread title.

 

[mstrze]

And you should use a more descriptive thread title.

Normally, I would agree but in this case...Mac Mini Advice Needed...in the AppleTV and Home Theater thread was pretty much all that I needed to know what I would find once I clicked in here: Advice on what type or size of Mac Mini would be needed for a home theater setup.

Of course, being able to roll-over the title and see what the post was about without clicking would be nice.

Any Mini should be powerful enough, but I second the addition of an external drive.

And be wary that not all iTunes movies are available for rent apparantly...most come to AppleTV first before they are allowed on regular iTunes(?) I have an AppleTV that I view all my rentals on so I don't really know how many rentals I wouldn't be able to see if I viewed exclusively on my Mini (which I use to 'feed' my ATV btw).

I had read here in other threads that many movies have an AppleTV exclusivity when it comes to rentals....this info may or may not be correct...as I said I use ATV so I have none of these issues.

 

[Phatpat]

I somewhat recently upgraded from a 1.6 Core Duo mini to the low end latest and greatest, because the old mini couldn't drive my 28" LCD at native resolution without a lot of stuttering, so I consider what resolution you plan on running in the equation.

 

[ILikeTurtles]

I somewhat recently upgraded from a 1.6 Core Duo mini to the low end latest and greatest, because the old mini couldn't drive my 28" LCD at native resolution without a lot of stuttering, so I consider what resolution you plan on running in the equation.

It would be driving a 42 inch, 1080p LCD - in my case.

And that's odd - I rent movies with my iMac on iTunes all the time...never came upon an ATV exclusive rental yet. Interesting.

 

[Phantom Gremlin]

And that's odd - I rent movies with my iMac on iTunes all the time...never came upon an ATV exclusive rental yet. Interesting.

Do you rent HD movies? My understanding is you can't do that on an iMac, just on ATV.

 

[tbayrgs]

Do you rent HD movies? My understanding is you can't do that on an iMac, just on ATV.

Really? I'm looking at iTunes right now on my macbook and I have the option to rent HD movies.

 

[Phantom Gremlin]

Really? I'm looking at iTunes right now on my macbook and I have the option to rent HD movies.

I've got way too much to watch on my TiVo already to rent movies. So I've never tried it. But here's what a quick Google turned up:

iTunes' HD movie rentals finally come to the Mac/PC

When HD was introduced in iTunes, rentals were only for the Apple TV. But this policy was changed about a year ago. Maybe I'll try a rental or two to see what the quality is.

 

[srexy]

I want to buy a Mini to connect to my LCD for Plex, Hulu and iTunes Movie rentals.

I was considering a used - Core 2 Duo, 1.8 GHz, 2 GB ram, and 80 BG drive. Will this be powerful enough for my needs, or would I be better buying the current version?

Thanks in advance for your help.

It probably is enough HP. However - knowing the resale value of Minis it might be worth checking the refurb store for a base model Mini which will usually run you $499 and be a better performer.

Also bear in mind that your 1.8ghz might only have wireless G/100mbps ethernet which will hamper your throughput eventually.

 

[ILikeTurtles]

Thanks for all the advice. I think I will wait for a refurb to show up at the Apple store. Can't wait though! lol

 

[mattwolfmatt]

I also agree that you should get an external FW800 7200RPM Hard drive to store all your stuff. This is actually faster than the internal, and way more storage.