New mac mini owner here

[maflynn]

I've been a mac user for can be described as eons, and now that my girls are 4 the wife and I decided to get the mini.

In a gift for me I also picked up a 24" ACD (made sense to have it on the same receipt). I've not opened the mini yet but I hope to today or tomorrow. We got the base model for the luttle ones and they're excited

 

[Hellhammer]

So you decided to get the Mini for your girls instead of an iPad for you, am I right? (Sorry if I confused you with someone )

I'm sure they'll love it and it will be enough for them for years.

 

[MacDawg]

Congrats on the new goodies
I have the 23" ACD and love it
I considered a Dell, but opted for the ACD on a great deal on eBay

Hopefully the Mini will serve you well

 

[7031]

Haha great machine for them. While I am myself a PC lover simply because well, I love tinkering I guess, my first Mac was a Mac Mini, and my god I loved video editing on it. I was only about 12 or so at the time, but it was a great purchase and it definitely helped me with my creative side. Sure, gaming sucks on the Mac (although this is definitely improving), but at the time, I was using a PowerPC G4 Mac Mini and I think the inability to do any real gaming actually made me more productive, which is a good thing I think.

 

[maflynn]

So you decided to get the Mini for your girls instead of an iPad for you, am I right? (Sorry if I confused you with someone )

I'm sure they'll love it and it will be enough for them for years.

That's me

Yeah, by the end of the day, it made more sense to get them something that will help them learn and gain computer skills then a nice non-essential device for me.

Congrats on the new goodies
I have the 23" ACD and love it
I considered a Dell, but opted for the ACD on a great deal on eBay

I had the dell and it lasted 5 years and its still going but the back lighting does seem to be going south. Getting darker, taking a long time to warm up and see a decent image.

Overall, I'm happy with the ACD and the mini is serving my little ones very well.

 

[flopticalcube]

The mini was my daughter's first Mac. It served her well and is now used as our HTPC since she moved to an iMac. The new ones should be even better. Great choice.

 

[msjones]

Ive just bought myself the new Mac Mini to use as my main machine. I have it hooked up to BenQ LED monitor. I am suprised at the power in this little machine. Have just ordered 4GB and 500GB drive to make some upgrades.

Just waiting for the Steam client to come to Mac now. Roll on May!

 

[steve2112]

A friend just bought my old Mini (1.83 CD) for his 5 year old daughter. I was happy to get a young convert.

Of course, after seeing the prices of used Minis on here and eBay, I lost some money. It was worth it, though, since I didn't want to rip him off.

 

[dmm219]

for 99% of home users...a mac mini is all you ever need in a desk top. And since they are so cheap (relative to Apple), you cas easily upgrade every 3 years or so. Unless you are doing massive amounts of video editing, I've never seen the need for anything more powerful at home than a mini...it is, but far, the most financially sound choice when it comes to using macs.

 

[stinkhorn]

well done - a great buy, and a bargain (for apple) to boot! the 4gb ram is a good idea (kind of essential these days...)

my mini is my main machine - i use audio processing software in addition to standard home use - and it just flies! very happy with it

 

[bearcatrp]

Congrats on the new machine. I'm waiting on the new ones coming out with the HDMI port. Hopefully a good graphics chip/card for my 50 inch tv. This will be my media center instead of my apple tv.

 

[gkarris]

People I've told to get one a long time ago who got the G4 models still have and use them and they love it!

I have the 1.66 Core Duo and it's still awesome - especially after upgrading it to 2 Gig and Snow Leopard!

 

[Cricketman]

I'm looking at the Mini myself. Good time to purchase, I assume? I looked at the buyers guide and it is mid cycle, so I think i'll make the switch soonish.

Is 2GB of ram enough? Looking at some pretty heavy browsing/youtube, word processing/homework/papers, movies, etc. No video editing, maybe some light photoshop work.

Also, the keyboard/mouse - I don't want to drop $70 for the apple set. Are there any compatible options, wireless, that work just as well? I was looking at this logitech combo: http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Wire...1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1268705819&sr=8-1

Sorry for the thread hijack! Congrats on your purchase by the way!

 

[wisty]

2GB RAM isn't future proof.

Firefox will take up to 1GB, and a bunch of other apps can suck up lots, so your computer has less room for cache.

If you don't have a big cache, your HDD will slow down.

 

[Wheaty]

Is 2GB of ram enough? Looking at some pretty heavy browsing/youtube, word processing/homework/papers, movies, etc. No video editing, maybe some light photoshop work.

Also, the keyboard/mouse - I don't want to drop $70 for the apple set. Are there any compatible options, wireless, that work just as well? I was looking at this logitech combo: http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Wire...1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1268705819&sr=8-1

2Gb Ram it fine for Most photoshop work. I have churned out and edited a 2ft x3ft image at 600dpi as a Tiff, and while a tad slow if I applied a global filter, it was quite happy and got there. Normal size stuff is a breeze. Memory management on OSX is sooooo much better than XP!

As for the Keyboard + Mouse. I used my old MS keyboard for 9mths untill my wife kindly bought me the bluetooth one for christmas. And I'm still using my Wacom tablet for the mouse, as I dont currently like any of the new tracker balls around (I miss my Old Logitech Trackman FX it was PS/2 )

So, Mid 2009 Mini. 2GHz 2Gb ram for reference.

Wheaty