Never fear, I'm not paying apple! I won't have 4 to sell because I'm just getting the base one. "Poor-starving-student-single-mom-of-three" here, my fellow classmates are springing for the $350 laptops at staples. Yuck. Luckily my kids like beans and are excited about a new Mac! Lol! (disclaimer, I'm joking about having to feed them beans to buy it- but they would be happy having burritos every night! But my ex will copy this to use in court, so I'm not neglecting my kids for a computer)
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PC user looking to switch
- Thread starter slitherjef
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Never fear, I'm not paying apple! I won't have 4 to sell because I'm just getting the base one. "Poor-starving-student-single-mom-of-three" here, my fellow classmates are springing for the $350 laptops at staples. Yuck. Luckily my kids like beans and are excited about a new Mac! Lol! (disclaimer, I'm joking about having to feed them beans to buy it- but they would be happy having burritos every night! But my ex will copy this to use in court, so I'm not neglecting my kids for a computer)
I couldn't afford 16GB of RAM, so bought 1 8GB module and threw it in with the stock 2GB module. That gives me 10GB and an upgrade path. Apparently it's faster with matched pairs, but I haven't noticed a difference.
And, it's worth repeating, DON'T BUY RAM FROM APPLE.
Also consider getting the refurb base mini (when available) to save more. I got the refurb and no problems at all. For only $520 + accessories (most already owned) I'm into the Mac world.
The Apple wireless keyboard is worthwhile, but the Magic Mouse is not so hot and I use a $20 wired mouse.
They don't have the base model up today, and as I think they normally stock Monday's I really can't wait until next week. Amazon is $568 and I have Prime, so I can get it tomorrow for $4. MacMall is $551 but their shipping is higher and slower (with a 9to5Mac special price this month).
I have the wireless keyboard, am typing on the wired (love my number pad), have a Mighty Mouse with a dysfunctional ball apparently (worked till my teen used it a couple of weeks ago). I plan on getting the Trackpad in a couple of weeks, hopefully a week from Friday after DDs surgery. Hopefully my student loan funds hit soon then I can order my monitor too!
I'm so NOT looking forward to a couple of weeks without gestures - i don't have them now, but I know i'm going to see where I want to use them until the trackpad gets here!
I have it in my cart.... having a hard time pushing checkout!
The server has crossed my mind a few times. Even the iMac has but quite as much. The iMac would clear up space on my desk as well. If i am going to replace my desktop machine I might as well cover my bases.
The Apple Store refurb section has the iMac 2.5Ghz Quad i5 for $999. I'd say that's better bang for the buck than a mini.
I have a wireless keyboard and also went back to using the wired one as my main keyboard because of the number pad. I prefer the Magic Mouse to the Trackpad, have both, stopped using the Trackpad after a few days. I can do most gestures on the Magic Mouse and I find it much more precise. If I had more desk space I would have both out side by side for the few gestures the mouse can't do, but I'm cramped for space. I suppose if someone was a Macbook user for a long time they would find a mouse to be annoying.
I've had the wired since close to when they came out with the chicklet one. I'm able to type pretty fast on it - love it. The wireless one I bought for DD and I to share on our iPads. She prefers the wireless most of the time on every computer. Go figure!
I actually plan on getting both the mouse and the trackpad. My MBP is a late 06 and doesn't do gestures or multi-touch or nutin special!! But I also use the keyboard and mouse on it 99% of the time anyway... It will be interesting to see which I end up liking the best. Space wise i might get irked at the trackpad, so maybe I will order the mouse first if I can't get them at the same time.... hmmm.....
Anyway, now that it is after 4 I can order
Hey all, I am still looking into things and one thing that has come up is, how much photography will I actually be doing? While I got a decent windows 7 box loaded up with photoshop CS3 (yeah, but it still works ) Right now my shooting has been very sparse and the original idea of buying CS6 when it comes out for mac, well, perhaps I don't need to spend 600 bucks (or more) on the program when I mostly use DPP to convert my raw images to tiff the work on them with photoshop, mostly levels and curves, sharpening and basics. Kind of a waste of a 6-700 program. Perhaps elements may work better for me.
I could switch to aperture.
Anyway, I do have a windows box that is working, its just taking up a lot of space (and power).
I know I could dual boot, I guess that would require a bit more ram to do so and the graphics card boost probably wouldn't hurt either. So, I guess I am still leaning toward the mid range mini base model, the 799 one. I can upgrade the ram later.
Just doing a little thinking out loud here, hope no one minds.
) Right now my shooting has been very sparse and the original idea of buying CS6 when it comes out for mac, well, perhaps I don't need to spend 600 bucks (or more) on the program when I mostly use DPP to convert my raw images to tiff the work on them with photoshop, mostly levels and curves, sharpening and basics. Kind of a waste of a 6-700 program. Perhaps elements may work better for me.I could switch to aperture.
Anyway, I do have a windows box that is working, its just taking up a lot of space (and power).
I know I could dual boot, I guess that would require a bit more ram to do so and the graphics card boost probably wouldn't hurt either. So, I guess I am still leaning toward the mid range mini base model, the 799 one. I can upgrade the ram later.
Just doing a little thinking out loud here, hope no one minds.
Hey all, I am still looking into things and one thing that has come up is, how much photography will I actually be doing? While I got a decent windows 7 box loaded up with photoshop CS3 (yeah, but it still works
I could switch to aperture.
Anyway, I do have a windows box that is working, its just taking up a lot of space (and power).
I know I could dual boot, I guess that would require a bit more ram to do so and the graphics card boost probably wouldn't hurt either. So, I guess I am still leaning toward the mid range mini base model, the 799 one. I can upgrade the ram later.
Just doing a little thinking out loud here, hope no one minds.
CS2 still runs on my MBP!
You could look into Lightroom or Aperture - which would probably cover most of your needs with Elements thrown in. Aperture and Elements is my plan at the moment....
I like to think out loud - it helps!
I know I can dual boot on a mac (would rather do that then run a VM) so those of you who have a windows 7 PC and switched to a mini, was you able to use your current copy of windows 7?
I have a 32 os right now, I tried to install a 64bit OS on a SSD but had issues, so I just yanked the drive. I DID activate the 64bit version (I knew I should have waited) - the 32 was activated over a year ago.
Is this going to cause some kind of problem if I attempt to put the 64bit verson of windows 7 on a dual boot mini? Do I need to call microsoft or something, or just deactivate windows?
Gonna suck if I have to drop another 200 bucks on an OS I already have
I have a 32 os right now, I tried to install a 64bit OS on a SSD but had issues, so I just yanked the drive. I DID activate the 64bit version (I knew I should have waited) - the 32 was activated over a year ago.
Is this going to cause some kind of problem if I attempt to put the 64bit verson of windows 7 on a dual boot mini? Do I need to call microsoft or something, or just deactivate windows?
Gonna suck if I have to drop another 200 bucks on an OS I already have
The base mini is now a more powerful computer than the one I am using now. It is definitely faster with many base functions. I use CS3 on here almost daily, usually CS3 but also Adobe Reader/Illustrator/InDesign/Dreamweaver quite frequently. I've never used them on a current mini, but I would expect the mini to be snappy.
It's pretty relative, though. There's no doubt CS6 will work on the newest mini, but what is "good" to you? I grew up with some of the earliest Macs and Adobe software and it would take 20 minutes to do a filter on a small graphic. I then had Macs which would take 5 mins/3 mins/2 mins/1 min, etc. for the same function. With this computer, it's barely a wait for anything to happen. I imagine the newest Pros are instantaneous, while the Minis are just a little faster than this 2006 tower. All are good.
It's getting to the point where processor speed is more-than-capable for almost any task outside of complex renderings in CGI and complicated video editing. Video rendering is still slow for output, but I don't see that getting very fast for another decade. As long as it does the work behind other function, it doesn't bother me, personally.
I can't quite pull the trigger on the mini just yet. The possibility of cutting HD video from my 5DmkII has crossed my mind. My windows machine has really put a damper on trying to process video so I just kind of tuned that fact out. The software was spendy, like vegas or premiere (requires 64bit) PE kept crashing on me. I even tried cineform trial to convert my 5D vids to something usable.
The whole experience left a bad taste in my mouth.
Now that I have got into mac, perhaps that has changed. I would like to try video again (including timelapse). FCPX looks like it may work and half the cost of premiere.
I am not sure if the 799 mac mini could handle things. I have started to look into the iMacs. Even the base model has a quad core processor
The whole experience left a bad taste in my mouth.
Now that I have got into mac, perhaps that has changed. I would like to try video again (including timelapse). FCPX looks like it may work and half the cost of premiere.
I am not sure if the 799 mac mini could handle things. I have started to look into the iMacs. Even the base model has a quad core processor