Sensible or silly to order a £649 Mac Mini?

[Adamo]

I'm on the verge of getting a new computer after having to downgrade to a horrid Windows laptop (Acer, of all brands), which died. Then an Acer net-top (R3610), which is dying. Now, the Mac Mini is appealing to me as I need something small which'll hook upto the 2407 Dell monitor I have and not struggle.

Are there any big issues with the latest rev. of the Mini? Or should I plunge, despite the price-tag they're asking?

 

[powerbook911]

The Mac Mini is a great computer!! I have the last generation which only had 2 GHZ processor, and I'm always amazed by its performance. It's a hard working little guy. It was nice when they started putting the 9400 Nvidia in them.

I highly recommend it. My iMac has a slightly higher spec 2.4, but I really don't notice any difference between them.

 

[Adamo]

Heh, I've had one before but just wondering if the price difference between the £499 and £649 is worth it, I just don't think I can be bothered to upgrade it myself, which sounds so lazy!

 

[milton.sheaf]

silly. buy a 1 year old used one on craigslist for half the price. steve jobs doesn't need any more money. no, really.

 

[powerbook911]

Heh, I've had one before but just wondering if the price difference between the £499 and £649 is worth it, I just don't think I can be bothered to upgrade it myself, which sounds so lazy!

Ok, that difference is about $250. I have to say, I'm not so sure, on a Mini, it is worth it to spend that much extra.

I did upgrade the memory on my Mac Mini, it wasn't too big of a deal, but I can see that some might not want to risk it.

A hard drive you could always keep most things on an external. Not sure if it's worth it either. These things can be a bit tricky to decide sometimes.

On paper, it sometimes doesn't seem worth it, sometimes for convenience and sense of not regretting, it does seem worth it.

 

[Aadhil]

I'd say the £499 mini will fit your needs fine as well.

 

[mrklaw]

Its a big gap for questionable difference in performance. You don't need a bigger HDD - you can always expand with USB/NAS. Ram you can do yourself but see if you can manage with 2GB for now. processor speed bump is nice on paper but in reality probably not much difference.

(and if you're using it for home cinema stuff like plex, the £499 will be more than enough)

 

[maghemi]

Judging by you're previous computer history you're not out for a monster performance computer. Cheaper Mini would do you fine.

But, and this is just my opinion, I think the £499 mini is the best buy. Then open it up and put it 4gb (or 8gb if you really want, but I don't think it's worth the money yet) and put in a fast 7200rpm drive or better yet a fast SSD. And then get some firewire 800 external storage.

I've personally just moved my day to day computer from a Mac Pro 8 core with 13gb ram and an SSD to an 09 2ghz Mini with 4gb and SSD, and for most general stuff the Mini keeps up Very Well.

The biggest downer in the mini is the video card. So I say save the money on the higher spec one, and put it towards you're own upgrades, cos the video is the same in both of them, and far better than the video in any of your previous PC purchases.

 

[Adamo]

Thanks for the advice guys, you've helped me see sense and I went and ordered the £499 one. I already have a 500GB external, I was just tempted by the larger sized HDD for keeping everything on!