Should I Buy A 'Mac mini' Now?

[MJL]

Urban myth - I have both and have found both to be equally reliable. Windows 7 has changed the game, added to which the hardware in both machines are regular off the shelf parts. An Intel PC is an Intel PC is an Intel PC....period.

I never ever had a crash under XP nor under Windows 7 and I run my machines hard (sometimes 100% CPU utilisation for 12 hours or more) and have some complex software on it.

I am actually finding that restoring a Mac is a pain in the back (side) where with Acronis it is a breeze for Windows (on a machine with BIOS). Similarly having both OS X and Windows 7 natively on the same machine is not very user friendly and virtualisation is just a no-no when running large database applications. ( I'm doing 1.3 - 1.4 billions of records database access per hour in a hierachial database) Restoring is an important issue for me and no easy replication of the TimeMachine backup HDD is another issue. (I might want to go back one or two years with data and do not want old data deleted). If it was not for the form factor and how quiet the Mac Mini is I would leave Apple alone and go back to Windows 7 only. The workarounds required for OS X are not pleasant.... Sure hope that things improve.

 

[XcodeCrazy]

Well, thanks for the insight everyone! It's a damn good thing I waited, apparently! I'm gonna buy the new base model Mac mini with a Magic Trackpad, Apple Wireless Keyboard and a Mini DisplayPort to VGA Adapter. Thanks!

P.S. - I can't believe it's only $599!

 

[alexreich]

Well, thanks for the insight everyone! It's a damn good thing I waited, apparently! I'm gonna buy the new base model Mac mini with a Magic Trackpad, Apple Wireless Keyboard and a Mini DisplayPort to VGA Adapter. Thanks!

P.S. - I can't believe it's only $599!

The reason the entry level is $599 is because it has integrated graphics. Bleh. Not so good for even minor gaming or somewhat-intensive 3D graphics. If I was to get one, I would go with the $799 because of the beefed up AMD 6330 graphics and the 4GB RAM already installed.

But if I was already going to spend $799 on a Mac Mini, I would be looking at the Mac Mini server which is only $200 more. $999 for a i7 with two 500GB 7200rpm HDD's isn't too bad at all. Personally I would take out one of the HDD's and replace it with an SSD (I already own a 3Gb/s SSD, but if the new Mini's have SATA revision 3.0 I would get a 6Gb/s SSD) so I could have a SSD boot/applications drive, with a good sized data HDD.

That being said, it is a damn good deal for a 2+ GHz i5 at only $599, though the graphics card is unimpressive to say the least. The 2010 Mini has better graphics than the 2011.