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Should I buy an iMac or a Mac mini?

I

imac24

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 20, 2007
2
0
Hello, everyone. I need some advices on whether I should buy an iMac 24-inch or a Mac mini.

I really like iMac 24-inch, it has a big display which a very important factor to me. It is more powerful than mini. However, it is a bit expensive. On the other hand, if I buy a mini, I will accompany it with a Dell 24-inch display. It'll save me some money. But the system is less powerful and has a crappy graphic card. I do some light gaming, but most of the time I just watch movies and TV shows.

Another major concern is that iMac's are not easily upgradeable. For the mac mini set-up, at least I could reuse the monitor.

So which one would you recommend? iMac or Mac mini?
 
Another advantage of the iMac is the built in iSight....also it has (surprisingly good) speakers. As regards to reusing your monitor, macs generally have great resale value...
 
Definitely iMac.

Dedicated graphics always is a big plus. And you got a "real" and bigger hard drive with iMac.
Not to mention lack of core 2 duo in Minis (which soon will be fixed, hopefully..)
 
I have a Mini that I bought as a holdover until I get an iMac. I knew I would be selling it and to who when I bought it. It is a good machine, but I am going to get a 24" iMac soon, so hands down I would say go that route. The points of resale value and power are good. You will like the performance of the iMac better. Also remember it has a faster HDD in it, the Mini has a notebook drive which is limited in space.
 
the imac, clearly. If it's too expensive but you want all that screen space, you could get a 17" or 20" and attach an external display. The mini is just not a good buy compared to anything else in apple's line up at this point.
 
;) Do a 17 inch I mac i love mine execpet the messup i did on it with boot camp windows and unbuntu. Enjoy:)
 
A friend just bought the iMac 24" a few weeks ago and it is jaw dropping cool! We have had a lot of fun with this machine. The screen is very nice and it is fast. To me a mini would be okay but if you have the $ buy the iMac. Yes, you can't upgrade much more internally than the RAM but you can always add an external FW800 drive if you want.
 
If you just do movies and tv for the most part. For imac money you could get a mini and a projector or a hdtv. I think the mini will get discontinued (cheaper) or upgraded (better pretty soon). I bought mine 6 months ago and they still sell it new!
 
If the 24" is a little out of your budget, then you should consider the 20", and you'd still have lots of cash left over to upgrade the ram, maybe buy an external hard drive, etc. The 24" is nice, don't get me wrong, but the 20" still has a lot of great viewing space.
 
What is mini like for 3d apps in real-life situation. benchmarks and fps in UT2004 is fine, but what about secondlife or occasional gaming like MYST?
 
I was in the same boat as you last fall, right when the Core 2 iMacs scattered about - tied with either a Mac Mini or an iMac.

Get the iMac.

It's redundant, but it's worth the money. You're lucky though because you have the cash to get the 24", I didn't and had to settle with the 17" (with the X1600, I'd shoot myself if I got the GMA). Unless you never keep more than one window open, don't get anything smaller than the 20".

...Yeah, I wish I got one of those instead :(
 
The Mini is good for people with minimal requirements or home theaters. The iMac is what is wanted by everyone in this thread.
 
Mini. The graphics really don't suck, guys. They're above average for most PC's.

Light gaming is great for the Mini. Movies and such too. You'll definalty save a lot of money, and if you later decide to get an iMac, you have great resell value.

C2D? Meh. Not a big differnce. 802.11b? Meh. No big differnce.

Mini, Mini all the way.
 
I would go with the iMac having got one myself. I would say that for me the 20" is perfect. The screen is big, good resolution and can handle all of my graphic heavy programs with ease.

My vote is iMac. :apple:
 
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