Which Mac mini is best for HTPC?

[rhino89]

I am planning on buying a used older Mac mini for my HTPC setup. I'd love a new Mac mini but it's financially out of reach. But I see that there are different versions... From 1.25 Ghz, 1.42, 1.5, 2.... And different generations on top of the different processors.

Which one is best (or minimum required) if I plan on using it for Netflix, Hulu, and watching movies/listening to music via iTunes? I don't want an apple tv because it lacks the Hulu streaming ability and I've tried ways around it (AirPlay, even remote pc streamers) and the quality is suffering. Which Mac mini would you recommend? I've heard some may not be able to do Netflix?

Thanks in advance!

 

[maturola]

What's your budget? You can build your own HTPC for about the same price that you can get those old MacMini, it wont be OSx based, but if you are not looking into using any OSx specific function, it may worth to take a look at, I just build a nice one for a friend for $450, and it was pretty high end (3D bluray support and all), you can get lower end for less than that.

As far as sticking with the the Mini, well, depending on your budget, you want to get the best spec you can afford, so higher processor, more mem, etc are always good.