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Why mac mini?

C

chewbacca390

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 19, 2008
41
0
I was at the Apple store the other day, and I saw a mac mini out for $600.

To be honest, and maybe i'm a little nieve and uninformed, but i think if you want to buy a cheap computer, you might as well get the $300 vista pcs. $600 for a mac with no extras to me does not attract me at all. Maybe i don't know the stats very well, but those mac minis didn't have much.

what do you think of the mac mini?
i think they should drop the price of the mini to like $450, because then i'd consider buying it. Otherwise, i would stick with the cheap vista pcs?
Do you think they should drop the price, drop the mac mini as a whole, or keep it the way it is?
 
Your $300 (or $600) PC won't have the footprint or many of the abilities of a Mini. For instance, would said PC be dead-quiet? Would it have DVI? Can it act as a wireless router? Can it provide you digital optical audio for Dolby Digital or DTS output? How much would Vista Ultiimate add to the cost of the PC (which is most similar, but still substantially less capable to Leopard)?

There's not doubt the Mini has become a bit stale and we're all hoping for an update soon (i.e., Santa Rosa chipset with X3100 gpu), but we're also not holding our breath. The Mini may be at the end of its run.
 
Good facts

wow, you make a lot of valid points about what the mac mini can do in comparison with vista.

anyway, you also think that the mac mini could either be done or be given an update thats interesting

thanks for the reply
 
I think we all are hoping for the following improvements:

  • Santa Rosa chipset for 8 gig RAM support
  • FW800
  • eSATA
  • Dedicated gpu with hardware decoding of H.264
  • 802.11n

There are a few others that people have mentioned, but I'd buy one in an instant if it came with these new features.
 
Cave Man said:
I think we all are hoping for the following improvements:

  • Santa Rosa chipset for 8 gig RAM support
  • FW800
  • eSATA
  • Dedicated gpu with hardware decoding of H.264
  • 802.11n

There are a few others that people have mentioned, but I'd buy one in an instant if it came with these new features.
Click to expand...

Dream on... Out of those, we should be lucky to get:

  • Santa Rosa with X3100 and 4Gig RAM support
  • 802.11n

Not even the Mac Pro has eSATA, why would they add it to the mini? Dedicated GPU, forget about it until way after the Macbook ever gets one. Same with FW800.

The mini has never offered anything that wasn't available in the Macbook/ibook first.
 
chewbacca390 said:
I was at the Apple store the other day, and I saw a mac mini out for $600.

To be honest, and maybe i'm a little nieve and uninformed, but i think if you want to buy a cheap computer, you might as well get the $300 vista pcs. $600 for a mac with no extras to me does not attract me at all. Maybe i don't know the stats very well, but those mac minis didn't have much.

what do you think of the mac mini?
i think they should drop the price of the mini to like $450, because then i'd consider buying it. Otherwise, i would stick with the cheap vista pcs?
Do you think they should drop the price, drop the mac mini as a whole, or keep it the way it is?
Click to expand...

The mini is tiny and super quiet. My external 3.5" harddrive (fanless!) makes a lot more noise than my mini's. (Except when burning disks).

It's also very good on power and is a lovely little machine for surfing / downloading / chatting and other light stuff. I have a big (Windows) PC for gaming but for everything else I use the mini.

I do admit, it desperately needs an upgrade or a price drop and I never paid full price for mine (I always go for the discounted last year's model) but in a lot of ways they are much better than those vista pc's. Tech specs aren't everything.
 
The Mini is a great machine and is there as their entry point into the Mac world. That's how they hooked me. I bought a Mini, then an AIR, then and iMac, then an ATV. I'm completely hooked and it all started with the Mini. I am subsequently selling my Mini because I purchased other machines, but it all started 2 months ago with the Mini...
 
oh snap, i just ordered a mac mini and i think its too late to cancel... i guess im hoping for no upgrade... cause the same thing happened with my macbook. i had to settle with the Core Duo rather than a C2D. anyways, i was planning to use the mini like an :apple:tv
 
no one has thrown in size. The mini is so small. Look at all those towers that are the size of suitecases that cost you just as much.

your paying for design as well.

also i think that 1Gb standard is some what nice. Not many lowend pc will do that. usually 512. Even though 1Gb is becoming standard across the board
 
GekkePrutser said:
Dedicated GPU, forget about it until way after the Macbook ever gets one.
Click to expand...

The G4 Mini had one, of course.

Anyway, I bought an Intel Mini for work, where it runs molecular modelling and visualisation software without breaking a sweat. Beautiful little machine, possibly the most complete and attractive Mac i've ever owned (- and i've owned a lot).
 
i still dont see why apple dont merge it with the apple tv and create an awesome home theatre mac....especially in a year or so..when they add blu-ray capacity and a HDMI out...would be awesome.

i really do reckon the mini out of all apples machines have the most potential. i reckon we're gonna see the update come at an apple event.

maybe a slight redesign...with new apple displays (cheaper)...with santa rosa chipsets...and 2gb RAM and price drop too.

LOL imagine a 1tb mini :eek:
 
It is meant to be a desktop, I would rather it have a 60gb hard drive and a 2.2 with SR and X3100 then a TB of storage. That is what externals and time capsules are for.
 
I would like a mac mini to run purely as a web server. It would only be hosting a a few low volume sites and serving them to the world over a 8mb/384kb ADSL link.

The thing is, that running headless, it will only take up a tiny fraction of my desk. It could sit next to Time Capsule which will keep the data and configuration backed up then in the chance I make config errors on appache, or php or mysql I can hunt back through time machine for working config files.

I used to run a playstation 2 (not the slim model) with an internal hdd as a web server and it was fine (except that no one ever got mysql running on the mips processor that the ps2 had). Compared to 32 Mb of memory and the 294 MHz cpu of the PS2, I think the the Mac mini with 1 gig of ram and at least 1.83 GHz will be fine as a webserver.
 
I can see the Mini getting a minor update ( today ) and then, once Blu-Ray drives are more mature ( I seem to remember reading that they run hot/draw a lot of power ), we'll see the Apple TV and Mini merging into one unit.

Mini with Blu-Ray, 802.11n and a decent GPU ??? Drool......
 
Cave Man said:
Your $300 (or $600) PC won't have the footprint or many of the abilities of a Mini. For instance, would said PC be dead-quiet? Would it have DVI? Can it act as a wireless router? Can it provide you digital optical audio for Dolby Digital or DTS output? How much would Vista Ultiimate add to the cost of the PC (which is most similar, but still substantially less capable to Leopard)?

There's not doubt the Mini has become a bit stale and we're all hoping for an update soon (i.e., Santa Rosa chipset with X3100 gpu), but we're also not holding our breath. The Mini may be at the end of its run.
Click to expand...

so if they don't update it...will we see the inrtoduction of something else??
 
mbrydone said:
so if they don't update it...will we see the introduction of something else??
Click to expand...
My guess, which as we've established is only the same as anyone else's, is that Apple like to have a low end desktop around.

Back a few years ago now, they had the Power Macs, iMacs and the eMacs. Currently this lineup is taken care of with MacPro, iMac and Mac Mini. Though it must be noted that the Mac Mini is not as relatively powered compared to the iMacs as the eMacs were.

I think Apple will want to keep a lower-end line going, though I don't think they'll make much effort keeping the line current. So, the easiest thing to do is just keep updating the Mac Mini every now and again.

I can't see them making a mid-range tower as many people here want. The future is certainly the laptop, and as such a mid-range desktop would be a step back. Apple don't ever want to be seen making backward moves. So, the mini will stay. But it won't - ever - get a dedicated graphics card.
 
Wingnut330 said:
The Mini is a great machine and is there as their entry point into the Mac world. That's how they hooked me. I bought a Mini, then an AIR, then and iMac, then an ATV. I'm completely hooked and it all started with the Mini. I am subsequently selling my Mini because I purchased other machines, but it all started 2 months ago with the Mini...
Click to expand...

That's what happened to me as well. I started out as a mini "tryer" back in August of 07. Now I've got a MBP Penryn on the way as my primary work machine.

The wife loves the mine too. She prefers it to the Dell she's got, and with the form factor you can put the mini virtually anywhere (unlike most PCs).
 
Bring me a new Mini!

And make the AEBS do Time Capsule in a supported manner.

Then I can have a faster version of the wonderful computer I'm using as I type this, and can put a big-ass HDD on my AEBS. No noise in the room with the Mini.

I will buy the next generation Mini on the day it's released. I don't want a notebook, I don't need a Mac Pro. And iMacs are an awful product line in my opinion. If they'd release the iMac without the screen, we could talk.

New Mini! Now!
 
An Intel mini was also my first entry into the world of Macs almost 2yr ago. At the time my former windows box was over 3yrs old. I was wanting to upgrade some things about it, it REALLY needed a reformat and reinstall, but I was also interested in trying out OSX. Id actually kicked around the idea of getting a mini a few years before this (the first g4 minis) but when it came time to buy I couldnt get myself to do it.

I looked at it like this: I could still use my keyboard, mouse, and monitor with the mini. I could get into the world of OSX, which I knew NOTHING about, relatively cheaply, for $799. That seemed better than plunking down $1200 for an iMac. BTW, yes there was/is the $599 model, but I needed the superdrive.

With the Intel machines it became less of a risk. I could always run XP if I wanted to. Thats really what I had intended on doing when I got my mini. I was going to run XP in bootcamp as my primary OS, then explore OSX and get to know it on the side. But I never installed bootcamp, and OSX became my primary OS from day 1, and Ive never looked back.

After getting my mini I got my wife a macbook a few weeks later. Then a few months later I got my younger kids an old iMac G3 DV for an internet machine.

And just a few days ago I ordered myself a 20" iMac to replace the mini and got my wife her 2nd macbook. So basically the mini because the entry point to Macs/OSX for an entire household.

The mini may not be attractive to alot of PC ppl because you see this small little box and think "for $799 I could buy myself ALOT of pc hardware and make a very up-to-date PC." That was my exact thinking. I debated back and forth on the mini. I actually had to just buy the mini on the spur of the moment without giving myself much time to think about it because Id likely have talked myself out of it again.

Like alot of Windows uers, the OP is only looking at the price tag. "Just spend $300 for a cheap Vista box." Well on the surface yes, you can get budget priced Windows pcs that are alot cheaper. But the whole point is none of these pc will run OSX. Lets face it, the Mac experience is about OSX. The hardware is nice, while still more pricey than PC hardware, you are essentially paying for a machine to run OSX. You really need to get past the price tag because you arent just buying a piece of hardware. You cant compare $300 budget beige box with a mini. You are buying a more pleasurable computing experience. It was hard step to take for me because OSX/Mac was like a foreign land and language that I knew nothing about. But as many, many people say, I wish Id done it sooner.

I will say that even after almost 2yrs of using it, Im still AMAZED what the mini can do for such a small unit. And one of the best aspects of it is its whisper quiet. My last windows box had 4-5 fans in it and sounded like an airplane taking off. The noise from those fans was soooo annoying.
 
VoodooDaddy said:
I will say that even after almost 2yrs of using it, Im still AMAZED what the mini can do for such a small unit. And one of the best aspects of it is its whisper quiet. My last windows box had 4-5 fans in it and sounded like an airplane taking off. The noise from those fans was soooo annoying.
Click to expand...

Oh my god yes... I was worried when I first switched mine on, thinking there was something wrong. You mean computers aren't meant to sound like a jumbo?
 
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