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Mac Mini 3131 Responses
Last post: 5 years, 4 months ago | Thread started: Dec 19, 07, 6:18 a.m.
- flickster
Anyone have one... and use it for design work? Is it capable of keeping up? I have a quicksilver tower that is on it's last legs... I have a 23" Cinema Display, and I don't really want to by an iMac... so I've been thinking about the Mini... but not sure whether or not it's capable of all the apps...
thoughts?
- Dec 19, 07, 6:18 a.m. – Permalink
- jpea
Load it up with ram and it'll be great. The move to intel chips really sped things up on the processor side. The only thing you might change sometime is a faster hard drive. Since you don't have portability, you could buy a fast external hard drive and just install OS X on that and boot from it instead of the internal. But yeah, otherwise it's not a bad choice for the money.
- Dog-earDec 19, 07, 6:24 a.m. – Permalink
- rafalski
You wait a month and get higher-spec equipment, I'd call it smart shopping advice moth :]
Plus, Apple always stocks out during x-mas time and introduces new stuff right after that.
Plus, apple-talk is better than weekend plans/memories talk at the office.
- Dog-earDec 19, 07, 7:55 a.m. – Permalink
- zod
Waiting till mid january like Raniator said is the best idea. My roommate is a Mac Genius and usually can neither "confirm nor deny" lots of rumors I hear, but he told me that January will be seeing lots of upgrades to the macs, including the macbook pro and mini.
January is when they launch all the good stuff anyway because of Macworld
- Dog-earDec 19, 07, 8:33 a.m. – Permalink
- Carty
get an imac... they are cheap, and i plug mine into my external 20" cinema display. all you need is mini dvi - dvi. it's almost $800 for the mini, you may as well get a free keyboard mouse and 20" monitor with the imac. takes up to 4gigs of ram... you know the deal.
- Dog-earDec 19, 07, 9:06 a.m. – Permalink
- TResudek
I primarily do web design and I found the mac mini to be able to keep up just fine. It is a great form factor and super cheap for a mac. If you don't have 1600-2400 for a Macbook or Macbook Pro I'd definitely go for the mini.
One warning, getting RAM into the mini can be a little bit of a task.
- Dog-earDec 19, 07, 9:40 a.m. – Permalink
- mg33
Bumping this thread...
Anyone have any new comments about the Mini? I'm at my witts end waiting for new MBPs, and NEED a new computer soon.
My main computer is my Celeron 2.0 Ghz I built in 2003, with Win2k and 1.5 GB of ram.
I don't play games, I don't do 3D work. I will use any computer primarily for Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign occasionally and maybe Flash, and general code work. Would like to get into audio recording and MIDI stuff.
I don't want an imac, I have a Dell 21" widescreen that I love.
Consider also that I will need to buy CS3 - that's $1,150 right there and I'm trying to hold my expenses for everything to under $3,000.
I know they are not as fast as MBPs and everything else made by Apple, but I figure a 2007 mini will bury my older PC, which is nearing the end of it's life. I want to switch entirely to Apple, I'm excited to do so, just getting impatient to get my computing life in order.
Thoughts?
- Dog-earFeb 10, 08, 10:23 p.m. – Permalink
- ismith
LOAD it with RAM. Whatever you can do, max it out (macsales.com is great). It'll most likely be fine, but for the audio recording it will depend on what kind of stuff you're doing. I work a lot in a professional recording studio, and will say this: if you're planning to do serious music, you're going to need more than a mini. However if you're just going to have a MIDI device or two and fool around with some loops in GarageBand or Logic Express you should be fine. CS3 will be good with enough RAM. I wouldn't settle for less than 2GB.
- Dog-earFeb 10, 08, 10:29 p.m. – Permalink
- mirrorball
Get a macbook and your sorted! Plug it into your lcd from there and you got a dual monitor set up as well for when u get home. No brainer.
- Dog-earFeb 11, 08, 7:32 a.m. – Permalink
- kona
Design Premium CS3: $870
http://baselinesoftware.com/inde…2GB RAM for a Mac Mini: $45
http://crucial.com/store/listpar…CS3 through Adobe: $1799
2GB RAM from Apple: An additional $150
You save:_______$1034- Dog-earFeb 11, 08, 8:07 a.m. – Permalink
- mg33
Let's say I did get a mini to tide me over until new MacBook Pros (if I did end up wanting one).
After I had an MBP, what additional uses are minis good for? I see people using them for home theater setups, music streaming in the house, etc. Just don't know how people do all this. Basically, if I did move to using an MBP most of the time, what are good uses for a mini then?
- Dog-earFeb 11, 08, 8:51 a.m. – Permalink
- rafalski
Do you want to have two computers in the end? Seems like you can get done more with two, but it's often actually more of a hassle, with keeping them in sync and all. Just like mirrorball said, I would get a refurb macbook now and would upgrade in half a year when the new model MB's start popping up in refurb store again. Alternatively, get an used/refurb mini now.
- Dog-earFeb 11, 08, 8:51 a.m. – Permalink
- mg33
In all the reading I've been doing, there are many people hoping that Apple advances the Mini to have a little more configuration than currently available. A "Mini-tower" is what I've seen frequently - something more akin to the imac's power but without a built in monitor.
For about 5 minutes this weekend I wondered if an imac would be a good choice. I've got a great Dell 21" widescreen, though, and I don't think I'd benefit from two screens that way.
funny thing about imacs to me though: All the complaining about the glossy screens and how they are bad for print design...
Wait a minute... wasn't it only two years ago people were still screaming about using LCDs and how THEY were bad for print design? Too funny.- Dog-earFeb 11, 08, 8:59 a.m. – Permalink
