Mac Mini?
- Started
- Last post
- 14 Responses
- KarlFreeman
Looking at selling up an old g5 tower to replace it with a mac mini. Current setup is a nas, a couple external hardrive's hooked up to a g5 which in turn is hooked up to the tv. Does anyone have a mac mini and recommends it? or do you reckon a hacked apple tv is the best route?
Cheers
- KarlFreeman0
Bump?
- doesnotexist0
if you're not looking for processing power I guess get the mac mini. don't know why you'd replace your g5 with one.
- KarlFreeman0
Bit of a monster for what I need it for, just wondered what its performance is like with regards to handling hd videos and such like.
- HD et all, you'll need some level of processing power. What are the specs on your G5?ismith
- Having the intel could be a step up I guess, but it won't be fun editing HD or anything like that...ismith
- No editing, purely a media center.KarlFreeman
- Mini is fine then. Would definitely take it over the Apple TV, simply to avoid hacking and have a DVD drive.ismith
- acescence0
speaking purely processor, a current mac mini will crush a G5, but the video card may not be as good, less RAM, and i think the drives are only 5400rpm
- foobaz0
I use one as a media center using Media Central currently and it works well.
I am going to change the OS to ubuntu and run XBOX media center on it which will be a huge upgrade.
Make sure you max out the ram.
- Josev0
Joshua Davis talks about using one in this Apple profile:
http://www.apple.com/pro/profile…But the G5 is bigger, so I guess it must be better.
- You would think that but the g5 tower is huge, not a bad thing when your not needing it just for watching stuff onKarlFreeman
- cramdesign0
Mac Mini is okay for general stuff but why... save up and get a decent iMac.
- Meeklo0
If you are just going to use it to watch tv, why not get a gateway or a dell? you will save a ton of money and you can get a better specs.
- Why not just wear Wal-Mart jeans and drink only gas station coffee too while you're at it. HMM?! ;)ismith
- if he doesn't have much money, and he just going to use it to watch tv.. that's what pc is forMeeklo
- If he needed it for work, then I understand.. but he doesn'tMeeklo
- True, Meeklo but mac's are a much nicer experience. Maybe a hacked apple tv?KarlFreeman
- ha I know, just being a wanker. I'd still gor for the Mini/TV though.ismith
- I like gas station coffeevaxorcist
- KarlFreeman0
@Meeklo You've got a point Meeklo, I think I've probably just got my apple goggle's on. Any suggestions on a nice little number for a media center for the living room?
- KarlFreeman0
@josev You would think bigger is better but this old machine is like a fire hazard, im thinking considering its use its pointless to have something this big to basically watch some tv on and listen to music when people are round.
- KarlFreeman0
@foobaz Why is xbmc such a huge upgrade? surely the osx apps are pretty solid, I mean I'm not a big fan of front row but you cant really go wrong with finder for simply looking up a couple tv shows
- XBMC just has a lot going for it. Like the fact it's free and very mature. It also runs every video format I might have.foobaz
- Meeklo0
I don't know anything about PC, I just know Dell's are the most economic ones, search on their website (www.dell.com) and look for the fastest machine you can afford, that would be my guess, forget specs, if you can only spend $500 on a dell, then get the one that costs that much.
I would suggest also get a copy of Media Center, its windows version of Tivo, I've been using it for a while, beats tivo and front row hands down, there is a plug in for it that ...
listen to this..AUTOMATICALLY REMOVES COMMERCIALS FROM YOUR RECORDED SHOWS.
That's right.. it saves space on your disk, and it saves you the pain of having to ff when watching a movie.
It detects the Rating Logo/ the fade to black (or from) at the beginning and end of a show, as well as volume changes (usually commercials are way louder than tv show signal.
Its great.
- acescence0
ars has some good guides for building boxes, building your own is def the cheapest way to go...
http://arstechnica.com/hardware/…
I had a system I built for maybe $400 with 2 tuner cards. I put windows on it and used BeyondTV. you can program it via the web, strips out the commercials and all that jazz.
- sherm0
got one 1 week before the updated one came out...
here is whats currently about to happen, update hd to 500gb and update ram to 4gb sdram... only thing i seem to be missing is an updated video card right? should be ok though.