The New Mac Mini. What do you think?

  • Thread starter Thread starter scottmd06
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I have had my Acer 4736 for almost a year now and luckily have not experienced any virus/ malware problems. I had a Compaq Presario V2000 and it was a nightmare. A real POS f@ckbucket.
 
CFox said:
No disrespect experienced. I am interested in why mac users make their purchases and your reason is rational. My friends purchase decisions seem based on emotion only.
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Totally Kool and the Gang :)
 
I have a Mac mini that's a couple of years old, it's no more stable than the Gateway PC I regrettably got a virus on, it's never been the same since. The Mac locks up and requires a hard shut down and reboot as often as the PC, and requires being booted up 2 or 3 times on occasion.
 
buzzard bass said:
I have a Mac mini that's a couple of years old, it's no more stable than the Gateway PC I regrettably got a virus on, it's never been the same since. The Mac locks up and requires a hard shut down and reboot as often as the PC, and requires being booted up 2 or 3 times on occasion.
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There's something wrong with it, then. My Mac Mini runs 24x7 as a server. It hasn't crashed yet, and has been doing it for about four or five years. I've only seen one hard freeze on any of the half dozen Macs I use in several years.

Probably bad RAM.
 
buzzard bass said:
I have a Mac mini that's a couple of years old, it's no more stable than the Gateway PC I regrettably got a virus on, it's never been the same since. The Mac locks up and requires a hard shut down and reboot as often as the PC, and requires being booted up 2 or 3 times on occasion.
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Sounds like you may need to have it looked out professionally. Maybe take it to an Apple Service Center
 
you'd be crazy to drop that kinda cash on a mac compared to what the cash could buy you imho...unless you really wanted to go down the mac route

I just bought a mac pro and for a third of the price there was a toshiba with almost exactly the same spec...thats a hell of a difference

$699 is going to get you a pretty powerful DAW and if its going to be your only rig Id say shop around for a quad, you never know, you may want to record more than simple projects in the future and while i like logic 9 from what ive used so far, its no deal breaker :o
 
HEy those mac mini's???

Can you use any kind of monitor with it. Or does it have to be an Apple approved and made monitor?

Just curious? Like just swap out the PC tower and replace with the MAc Mini?
 
Atom Bomb said:
HEy those mac mini's???

Can you use any kind of monitor with it. Or does it have to be an Apple approved and made monitor?

Just curious? Like just swap out the PC tower and replace with the MAc Mini?
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You can use any monitor.
 
kcearl said:
not as much as a similarly priced PC....for sure
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That's my biggest question about the mini... you are paying extra for it compared to a tower. Why?

Why is it worth the extra money? Because it uses a small hard drive that will cost more to replace than a regular size one? To me it's basically a laptop without any of the advantages of a laptop.

So while the mini is probably fine... why? :confused:

My main angle is use a free or $40 computer and put the money you save towards Neumanns, or something you can actually hear.
 
for music production id say its pointless...not that it wont do it but as you said..its not got the advantages of a laptop, and costs more than a quad core tower....pretty pointless
 
To me it's about a Mac fantasy:

You wake up, say a certain word and a huge screen appears in the air in front of you. You talk and it transcribes and you can send emails, surf the net, watch movies etc with no keyboard, monitor or computer in site. It all works as long as you pay Apple money every month.

To me the Mac mini is a step towards that "virtual computer" fantasy... a fantasy that probably will happen, and it will be neat when it does.

For me I'd be happy if everything was truly wireless so there's be no cables at the gig.
 
Typical Apple Marketing BS

They are trying to say that their 256 MB shared vid card is cutting edge ( surprised they didnt actually say that or "bleeding edge" Lol ).

Only low end pc's offer integrated graphics now. 1 gig dedicated is becoming the standard otherwise.

Souped-up graphics.
Mac mini refuses to act its size. It gives you next-generation NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics — the fastest integrated graphics processor on the market today — and speedy DDR3 memory. With 48 processing cores and 256MB of shared video memory, this graphics processor delivers up to twice the performance of the previous generation. It brings more pixel-pushing power to the latest 3D games and graphics-intensive applications. And you’ll notice a big difference when you work with high-resolution photos and high-definition video. The most surprising part? You don’t have to sacrifice efficiency for speed. The NVIDIA GeForce 320M is more energy efficient than its predecessor. All of which proves you really can do more with less.
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Their marketing fails to mention what res the games are played at. :rolleyes:

Summary: Expensive doorstop.
 
CFox said:
Typical Apple Marketing BS

They are trying to say that their 256 MB shared vid card is cutting edge ( surprised they didnt actually say that or "bleeding edge" Lol ).

Only low end pc's offer integrated graphics now. 1 gig dedicated is becoming the standard otherwise.



Their marketing fails to mention what res the games are played at. :rolleyes:

Summary: Expensive doorstop.
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If you buy a gpu like that for a DAW, you're wasting money. Only gamers and people doing 3D rendering need that kind of gpu power. For all other users it's wasted...
 
cyrano said:
If you buy a gpu like that for a DAW, you're wasting money. Only gamers and people doing 3D rendering need that kind of gpu power. For all other users it's wasted...
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That no way counters what I said. Apple's hype talks about playing the latest 3D games. So if you buy this mac mini thinking you are getting the added bonus of a capable Graphics Card then you are in for an unpleasant surprise.

Why not get a more powerful tower with the 1 gig card* for about the same price ? Would make a better DAW anyway.



*Or without if you want to save even more. :)
 
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For use on the internet Mac has it all over PC, if you're looking at a dedicated recording machine, a PC is the way to go. I've seen too many viruses get on PC's to use them on the internet again.
 
dintymoore said:
That's my biggest question about the mini... you are paying extra for it compared to a tower. Why?

Why is it worth the extra money? Because it uses a small hard drive that will cost more to replace than a regular size one? To me it's basically a laptop without any of the advantages of a laptop.
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The reason I use one for my server is that it pays itself annually in power savings compared with a tower, backs itself up automatically to my Airport base station, and doesn't contribute too much heat to an already-too-warm server closet. YMMV.
 
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