Mac Mini Users--pros, cons?

[fremenblue]

I'm in a situation where I'm needing to upgrade from my old Sawtooth 400 and looking at a Mini as a cost-effective option. I'd love to hear from anyone who's worked on one whether they owned it or not, and what they thought of it for what they were doing.

What I use computers for: text-based stuff like message boards, facebook; uploading home photos; listen to music; I want to record music (so I'm excited about having Garageband finally) and set up a web cam. I don't game at all or do any sort of video editing or heavy photoshopping. I'm kinda like your grandmum, only younger and still a metalhead at heart.

[Linas]

My dad used to have a mini mac. Although im not a huge fan of Apple, that computer should get you by doing those things. If you are going to be recording only using garage band it should be fine, you might want something more powerful if you were using other progs.

[MakiSupaStar]

I'm looking into this solution for our family computer also. Anyone?

[NJL]

we all pitched in and bought my buddy one when they first came out (a band i used to play in, he was the leader and his laptop just blew out) - he's still using it for photoshop!! been going good from what i can gather.. just had to max out on ram i guess..

[lopxtc]

We have two mac-minis at home, one for me the other for the wife.

My only real complaint is its a pain to upgrade. Open the shell can be difficult at best so if you plan to boost memory or hard drive, get someone who knows what they are doing.

Integrated video card, so dont expect to play many games which doesnt sound like an issue on your end.

Limited expansion ports, but on most systems this is also an issue. You get two fire wire, and four USB. Unless you go with the blue tooth mouse and keyboard then you will lose two USB ports. So I highly recommend the blue tooth road.

Highly recommend you get an external hub for the unit. While four USB and two FireWire might sound like a lot, they are located at the rear of the unit so depending on how you place the unit it can be a pain to plugin and unplug items a lot.

Okay that being said ... I love mine. I went with the mini because I already owned a high resolution 21 inch wide screen LCD panel and had a blue tooth keyboard and mouse for use with my 17" MacBook. So for me it was a cheap way to go.

All of my ports are used with my PreSonus fire wire interface, fire wire external hard drive, USB printer, iPod/iPhone adapter, and other USB devices.

For sound I run a set of 70watt monitors from the PreSonus device so the sound is quite nice .

Aaron

[lopxtc]

Forgot to add ...

On the upgrade trail ... the firmware on the board only supports and recognizes 3 gig of memory. It will run with two 2 gig chips, but you will lose access to one gig of memory.

Aaron

[MakiSupaStar]

I have a flat screen monitor that I'm using on a PC. Can I use that?

[NJL]

Originally Posted by lopxtc

Forgot to add ...

On the upgrade trail ... the firmware on the board only supports and recognizes 3 gig of memory. It will run with two 2 gig chips, but you will lose access to one gig of memory.

Aaron

Thanks for adding that, i was just looking for that!

I suppose that's just like my macbook..

as well (to the others) - don't pay for ram from apple, you can save money by DIY'ing it..

[lopxtc]

Originally Posted by MakiSupaStar

I have a flat screen monitor that I'm using on a PC. Can I use that?

Yes. If the monitor has a DVI plug;



Then you are good to go.

If it has an older VGA plug;



Then you just need the adapter included with the mini.

Aaron

[lopxtc]

Damn I should've add this also ...

If you are ever wanting a dual monitor solution, then do not go with a Mac-Mini. The mini video adapter cannot drive two monitors by itself and most external dual monitor adapters are not supported within OSX. Not to mention that most external dual monitor adapters just stretch the desktop across two monitors, they dont actually provide two independent desktops.

Aaron

[MakiSupaStar]

Yeah. I don't need a dualie set up. This sounds like it's going to work nicely for me. I'll go bluetooth. I have a few of those keyboards and mice laying around my lab.

[fremenblue]

So far, sounds good. We don't intend to run dual monitors. My recording ambitions are hobbyist at best. I hope to maybe get involved adding bass tracks to other people's stuff, sending back and forth just for fun, and also using the computer as a notebook of sorts, keeping track of musical ideas and as a practice device. I can get by fine with an external hub, and I suppose eventually an external hard drive if necessary. I mean, I'm getting by on a 60 gig hard drive now, and have 47 gigs free. I have less than 1 gig ram in the Sawtooth, too. So what seems austere to many would be plush for me.

[Thunderbird91]

Take it from me, a big Apple nerd. If you're looking to buy a mac mini or an imac, wait if you can. The imac will be updated within weeks most likely and the mac mini hopefully be also.

The current mac mini is outdated in almost every respect. For $600 you get a slightly out dated (at least comparing to the current macbooks) 1.83 GHz Core 2 Duo processor, old intel GMA 950 (In a word: crappy) video card, only 1 gig of ram and a wimpy 80GB hard drive. And not to mention, a combo drive. It doesn't even have a DVD burner. Ha.

Its been something like a year and a half since it was last updated. It's a huge rip-off as it stands. Apple should have either reduced the price or updated it by now. Don't get me wrong, its still a modern computer that will probably be more than enough power for 90% of the people. But still, if you wait you'll get more bang for your buck. For what you said you use computers for the current mac mini would be more than enough. I know, because I use a almost identically speced macbook as my main computer. And I do pretty much everything you say you do.

Good luck on the computer hunt.

[lopxtc]

Originally Posted by Thunderbird91

Its been something like a year and a half since it was last updated. It's a huge rip-off as it stands. Apple should have either reduced the price or updated it by now. Don't get me wrong, its still a modern computer that will probably be more than enough power for 90% of the people. But still, if you wait you'll get more bang for your buck.

I do agree with him on many of the points above ... however what bothers me is Apple dropping FireWire support on most of their new hardware. I personally would not want to record music without my firewire interface.

Not to start a USB2 (future USB3) / FireWire war ... I just know that I prefer firewire for hard disks and interfaces and Apple dropping this interface has made me worry about future lines.

Aaron

[disenchant]

A fellow bassist of mine got a Mac Mini and it works great! We loaded LogicExpress and he uses his Presonus FireStudio to record. It runs logic and Photoshop fine, although Photoshop isn't as smooth as on a G5.

I agree with the bluetooth keyboard and mouse. The Mighty Mouse is pretty schanzzy. I love my Mighty Mouse.

I was impressed with the Mac Mini. I'm using an old G4 to do all my recording and heavy video editing. I've been salivating over a new G5 (like we have at work). Unfortunately that's not in my future

[Thunderbird91]

Ah, I forgot to mention the firewire stuff. Yeah, You never know what apple is going to do. They did drop the firewire 400 port on the macbook (which really is a low blow for musicians and videographers, and people who use firewire for external storage) but they kept the firewire 800 port on the macbook pro.

Using my nerd abilities, my best guess as to what Apple will do is keep the firewire 800 ports on the "pro" machines (macbook pro, mac pro) and the imac, but will drop the firewire from the mini, in order to make it even with the macbook. But who knows.

[Barkless Dog]

I had a Mac mini for several years, (first Intel ones). I use mine just for garage band/recording.

These are things about mine, not sure about the newer ones-

A couple of things-get at least two gigs of memory or you run into lag multi track issues.

Things that suck on mine-
Only one firewire port, so you need to get a hub or disconnect something.

Like a laptop, little storage on it. You really need to operate with a backup drive.

The unit itself is small, but they did it by separating the power unit to the cord thats as big as a brick!


So with all the cords plugged in, back up drive USB Guitar input, it's really kind of unsightly octopus tentacle mess.

It's not really smaller, when you hook everything up, it's only redistributed.

[lopxtc]

Another pro - the mac mini doubles as an apple tv quite nicely if you have a HD tv.

[L-A]

The C2D (intel Minis) have been a very impressive step-up from the old ones. It will serve a family quite well, and support a good deal of work.

But, max out the ram when you buy it if you want to save some hassle.

Also, if you plan on recording, you may want either a FireWire interface and a USB2.0 external hard drive, or the opposite (FW hard drive and USB2.0 interface).

[fremenblue]

Originally Posted by lopxtc

Another pro - the mac mini doubles as an apple tv quite nicely if you have a HD tv.

We have a 42" hi-def rear projection tv, three-panel LCD. It's beautiful and it cost double what our last car did. What the heck is an apple tv???