Should I buy Mac Mini?

[Guest zarfworld]

Hi, I am thinking about Mac Mini and should I buy it?

 

Apple Mac mini Core 2 Duo 2.26 GHz (Cache Memory: 3 MB L2 Cache) and NVIDIA GeForce 9400M Shared Video Memory (UMA).

 

Why Mac? Crash free, virus free, easy to use, starts up in under a minute and its product looks very small and trendy.

 

I am only using it for personal use - emails, youtube, chat, pictures, etc. I want to know is it top of the range on processor and graphic card. I dont intend use this for my work - AutoCAD etc. But can it cope certain CAD softwares effortlessly if I want to install it for "just in case"?

 

I hope you get the picture.

[AJLynn]

I don't know about "effortlessly" - how were you going to install Windows? Boot camp or VM? If it's VM you definitely need to up it to 4GB RAM, if Boot Camp you can probably get away with the 2GB but 4GB is good to have anyway. But yes, the Mini is a good computer especially when you're looking for something small.

[aaronrumple]

There is also the Dell Zino and all the Atom-Ion/Nvida based systems.

 

With the Dell you get more options to customize to your needs. The Ion systems are cheaper. The Zotac system is like $250. Asus EEEBox under $300.

[AJLynn]

Don't get an Atom or Ion system. They are horrendously underpowered for when you need to do... well, anything. I'd never try to run Autocad on one. Or Photoshop. Or Firefox. Or Notepad. The Mac Mini is more expensive but you get a Core 2 Duo.

[Frosty]

Hi, I am thinking about Mac Mini and should I buy it?

Maybe.

 

Why Mac? Crash free, virus free, easy to use, starts up in under a minute and its product looks very small and trendy.

Not crash free, but it sure is pretty.

 

I am only using it for personal use - emails, youtube, chat, pictures, etc. I want to know is it top of the range on processor and graphic card. I dont intend use this for my work - AutoCAD etc. But can it cope certain CAD softwares effortlessly if I want to install it for "just in case"?

Its a core 2 duo, so yes it will run basically all modern software, but don't expect work station class performance. Its a budget computer in a small form factor. I think your expectations are realistic and your intended usage is appropriate. You'll likely be very happy with your choice.

 

In order to run AutoCad or other windows based apps, you have two main options. 1) Use bootcamp to install windows. This requires a reboot to get into windows. 2) Use an emulator to run windows inside Mac OSX. I suggest Virtual Box by Sun. Its not seamless, but it works very well and its free.

 

My biggest peave about running windows on an Apple is actually the keyboard. CTRL, ALT, CMND, eject and screen capture seem to be the biggest issues to me.

[aaronrumple]

For the price of a decked out Mac Mini, I'd just get a basic laptop.... The Mini is nice, just over priced. The Dell Zino is the same basic specs for half the price.

 

The Ions would be just fine for the stated use as a web/email/entertainment system. Not for cad of course.

[DanGrover]

My girlfriend recently got an Acer laptop for a dual core AMD processor, 3GB of ram (I think?) and an okayish graphics card for about £350. There are bargains to be had! She's in CG too, and she uses it mostly for photoshopping and whatnot whilst her workstation's rendering.

[Guest zarfworld]

@AJLynn - I dont know much about Pros/cons on using Bootcamp but it does seem flexible. Bear in mind, I just looked up this particular new software that can run two operating system at the same time without rebooting - Parallels Desktop 5.0 for Mac. It looks very flexible to me.

 

@aaronrumple - I have heard about Dell Zino but I am concern about reliability.

 

@Frosty - Not cashfree? How? I thought they can run many applications at the same time with no hiccups.

 

@DanGrover - Where can I find that particular laptop?

[Guest zarfworld]

Maybe.

 

 

Not crash free, but it sure is pretty.

 

 

Its a core 2 duo, so yes it will run basically all modern software, but don't expect work station class performance. Its a budget computer in a small form factor. I think your expectations are realistic and your intended usage is appropriate. You'll likely be very happy with your choice.

 

In order to run AutoCad or other windows based apps, you have two main options. 1) Use bootcamp to install windows. This requires a reboot to get into windows. 2) Use an emulator to run windows inside Mac OSX. I suggest Virtual Box by Sun. Its not seamless, but it works very well and its free.

 

My biggest peave about running windows on an Apple is actually the keyboard. CTRL, ALT, CMND, eject and screen capture seem to be the biggest issues to me.

 

Not cashfree? How? I thought they can run many applications at the same time with no hiccups.

[AJLynn]

I think he means it's not impossible to crash a Mac. This is true - I have Mac and Windows boxes, and I guess Windows crashes more... but not often, not like with Windows 98 where you needed to reboot twice a day... but the Mac has crashed.

 

Number of apps you can run at a time depends on how much RAM you have. it's a 64-bit OS on a 64-bit CPU and it handles itself very well, even with large apps, when you give it 4GB or more.

[Frosty]

I think he means it's not impossible to crash a Mac.

 

Bang on. I've been using Macs and Windows PCs side by side for a long time. The bottom line is they both crash. Windows has improved greatly and crashes much less than it used to. My Mac Pro very rarely crashes - like once or twice a year. Far more frequently now, on both systems, is that applications will crash and the system will not.

[Chad Warner]

Bang on. I've been using Macs and Windows PCs side by side for a long time. The bottom line is they both crash. Windows has improved greatly and crashes much less than it used to. My Mac Pro very rarely crashes - like once or twice a year. Far more frequently now, on both systems, is that applications will crash and the system will not.

 

 

I agree...I can't remember the last time I had an actual Windows crash. Max and AutoCAD though, that's a whole other story.

[lee81070]

My biggest peave about running windows on an Apple is actually the keyboard. CTRL, ALT, CMND, eject and screen capture seem to be the biggest issues to me.

 

What sort of issues? They work fine for me, it's just the keys are mapped to Windows keys... i.e. the CMD key works the same as the Windows key, as it's in the same location. FN keys all work if you have it set up properly as does the eject button. As for screen capture, why not use the on-screen keyboard, under the accessibility tools? If these keys aren't working properly for you, it sounds like you may need to reinstall bootcamp.

 

I've been using it ever since it was first included (and am in XP on my MacBook Pro typing this) and have to say it's the best way to run PC apps, as you get the full power of the CPUs and hardware, whereas virtual emulation software require more system resources to run two OSes on top of each other.

[Tommy L]

I have no experience with any Macs, but I have a 4 year old laptop (Dell) that runs on a Core 2 Duo and I have been extremely impressed.

[adarsh]

Please buy a Mac mini, it would serve your purpose mentioned.

Do not buy it now, the hardware (Processor/RAM/Graphics) might be upgraded and release sometimes in the Q2.

 

Cheers,

Adarsh

[AJLynn]

You could go crazy, not buying computers because there will be an update later. There will always be an update later. And these Minis aren't on a schedule.

[adarsh]

Agree with you AJLynn, time is important. If it is a bulky purchase then it is not worth to have "N" mac mini's with Core 2 Duo instead of i5 or i7 and other updated hardware for the same price or a bit more.

 

Cheers,

Adarsh

[AJLynn]

They're likely to get CPU upgrades soon(ish) - and I'm 90% sure it will be to the same two-core i5 or i7 chips used in the Macbook Pros (which are better but not mind blowing). What will make it take longer to happen than it ought to is that they had to go from an nVidia MB to an Intel MB to make the change to i5/7, because nVidia and Intel got in a fight, Intel played dirty (this was when they were only going to sell Atom CPUs bundled with Intel chipsets) and nVidia took its bat and ball and "screw you guys, I'm going home."

 

For a variety of reasons you can read on Mac sites, they are having a hard time fitting everything into the smaller 13" laptop cases when using Intel MB's, now that they've raised the bar on what sort of video card a small Mac has and Intel's onboard GMA hardware won't cut it. I expect the same issue will come up with the Mini and neither the Mini nor the 13" will get a new CPU until Intel redesigns the MB.

[adarsh]

Agree with you here. Also Apple business model does not want put something powerful in Mac Mini for ($500 +) which might compete with its own products up in the scale. So what is your suggestion here ? if one wants to buy 'N' Mac Minis ?

[AJLynn]

Buy what you need now, now. As for Apple's business decisions - well, it's true that they're targeting different markets with each model, but there are real technical reasons behind a lot of the decisions they make. There's a limit as to what they can do at the price point of a Mini in that small case, and since they've had problems in the past with being too ambitious and making computers that overheat (the original Macbook Pro batteries, the iMacs that had hard drive failures because of heat, etc.) I'm not surprised that they're taking their time with the new designs.

[aligrafix]

Hi, I am thinking about Mac Mini and should I buy it?

 

Apple Mac mini Core 2 Duo 2.26 GHz (Cache Memory: 3 MB L2 Cache) and NVIDIA GeForce 9400M Shared Video Memory (UMA).

 

Why Mac? Crash free, virus free, easy to use, starts up in under a minute and its product looks very small and trendy.

 

I am only using it for personal use - emails, youtube, chat, pictures, etc. I want to know is it top of the range on processor and graphic card. I dont intend use this for my work - AutoCAD etc. But can it cope certain CAD softwares effortlessly if I want to install it for "just in case"?

 

I hope you get the picture.

 

I am using max and vray alongwith compositing and post-production as well. As far as Max is concerned, if you wana run CAD applications, keep in mind that they will not run in mac UI till you have installed bootcamp. I have MAC Book Pro. I am using windows and MAC both on it. Problem is that, if I need to use MAx and vray, I have to swtich to WinXP. For the first time use, I faced a problem. We have 2 windows here, 32 bit and 64-bit. My Boss just simply gave me this MAC Book pro, as his son simply left it and baught a new Laptop so i was happy to get it without demand.

Problem here is with bootcamp. I installed my windows 64 on it and when i ran the bootcamp, it didnt work. I was starving to get drivers for mac but it is only possible through bootcamp. Keep in mind, if you wana get the best performance from mac, use 64-bit. but bootcamp doesnt support it. I have to switch back to windows 32-bit, installed at all fine but another problem. When i installed Adobe CS3 Master collection, to post-process my rendered animations, CS3 didnt run. another headache was to get another licensed copy for MAC based windows. so bear in mind. if you wana get performance from MAC, you cannot run xp-64. but if you wana enjoy life, you can get it. its really virus, problems etc but it has issues with adobe and other softwares. i have come back to forum after a long time so, may be my updates are old.

[Frosty]

What sort of issues? They work fine for me, it's just the keys are mapped to Windows keys... i.e. the CMD key works the same as the Windows key, as it's in the same location. FN keys all work if you have it set up properly as does the eject button. As for screen capture, why not use the on-screen keyboard, under the accessibility tools? If these keys aren't working properly for you, it sounds like you may need to reinstall bootcamp.

 

I've been using it ever since it was first included (and am in XP on my MacBook Pro typing this) and have to say it's the best way to run PC apps, as you get the full power of the CPUs and hardware, whereas virtual emulation software require more system resources to run two OSes on top of each other.

 

I think I stated my issue in an unclear fashion. All the keys work, they're simply in different locations and I find it very frustrating. I think If I were to spend a lot of time in Windows, I'd have a windows specific KB to use. What would be ideal, however, would be that key mapping would be available to change CTRL, CMND and ALT.

[AJLynn]

I used to use key mapping before Apple built in their own, but if you Google it you'll find freeware key mapping software.

[Guest zarfworld]

First of all, I would like to say thank you very much for such amount of reply and I am quite stunned about it. I can't believe how much thorough and useful it is. I would recommend this website to my work colleagues to check this out and discuss and share opinions.

 

I am still stuck to decide which desktop to buy. I do want a small and very stable desktop, that's why I was thinking about Mac Mini. I was suprised when I read your comment saying it can crash and a possible to get a virus. Nonetheless, I am tempted use Windows 7 but I dont know which company can offer a solid built desktop like Mac Mini. Anyway, i'll wait for new processor from Core 2 Duo Processor to i5 or i7.