Apple's Mac Mini

[govtcheez75]

Link...

I wonder how hot it gets in that little tiny case. This thing would make an awesome HTPC....and it's pretty cheap! (Never thought I'd say that about an apple product)

 

[IlllI]

well if you think about it, its pretty much just a 'square' version of the one they came out with a couple years ago. the one that looked like a lamp(that had the lcd attached it it)?

 

[uOpt]

500 bucks for having a deveopment machine with MacOS X, with warranty and no ebay trouble, integrated wireless, low power consumption and probably pretty quiet.

Sounds pretty good to me.

 

[Gravity]

Saw it today while looking at the $99 ipod.

Finally! An ipod that I can get some use out of. I always felt guilty considering a mp3 player that has more room that I could ever have music.

The little apple is cute as heck!! I'm still working on the ibook I got wifey for xmas.

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Originally posted by: MartinCracauer
500 bucks for having a deveopment machine with MacOS X, with warranty and no ebay trouble, integrated wireless, low power consumption and probably pretty quiet.

Sounds pretty good to me.

Too bad you'll never run it, because it uses an ATI chip.

- M4H

 

[uOpt]

Originally posted by: MercenaryForHire

Originally posted by: MartinCracauer
500 bucks for having a deveopment machine with MacOS X, with warranty and no ebay trouble, integrated wireless, low power consumption and probably pretty quiet.

Sounds pretty good to me.

Too bad you'll never run it, because it uses an ATI chip.

- M4H

Well, in this case Apple, not ATI takes care of the drivers. Strangely enough, Fog Tables fog works on the Mac..

 

[cy7878]

Wirelss is OPTIONAL!! Costs $129. If you add up all the stuff, you may as well buy an iBook because it's the same price.

 

[halfadder]

I just ordered one. $479 and free shipping for students at the Apple website.

I bought the bare bones model. It's all I need to play with, and after a few weeks I'm going to give it to my grandpa to replace his virus and spyware ridden Pentium 2. I'm not sure if I should buy a USB->PS/2 adapter so he can keep using his old keyboard and mouse or if I should spend the exact same amount of money on a new set of keys/mouse... it would be kind of neat to make the Mac Mini a complete drop-in replacement.

Mac Mini is great if all you need are "mini" features. (I'm glad it has a DVI port though). Perfect for all of those older relatives who need a machine for surfing, email, word processing, finances, and maybe some day digital photos, home movies, and dvd burning. Comes with most of the software they'd ever need. It's not for most of us power users though.

 

[Wuzup101]

Very nice... can't wait... might have to get one over the summer

 

[halfadder]

I haven't checked the regular prices, but with the educational discount, adding Bluetooth is $45 and 802.11b/g is $71. I didn't opt for either as I have plenty of ethernet drops and I can always use a D-Link USB Bluetooth adapter for $36 if I ever find that I really need Bluetooth. (Not likely as the one I ordered will go to my grandpa after I'm done playing with it).

 

[21stHermit]

Why is Apple the only company that can think small and cute?
The $500 Price/Performance is no breakthrough.
Over and over Apple manages to "out-Cute" every other company.

 

[21stHermit]

Originally posted by: halfadder
I just ordered one. $479 and free shipping for students at the Apple website.

If your Grampa can wait, you'll be able to eBay it for $600+ in a few weeks.

 

[beat mania]

Beats shuttle and all that for SFF. FINALLY someone decides to use an external brick for PS and a laptop size dvd drive.

Too bad all the add-on options are so expensive even with edu. discount.

 

[uOpt]

Is the wireless option a normal mini-PCI card? I only need b anyway.

 

[littlezipp]

halfadder, would you mind posting a review when you get this, I am curious to know what your impressions are.

 

[halfadder]

I will post a very detailed review. I can't wait to compare it to my PowerBook (which has similar specs, except Radeon 9600 graphics) and to my friend's 1.2 GHz VIA C3 powered MiniITX system (a little bigger than Mac Mini and cost about $500 too).

I'll also compare it to a few of my modern PCs too.

 

[hopejr]

If I got one (which I'm seriously considering), it will be better than my current iBook G4 (April '04 model) and will be a nice machine to replace my Pentium 2 with.

 

[frazzled]

Oh my, I'm floored.... I didn't think they would do this.

Good call halfadder .... this will be a great machine for the basic user, I'm about to "switch" my mom to Mac and this will be perfect, she had been putting me off since she didn't want to spend the bucks on an iMac. Just have to keep my eye out for a good LCD sale and give her my extra Apple keyboard and mouse. No more spyware-purging afternoons for me.

I think another good use will be at work, I have some nice Mac molbio software that my students would appreciate, but the lab has been Win 2000 forever. I can easily afford to set up a single mini with one of our backup LCDs ... the small size in a cramped lab is an extra bonus.

Looking forward to your impressions.

JT

 

[WackyDan]

Originally posted by: beat mania
Beats shuttle and all that for SFF. FINALLY someone decides to use an external brick for PS and a laptop size dvd drive.

Too bad all the add-on options are so expensive even with edu. discount.

But you can expand the shuttle.

Check the specs on the Mini's video and you will see why this is no Shuttle killer... besides even though both are small --they both are two different classes of product.

 

[coolred]

Man I just purchased a Biostar 200N, should be shipping today or tomorrow from newegg. I am moving my current system over to it, since my main rig will become dual Xeon. I always wanted to learn the apple OS and see how there stuff works, in case I ever needed that info. Kinda wish I had waited on the biostar now. Guess I can wait fro reviews of this thing and if its good I could always sell off the biostar system, allbeit at a loss. But if the mac is good then it may be worth it.

 

[kenan921]

Looks great, actually has me thinking of buying my first MAC. I just wish it had integrated wireless, or atleast a mouse/keyboard for the price. EMAC and IBOOK are looking like pretty good deals compared to this.

 

[InlineFive]

Originally posted by: MartinCracauer
Is the wireless option a normal mini-PCI card? I only need b anyway.

AirPort: PCMCIA clients
AirPort Express: mini-PCI clients

I'm pretty sure on those. There's no guarantee that you can use a 3rd party miniPCI card with it.

 

[kitkit201]

Dont you guys have USB keyboards and mouses laying around? Apple priced the Mac Mini to convert PC users to the Mac, as monitors, most keyboards and mouses are dual-compaitible.

I think it's a real sweet deal for someone who is sick and tired of having a PC spamed with virus', spyware etc.. ... $479 + tax for the student one! holy cow! I might just get one and I have 2 laptops: 600m and gateway M505x... I could get it for my parents or something..

 

[uOpt]

I also have a USB wireless ethernet card floating around. There's probably some cheapo USB wireless b around that has MacOS X drivers, so that you don't have to raise the price by 20% to get wireless. Could also rip the Intel card out of my thinkpad to try to use it if there's drivers.

I know zero about MacOS X drivers. I assume they don't have a wrapper to use Windows drivers like Linux has?

 

[hopejr]

it probably wouldn't, considering the PPC is mainly Big endian (a common characteristic of Motorola/IBM chips)