Mac mini (1 Viewer)

[Dave Scarpa]

Craig I'm Jealous I ordered mine prety early however I strayed bit from the base model and mine won't till somtime in the 1st 2 weeks of February. Look forward to hearing your impresssions.

 

[Ted Todorov]

For anyone in the NYC area who wants one, the Apple Store Soho on Prince St. has them in stock, (or at least did, at 2:45 this afternoon). I was there to pick up iLife '05.

I can't believe how tiny they are -- no matter how many pictures I saw nothing prepared me for the reality. Amazing design!

Ted

 

[Joseph S]

Some folks will do it to show it can be done. Others will use dead iMacs to salvage the display. Some will do it for no logical reason.

 

[Lee Scoggins]

Well I am now typing this on my new iMac G5. I have to say I am quite happy and very impressed so. This O/S blows XP out of the water...I got set up with far more capability in 2 hours than what took 6 hours with my last IBM PC.

Life is good!

 

[Craig S]

Well, FedEx did NOT bring my Mac Mini on Saturday. :frowning:

So Lee, you bailed on the Mini and went for the iMac, eh??

 

[Dave Scarpa]

Around here Fedex doesnt deliver Weekends. If you get it today post some impressions. I ordered mine on the 13th but it won't ship till on or before 2/14.

 

[Craig S]

Well, I've found that sometimes FedEx will deliver on Saturday. I figured since the status said "on truck, ready for delivery" it might come. Oh well.

They did come by early this morning to deliver it - while I was in the shower. So all I got was the signature slip.
Now I won't have it until tomorrow... *** SIGH ***

 

[Dave Scarpa]

I absolutely Hate Fed Ex, anytime I have to get a delivery from Fed Ex there's a hassle. Now I send any Fed Ex delivery to my Parents house becasue they are usually home to get it.

 

[Joseph S]

At least with FedEx you can pick it up at the local shipping site. UPS makes you wait a day.

 

[Craig S]

Well, it arrived this morning. Only had time to make sure the inner box was a Mac Mini before I had to head to work (staff meeting).

I should be able to post some impressions tonight.

 

[Craig S]

Typing this into Safari on my Mac Mini right now, with the new Pat Metheny Group CD playing via iTunes in the background.

Very slick out-of-box experience. It had no problem working with my Logitech wireless keyboard & mouse and my Dell flat-panel display. In fact, it even recognized the display model and loaded the appropriate color profile without bothering me about it.

Performance is fine (I have the faster model w/ 512 MB RAM). It's not super snappy like my 3 Ghz PC (w/ 1.5 GB RAM), but I wasn't expecting it to be. But it's not sluggish either. The fancy dock graphics all work very well.

It really is incredibly small. Quiet too, at least when the CD drive isn't running.

Off to play some more...

 

[KeithAP]

The BTO options have changed a bit. The DVD burner is now an 8x model and buying Bluetooth and Airport Extreme saves you a few dollars. They also lowered the price of the 1GB memory option by $150 to $325.

-Keith

 

[David Williams]

I took a hard look at the Mac Mini, but in the end I decided to go with the eMac when I upgrade from my Rev C iMac near the end of this year. In terms of price comparison, it seems a no-brainer. I'll probably end up with the $799 with upgrades to both memory and HD (1GB and 160GB, respectively).

 

[Dave Scarpa]

Craig you got it and went to work anyhow. What a company man What are the Dock Graphics you speak about. I'm very envious and wish mine would ship soon !

I've heard of the changes to the Superdrive and the reduction in cost I wonder if anyone has had their price reduced ?

 

[Lee Scoggins]

Yep, I decided I might need the G5 power. I work on large spreadsheets at work.

I'm glad you are enjoying your new machine.

 

[Bob_Chase]

Dave, the Dock is the equivalent of the Windows start bar but with style to burn.

 

[ThomasC]

AFAIK, the Dock is like Quick Launch, not the Start Menu. The Start Menu's equivalent is the Macintosh HD icon. I prefer the Dock to Quick Launch, and the Start Menu to Macintosh HD. My university's main computer lab has a few iMac G5s, and I've started using them this semester. It's gotten to the point to where I don't want to work on a Windows machine unless I absolutely have to.

 

[RossH]

http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?si...49239&from=rss

Anyone know if the purchase options (SuperDrive, Ram etc) have changed prices in Canada? It doesn't seem so on the Canadian Apple store site.

I just ordered my Mini on Saturday...be a shame if I paid more than I have to.

Course, I'm only getting the 512MB RAM option...no need for wireless in my tiny apartment. But I may have considered the 8X SuperDrive if available up here.

 

[NickBrazzi]

I figure I should chime in here, since I am using the Mac Mini for my HTPC, and have been since Saturday. I waited in line at the Apple store and got mine when they opened on the "launch" day.

I've got the 1.4Ghz stock (256mb RAM, Combo Drive).

As a home theater PC, I think its awesome. I have to quantify that by saying I do not plan to DVR HD material. I expect to be able to set up a standard definition DVR, using the ElGato EyeTV 200, but that's not set up yet.

For DVD Playback, general video files (QT, Divx, etc..), iTunes, Web, all on the projector this unit is great.

I did have to add the M-Audio Transit for digital audio pass through for the DVD playback, and my ATI Remote Wonder II is in the mail.

I feel like I need to upgrade the RAM (no surprise). It works great as is, as long as you do one thing at a time. It chokes up a bit when you do some multi-tasking. Its not bad, I just would prefer the smoothness of extra RAM.

It is certainly plenty quiet. It is super-silent. But, it does have a variable fan that kicks in with more demanding apps. So, DVD playback (running the optical drive at 1x) and playback of video files, and the web it is definitely quiet enough for HT. It sits right behind my head and it never bothers me. Now when you are installing apps, or running several tracks in Garage Band or doing something more demanding to the processor, the fan kicks in and its definitely noticable. It's not too bad, and it only kicks in with demanding apps.

I've got it connected to my Epson Powerlite Home 10+ projector. I still need to tweak the image with Avia. It's kind of bright right now, but I'm sure Avia will fix it.

Anyway, I think its great for HT. Definitely worth considering.

 

[Dave Scarpa]

Nick I have one on order mainly for use as a PC, but I had planned to try it on my Basement projector. I currently use TheaterTek on my HTPC. With THeatertek I need to scale the image for my 800x600 PJ. I imagine your using the built in DVD Player how does that work?