Mac Mini Questions....

I was wondering if some of you guys could give me your recommendation on the Mac Mini. I currently have a Dell Inspiron 5100 2.66 Ghz w/ 512 MB of RAM and a 32MB Radeon 7500. I already own a 17 inch LCD display, keyboard, mouse, external HD, etc... I'm a student in College and would use this computer mostly for Media, work, and occasional games. How powerful would this computer be for games? What would be some of the most advanced games it could successfully play? I have never owned a Mac before but think this may be my entrance into this other dimension.

So do you think it would be worth it to have a second computer? And would this blow my 2.66 Ghz out of the water? I'm just tired of my computer freezing and my having to reboot. I've already reformatted my comp. twice.


Thanks!
Steven.

We do not allow the freemac/freeipod links on the board.

Mac's are not very good for games but for everything else they are great.

trpnmonkey41 said:

Mac's are not very good for games but for everything else they are great.

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OK. So MACs are great. But specifically, How is the Mac Mini? I have heard people talking about "hiccuping" in the performance, even with 512 Mb of ram.

-Confused-

Yak out.

Flamingyak said:

I was wondering if some of you guys could give me your recommendation on the Mac Mini. I currently have a Dell Inspiron 5100 2.66 Ghz w/ 512 MB of RAM and a 32MB Radeon 7500. I already own a 17 inch LCD display, keyboard, mouse, external HD, etc... I'm a student in College and would use this computer mostly for Media, work, and occasional games.

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For media work and internet, the Mac Mini should more than hold it's own. I would definitely recommend getting the RAM upgraded to 512 if you're going to be working with Photoshop, though.

How powerful would this computer be for games? What would be some of the most advanced games it could successfully play? I have never owned a Mac before but think this may be my entrance into this other dimension.

Click to expand...

As for Games, the Mac Mini isn't going to be a great Game Machine, however, your Dell should be able to cover that aspect for you. You can get an inexpensive KVM switch to share the Keyboard, Monitor and Mouse between the two, and they can both be networked together so you can share files and media.

There is a section on the Apple site that lists games that are available for the Mac platform, and what specs they require. I have heard that you can play Halo on the Mac Mini, but I haven't heard about Doom3 yet. Also, check sites like MacUpdates and VersionTracker for hundreds of thirdparty shareware and freeware games for OS X. There's a lot more out there than you might realize.

So do you think it would be worth it to have a second computer?

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Absolutely!

And would this blow my 2.66 Ghz out of the water?

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Absolutely not, but you don't have to replace your Dell, just add a Mac Mini to it. Remember, there are no currently successful viruses/Worms/trojans/spyware/adware problems on Mac OS X. And these are major reasons why Windows machines have issues these days. Add a Mac Mini, and use that for your Online access, and the Dell for your Gaming, and you might actually love using computers once again (assuming you don't at the moment, or just 'deal' with them for now).

I'm just tired of my computer freezing and my having to reboot. I've already reformatted my comp. twice.

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Thus one of many reasons why I switched to Mac completely. Windows hassles were just not worth my wasted time anymore.

Flamingyak said:

OK. So MACs are great. But specifically, How is the Mac Mini? I have heard people talking about "hiccuping" in the performance, even with 512 Mb of ram.

-Confused-

Yak out.

Click to expand...

When you say "hiccuping" what are you referring to? I did notice a bit of lag in performance with the base 256Mb (multiple applications running, which would be expected). I upgraded to a 1gig, and the difference is tremendous. I have absolutely no problems with it, and glad that the mac mini is my first introduction to the mac world.

VJ

Flamingyak said:

OK. So MACs are great. But specifically, How is the Mac Mini? I have heard people talking about "hiccuping" in the performance, even with 512 Mb of ram.

-Confused-

Yak out.

Click to expand...

I haven't heard any reports of this at all. I have heard concerns that the 5400RPM hard drives in them may make the performance somewhat lacking, but as of yet, I haven't heard any complaints from people I know who have purchased a Mac Mini. One friend is a die-hard Mac fan, and he says the Mac Mini has taken everything he's thrown at it and performed brilliantly. No complaints.

VakeJ said:

When you say "hiccuping" what are you referring to? I did notice a bit of lag in performance with the base 256Mb (multiple applications running, which would be expected). I upgraded to a 1gig, and the difference is tremendous. I have absolutely no problems with it, and glad that the mac mini is my first introduction to the mac world.

VJ

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Welcome!

DakRoland said:

I haven't heard any reports of this at all. I have heard concerns that the 5400RPM hard drives in them may make the performance somewhat lacking, but as of yet, I haven't heard any complaints from people I know who have purchased a Mac Mini. One friend is a die-hard Mac fan, and he says the Mac Mini has taken everything he's thrown at it and performed brilliantly. No complaints.

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Actually, the HD has 4200rpm, and really is the only speed issue...

Can the mini be connected to a regular TV or does it have to be connected to a monitor. What connections are required on the TV. I have s-video and composite on my CRT TV

richieg said:

Can the mini be connected to a regular TV or does it have to be connected to a monitor. What connections are required on the TV. I have s-video and composite on my CRT TV

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You can certainly use it on very many TV's (with an adaptor), in fact I've seen many cool set ups with people who do.