Mac Mini For Business (and occasional editing)

Hi Folks,

I was thinking of venturing into actually getting a "legit" Mac and wondered if it would be best to start with a mac mini. I am familiar with Leopard as I am running it on my MSI Wind, so my reason for purchase isn't to get acquainted with the OS-and yes, I do have a full retail copy of OSX for my wind.

Anyway, I am looking for a desktop replacement for my consulting business. I provide medical consulting (health/wellness coaching, case management, home health, etc) and find that my current desktop needs aren't too demanding. I just need an office suite, quickbooks, browser of course, and email.

My current PC is a dell inspiron (~1.5yrs old) Quad Core Q6600, 4gb RAM, 250gb HD, ATI Sapphire 2600XT 512mb graphics card, dual monitors, Dual boot XP Pro and Win 7.

Basically alot of machine, but "fragile." The motherboard has been replaced twice and I've had random peripherals/USB ports just not working. Some days I don't know if it's going to turn on. I just can't have this in my type of business. I back up everything on an external drive (macally enclosure with 1TB WD Caviar Black 7200 RPM) and cloud back ups as well. The medical data is "precious" so that's why the extra back up.

Now, I know Macs aren't falt free, but I would just feel better if I needed service that I could schedule an appt. and take in the mini to have it diagnosed and hopefully repaired or replaced. Calling overseas for tech support has wasted multiple hours of my day and waiting for a tech to come out drives me a little bonkers, especially with my schedule.

So, I'll wrap this up with some questions:

1) Anyone running a business with a mini? (not photo, video, graphics, etc) I know this isn't really what you would consider a workstation.

2) I have two LCD's VGA (I do have the DVI adapters that came with the ATI card), so can I run these monitors together?

3) I have a canon HG10 (AVCHD), I don't do a lot of editing/rendering (family stuff), but I use Corel videostudio 11 and my current PC is definitely running full on during the render. So, how is iMovie? I'm not looking to do any crazy editing, just get the footage up on a site so that the family can view it.

I'm fairly up on tech and feel comfortable upgrading the HD and RAM. Sure I could build a nice PC with great parts, but I'm looking to "streamline" things and become as green as I can. I feel like I am using too much power for what I really need. My netbook is great for mobility and does what I need it to do on the road.

Any input is greatly appreciated.

1. not a mini but a macbook with the same specs so in a way yes. you will be more than covered for performance with your Mini and your business.

2. yes

3. my 3 year old mini can process everything iMovie can throw at it so you will be fine.

my only concern is that you mentioned running medical consulting software and i have never seen any that is Mac compatible. i am not saying its not out there but i do a lot of computer work ad often run into medical people having problems completely making the switch because of this. you can always solve this by running XP or Vista on your Mini if you had to have it.

good luck and Enjoy

Thanks Fletch (love those movies btw).

I figured if I have some pliers and a set of 30-weight ball bearings I can upgrade the Fetzer Valve in the mini as well.

All jokes aside, I figured the specs on the mini might work. I did consider a MB, but I need something more of a desktop and I really like how light and portable the Wind is.

There are actually some medical programs that run on a mac, actually Apple does a little advertising on their business site for medical/dental offices, but most of the programs I use are web based.

As far as iMovie, I've seen where it can render the AVCHD footage and I wouldn't really mind if I just had to let the system do what it needs to do during the render and just leave it alone. I usually have to walk away from my Quad Core and use the netbook if I need to do something anyway.

I'm in no rush to pick it up unless my current system fails on me. I'd like to see if anything interesting comes out from the WWDC. Snow Leopard sounds pretty sweet.

its all ball bearings these days

i also had a Wind doing the same as you. i sold my black macbook before the unibody was officially announced knowing it was worth more that way and while i waited i bought the Wind U100, EEC PC 1000h, and the Acer Aspire 1 and the Wind ran OS X the best by far. it was fun and although it ran near flawless on the Wind there was just something missing and i bought the unibody macbook shortly after it was released