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- Dec 8, 2011
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- Your Mac's Specs
- 2011 Mac mini, 2007 Macbook, iPod Classic, iPod Touch 2nd generation, iPad 1
I currently have a 4 year old Macbook, a 23" widescreen LCD and a 5 year old linux desktop. I spend half the time on my Macbook hooked up to 23" LCD in dualscreen setup and half the time on Linux.
There are 3 reasons for considering buying a Mac mini:
The main reason which is holding me back is the price. For the price of the basic Mac mini ($599 / €599) I can buy a desktop PC with twice the hardware specs (quad core 3 GHz, 8 GB RAM, 1 TB hard disc, ...).
However, I don't want to give up on using a Mac because I need iTunes (iPad, iPod, audiobooks, ebooks, music, video), I want to keep on using one commercial OS (and Windows raises my blood pressure), and for the occasional video and photo editing.
What kind of improvement can I expect with the current
* Mac mini (2.5 GHz dual-core Intel Core i5, 4 GB 1333 MHz DDR3 RAM, 500-GB hard disc 5400 rpm, AMD Radeon HD 6630M)
compared to my 4 year old
* Macbook (2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB 667 MHz DDR2 RAM, replacement hard disc after crash 500 MB 5400 rpm)?
If I buy a Mac I also want the Apple Care protection plan and €1000 / $1000 is my limit. Means I might just upgrade to 2.7 GHz, but larger and faster hard disc or upgrade to 8 GB is out of the question. For the price of 8 GB ($400 / €400) for Mac mini one can buy a complete desktop pc.
Is a Mac mini worth it? Or should I buy new desktop pc (8GB RAM, quad core 3 GHz, 1 TB HD, ...) for linux for less money and use my Macbook just for iTunes? For getting things done (text editing, Libre Office, GIMP, browsing, email, ssh & VNC, blogging, skype, google talk, ...) there is very little difference (90% of the time) for me between using Mac or linux.
Thanks for your time and I hope you can convince me a mini is worth it.
There are 3 reasons for considering buying a Mac mini:
- Now that I have a smaller desk at home connecting Macbook to dualscreen has become nuisance.
- Whenever I try to run 2 virtual private servers (350 MB each), do some basic video editing or watch a movie the ventilators start making lots of noise and things slow down.
- I cannot afford to buy nor have the place for an iMac. I will not stop using my linux desktop and I don't have the place for a second display (iMac). If I buy a mini it is going to be 2 computers connected to 1 display
The main reason which is holding me back is the price. For the price of the basic Mac mini ($599 / €599) I can buy a desktop PC with twice the hardware specs (quad core 3 GHz, 8 GB RAM, 1 TB hard disc, ...).
However, I don't want to give up on using a Mac because I need iTunes (iPad, iPod, audiobooks, ebooks, music, video), I want to keep on using one commercial OS (and Windows raises my blood pressure), and for the occasional video and photo editing.
What kind of improvement can I expect with the current
* Mac mini (2.5 GHz dual-core Intel Core i5, 4 GB 1333 MHz DDR3 RAM, 500-GB hard disc 5400 rpm, AMD Radeon HD 6630M)
compared to my 4 year old
* Macbook (2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB 667 MHz DDR2 RAM, replacement hard disc after crash 500 MB 5400 rpm)?
If I buy a Mac I also want the Apple Care protection plan and €1000 / $1000 is my limit. Means I might just upgrade to 2.7 GHz, but larger and faster hard disc or upgrade to 8 GB is out of the question. For the price of 8 GB ($400 / €400) for Mac mini one can buy a complete desktop pc.
Is a Mac mini worth it? Or should I buy new desktop pc (8GB RAM, quad core 3 GHz, 1 TB HD, ...) for linux for less money and use my Macbook just for iTunes? For getting things done (text editing, Libre Office, GIMP, browsing, email, ssh & VNC, blogging, skype, google talk, ...) there is very little difference (90% of the time) for me between using Mac or linux.
Thanks for your time and I hope you can convince me a mini is worth it.