PC Hardware : Apple Mac mini MA608LL/A (1.83 GHz Intel Core Duo, 512 MB RAM, 80 GB Hard Drive, SuperDrive)

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Rating: 5 out of 5 stars - Amazing Hardware small with only one real weakness
I purchased my from Apple as a Refubished unit. my cost was $400. Typically they now sell for $599 for this unit. Do not buy the only listed here as it is seriously over-priced.

The Mac Mini is a joke right? I have a Mac Pro with 4TB of disk space and 15GB or RAM and yet even with this awesome computer, I still decided to buy a Mac Mini, and I'd like to have a dozen more.

There are always times when you wished you had small computer, one that does not use much electricity (2-3 watts at idle), and one that can perform 95% of what you want it to do. This is it.

The Mac Mini is an upgradeable computer. It is easy to add up to 3GB of memory ($70), a bigger hard-drive up to 320GB right now ($150) and soon, a new 500GB ($300) notebook drive is expected to be released, and even the CPU can be upgraded to a max of 2.33GHz--pricey, but something to keep in mind as CPU prices keep falling--you will be able to beef up this computer such that it will work well for many years. I found this one of the easiest computers to work on for doing upgrades yourself. Do a Gooogle Search and you will see that lots of people publish tips and tricks for working on these machines.

People are putting these machines in cars, on boats, of as supplemental computers hooked up to free monitors like your new flat screen TV. Mine is hooked up to a 50" Sony.

The MAC OS X operating system is fabulous, and easy to use. It is a snap to change font sizes so you can read the screen from across the room. You can change screen resolutions with a couple of clicks too.

What else is great. It is so very easy to operate one MAC from another. This alone makes this a worthy addition to your network. I plan to use mine as an Internet Web Server. You don't even need a monitor to run this computer remotely, after a few configuration changes are made. Running a Mac Mini (headless--no monitor) is common among those who use these to run servers, because it is easy to open up a window to run it remotely, from anywhere! Add a larger Firewire 400 or USB drive a a Time Machine Backup Drive, and you have an easy to use, easy to maintain, server with good backup protection.

These machines are 6.5"x6.5"x2". That is small. You can put one anywhere. Mounting cages are available to install these on the back of your old LCD monitor. That gets it off your deck and out of the way, yet still in an accessible location.

You will need a keyboard and mouse. I like the wireless keyboard and mouse that Apple sells. Their wired keyboard is nice too. You can pick these up on eBay for 1/3 of what Apple sells them for.

Ok, so what is the negative. The built-in graphics card is a bit lame, but not totally useless. Unfortunately, you can't upgrade the video. it does include a DVI output and a conversion adapter for a VGA type cable. So while you won't want this machine for extreme gaming, it is not bad for most games that are not cutting edge,and it works great for any other applications.

These are Intel processors, so feel free to install a bigger hard drive and split it in half for Windows, and OS X.

Great Hardware, great OS. Small machine, small price. Buy two today.

Rating:

- Goodbye Windows!
I've had the Mac Mini for only a few days. Initial setup was effortless. In the past I have used Windows 95, 98, ME, and XP. All of the Windows operating systems operated well, sometimes. I suppose I just got used to all the usual hassle of those systems. Right out of the box this Mac Mini blows them all away. It makes almost no noise, takes up almost no space, and it is faster than what I was used to. It comes with lots of really cool programs for music, photos, movies, and more. The factory installed ethernet card is great, one less thing for me to do. The only thing I had a problem with is the plain jane Quick Time player. It has very few options, and you have to buy Quick Time Pro to really use it. I installed the Windows media player( get a Mac version on the net for free) and it works great. Time will tell, but so far so good. Don't be afraid to buy a Mac because you are used to Windows operating systems. There really is not a huge difference. A computer is a computer. I do not believe you would be disappointed with the Mac Mini(how do they fit it all in such a small package??).

Rating:

- GREAT APPLE BUY
ORDERED THE MAC MINI WHICH WAS SHIPPED FROM AMAZON. QUICK SHIPMENT REC'VD WITHIN 3 DAYS.
AS ALWAYS MAC IS A GREAT PRODUCT.

Rating:

- Apple skimmed out on the memory
This product has potential. Its small form factor is great. However, out of the box you're limited unless you upgrade the 512 Megs of memory. These days anything less than 1Gig is too small. Disk space is also small but there are add-on coordinating products (ie. miniStack V2) that you can attach to address this limitation. I swapped out one of the 256 Dimm cards and replace it with a Gig which resulted in a 1.256 Gigs of Ram. Now I am happy with its performance.

Rating:

- Great digital entertainment hub!
I have had this computer for about 90 days now - and so far so good! I am very pleased with it!

I am using the mac mini in conjunction with the Mac bluetooth keyboard and 'super' mouse, and a G-Technology 500 GB RAID 1 G-Safe external HDD- as the 'digital hub' of my entertainment system. I have the mini plugged DVI to HDMI into a Panasonic 42" plasma.

(DO NOT BUY A LACIE 500 GB EXTERNAL DRIVE - see my other review)

I can't rate the mini five stars, as I have had to really do some 'tweaking' to get all of my peripherals up and running. However, if I wasn't using a plasma, a wireless network, and a Nokia phone it would have been a snap to set up.

After you start up the mini, it 'steps' you through the entire process.

IF you are using a link-sys, which I am, you have to add it as a 'preferred network' and then complete the network wizard - make sure you know your network configuration!

So far, I have about 250 GB of digital music and photos, and about 50 GB of TV and video in iTunes - which I use to manage all of the content. I have had no problems making DVD's with iDVD from photos or having multiple programs open - however, I did purchase my mini with 1 GB of RAM.

In addition, I sync my Nokia 9300 with iCal and the address book. My Nokia is updated via blackberry server from Outlook 2003 running on XP at work. Once I get close enough to the mini, the Nokia 9300 talks via bluetooth to the mini. I can then sync the 9300 with the mini using iSync. I sync one way - so I only have to maintain one contact list and one calendar (Outlook at work). I did have to purchase a 3rd party software program to get iSync to recognize my Nokia 9300. I purchased that program from a German company called Nova Media and it cost about 10 Euros.

I have been using PC since '93 and I must say the Mac mini is pleasantly surprising. I would defenitley recommend the mini to anyone.

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