Makaveli_786
05-05-2005, 03:18
I borrowed this a couple of days ago, with much hassle I took it off my friends hand and have been tinkering with it, not too much tinkering as it's not mine but I've got a nice indepth look at the Mac Mini, here is my review:
http://www.cherubini.com/open2b/var/catalog/b/1785.jpg
When I first saw the Mac Mini I was very excited.. for Apple, I already own a Mac G5 and have always been a fan of Apple products, my experience in computers goes back many years and I've learnt a lot about OS's and computing, I'm a very vocal critic of Windows OS's and believe them to be inferior, over the years I've used Mac, Linux and Windows, while Linux is good software it is difficult to use and I don't like a challenge just checking my e-mail but I prefer it opposed to Windows, when I need to play games I obviously switch to Windows XP, this way I can minimize problems with keeping interactivity with XP to a minimum, if I had to sum up the time I spend on my PC opposed to my Mac I would say about 30% of the total computing time is spent on PC's and that 30% would be 0% if I wasn't a gamer, Mac's are so easy to use and the hardware is so well designed and efficient I never have any lag, no need to worry about virus scanning software, I don't think any exists, no rebuilds no problems and my updates are done automatically, I haven't had a single problem with Mac's in the several years owning a few variations, the same can't be said for PC's, in fact far from it.
So if Mac's are so good then why isn't everybody flocking to them?
Two main issues(there are others but I won't go into detail), gaming and pricepoint.
If your a gamer then you will be dissappointed by Mac computers as they have a serious lack of games and a high pricepoint, Mac's are NOT cheap, so where does the Mac Mini break the trend?
Well starting at just 500 dollars the Mac Mini is very reasonably priced, while you can get a more powerful PC for that much you can't get a PC that fits in your hand and has better functions at that price unless your living in the future, in that case bring me back a Playstation 7, the next point is gaming, the Mac Mini is not designed for gaming it is designed to be a fully functional second computer in the house or a first computer if you don't have the money but want DVD burning and all the extra's of a full blown computer in an attractive small package.
The Mac Mini I recieved was a souped up version with 1.42GHz of processing power and 1GB of RAM and a 80GB HDD, the 500 dollar basic version comes with a 1.25GHz processor and 256MB of RAM and a 40GB HDD, my version was worth around 700 pounds(about 1400 dollars but if your an American you will pay a lot less, European countries always get much higher pricepoints).
The first impression I got was a good one, the box could double as a carrying case and it was obvious the Mac Mini was genuinely tiny as the box was't much bigger than my hand lenght and width wise, Apple went the extra mile and put instructions on the back of the box about how to set it up as well and it seemed very easy to set up even for somebody with little to no computer knowledge, on the side of the box it stated some of the functions of the Mac Mini which came built in with Apple software; "organise photos, compose music, create playlists, make movies and watch DVDs".. not bad for right out of the box huh?
Intial impressions.. well packaged, good instructions, very exciting stuff but the best thing was the feeling of having something really different, it didn't feel like a computer I felt like a billionaire buying a luxury jet, it was a really good feeling, it just doesn't feel like a computer but this is something I can't describe you'll have to see for yourself.
When I switched on the Mac Mini it booted up and it was very quiet throughout the process though when I did put in a disc the whizzing sound was rather loud but not anything to be concerned about, overall a Mac Mini could very well be kept in the same room somebody is sleeping in without much trouble, again a thumbs up.
Performance on the Mac Mini was smooth as silk, I could open multiple applications without any trouble, considering the size of the drive I thought the Mac would only perform so well in multiple applications but it exceeded my expectations and the CPU is nearly impossible to max out, there was a problem with the hard drive though, as I installed bigger applications it took a while, iWork took ages to install, it's not something you have to do repeatedly but it is a pain in the backside nonetheless.
As for picture quality, using the VGA adapter I tinkered with resolution for a while, the maximum resolution on the Mac Mini is a very impressive 1920x1200 but the tests were performed at 1600x1200 on my PC monitor, it performed well at that resolution but ran clips funny "choppily" in above 1280x960 so I left it at 1024x768 for the most part when it comes to using iMovie HD.
Without going into needless small details I used iPhoto, iMovie HD, iDVD and iTunes on the Mac Mini and they all seemed to work well apart form iMovie in resolutions above 1024x768, the whole monty is there, recording CD's/DVD's is as easy, fast and efficient as on any PC or Mac, the software provided with the Mac Mini is all you'll need for photo or video editing, watching movies, converting songs to MP3 and anything else you'd expect of a computer.
This is for all the hackers out there who love tinkering with their PC's, a Mac Mini has now successfully been overclocked to run at higher speeds, A 1.25GHz Mac Mini has been pushed to 1.58GHz, the owner settled on 1.42GHz though, you can check that out here (http://www.hackaday.com/entry/1234000827030196/).
Not only that but the Mac Mini has been hacked to do a lot more than just run a little faster, the Mac Mini has been hacked to run as a full blown media centre (http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000057028826/), I could go on all day about the hacks, believe me there is no shortage of them.
My conclusion is this, the Mac Mini is a fantastic computer as long as you don't expect it to play games or edit video effectively, the HDD is the let down as it can be slow when transferring/downloading bigger files but the software will only have to be installed once so after the initial installment you won't have very many issues, it has everything you would need in a computer, you can do all the normal stuff like surf the net and you can also record and watch DVD's and plug it into any conventional PC monitor, the Mac Mini is very hard to fault, it is an extremely well put together and well thought out piece of technology, if you want a functional, stylish and miniaturized computer at a decent price its hard to recommend anything else, 9 out of 10.
http://www.cherubini.com/open2b/var/catalog/b/1785.jpg
When I first saw the Mac Mini I was very excited.. for Apple, I already own a Mac G5 and have always been a fan of Apple products, my experience in computers goes back many years and I've learnt a lot about OS's and computing, I'm a very vocal critic of Windows OS's and believe them to be inferior, over the years I've used Mac, Linux and Windows, while Linux is good software it is difficult to use and I don't like a challenge just checking my e-mail but I prefer it opposed to Windows, when I need to play games I obviously switch to Windows XP, this way I can minimize problems with keeping interactivity with XP to a minimum, if I had to sum up the time I spend on my PC opposed to my Mac I would say about 30% of the total computing time is spent on PC's and that 30% would be 0% if I wasn't a gamer, Mac's are so easy to use and the hardware is so well designed and efficient I never have any lag, no need to worry about virus scanning software, I don't think any exists, no rebuilds no problems and my updates are done automatically, I haven't had a single problem with Mac's in the several years owning a few variations, the same can't be said for PC's, in fact far from it.
So if Mac's are so good then why isn't everybody flocking to them?
Two main issues(there are others but I won't go into detail), gaming and pricepoint.
If your a gamer then you will be dissappointed by Mac computers as they have a serious lack of games and a high pricepoint, Mac's are NOT cheap, so where does the Mac Mini break the trend?
Well starting at just 500 dollars the Mac Mini is very reasonably priced, while you can get a more powerful PC for that much you can't get a PC that fits in your hand and has better functions at that price unless your living in the future, in that case bring me back a Playstation 7, the next point is gaming, the Mac Mini is not designed for gaming it is designed to be a fully functional second computer in the house or a first computer if you don't have the money but want DVD burning and all the extra's of a full blown computer in an attractive small package.
The Mac Mini I recieved was a souped up version with 1.42GHz of processing power and 1GB of RAM and a 80GB HDD, the 500 dollar basic version comes with a 1.25GHz processor and 256MB of RAM and a 40GB HDD, my version was worth around 700 pounds(about 1400 dollars but if your an American you will pay a lot less, European countries always get much higher pricepoints).
The first impression I got was a good one, the box could double as a carrying case and it was obvious the Mac Mini was genuinely tiny as the box was't much bigger than my hand lenght and width wise, Apple went the extra mile and put instructions on the back of the box about how to set it up as well and it seemed very easy to set up even for somebody with little to no computer knowledge, on the side of the box it stated some of the functions of the Mac Mini which came built in with Apple software; "organise photos, compose music, create playlists, make movies and watch DVDs".. not bad for right out of the box huh?
Intial impressions.. well packaged, good instructions, very exciting stuff but the best thing was the feeling of having something really different, it didn't feel like a computer I felt like a billionaire buying a luxury jet, it was a really good feeling, it just doesn't feel like a computer but this is something I can't describe you'll have to see for yourself.
When I switched on the Mac Mini it booted up and it was very quiet throughout the process though when I did put in a disc the whizzing sound was rather loud but not anything to be concerned about, overall a Mac Mini could very well be kept in the same room somebody is sleeping in without much trouble, again a thumbs up.
Performance on the Mac Mini was smooth as silk, I could open multiple applications without any trouble, considering the size of the drive I thought the Mac would only perform so well in multiple applications but it exceeded my expectations and the CPU is nearly impossible to max out, there was a problem with the hard drive though, as I installed bigger applications it took a while, iWork took ages to install, it's not something you have to do repeatedly but it is a pain in the backside nonetheless.
As for picture quality, using the VGA adapter I tinkered with resolution for a while, the maximum resolution on the Mac Mini is a very impressive 1920x1200 but the tests were performed at 1600x1200 on my PC monitor, it performed well at that resolution but ran clips funny "choppily" in above 1280x960 so I left it at 1024x768 for the most part when it comes to using iMovie HD.
Without going into needless small details I used iPhoto, iMovie HD, iDVD and iTunes on the Mac Mini and they all seemed to work well apart form iMovie in resolutions above 1024x768, the whole monty is there, recording CD's/DVD's is as easy, fast and efficient as on any PC or Mac, the software provided with the Mac Mini is all you'll need for photo or video editing, watching movies, converting songs to MP3 and anything else you'd expect of a computer.
This is for all the hackers out there who love tinkering with their PC's, a Mac Mini has now successfully been overclocked to run at higher speeds, A 1.25GHz Mac Mini has been pushed to 1.58GHz, the owner settled on 1.42GHz though, you can check that out here (http://www.hackaday.com/entry/1234000827030196/).
Not only that but the Mac Mini has been hacked to do a lot more than just run a little faster, the Mac Mini has been hacked to run as a full blown media centre (http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000057028826/), I could go on all day about the hacks, believe me there is no shortage of them.
My conclusion is this, the Mac Mini is a fantastic computer as long as you don't expect it to play games or edit video effectively, the HDD is the let down as it can be slow when transferring/downloading bigger files but the software will only have to be installed once so after the initial installment you won't have very many issues, it has everything you would need in a computer, you can do all the normal stuff like surf the net and you can also record and watch DVD's and plug it into any conventional PC monitor, the Mac Mini is very hard to fault, it is an extremely well put together and well thought out piece of technology, if you want a functional, stylish and miniaturized computer at a decent price its hard to recommend anything else, 9 out of 10.