Decisions...

JDMAN

JDMAN

JDMAN

Associate
Joined
25 Aug 2007
Posts
57
Location
Willington, Cheshire, UK
Right, I will be soon purchasing my very first Mac (but not until leopard is released), but I can't decide between a Mac mini or one of the shiny new iMac's. Below are the ones I've got my eye on, any feedback on which would be best to go for would be much appreciated.

Mac mini
- 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
- 2GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM - 2x1GB
- 160GB Serial ATA drive
- Apple Wireless Keyboard & Wireless Mighty Mouse
- Mac OS X (British)
- Apple Cinema HD Display (23" flat panel)
- AppleCare Protection Plan for Mac mini - Auto-enrol

which comes to £1,456.01

iMac
- 2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme
- 2GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM - 2x1GB
- 500GB Serial ATA Drive
- SuperDrive 8x (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
- Logic Express preinstalled
- Apple Wireless Mighty Mouse
- Wireless keyboard (English) + Mac OS X (English)
- AppleCare Protection Plan for iMac - Auto-enroll
- ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO with 256MB memory
- 24-inch glossy widescreen LCD
- AirPort Extreme
- Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR

which comes to £1,830.99

Thanks.
 
I've been looking at this decision myself after my macbook died (or should that be was murdered by me!).

Personally I'd get a mini, and a third party display (AG Nevo used to have some VERY nice glass fronted TFT's).

All in all with a student discout I recon you can get the Mini and a 22" widescreen TFT for under £550, a LOT cheaper than the £1830 C2DE setup you're looking at
 
If you're getting the Mac Mini, get a cheaper display. The ACDs are notoriously expensive.

Both those machines are very different though, both in price and capabilities. Surely it's just a case of deciding whether you want a powerful machine (and clearly the added cost of that), or a not-particularly-powerful one? I'm not really sure what decision needs to be made here.

As a sidenote, you're better off getting the iMac with 1GB and then adding extra RAM yourself. Apple charges a lot for extra RAM; for the price they charge for upgrading to 1GB, you could buy a 2GB stick from elsewhere.
 
Did you mean to put the Logic Express install on the iMac and not the Mac mini?

Either way, the Mac mini will frustrate you with it's slow hard drive and video card. Get the iMac with the standard amount of RAM and upgrade it yourself, it's only £50 or so for 2x 1GB sticks these days.
 
JDMAN said:
Right, I will be soon purchasing my very first Mac (but not until leopard is released), but I can't decide between a Mac mini or one of the shiny new iMac's. Below are the ones I've got my eye on, any feedback on which would be best to go for would be much appreciated.

Mac mini
- 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
- 2GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM - 2x1GB
- 160GB Serial ATA drive
- Apple Wireless Keyboard & Wireless Mighty Mouse
- Mac OS X (British)
- Apple Cinema HD Display (23" flat panel)
- AppleCare Protection Plan for Mac mini - Auto-enrol

which comes to £1,456.01

iMac
- 2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme
- 2GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM - 2x1GB
- 500GB Serial ATA Drive
- SuperDrive 8x (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
- Logic Express preinstalled
- Apple Wireless Mighty Mouse
- Wireless keyboard (English) + Mac OS X (English)
- AppleCare Protection Plan for iMac - Auto-enroll
- ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO with 256MB memory
- 24-inch glossy widescreen LCD
- AirPort Extreme
- Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR

which comes to £1,830.99

Thanks.
Click to expand...

If you're willing to spend the money then I'd go for the iMac everytime :)
 
Speaking as an iMac owner I would go for the Mac Mini and a cheaper display. I also wouldn't bother with applecare, but I'm technically minded.

If you dont NEED the dedicated graphics card and the faster hard drive, think long and hard about the cash you'll save over the iMac.

However, if you DO go for the iMac, it wouldn't be a bad decision. I would save some money and go for the 2.4Ghz option though. :)
 
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