Getting a Mac Mini

Rich43

Rich43

Rich43

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Well second hand anyway, since I am a student on a tight budget :(

This will be my first Apple product, always been a Windows and Linux user, except for when I am away from home on Uni or Friends Mac :P

Planning to use it for mainly programming, so processing power etc is a non-issue.
What I would love is to somehow run Lion on it, and since I am looking for the cheapest Mac Mini I can find second hand, its not going to be latest model.

So my question is, How old can a Mac be before it wont run Lion? I know it has to be Intel-based.

Example of a really cheap one I found:
1.66GHZ DUAL CORE PROCESSOR (Some kind of core 2 duo)
60 GB HARD DRIVE
2GB RAM
 
That'll run Lion.

Any Intel Mac with a Core 2 Duo (or newer) and 2GB RAM will be fine. Avoid the early Core Solo (very rare) and the Core Duo as they are 32-bit only.

If your budget will stretch try and get a 2009 Mini with the Nvidia 9400 graphics as it's a big step over the earlier machines with Intel GMA graphics.
 
^^ Summed up perfectly

The 9400 would be the best thing to look out for there really, all that come with it will definitely run Lion and generally would be better to use.
 
How does the 9400 really make a difference?
Surly the fancy graphical interface of the modern mac cant use that much gpu power :eek:
It will never see a single mac game, basically used for XCode, Safari/Firefox, Terminal, basic stuff like that. Since I am a software developer, I want to be sure everything works well on Lion :)

I will keep an eye on the Nvidia ones though, to compare the price :)
 
The GMA900 (I think it was that one) is pretty much rock bottom of modern graphics, the single worst thing ever made.

Plus the way osx is done if you have even a basic graphics card (9400 or better) the os will off load rendering stuff onto it, saving power on the cpu which is useful (watching a dvd for example)
 
pingwing said:
The GMA900 (I think it was that one) is pretty much rock bottom of modern graphics, the single worst thing ever made.

Plus the way osx is done if you have even a basic graphics card (9400 or better) the os will off load rendering stuff onto it, saving power on the cpu which is useful (watching a dvd for example)
Click to expand...

Ah ok, I am sold on that idea then.

Edit: Nvidia mac mini's are annoyingly hard to find at a good price :(
 
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The main advantages of the 9400 mini are :
* Dual display outputs
* Supports 8GB RAM. Older Intel graphics machines only take 3GB.
* Firewire 800

The 9400 has other fringe benefits like supporting hardware h.264 decoding. The dual display and 8GB RAM capability make it a no brainer as far as I'm concerned. Lion likes RAM - lots of it, and it's under £40 for 8GB...

The GMA950 is pretty much as low as it goes. Try a Windows 7 machine with one in. It'll run Aero... just about.
 
Only problem now, is price...

Have you ever seen any 9400 based ones going for less than 400? or maybe 300?
If ends up nearing 400, better to just get a brand new one.

Many OCUK members sell macs on here?
 
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total honesty, the 9400M models often go for £230-260 after i had a look as a student, a new one with a discount and quidco its £450 and a free £70 printer than goes for £40-50 on ebay

i know what i'd do....!
 
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