Mac Mini Advice Needed

raptormonkey · 17 Nov 2009 at 10:08

Well, i am just about to get a Macbook off of a relatives mate and was also thinking of buying a Mac Mini for my PC room. Now, thing is, it will obviously sit on the desk so are they noisey? My PC that sits on the floor is dead quiet.

Secondly, are Mac Mini's more than powerful enough for general day to day work like internet, word processing, photo editing (Tiny bit) Publisher work? No gaming as that is done on a console.

I know windows can be run on the Apple so that is not a concern.

Which Mac Mini is worth going for considering all the above?

My present PC has an AMD 550 CPU and 4gig of ram so would i notice a big difference in speed by getting a Mini as i know they are less powerful?

I am contemplating selling my existing PC as i don't use it to its full potential.

Any good advice would be very welcome. Thanks

Vonhelmet · 17 Nov 2009 at 13:17

raptormonkey said:
Well, i am just about to get a Macbook off of a relatives mate and was also thinking of buying a Mac Mini for my PC room. Now, thing is, it will obviously sit on the desk so are they noisey? My PC that sits on the floor is dead quiet.

As good as silent. The external hard drive that I have for mine is noisier than the Mini itself.

raptormonkey said:
Secondly, are Mac Mini's more than powerful enough for general day to day work like internet, word processing, photo editing (Tiny bit) Publisher work? No gaming as that is done on a console.

For those jobs it'll be fine.

raptormonkey said:
I know windows can be run on the Apple so that is not a concern.

Yep, it runs just fine.

raptormonkey said:
Which Mac Mini is worth going for considering all the above?

My present PC has an AMD 550 CPU and 4gig of ram so would i notice a big difference in speed by getting a Mini as i know they are less powerful?

I am contemplating selling my existing PC as i don't use it to its full potential.

I don't know what that spec of PC will go for, but the Mac Mini is pretty cheap for what it is so either one should be OK. I'd go for 4GB RAM, but it's down to your needs whether you need the faster CPU (2.53GHz vs 2.26GHz) and the bigger hard disk (320GB vs 160GB) that the £649 model offers, or whether you buy the £499 model and pay for the RAM upgrade.

Optionally, you can upgrade the RAM and/or the hard disk yourself, but I wouldn't really recommend it as the Mini is a pain to open up.

Feek · 17 Nov 2009 at 13:33

raptormonkey said:
My present PC has an AMD 550 CPU and 4gig of ram so would i notice a big difference in speed by getting a Mini as i know they are less powerful?

I am contemplating selling my existing PC as i don't use it to its full potential.

The way I'd answer that is by saying that it won't matter a bit if the Mini is less powerful than your existing PC because you're not using it to its full potential anyway

For what you describe, a Mac Mini will be nicely quick and will do all you want easily. I don't think you'll notice it being any slower than your current PC, it'll probably appear faster.

raptormonkey · 18 Nov 2009 at 08:57

Thanks guys for your great replies. Just got to find a Mac Mini now as i want a 2nd hand one that i can upgrade myself. Seen videos of the process on youtube so i don't mind giving it a go.

So, a 2.26ghz should be fine.

Pav89 · 18 Nov 2009 at 22:42

I have the 2.26ghz mac mini - it's brilliant! Get one! £450 with HE discount if possible.

raptormonkey · 18 Nov 2009 at 22:50

Pav89 said:
I have the 2.26ghz mac mini - it's brilliant! Get one! £450 with HE discount if possible.

Is it fast and quiet? I have a thing about pc noise!!

Feek · 18 Nov 2009 at 22:51

raptormonkey said:
Is it fast and quiet? I have a thing about pc noise!!

vonhelmet said:
As good as silent. The external hard drive that I have for mine is noisier than the Mini itself.

^^^^^

manbearpig · 18 Nov 2009 at 22:52

if you are going to install windows then you might as well get a pc, or get a htpc case and build it yourself

raptormonkey · 18 Nov 2009 at 23:05

I would be using both Apple and Windows.

Kol · 19 Nov 2009 at 12:17

I have just upgraded to a newer Mac Mini. Popped my 2008 one in the bedroom and the new one in the lounge. Both are near silent. In the last year I've become a complete convert over to Apple from Windows. Replaced my base unit with the Mac Mini (the 2008 one) whilst I replaced my laptop with a MBP. Best move I ever made, simple, silent and runs quick and smooth.

You won't have any problems using the Mac for what you do.

raptormonkey · 19 Nov 2009 at 13:11

If you sell your 2008 one then let me know!!

Fillado · 19 Nov 2009 at 14:15

In the interest of showing you options: http://www1.euro.dell.com/uk/en/hom...fid=inspiron-zino-hd&s=dhs&cs=ukdhs1&ref=dthp

The mini though is dead silent - even Adobe Flash doesn't make the fan speed up which a miracle

- and plenty powerful enough for what you say you will use it for.

bigredshark · 19 Nov 2009 at 16:41

It's silent, so long as you don't want to use the optical drive (this in on my fairly old one to be fair, they may have made it sound less like a jet engine by now...)

raptormonkey · 23 Nov 2009 at 09:27

All Optical drives make a noise when activated though.