Mac Mini, Should I

James_N

James_N

James_N

Soldato
Joined
25 Jan 2003
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9,497
Hi

Hope people dont mind this post! Having been a long time PC user, Im quite curious to delve into the Mac world and see what its all about. My 3-4 year old acer laptop is pretty much buggered and i dont exactly travel around loads with it, apart from the odd trip to work, and i could still keep the laptop at work!

So rather than buy another laptop preloaded with the usual junk, I was debating a Mac. Having read on here that the Macbooks are due a refresh, and not really needing the portability of a laptop, i was going to go with a mac mini.

The specs however, seem quite behind the times compared to the newer laptops coming out with i5 / i7 technology. I have a few friends with macbooks though who tell me this isnt a problem, as everything on a mac just works quicker and easier than a windows system.

Also, how easy is it to come from using a windows system, to a mac system. I have an external hard disk with most of my work / general rubbish on, obviously NTFS formatted. Would this work in Mac, or would i need one of those apple time capsule external hard drives?

Mac Mini would basically be used for browsing the web / email / movies / organising my photos. The usual I guess. Im not into computer games really, so wanted to try something different, and I figure at £460 for the base Mac mini, thats only the same as i would spend on a laptop / desktop rig.

Also, just quickly, I presume i would have no problem connecting the mini up to my existing 32" TV that i have in my room?

Thanks and sorry for the longish post :)
 
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1) Depends on what you want to do with the Mini - it's a little behind the times spec wise (I can't see you putting an i7 in a case that size anway) but it's pretty much capable to do most things. You say that you're not going to do anything particularly stretching with it - the Mini would be a good way to "test the water" and see if you enjoy the Mac experience.

2) There is a bit of a learning curve with the Mac - having been a lifelong Windows user recently learning to use Macs, there's a lot of things that are ingrained in the way you work with Windows that you can't apply to the Mac OS. However, it doesn't take too long and there's loads of resources on the net (and on these forums) that will help you along the way! The OS is designed to be very user friendly, so I would rate it as much easier to get to grips with than, say, a Linux distribution.

3) Your external drive will work fine.

4)It should connect - you might need to get a displayport adaptor though. What inputs will your TV accept?
 
IMO, not worth the expense and meither. As a IT professional I've thought this many times but always avoided Mac, If its not broken don't fix it. I can do everything i need to do on a PC and everything works fine, Windows 7 is awesome. Mac would mean new way of working, search for new software with no gain.

Also not sure but think Mac OS has issues with NTFS, i remember that you cannot write or only read. Would have to check up on it though,
 
Hi

Thanks for that :) TV has a standard VGA connector on the back as well as HDMI connections. Its quite a new HD TV, so has a few options i would think :)
 
Also, connected to my TV, I have a sky box. Is there any way i could link it all up, so i can watch the sky via something like plex and record onto it as well, and basically use my mac mini as a media centre?
 
The Mini makes a fantastic media centre - EVH is your man when it comes to that, take a look at his thread here.
 
There is a refresh of the Mac Mini expected soon - I would hold off a little bit longer. As others have said the current Mac Mini is a little bit long in the tooth now.
 
James_N said:
The specs however, seem quite behind the times compared to the newer laptops coming out with i5 / i7 technology. I have a few friends with macbooks though who tell me this isnt a problem, as everything on a mac just works quicker and easier than a windows system.
Click to expand...

True, however the enforced limitation of backward support (ie Windows 7 32bit still supports Windows 3.1 I believe) means the machine seems to work more efficiently.

James_N said:
Also, how easy is it to come from using a windows system, to a mac system. I have an external hard disk with most of my work / general rubbish on, obviously NTFS formatted. Would this work in Mac, or would i need one of those apple time capsule external hard drives?
Click to expand...

OSX will read NTFS out of the box. If you require to write NTFS as well I would look at NTFS-3G or Paragon's software.

James_N said:
Mac Mini would basically be used for browsing the web / email / movies / organising my photos. The usual I guess. Im not into computer games really, so wanted to try something different, and I figure at £460 for the base Mac mini, thats only the same as i would spend on a laptop / desktop rig.
Click to expand...

Yup, you can get a remote and it'll work nicely with XBMC for example. Although 1080p playback hardware acceleration with the 9400M is only available for Quicktime. My 2.66 will use 75% CPU time rendering 1080p in software.

James_N said:
Also, just quickly, I presume i would have no problem connecting the mini up to my existing 32" TV that i have in my room?
Click to expand...

You can get HDMI outputs for 1080p connectivity - adaptors are easily available. You will need to take an optical out for digital with a little mini adaptor - the audio jack plug is actually combination stereo/optical socket.
 
Just pulled the trigger on a base spec Mac Mini + Mini DisplayPort + USB AUDIO to HDMI (v1.3b) adapter cable by Neet. Hope ive done the right thing :D
 
James_N said:
Just pulled the trigger on a base spec Mac Mini + Mini DisplayPort + USB AUDIO to HDMI (v1.3b) adapter cable by Neet. Hope ive done the right thing :D
Click to expand...

If you gotta try you gotta try and if's it going to be mainly used as a media system compatibility, etc wont be so much of a issue.
 
Ive only tried linux a few times on this laptop, and i found it worked slower than windows 7. I dont have much experiance with linux
 
Ive done a lot of reading on plex. Will install that when i get it :)

Any other must have's or tips from someone coming from windows 7 to OSX? :)
 
and how do you get all the info on your desktop like this:

Picture1-1.png


Image stolen from the Apple show us your desktop thread, sorry!
 
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