New Mac Mini

I too think the price is very high for what it is. Don't get me wrong, I love Macs and could be tempted to buy the Mini but only because it's the cheapest Mac. I just think Apple have priced it well out of the range for first timers.
 
bigredshark said:
It might have been once but I don't think that's true any more, the sales figures for laptops vs desktops these days are scary things (basically half of new machines or more in the consumer space now). The people buying desktops are usually looking for cheap/value or gaming machines, the Mac Mini doesn't really play in either of those categories and even if it was £500 it wouldn't compare to Dell's box shifting.

I do agree it's expensive but I don't think it's harming Apple much, I'd bet their main buyers for the mini these days are Mac users wanting a second machine of some kind (for the kids, living room etc)
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Can't agree with you there - the people buying Desktops are looking for a superior computing experience. I have a Laptop but I hate the things, they just don't compare to a good Desktop at any level. I have a Windows Desktop with W7 and the new iMac, I enjoy both.
 
Can someone explain how they actually use their PC/Mac as a HMEC and what the benefits are if any? The reason I ask is that I have a nice Denon Hi Fi which plays all my CD's as well as DAB Radio and FM. To this unit I also have connected an iPod dock so I can play the tracks from my Nano. Under my Panny Plasma TV I have a Panny DVDR with hard drive which also has Freeview + and on top of that I have Sky+ HD and a Blu-Ray player along with a 5.1 system. How or what further benefit would I get from popping a MC PC under there? I say PC as I think the Mini is just to expensive for what it is whether it has HDMI or not. In fact I couldn't care less about Hi Def, I have the box but rarely use it and have dropped the subs, for me SD does quite nicely but that's another story for a different thread perhaps.
 
Faustus said:
Words
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So you have

  • Panasonic Plasma TV
  • Denon Hifi system for CD's, DAB+FM radio & iPod dock for mp3s
  • Panasonic DVDR with a hard driver recorder and freeview+
  • Sky+ HD
  • Blu-Ray player
  • 5.1 system

Having a Mac Mini (possibly with some extra storage, depending on the size of your media collection) as a HTPC/Media server could enable you to:

Install Plex, a free Media Centre program that can manage your music and movies. This allows you to organise all your music (ripped CD's, MP3's etc.), all your movies (DVD's currently, Blu-Ray when Mr. Jobs sorts his life out...) and online media (Youtube, iPlayer, TED Talks etc.) with an easy to use and customisable interface that is designed to be used with an Apple remote or wireless keyboard. It has some neat tricks like using IMDB meta data to display movie info (posters, synopsis, cast etc.) and also can recognise network storage (so you could stream music from an existing PC/Mac)

You could drop the Denon system and rip cd's to the Mac, use iTunes to manage your existing mp3's plus the new CD music and use online radio to replace DAB and FM.

Lose the DVDR as the Sky+HD and Blu-Ray should easily cover this, plus rip any DVD's you own to your Mac and use Plex to easily manage a movie library.

That just leave your with a 5.1 system, TV, Sky+HD and Blu-Ray as well as a mac mini to manage all your media needs. A far neater and more flexible system.

There is a load more on media centres in this thread, including what you need, how to setup Plex, a couple of videos and some good hints and tips. It looks quite complicated at first, but download it and you'll find its really simple to use once you understand some of the quirks of the system (labelling media correctly is one of them)
 
Faustus said:
Can someone explain how they actually use their PC/Mac as a HMEC and what the benefits are if any? The reason I ask is that I have a nice Denon Hi Fi which plays all my CD's as well as DAB Radio and FM. To this unit I also have connected an iPod dock so I can play the tracks from my Nano. Under my Panny Plasma TV I have a Panny DVDR with hard drive which also has Freeview + and on top of that I have Sky+ HD and a Blu-Ray player along with a 5.1 system. How or what further benefit would I get from popping a MC PC under there? I say PC as I think the Mini is just to expensive for what it is whether it has HDMI or not. In fact I couldn't care less about Hi Def, I have the box but rarely use it and have dropped the subs, for me SD does quite nicely but that's another story for a different thread perhaps.
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Well the Mini is a waste of money even if you're buying it for OS X. But a HTPC would let you get rid of everything except the amp and Sky box and you'd have a computer into the deal. You don't need a fancy machine, even just an ION one (Atom+nVidia IGP) will play anything.
 
xarr said:
So you have

  • Panasonic Plasma TV
  • Denon Hifi system for CD's, DAB+FM radio & iPod dock for mp3s
  • Panasonic DVDR with a hard driver recorder and freeview+
  • Sky+ HD
  • Blu-Ray player
  • 5.1 system

Having a Mac Mini (possibly with some extra storage, depending on the size of your media collection) as a HTPC/Media server could enable you to:

Install Plex, a free Media Centre program that can manage your music and movies. This allows you to organise all your music (ripped CD's, MP3's etc.), all your movies (DVD's currently, Blu-Ray when Mr. Jobs sorts his life out...) and online media (Youtube, iPlayer, TED Talks etc.) with an easy to use and customisable interface that is designed to be used with an Apple remote or wireless keyboard. It has some neat tricks like using IMDB meta data to display movie info (posters, synopsis, cast etc.) and also can recognise network storage (so you could stream music from an existing PC/Mac)

You could drop the Denon system and rip cd's to the Mac, use iTunes to manage your existing mp3's plus the new CD music and use online radio to replace DAB and FM.

Lose the DVDR as the Sky+HD and Blu-Ray should easily cover this, plus rip any DVD's you own to your Mac and use Plex to easily manage a movie library.

That just leave your with a 5.1 system, TV, Sky+HD and Blu-Ray as well as a mac mini to manage all your media needs. A far neater and more flexible system.

There is a load more on media centres in this thread, including what you need, how to setup Plex, a couple of videos and some good hints and tips. It looks quite complicated at first, but download it and you'll find its really simple to use once you understand some of the quirks of the system (labelling media correctly is one of them)
Click to expand...

Thanks for that informative response xarr. The Panny DVDR is quite flexible itself and perhaps I should have mentioned that it too has Gracenote and makes a good job of storing music plus a USB connector on the front so I wouldn't like to lose this bit of kit. I have an iMac as well as a W7 PC though I would perhaps use something like the small form factor Acer given a choice. The Mini is an attractive package but I honestly believe that Apple have lost the plot on pricing with this particular bit of kit. I will investigate the options further though and thanks for the link.
 
Went and bought one today. Had a good long think about it and considered an older one but the lack of external power supply and HDMI on the new one swung it.

Really nice machine I must say and a good update to the Mini range, albeit at a price which I think is a touch too expensive (even for Apple).
 
Slogan said:
Went and bought one today. Had a good long think about it and considered an older one but the lack of external power supply and HDMI on the new one swung it.

Really nice machine I must say and a good update to the Mini range, albeit at a price which I think is a touch too expensive (even for Apple).
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If you Use Bootcamp and game I'd be interested to know what sort of FPS it gives in a few games. It's certainly pretty but I'd want more than looks ;)
 
Unfortunately it's went straight under my tv for use with Plex. I can bench it if you want but I imagine it's been done ten times over online - just the base spec.
 
well I am a new owner of the new mac mini 2.4g, with 4 gig of ram and with blue tooth key board and magic mouse. what a great little system this is proving to be.

Cool looking, silent, no fan noise, hooked upto my 24" screen with HDMI it looks great. takes up no space and its fast enough for me and what i do 99.9% of the time. for games my PC is faster, CS5 on my PC is faster, but i have to say iam loving my mini mac.

And yes it seems expensive, but i paid more for 2 X 5870,s in crossfire on my pc than for this mac mini, i guess the 5870,s will be long gone before this mac mini is.

OSX = Cool on the mac mini.
 
vapor matt said:
well I am a new owner of the new mac mini 2.4g, with 4 gig of ram and with blue tooth key board and magic mouse. what a great little system this is proving to be.

Cool looking, silent, no fan noise, hooked upto my 24" screen with HDMI it looks great. takes up no space and its fast enough for me and what i do 99.9% of the time. for games my PC is faster, CS5 on my PC is faster, but i have to say iam loving my mini mac.

And yes it seems expensive, but i paid more for 2 X 5870,s in crossfire on my pc than for this mac mini, i guess the 5870,s will be long gone before this mac mini is.

OSX = Cool on the mac mini.
Click to expand...

Is that a Mac screen or simply a ubiquitous 24" screen? Mac Mini would be good value if it was £150 cheaper but as it stands it's just too expensive especially with the slow 5400 drives.
 
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