Second Hand Mac Mini - First Mac Advice

MPoxon

MPoxon

MPoxon

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Joined
26 Nov 2010
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41
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Southend-On-Sea
Morning,

I looking at getting a Mac to experiment with as I am considering making the switch between Mac and PC. Before I make this decision I would like to have a little play around with a Mac for 6 months or so to work out what they do and don't do better than a PC.

I am looking to spend around £300 on a Mac mini. I was originally looking at a Mac Mini 1,1 with the 1.66 proc w/2GB RAM (MA607*/A) Is this a good one to get or is it worth spending a little extra on a 3,1 with the Nvidia GPU? (MB463*/A)

I will be looking to purchase and install Snow Leopard and iLife11.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
 
Go for the later model, the first one was OK but may struggle going forward.

All depends how much more it is.
 
Just checked out the Nvidia versions and they were released in early 2009 so are still holding their value quite well, to the extent they are still attracting 400 - 500 quid.

Is a late 2006 model with a 1.66proc and 2GB RAM going to be reasonable enough for iLife 11 or am I better off looking at something else?
 
iLife 11 offloads a lot to the GPU if it can.

It runs ok if a little towards the sluggish side on my wife's MacBook (2Ghz Core 2 2GB and a 64MB Intel GMA950)
 
Thanks LordSplodge, if that is the case on your wife's macbook with iLife 11 then it looks as though I need a Nvidia based Mac.

Better start saving in that case!
 
If you're not eligible for student discounts, keep an eye on the Apple refurb store for lower price hardware. If you'd posted this toward the middle of last week, they had a couple of this generation mac minis for sale.
 
I shall keep an eye on the refurb store in that case. I had no idea they had some last week.... I normally check once a week as well which is dangerous as I have already bought 2 airport expresses and an airport extreme from refurb.
 
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