Apple iProduct

Sgt Rock

Sgt Rock

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It has just slashed our hardware upgrade costs, unless Apple has crippled it in some way. No need to get an over priced G5 tower now.
 
I am very, VERY tempted to get a macmini. I already have a USB keyboard and mouse and a DVI flatscreen so no worries, I even have a KVM switch I could use to switch them between PC and Mac....until I ditch the PC :MILD: .

I may just decide that upgrading my PC for £6-700 just so that I can play Half Life 2 in high rez is not worth it and plump for a Macmini. If I decide I don't need to play PC games then my reasons for having a PC rapidly disappear into thin air.

I don't think Apple could have made a better product for convincing PC users to make the switch...and therein lies the no kbd, mouse and screen thing as all PC users will already have those. This really could be a turning point for Apple and the whole home computer industry IMO.

Michael.
 
Amazingly enough, for the first time ever Apple seem to have announced an affordable product that doesn't have a totally rubbish spec even in its cheapest form.

It's only taken them 20 years or so, but perhaps they've finally got a clue about how to run a business. If I didn't already have a Powerbook I'd get one.

-- Ian
 
I reckon if the Mac Mini price fell below £200 which it won't I could just buy one. However £330 the price of the Apple Mini I could upgrade my PC to an Athlon 64, use a 64-BIT linux operating system and you will have 2000 times the computer the Mini will ever be.

I haven't seen the specifications of the Mini yet, but I doubt it will work off the shelf, it will probably come with a 40GB HD and 256MB RAM making it useless for doing anything you may want a mac for anyway.

The sad thing is that I can see Apple may just tempt a lot of PC users with this product.
 
michaelab said:
I am very, VERY tempted to get a macmini. I already have a USB keyboard and mouse and a DVI flatscreen so no worries, I even have a KVM switch I could use to switch them between PC and Mac....until I ditch the PC :MILD: .

I may just decide that upgrading my PC for £6-700 just so that I can play Half Life 2 in high rez is not worth it and plump for a Macmini. If I decide I don't need to play PC games then my reasons for having a PC rapidly disappear into thin air.

I don't think Apple could have made a better product for convincing PC users to make the switch...and therein lies the no kbd, mouse and screen thing as all PC users will already have those. This really could be a turning point for Apple and the whole home computer industry IMO.

Michael.
Click to expand...

I agree with you, but for £330 that product better offer a lot of power otherwise users may turn against Apple if they realise their PCs were actually more powerful. For example if that base Mini could run all my video editing applications then it would be a great product, a small device ..........

CRIES!!

The is a problem, I hate apple, I hate the principle of this product, but I want one!

How do Apple to do it? As much as I try and argue how crap this Mini is its the best thing ever. Rather like a supermodel, she may be thick, dim and slow , but if she has the looks nobody carws and everybody will buy a peice of her.
 
The £330 base model has a 40Gb drive and 256Mb memory which will be absolutely fine for the majority of PC users who just want to surf the net, manage their digital photos and DV cam videos of their baby and are tearing their hair out trying to get their "budget" £600 Packard Bell piece of crap from PC World to do even one of those things :)

I mean come on, £330 is cheaper than the top of the range iPod ffs! I'm just about to start another thread about making the switch and a couple of issues I have.

Michael.
 
michaelab said:
The £330 base model has a 40Gb drive and 256Mb memory which will be absolutely fine for the majority of PC users who just want to surf the net, manage their digital photos and DV cam videos of their baby and are tearing their hair out trying to get their "budget" £600 Packard Bell piece of crap from PC World to do even one of those things :)
Click to expand...

Michael - for once I'm gonna agree with you (and Garyi etc) re Macs :)

My PC has a gig of RAM, and runs XP. I'd not mind betting that the Mac's OSX "footprint" into that 256 megs is, in percentage terms, far less than XP's into my gig. The only reason I bothered upgrading my PC at all is for computer music, which I've still not started attempting to write yet, as I'm too busy playing GTA Vice City.

Now if the Mac had DECENT games for it (in addition to the, err, 3 games that came out for it since 1984) and would work with any USB device (so I don't have to pay BIIIIIG for a new printer etc) I'd leap for a Mac Mini - it looks very nice indeed :)

...plus I bet OSX doesn't "forget" USB devices if you plug them in in a different order, randomly lose my desktop, change my sound settings to reverb100%, and take 5 decades to download the nth security patch ;) All of these have happened to me since I upgraded to XP and it's effing annoying.

Macs crash as often as PCs though - the ones in our old Design Studio were all over the place sometimes. And what on earth is an "extension" - that's the thing that puts me off a Mac - the oddness of everything :)
 
I have Photoshop Elements 3 on my PC which is legal, it uses about 100MB RAM just when its open. I am already thinking of upgrading to 1GB, also I know Motorola chips run faster than the x86 chips but 1.25Ghz is still quite slow, possible as fast as an Althlon 1800?

If you could upgrade these minis then I may be tempted, if I could upgrade to 512MB RAM and then upgrade the hard drive.

We have Emacs in one of our labs at university, not sure on the exact specs but they are 1 years old. They are much much slower than my PC (Athlon XP 2000, 512MB RAM, 80GB 7200 HD) when it comes to advanced photoshop work.

Now then how much would the same Shuttle system cost?

Shuttle base unit - £120
Athlon XP 2200 - £40
256MB decent quality RAM £25
40GB HD - £30
CDRW - £20
Windows XP Home OEM £60
£295

Now £330 the a similar mac base unit seems very well priced, so you can't argue with the value.

PS Does anybody know if the motherboard can take DIMMS? or is it soldered? This would be a major flaw if its soldered. Also just read the specs and it comes with a host of other software, so I reckon a similar PC would actually cost around £330.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Dom, extentions sound like something from Mac OS9, in essence as old as windows 98.

Agree with games we need more!

I have never had a problem plugging any USB device into my mac.

All usb keyboards and mice are support, you don't even need drivers.

All printers available on the highstreet that are USB today will work in OSX (Again OSX comes with drivers for most printers)

It never forgets a device, what ever you mean by that I am not sure.

The only thing I get the flakes with is my new scanner, which is totally down to the epson software, I have a shareware programme running it now, flawlessly.
 
AT, you're forgetting all the software that comes bundles with the Macmini, especially iPhoto, iDVD and iTunes. With just XP you can't do much digital media management or burning CDs etc.

For a ready made product off the shelf (which a Shuttle PC isn't) the Macmini beats any PC solutions in that price range (and somewhat above) hands down IMO.

Michael.
 
michaelab said:
AT, you're forgetting all the software that comes bundles with the Macmini, especially iPhoto, iDVD and iTunes. With just XP you can't do much digital media management or burning CDs etc.

For a ready made product off the shelf (which a Shuttle PC isn't) the Macmini beats any PC solutions in that price range (and somewhat above) hands down IMO.

Michael.
Click to expand...

Micheal just edited my reply just as you writing this, I have since read all the software that comes with it. I think for £330 it does offer very good value for money, I just hope you can upgrade that memory easily. An extra 256MB DIMM module is only £25 and with 512MB RAM that Mini should perform very nicely.

I would consider buying one, but I for my job/university I will still need my PC, which means its a bit daft having two very good computers.
 

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