Apple Mac mini (2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2 GB RAM, 160 GB Hard Drive, SuperDrive DVD±RW/CD-RW, Bluetooth, Gigabit Ethernet, IEEE 802.11g, Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This little Mac CPU is perfect for people who want a powerful but inexpensive CPU without the frills. Just 2.5" high and 6.5" square, it fits almost anywhere: on a desk, in a drawer, on a narrow shelf. The unit comes with a Mac SuperDrive for burning and playing DVD/CDs, a remote control, BlueTooth technology, the iLife Suite (iPhoto, iTunes, Garage Band, Photo Booth, iMovie, etc.), and the newest OS X. That's it. You have to buy your own keyboard, mouse, monitor, and anything else you'd like to add.
This little unit is also great for hooking up to a TV as a stand-alone HD video replay. Especially if you rent or buy iTunes movies and have different digital content you want to play, the Mac Mini works well. Apple TV, a special purpose machine, doesn't have the versatility that the Mini does.
Pros:
-- This little guy is fast and reliable. If you are not confident about installing extra memory yourself, this 2 GB version is for you.
-- Size. No more towers!
-- Leopard is utterly fantastic. Make sure you take the "tour" to fully appreciate its capabilities and features since many aren't immediately obvious. It allows easy sharing of files within a network, wireless or otherwise, automatics back-ups to an external hard drive (purchase separately) that can be accessed according to a specific date and time, and in-network video conferencing (again, you have to supply the web cam.) My favorite feature is setting my computer to turn on at the same time every day so it's ready to go when I walk into my home office.
-- The no-frills package allows users to buy their preferred size of monitor. Since monitors bought separately usually cost far less than what Apple charges, this ends up being a cost saver as well. The Apple keyboard works best with the Mac mini since there's a special key for ejecting CD/DVDs, but any keyboard will do.
Cons
-- The power button is on the back of the machine, while the Super Drive slot is in the front. This means that the unit must be accessible, both front and back, unless you set the system to turn on automatically. This is the main reason I cannot give this unit five stars.
-- The Super Drive is noisy when it starts up.
For people who want to keep their current monitor and other peripherals, the Mac Mini is an excellent and economical choice. If you need to buy all the accessories, the price can start to add up, and you might want to look at a different computer. Even so, the small size can be a huge bonus for those who are short on space.
I love my Mac Mini, and I've never regretted purchasing it.
-- Debbie Lee Wesselmann

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A great choice for home computing tasks and creating a digital media hub, Apple's Mac mini desktop PC combines design simplicity with powerful computing resources. Nicely compact at just 6.5 inches square and 2 inches high, the Mac mini offers an affordable avenue to dual-core processing power via the 2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo and Apple's latest suite of digital media applications--iLife '08. It also comes with the Apple Remote and Front Row media display software, which enables you to easily play your music, enjoy photo slideshows, and watch DVDs, iMovies, music videos and television shows from across the room. Every Mac mini includes iLife '08, the latest version of Apple's award-winning suite of digital media applications, with major upgrades to iPhoto, iDVD, iWeb, and GarageBand and a completely reinvented iMovie. iPhoto '08 now automatically organizes photo libraries into Events that let you more easily manage your growing photo collections, and iMovie '08 can import video from the latest AVCHD, HDV and DV camcorders, as well as from digital cameras, and displays your entire video library whether it's stored on internal or external drives. Both iPhoto and iMovie integrate seamlessly with the new .Mac Web Gallery, Apple's new service for .Mac members to instantly create and host websites for their photos and videos.

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Apple Mac mini M9687LL/A (G4 1.42 GHz, 256 MB RAM, 80 GB Hard Drive, DVD/CD-RW Drive) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)For all of the things the Mac mini is, there are some that it is not. As the owner five Macs -- from a iMac G4 to a dual G5 tower -- I'll try to help.
(1) If you need a Mac to surf the Web, send e-mails and IM, write the next great novel or screenplay, organize and fix your photos, encode and hold your music library, and do some semi-serious movie editing, the Mac mini is just your ticket. For these tasks, it's downright snappy -- but, please, bump up the RAM to at least 512 MB. (Remember, the Mac operating system, OS X, thrives on RAM. You'll see a noticeable speed improvement between 512 MB and 1 GB of RAM, for example.) In fact if these are your needs, there is no better personal computer to buy. Period.
(2) If you need a Mac to some serious GarageBand multi-track recording, serious movie-editing with long clips and multiple effects (even under iMovie), or heavy photo manipulation, you probably should look elsewhere. If you want to play serious games on the Mac -- and, yes, you'll be able to do that -- you might also want to look elsewhere. (Doom III, soon to come out for the Mac, requires a G5 processor. The bigger and better games will.) For those who fit these criteria, you should seriously look at the iMac G5, or even a G5 tower. Remember, you can get the iMac G5 for just a little bit more than the Mac mini with a screen, keyboard, and mouse. It's a great computer and a real step up from the Mac mini's G4 processor.
Of course, there are other reasons to want the Mac mini. It's a miracle of engineering -- amazingly small and with so much more functionality than Windows computers costing twice as much ... and taking up five times the space! (Don't just go by price tags. Take a bottom of the line Dell and add up the cost of all the extras that come standard with an Mac mini ... a firewire port (essential for many DV camcorders to off-load video), a CD burner and DVD player (for most PC, you might be able to get one or the other -- as an extra), a full blown graphics card with its own 32 MB of RAM (not one of those "on the motherboard" Intel graphics sets that cannibalizes system RAM and does a lousy job of running even rudimentary games), and best-in-the-business photo and movie editing apps, etc.
And on top of all this, you get the best operating system out there. No viruses. No crashes. No fuss, no muss. OS X is a dream ... built from the ground up on solid UNIX foundations. If you've had Windows PCs, you'll immediately know something's afoot ... an operating system that just ... works. What a wonder! And you don't need to but a single anti-virus program or subscription. Not even a utilities program!
Enjoy!

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Includes: VGA/DVI adapter, Mac OS X v10.3 "Panther", iLife '05 (includes iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD & GarageBand), AppleWorks,Quicken 2005 for Mac, & more. Apple Mac Mini - Incredibly inexpensive, but definitely not cheap, this miniature Apple Macintosh computeris perfect for handling your day to day computing, and then some! The main feature is it's petite exterior. The Mac Mini is only 6.5" square, 2"high, and weighs only 2.9 pounds. Its attractive platinum and white, rounded square design gives it a sophisticated modern look that can't bematched. It also has the convenience of having all of its buttons and ports placed in the back, so cables are kept tidy and neat, giving you aclean overall appearance. But what's even more amazing than its good looks, is the shear amount of technology Apple has packed inside!Slot-loading Combo Drive at the front of the Mac Mini (DVD-ROM/CD-RW - up to 8x DVD-ROM, 24x CD-R, 10x CD-RW, 24x CD-ROM) Ports - 1 FireWire 400, 2 USB 2.0, DVI Out, VGA Out, 10/100 Ethernet, Headphone/Audio Line Out Built-in 56k v.92 Fax Modem Built-in Speaker Unit Weight - 2.9 pounds

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Apple Mac mini MB138LL/A (1.83 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 1 GB RAM, 80 GB Hard Drive, Combo Drive) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I bought this mini to replace a 1.42 GHz G4 mini that just couldn't handle my 6,000+ pictures in iPhoto anymore. It took 1-2 minutes before I could do anything in iPhoto after I opened it.
When I got this machine, I immediately replaced the two 512 MB sticks with two 1 GB sticks that I bought online for about $35 each (much cheaper than Apple). I also had an existing 200GB external drive which is the same form factor as the mini and sits underneath it in addition to a Belkin USB hub (same form factor as well), since you can never have enough USB 2.0 ports.
The machine is great and much faster than my old Power PC mini. iPhoto opens very quickly and I can immediately browse through all my film rolls, even with other programs, such as Safari and Eudora, running. I am glad I waited until Apple changed from the Core Duo to the Core 2 Duo, although I am not sure how much difference there is between the newer and older Intel mini.
I also love the included remote for iLife. It's nice to be able to browse through iTunes, iPhoto, etc. without the keyboard/mouse.
There are rumors that Apple will discontinue this little machine soon, but I hope they don't as it is a great buy for anyone who already has a nice monitor/LCD. I would like to get a 24" iMac but they are too expensive and I would much rather just buy a Mac mini and hook it up to a 20" or 24" external LCD since I don't like all-in-one devices (printers or computers).

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A great choice for home computing tasks and creating a digital media hub, Apple's Mac mini desktop PC combines design simplicity with powerful computing resources. Nicely compact at just 6.5 inches square and 2 inches high, the Mac mini offers an affordable avenue to dual-core processing power via the 1.83 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo and Apple's latest suite of digital media applications--iLife '08. It also comes with the Apple Remote and Front Row media display software, which enables you to easily play your music, enjoy photo slideshows, and watch DVDs, iMovies, music videos and television shows from across the room.
This Mac mini also features 1 GB of installed RAM (with a 2 GB maximum capacity), 80 GB hard drive, a combo DVD-RAM/CD-RW drive for watching DVD movie discs and burning your own mixes to CD, Gigabit Ethernet wired networking and 802.11b/g wireless LAN, and the Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard operating system. You'll have to supply your own keyboard, mouse, and display.
Preinstalled with iLife '08 Every Mac mini includes iLife '08, the latest version of Apple's award-winning suite of digital media applications, with major upgrades to iPhoto, iDVD, iWeb, and GarageBand and a completely reinvented iMovie. iPhoto '08 now automatically organizes photo libraries into Events that let you more easily manage your growing photo collections, and iMovie '08 can import video from the latest AVCHD, HDV and DV camcorders, as well as from digital cameras, and displays your entire video library whether it's stored on internal or external drives. Both iPhoto and iMovie integrate seamlessly with the new .Mac Web Gallery, Apple's new service for .Mac members to instantly create and host websites for their photos and videos.
iLife '08 also features iWeb '08, with live web widgets such as Google Maps that let you create even more dynamic websites, and GarageBand '08, with its new Magic GarageBand feature that makes it fun and easy for both musicians and non-musicians to create great sounding songs.
Intel Core 2 Duo Processor The Intel Core 2 Duo T5600 processor has a 1.83 GHz processor speed, fast 667 MHz front-side bus (FSB), and large 2 MB L2 cache. (An L2, or secondary, cache temporarily stores data; and a larger L2 cache can help speed up your system's performance. The FSB carries data between the CPU and RAM, and a faster front-side bus will deliver better overall performance.)
The Intel Core 2 Duo's 128-bit SSE3 vector engine handles 128-bit computations in a single clock cycle, accelerating data manipulation by simultaneously applying a single instruction to multiple data. And its two execution cores are designed to share resources and conserve power, helping it to achieve higher levels of performance since it uses fewer watts.
Wired and Wireless ConnectivityThe Mac mini gives you plenty of room to grow with four USB 2.0 ports on the back--for connecting devices such as cameras, iPod, printer, camcorder, or keyboard--as well as a FireWire 400 port, which enables super-fast connectivity to hard drives as well as digital video camcorders. Share files around your house with built-in 10/100/1000BASE-T Ethernet as well as 54g Wi-Fi (802.11b/g). The integrated Bluetooth wireless connectivity--version 2.0 + Enhanced Data Rate (EDR)--allows you to use a wireless keyboard or mouse, and synchronize peripherals such as cell phones and PDAs. Enjoy high-quality sound on almost any speaker system with double-duty analog/digital audio. Record digital and analog sources through audio line in, perfect for your latest podcast in GarageBand.
Graphics and Video The Mac mini has a DVI video output that supports digital resolutions up to 1920 by 1200 pixels and is compatible with the 20-inch Apple Cinema Display and 23-inch Apple Cinema HD Display. It also supports coherent digital displays up to 154 MHz, and non-coherent digital displays up to 135 MHz. Using the included VGA video adapter, you can connect to analog displays at a resolution up to 1920 by 1080 pixels. Video is powered by the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950, which uses Intel Dynamic Video Memory Technology (DVMT) and provides up to 64 MB of shared video memory.
Other Features
1 GB of 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM (PC2-5300) on two SO-DIMM with a 2 GB maximum capacity
Slot-loading Combo drive (DVD-ROM/CD-RW): reads DVDs at up to 8x speed, writes CD-R discs at up to 24x speed, writes CD-RW discs at up to 16x speed, and reads CDs at up to 24x speed
Built-in speaker
Meets ENERGY STAR requirements with maximum continuous power of 110 watts

Included Software Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard operating system (includes Spotlight, Dashboard, Mail, iChat AV, Safari, Address Book, QuickTime, iCal, DVD Player, Xcode Developer Tools); iLife '08 (includes iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, iWeb, GarageBand); Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac Test Drive; iWork (30-day trial); and Front Row
What's in the Box Mac mini, Apple Remote, power cord, install/restore DVDs, printed and electronic documentation

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Apple Mac mini M9687LL/B (1.42 GHz PowerPC G4, 512 MB DDR SDRAM, 80 GB Hard Drive, DVD/CD-RW Drive) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)The Mac Mini was released in January 2005 at Mac World, and was then updated, for the first time, in July 2005. This Mac Mini is the result of that update.
Improvements - The $599 Mac Mini now sports 512 MB of DDR SDRAM, which is twice the memory the original Mac Mini included. This is a significant upgrade. The majority of users can now buy, out of the box, a machine that performs beautifully and allows a fair amount of multi-tasking. The Mac operating system, Mac OS X Tiger, thrives on memory, and 512 MB helps to create a speedy experience, for users.
Bluetooth - Bluetooth is a great wireless technology that Apple heavily backs, and it is included with this Mac Mini, an addition, from the original Mac Minis, when bluetooth was an optional add-on, at Apple.com, for $50 more. Purchase a bluetooth keyboard or bluetooth mouse, and they will work wirelessly, with your Mac Mini. It makes for a very clean and uncluttered desktop. There are also many mobile phones and PDAs, which utilize bluetooth technology, which you can sync to your mac using isync, included with Mac Mini.
Airport Extreme - This is the wireless networking card now included with the $599 Mac Mini, after being a $70+ upgrade at Apple.com, on the previous model. Do you have a wireless-b or wireless-g network in your home? If so, the Mac Mini will be able to connect to it, without problem. Again, making the computing experience simpler and less tangled.
The Good Things that Continue to Shine with Mac Mini - A buyer of the Mac Mini will continue to enjoy Mac OS X Tiger, which is the best consumer operating system in the world. It works with the hardware beautifully to provide a simple, fast, elegant, and reliable experience. One of the favorite descriptions of Mac fans, to describe Macs, is simply, "it just works."
The Mac Mini continues to include iLife '05, with great applications such as iPhoto, iMovie HD, iDVD, iTunes, and Garageband. These are all included, with every Mac Mini. You will be challenged to find any PC that includes applications that come anywhere close to the iLife suite. Manage thousands of your digital images in iPhoto, create home movies in iMovie, and create professional music in Garageband.
Appleworks is included for simply word processing, spreadsheets, etc., but you might want to pick up Microsoft Office for Mac. A student/teacher edition is available, for just over $100.
Speed - The 1.42 GHZ PowerPC G4 processor makes the Mac Mini a very capable machine. This will satisfy the horsepower needed to complete tasks in the iLife suite, included with your Mac Mini.
Hard Drive - 80 GB is a significant-sized hard drive, so you will be able to store thousands of photos and songs.
ComboDrive - The Apple Combo Drive allows you to burn music and data CDs, plus you can watch DVDs!
Drawbacks? The $599 version of the Mac Mini no longer includes a modem, if you want this version of the Mac Mini with a modem, you will have to custom-order it at Apple.com. However, the ethernet port is included on the back, to plug into a DSL or cable modem, plus you have the Airport Extreme, for wireless connections. However, if you don't have broadband, you'll need a modem for dial-up, so you will either need to order a custom-built Mac Mini at Apple.com, or buy the stock $499 model, which includes a modem, but lacks the wireless components.
Overall, Apple has created another fantastic product, with the Mac Mini, and the July 2005 update only made it better. You get more memory, plus wireless connectivity via bluetooth and airport extreme. This Mac Mini really includes everything the average user needs to enjoy the internet, manage his or her digital life, and have fun doing it all.

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Includes: VGA/DVI adapter, Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger, iLife '05 (includes iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD & GarageBand), AppleWorks, Quicken2005 for Mac, & more. Apple Mac Mini - Incredibly inexpensive, but definitely not cheap, this miniature Apple Macintosh Computer is perfectfor handling your day to day computing, and then some! The main feature is it's petite exterior. The Mac Mini is only 6.5" square, 2" high, andweighs only 2.9 pounds. Its attractive platinum and white, rounded square design gives it a sophisticated modern look that can't be matched. Italso has the convenience of having all of its buttons and ports placed in the back, so cables are kept tidy and neat, giving you a clean overallappearance. But what's even more amazing than its good looks, is the shear amount of technology Apple has packed inside! Slot-Loading CD-RW/DVD-ROM Combo Drive - up to 24x CD-R, 16x CD-RW, 24x CD-ROM, & 8x DVD-ROM Ports - 10/100 Ethernet, 1 FireWire 400, 2 USB 2.0, DVI Out, VGA Out, & Headphone/Audio Line Out Built-in AirPort Extreme (802.11b/g Wi-Fi Wireless Network Adapter) Bluetooth Support

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