Mac Mini

At the end of 2007 I was fortunate enough to be able to purchase a new computer.  My main computer I had been using was actually owned by the church and I felt it was about time to have a computer that was completely my own.  Having switched back to the Mac about a year and a half ago, I was eager to stay with the Mac platform.  At the same time, I already had a keyboard, mouse, lots of external hard drives, and a monitor.  Needless to say, I didn’t need an iMac and the Mac Pro, as great as they are, was out of my price range.  The perfect solution: The Mac Mini.

I purchased the Mac Mini with a 2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 120 GB hard drive,  1 gig of RAM, and a SuperDrive.  I opted up for the higher configuration because I wanted the ability to burn DVDs.  Here’s a run down of what I really like and what I don’t especially like:

What I Like:

•  The size.  They call it the Mac Mini for a reason: mini it is.  Yet it’s one thing I really like about it.  It sits on my desk and takes up no space
• Because of the size it’s highly portable.  I use my living room upstairs to do teaching and I can easily bring my Mac Mini upstairs and hook it to my TV.
• The Speed.  As one who used a Mac Book Pro I can notice a huge speed improvement between the the Intel Core Duo in the Mac Book Pro and the Intel Core 2 Duo in the Mini.
• It’s a Mac, with all the Mac features.

What I Don’t Especially Like

• I ‘m not even going to critize the Mac Mini for not being expandable.  If expandability is what you want, don’t buy a Mac Mini.  However, I will say that Apple could have done a much better job making the Mac Mini easier to upgrade.  The only upgrade I’ve had to do is to upgrade the RAM and that was a colossal pain in the butt.  Unlike the Mac Book Pro, where there is a little door that you open to upgrade the RAM, the Mac Mini has to be the most difficult machine to upgrade that I have ever worked on.  Once you crack the case open (and literally crack) you’ve got to lift out the optical drive, hope you don’t unplug the the AirPort antenna (which I did).  It just seems to me that they could have made the Mac Mini a little easier to upgrade the RAM on.
• On Board Graphics - This is a minor complaint, but the on-board graphics for the Mini aren’t very robust and when doing graphics intensive stuff (playback of 1080p HD content) it can sometimes drag the system down)

Overall I think the Mac Mini is an excellent machine, and probably the best value in the whole Apple line-up.  Especially if you already have all the accompanying parts you can’t beat it.