mac mini

bruce wayne

guys,

I'm thinking of getting a mac mini and using it as a sort of htpc, for my movies, tv shows and movies. Looking at the options on the apple web site is it worth paying the extra €200 euro for the super drive extra hd space and a small amout of processor speed.

1.83GHz : Combo Drive @ €499 with 80 gig HD

2GHz : SuperDrive @ €699 with 120 gig HD

both with
Intel Core 2 Duo
1GB memory

my thinking is I'm gonna need another external HD anyway...cause I have way more than 120G worth of stuff, plus I dont reckon I'll use the mac mini for burning stuff.

any pointers ?

I'm a mac noob btw;)

Ham'nd'egger

bruce wayne wrote: »

guys,

I'm thinking of getting a mac mini and using it as a sort of htpc, for my movies, tv shows and movies. Looking at the options on the apple web site is it worth paying the extra €200 euro for the super drive extra hd space and a small amout of processor speed.

1.83GHz : Combo Drive @ €499 with 80 gig HD

2GHz : SuperDrive @ €699 with 120 gig HD

both with
Intel Core 2 Duo
1GB memory

my thinking is I'm gonna need another external HD anyway...cause I have way more than 120G worth of stuff, plus I dont reckon I'll use the mac mini for burning stuff.

any pointers ?

I'm a mac noob btw;)

Hey there, welcome to the club!

Either Mac Mini will perform fine for entertainment purposes. Outside of that, a Mac Mini is just your basic A to B desktop and is designed to slip in and out and to be inconspicuous. You will need a monitor, mouse and keyboard for it, though chances are that you will have these already. If you don't have them to hand and are anticipating on getting an external HDD, I'd suggest you ought to look at an entry level iMac; €999 and it is equipped with a bigger processor, 250G storage and your screen, keyboard and mouse come with it all. The iMac can also have extra hard drive storage installed (Doubled for €80).

Regardless of what you feel is right, do ask us here no matter how small a question it may be

bruce wayne

thanks for that reply. I have another question...will front row play any format of video (such as .avi ?) I'm thinking of putting the mac mini in the living room and connecting it to my TV, then a small wireless laptop and mouse (or combined thingy) and then use the mac with front row for viewing my tv stuff/movies/music as well as surfing etc.

K.O.Kiki

Entry-level (1.83Ghz) mini + external DVD-writer if it's ever, EVER needed.

Save your money & get more RAM instead (cheapest if you buy & install yourself, but it's a bit tricky).

*edit*

bruce_wayne wrote:

thanks for that reply. I have another question...will front row play any format of video (such as .avi ?) I'm thinking of putting the mac mini in the living room and connecting it to my TV, then a small wireless laptop and mouse (or combined thingy) and then use the mac with front row for viewing my tv stuff/movies/music as well as surfing etc.

The Perian codec pack installs the tools necessary for Front Row to play almost any video format.

I also use Spiral for soft-subbed anime (.MKV)

bruce wayne

thats kinda what I figured....i have a work laptop with a decent burner on it, so if i did need to burn anythin I can just transfer it across to that and burn away.

J-blk

I have a previous gen Mac Mini 1.66 Core Duo that I mostly use as an HTPC and it's more than fine for almost everything I have thrown at it. IMO, it's not worth the extra money for the higher spec model, as you can always add an external HD or even an external DVD writer (though you already have the laptop for that anyway). Depending on what you want to do, you might want to consider maxing out the RAM to 2GB as it is very hard to upgrade yourself (you would need to crack the case open, voiding the warranty too...). Though Mac OS X will not really need it, the 2GB is handy if you want to run Vista in Boot Camp (which the Mini can handle very well, but it's just not worth sticking with Windows ), run any virtual machines or use other memory intensive apps.