Topic: Mac Mini help/questions

[cleantone]

I am thinking about getting a Mac mini. My TiBook maybe shitting the bed. I can't afford to jump to a Mac Pro. Although I may be able to if I get on the two film projects I am banking on in a few months.

Right now I am still using a TiBook PowerPC 800mhz G4 with 1gig of RAM and a 7200rpm internal.

The mac mini seems to have Firewire which is important as I have many FW drives and some audio and video interfaces as well. I couldn't tell if it was FW400 or FW800 but that wouldn't make too much difference to me. FW800 works with FW400 devices as far as I know.

One major question I have is whether or not I would be able to use a PC monitor I bought a few years back. I do not have the cash nor the desire to get a big flat widescreen. I feel like you can use these types of monitors but I am not too certain. Anyone know about that?

Another question is Airport. Do these come with Airport for internetting? If not what? Ethernet only? My homes router is not near my setup so wireless would be ideal.

Can I run OSX.3.9? I would assume so. I have some audio applications that I cannot afford to upgrade that run on OSX.3.9.

How about upgrading RAM? I assume it is better to buy one with 512 and upgrade yourself? Hard?

Lastly any comments on heat or noise?

[Jamos]

Hey I've been using a Mini at work, so I can answer some of your questions...

-As far as firewire 800 goes...I believe it is backwards compatible, but it IS a different connector.

-You can definitely use a PC monitor, using the VGA adapter that comes with the Mini. 

-I believe that all Mini's come with Airport extreme these days.  Also has ethernet though.

-A new Mini will come w/OS X 10.4.6 I believe.  You could install 10.3 if you have the discs...although maybe not because of the Intel processor...someone else could tell you for sure.

-The heat and noise are both minimal IME.  I run it all day and it gets warm, but never hot.

They are great little boxes for the money!

[cleantone]

Thanks. I am hearing that you cannot run 10.3 on the intels without Rosetta. I don't know what that is yet.

I am also hearing that it is not that easy to upgrade RAM yourself and it is better to just buy more at the purchase. That is the opposite of my past experiences.

[greenone]

If you get one of the original or Rev B Mac minis, you can run Panther on them (the Mac mini came out in early '05, a few months before Tiger shipped) but you probably don't want to go back that far...

[cleantone]

I am looking on ebay at some PowerPC models. Thanks for the help thus far.

[gewwang]

I've got an older MacMini and the performance is awful but I got it for a little over $400 at the time which was about $200 off. I also got the Lacie 500GB drive that fits under it and provides more USB inputs, my only complaint is the HD is extremely loud, but it is an older model of the HD, I'm guessing the newer ones addressed the noise.

[cleantone]

Awful performace? Compared to what though? I'm currently on a TiBook from 2002 with an 800mhz G4 PowerPC, Gig of RAM, and a 7200rpm drive. It ran great for me for a long time. I think there is an electrical short in it now. I am thinking about pulling the trigger on ebay today. Any input would be great. I can't imagine it being all that bad. Compared to a dual G5 perhaps. I can't afford to drop a few grand right now though. Maybe later in the year.

[gewwang]

I have Rev B. Though this site said it came with "Built-in AirPort Extreme", mine was an open-box from Best Buy and didn't come with the airport extreme. Another problem I've had is with the Built-in speaker, Headphone/audio line out - neither of these is loud at all. External speakers are a must for any kind of audio editing.

http://www.123macmini.com/specs/b.html

Apple Mac Mini 1.42GHz

  Model: M9687LL/B

  Processor: 1.42GHz PowerPC G4 (512K on-chip level 2 cache at full processor speed)

  Memory: 512MB of PC2700 (333MHz) DDR SRAM, supports up to 1GB One slot

  Graphics: ATI Radeon 9200 with 32MB of DDR SDRAM with AGP 4X support

  Hard drive: 80GB Ultra ATA

  Optical drive: Slot-loading Combo Drive (DVD-ROM/CD-RW), Superdrive build-to-order option

  Ports: One FireWire 400 port, Two USB 2.0 ports, DVI output, VGA output (adapter included)

  Networking: Built-in 10/100BASE-T Ethernet. (56K V.92 modem optional)

  Wireless: Built-in AirPort Extreme and Internal Bluetooth

  Audio: Built-in speaker, Headphone/audio line out (No Audio/Mic Line in)

  Operating System: Mac OS X version 10.4 "Tiger"

  Software: iLife 05, AppleWorks, Quicken 2005 for Mac, Nanosaur 2, Marble Blast Gold

  Height: 2 inches (5.08 cm)

  Width: 6.5 inches (16.51 cm)

  Depth: 6.5 inches (16.51 cm)

  Weight: 2.9 pounds (1.32 kg)

[cleantone]

Oh. I have monitors. As long as the airport works I would be happy. The only drawback I can think of is the drive is probably 5400rpm. That would be a bit of a snag. I could probablt put in my 7200rpm travelstar though someday if I wanted.

EDIT:

I just bought one for $469 shipped.

• PowerPC 1.42 GHz
• 1 Gig RAM
• 80 Gig hard drive
• Airport Wireless and Bluetooth installed
• Combo Drive
• 10 / 100 Base-T Ethernet interface
• 2 USB 2.0 and 1 FireWire 400 interface
• DVI Video with VGA Adapter
• 56K Modem
• OSX Tiger clean install with iLife, all current patches and updates installed.

The auctioner said he had a couple of macs and this was used for his iPod and probably had 40 hours on it. This will be a good enough upgrade for me for now. Same RAM (1gig) and double the processor. PowerPC will allow me to run 10.3.9 when I need to. The drive is probably 5400rpm and my TiBook has a 7200rpm Travelstar. I supposed I can swap them if and when I need to. Though my current one is 60 gigs and not 80.

I could make a small 10.3.9 bootable partition on this right? It will be nice to have 10.4. I find a lot of freeware that I cannot use in 10.3.9.

This may have been $100 more than I wanted to pay for it but it is not bare bones and it looks brand new. If he is not lying it pretty much is. Even if my software ran in 10.4 I am not so sure it would run on intell processors anyway. I think was was safe and decent. Now I'll have to get used to the narrower display again though...

If I get on the two film projects I plan to this year I should be able to drop a few K on a nice G5 in 2008. Untill then this should be a nice upgrade and will allow me to toos my TiBook in a pond (1000)

[nic]

holy crap, the Rev B PPC Minis are selling for that much?
I have the same model but with the Superdrive and didnt think they would have gone for nearly that much.
damn, I might have to put mine on the market to upgrade to a Intel!

[bluegrass_brad]

you can also get a refurb mini dual core for $649 from Apple.  Still covered under warranty. Not a bad deal, but you would need to add to the RAM.

Refurbished Mac mini 1.66GHz Intel Core Duo
512MB memory (667MHz DDR2 SDRAM)
80GB Serial ATA hard drive
Double-layer SuperDrive (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Built-in AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth 2.0
Apple Remote