should I get a mac mini?

[macleod]

I was going to buy a new MBP but I recently decided (with help from this forum) to hold of for some of the features that I am really looking for in a laptop. That choice; however, has not satisfied my desire for a Mac (my PC's are killing me slowly!). I would love a small desktop system because I am in a small dorm room and right now my desktop case is huge so the mini would be a huge improvement in that department. I am wondering though if the mini is enough speed for the things that I want to do. I would love to archive my dvd's on to the desktop so I could play them quickly on my TV and I would like to mess around with some wideo and audio stuff other than just playing or watching them. Is the min enough power for this and if so, what type of configuration? Thanks!

[Wyatt]

If you want to do video editing, I'd go with the $799 model with at least 1GB. If you want to go with 2GB (which isn't a bad idea), buy third-party and install it yourself. It's not hard at all (I just installed RAM in my mini two weeks ago). For hard drive space, stick with the 80GB internal and add a large external firewire drive for video and audio storage.

[macleod]

will external hard drives work with the FrontRow software. Like will it recognize movies, photos, and music on the external hard drives?

[Windowsrookie]

yes

[GladToBeHere]

Yes. As much RAM as you can manage.

[pkatzman]

will external hard drives work with the FrontRow software. Like will it recognize movies, photos, and music on the external hard drives?

Yes. However, you need to make aliases to the folders or files on the external HDD you want to access, and place them in the Movies folder. It won't work, IIRC, unless you do that first.