[eochs]

Well, I was going to get a Powerbook, but have decided to wait until the Intel switch next year (plus, I don't have as much money as I thought I would to buy now)... My home PC (Athlon 1800) is getting kind of slow, so I am now considering just getting a mini instead... I am going to get the $599 mini b/c of the bigger hard drive and built in wireless and bluetooth (I already have a MS bluetooth mouse)... The faster CPU is just a bonus... couple of questions:

-Is this machine good enough for basic home use? e-mail, web, IM, using Virtual PC to play poker online, etc?

-Is the 512MB on board? Or do I need to replace the 512MB DIMM with a 1GB to get more RAM?

-How is the video performance? I'm not planning on gaming with this (have an Xbox for that and will be buying at least one of the new next-gen consoles), but I want to make sure that I don't need to turn off all the cool effects built into Tiger b/c the video card just can't handle it all...

-Is it worth it to get the Superdrive? I was thinking I'd just buy an external dual layer burner so I can copy from disc to disc, but thought I read somewhere that iDVD can only use the Superdrive... I'd rather spend the extra money at the begining buying more memory...

-

[Brad]

Originally Posted by eochs -Is this machine good enough for basic home use? e-mail, web, IM, using Virtual PC to play poker online, etc?

Yes, yes, yes, yes, and probably. VPC needs a lot of RAM and video performance in VPC is iffy. If the games you play are not very CPU-intensive at all, they should run sufficiently.

Originally Posted by eochs -Is the 512MB on board? Or do I need to replace the 512MB DIMM with a 1GB to get more RAM?

It's in the one and only slot. You have to remove it to increase the RAM.

Originally Posted by eochs -How is the video performance? I'm not planning on gaming with this (have an Xbox for that and will be buying at least one of the new next-gen consoles), but I want to make sure that I don't need to turn off all the cool effects built into Tiger b/c the video card just can't handle it all...

You don't have to turn off anything in Tiger. In fact, you can't manually turn off most things because Mac OS X is smart enough to scale back and turn off GUI features that aren't supported by the GPU. For general use, the Mac mini's graphics chipset is fine.

Originally Posted by eochs -Is it worth it to get the Superdrive? I was thinking I'd just buy an external dual layer burner so I can copy from disc to disc, but thought I read somewhere that iDVD can only use the Superdrive... I'd rather spend the extra money at the begining buying more memory...

Eh, Superdrive or not is really a person-by-person decision. When I got my PowerBook, I opted not to get the Superdrive because it's relatively overpriced next to building an external one. If you like having an all-in-one unit, though, it would be a must. I don't burn DVDs often; so, it's not a necessity for me to always have that capability.

The older versions of iDVD worked only with internal DVD-burners, but the current version can export your work to a disk image which can then be burnt to a DVD (in an external drive) via Disk Utility.

[DMBand0026]

The mini is plenty good enough for what you're wanting to do with it, with one possible exception. Virtual PC. However, VPC doesn't run well on a dual 2.7ghz G5 with 4gigs of RAM, so you can't really do much better.

Edit: I was wrong about the RAM, my mistake.

The video performance is good enough to handle Quartz Extreme but not CoreImage. However, CI is just there right now to provide some extra glitz that's not really a big deal. If you're planning on using the mini as a stop gap solution, it's not going to be an issue for you.

Get the combo and buy an external. That way you can keep that drive when you sell the mini (if that's your intended course of action, which I may be erroneously assuming it is.) iDVD will work with external drives just fine, there's a list of compatible drives somewhere, but I'm not sure where and googling found me nothing. However, I hear most Pioneer models work with iDVD.

[eochs]

Thanks for all the info... Any tips on moving my data from Windows to Mac? I have an external hard drive I will be using...

[Brad]

http://www.apple.com/switch/howto/ should answer that question.

[eochs]

that site is exactly what I was looking for... It was mainly moving from Outlook to whatever program I use on OS X that I was worried about, but the idea of using an IMAP server is genius...

btw, I work in server engineering (mainly with Red Hat and SuSE) for Dell... I have no problems getting my hands dirty inside a machine, I've just never worked with any Mac OS (although I had an Apple IIGS when I was 10!) so I just needed some questions answered... I was originally looking at buying one of my company's laptops, but since they just gave me a new corporate laptop at work I decided to go away from Microsoft... My current box will be turned into a Fedora Core 4 system running MythTV as a home entertainment computer... Now I just need to move everything in it into a smaller case

Any good books on Tiger that anyone can recommend?

And, just to clarify, I do love working for Dell, but that doesn't mean I can't applaud Apple (and reward them with my money) for the great systems and software they have released...

[DMBand0026]

The only Tiger book you'll need: The Missing Manual, Tiger Ed..

[eochs]

I just about bought that at Borders today... guess I'll go ahead and order it now

[Chinney]

In my case, I am debating between the eMac and the Mini for our second computer, for the kids. I recently bought an iMac G5, but realize that now that my older kids are 9 and 11 � and need to use the computer a fair bit for school � that a second machine would be a good idea.

My view is that the eMac is a better deal that the Mini right now. Taking into account the extra price of a monitor and other bits and pieces when you buy a Mini, and especially taking into account the better video card in the eMac, I think that the eMac wins. Of course, the Mini is small and elegant, while the eMac is big and plug ugly. And if you already have an extra monitor and the other bits and pieces (as many people do), and don�t care about the difference in the video cards, then the Mini is better. All said, I�ll likely be buying the eMac for the kids.

[eochs]

I have a 19" Dell Flat Panel and a microsoft bluetooth mouse... I will buy a Mac keyboard, but otherwise don't need the extras that the emac has

[turtle]

Originally Posted by Brad The older versions of iDVD worked only with internal DVD-burners, but the current version can export your work to a disk image which can then be burnt to a DVD (in an external drive) via Disk Utility.

Question: What can I burn this disk image using? Can I use a PC program like Nero or other DVD burning program in a PC?

I'm interested in making slideshows and such with iDVD from my iPhoto but I only have a combo drive. I will at some point be getting a FW DVD burner, but have two burners in my PC now.

Also, I dropped iDVD in the trash after I got the Mac home since I only have the combo, it is going to be hard to get the program reinstalled? How do I do it. I must say I haven't even looked at it yet, I'm sure by the time someone replies I might have figured out how to reinstall it, but figured I would ask now since it is on topic.

[kfury77]

Originally Posted by eochs (I already have a MS bluetooth mouse)...

I'm not sure if the MS bluetooth mouse will work with the Mac Mini. Does anyone else here know?

[turtle]

Looks like I have have figured out a way to do what I was looking to do. I created the disk image with iDVD and then opened the disk image. It shows up in Finder as the Audio and Video folders that I transfered to my PC and then burned the DVD using Nero.

The only thing is the right hand edge changed based on the brightness of the picture. It didn't stay square like in my preview. Any ideas on why that might be?

Edit: Well it looks like it is my old TV. I tried the DVD in some of my other computers and it turned out fine. Now the trick is would it be messed up for other TVs or just my almost 10 year old one?

[Kit Fisto]

Originally Posted by eochs ... My home PC (Athlon 1800) is getting kind of slow, so I am now considering just getting a mini instead... -

Are these the specs of your computer: Athlon 1800 CPU (1533 Mhz speed), a K7S8XE motherboard and PC2100 (DDR 266) of RAM.


If so, if you think a Mac mini will be faster, you are welcome to throw your money away.

[Bryson]

I don't see you point, Kit Fisto. Are you trying to say that a 1.5Ghz Athlon (running XP) is a better performer than a 1.42Ghz G4 (running OSX)?

Because if so, (and to borrow Matsu's terminology ) you're dead wrong.

[Luca]

At least it's an Athlon XP and not a Pentium 4. Early AXPs are way faster than early P4s.

The software makes all the difference. People who claim that the PC must be faster because it has a higher clock speed just confuse me. It reminds me of a scene from A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. The yankee from the future tries to explain to the peasants of the dark ages that a person's wealth has just as much to do with how much money they make as the cost of living. His example was that if you make a little less money but live in a much cheaper area, you're technically wealthier than someone who lives in an expensive place and makes a lot of money.

Same goes with this situation. A Mac mini at a lower clock speed will still be faster than a generic Windows PC running XP, simply because of the OS. And even if OS X isn't terribly faster than Windows, it's so much more efficient and streamlined that it's faster anyway.

[Kit Fisto]

Originally Posted by Bryson I don't see you point, Kit Fisto. Are you trying to say that a 1.5Ghz Athlon (running XP) is a better performer than a 1.42Ghz G4 (running OSX)? Because if so, (and to borrow Matsu's terminology ) you're dead wrong.

No, that is not what I said. Your post builds a straw man.
I said the mac mini will not be faster than the hardware he has got.

The Athlon was and is a very fast chip that kicks the P4.
Glancing at the benchmarks over at Tom's Hardware, I see that on the Dhrystone CPU bench, the Athlon XP 1800+, running at 1.53 Ghz, is comparable to a P4 at 2.4 Ghz.

eochs felt his machine was slow. He probably just needs a full reformat of his hard drive and better yet get a new 7200 rpm drive with a large cache. Cost=$100.

[Matsu]

I second the 'stay with XP' advice. If you know Windows, and have a real need for Virtual PC, it sounds like you'll be spending enough time in Windows to forego a mac purchase for now, especially since the PC in question is more than ample for any task. Also mentionthe importance of gaming -- stick to the PC, the mini doesn't give you anything new there.

If you had mentioned wanting to really get into using iLife, then OK, but that doesn't seem to be the goal here. Mac for mac's sake is a bad idea right now. Now, if the mini were transitioned over to Intel, and you could set up a dual boot system, then at 599, it could be worth it to you (since that isn't really so much more than the cost of upgrading a few key components on your PC) However, your machine should be fine for a few years yet...

[AsLan^]

Get a mini anyway !

Just use a KVM to share your monitor, keyboard, mouse with your Athlon box and you wont need to shell out for, or put up with, virtual pc.

Additionally, you'll have all the iApps and a great new toy to play with.

Not to mention that when mini's get old they will be far from useless, their form factor alone opens up the possibilities for computing in unusual places, and they are robust enough to function adequetely as any kind of home server / appliance.

Get the mini, you know it's not about an Intel powerbook, you want the mini...

[AsLan^]

I'll even go one step further and let you know how I use my mini... really, I just like talking about it

It's currently connected to my TV with the Apple DVI to Video adapter, I've been using it recently for downloading the video podcasts (free off the iTunes music store) and watching them, whilst sitting on my couch.

I have a keyspan remote hooked up as the only input device, except for network connections. I use wireless to network the mini to my home network and control it with one of my other computers using vnc or ssh whatever is appropriate at the time.

One of the neat things is, the mini was not set up like this two weeks ago, and it wasn't set up the same two weeks before that. The size of the mini makes it that easy to move around and do different things with. It takes all of five minutes to reconfigure it to a new location.

[sjsutton]

I have the $699 mini (refreshed with higher processor and more VRAM) and run Virtual PC 7.02 (with XP PRO) without a problem. It takes a bit of time for it to launch and restore, but once up, browsing the web and using MSOffice2000 isn't all that painfully slow.
If you've every used PC Anywhere and any kind of remote access program, you'll be familiar with the millisecond delays you'll experience.
But the fact that is uses your mini's internet connection and printers is pretty cool.

Hope this helped.

[eochs]

I ended up buying a Mini about 2 weeks ago at the Austin Apple Store... Got lucky and got the updated specs very happy with it

[turtle]

Originally Posted by eochs I ended up buying a Mini about 2 weeks ago at the Austin Apple Store... Got lucky and got the updated specs very happy with it

Congratulations on your "Mini" purchase! Welcome to the world of Mac. It's a great place to be isn't it? I can't believe I fought OS X for so long not even knowing what I was fighting.

[Kit Fisto]

Originally Posted by eochs I ended up buying a Mini about 2 weeks ago at the Austin Apple Store... Got lucky and got the updated specs very happy with it

I'm happy for you. Please don't throw your old PC in the dump. It just adds to our toxic refuse problem. This is really why I was resisting the idea of buying a new machine. Giving it to a school (tax deduction) or friend, or your kids or a local place that offers free internet access for the poor (tax deduction) or selling it to somebody are some of the things you can do with it.

[Koodari]

Just a thought:

You could pass VirtualPC, run your poker client on your old PC and see it through the Mac and VNC.

I want to start playing poker myself, and I think I'm going the VPC route for now. 1.2GHz iBook.