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Hi All- thinking of making the swtich over from windows to apple- and looking to get a mac mini. does anyone here have any experience with them and if so what level did you get?
Thoughts on comparing entry level mac mino to an I5 Haswell chip pc from dell/lenovo?
What do you use the computer for? Bear in mind you need to factor in the cost of keyboard, mouse and monitor.
Hi- already have those three thing. Would be used for internest, storing pictures and videos (no image editing or anything), and some spreadsheet/word docs, that's it.
Hi- already have those three thing. Would be used for internest, storing pictures and videos (no image editing or anything), and some spreadsheet/word docs, that's it.
Nothing wrong with using it for photo editing. For storing photos and videos, buy a USB-3 docking station for plugging into it SATA drives of any size you want, which in turn leaves lots of room in the internal hard drive. In this case you don't have to buy the largest internal hard drive. Just load it with as much RAM as possible.
For anybody who would want to do heavy photo and video editing, the one with an i7 processor, plus lots of RAM would be best. Otherwise the i5 plus RAM and the smaller hard drive is just fine.
There are numerous USB-3 SATA docks like this one (shown with a had drive plugged into it). Some other docks are upright instead, but all work well. Best of all, such docking stations can be used with any computer platform, not just Mac. Just format the drive to PC or Mac, and use accordingly: http://www.amazon.com/Plugable-Lay-F...E6V0V6VTGBCZWR
Hi- already have those three thing. Would be used for internest, storing pictures and videos (no image editing or anything), and some spreadsheet/word docs, that's it.
I did a memory upgrade and SSD hard drive upgrade < $150 on a 2009 macbook laptop (Very low end processor by todays standards). For surfing the internet, and photo it is more than sufficient. The performance is on par with a macbook pro i5, for those menial task.
When dealing with spreadsheets and docs, you have to consider if you will be sharing those with anyone or just for yourself.
Hi- already have those three thing. Would be used for internest, storing pictures and videos (no image editing or anything), and some spreadsheet/word docs, that's it.
The base i5 model will be fine then, but the 2012 model is superior to the current model as it's upgradable, and the current model is not. Also the mac os works best with apple keyboards and mice/trackpads. This is because the keyboard mapping is slightly different and the OS requires touch gestures to be used properly. If I was to get a mini I would buy a mac keyboard/mouse/trackpad.
The base i5 model will be fine then, but the 2012 model is superior to the current model as it's upgradable, and the current model is not. Also the mac os works best with apple keyboards and mice/trackpads. This is because the keyboard mapping is slightly different and the OS requires touch gestures to be used properly. If I was to get a mini I would buy a mac keyboard/mouse/trackpad.
Also the 2012 model is available in quad core while the latest Mac Minis are all dual core. For general purpose computing it shouldn't make a difference.
I have a 2012 Mini with the 4 core i7 and did the upgrade of RAM and SSD myself. The RAM is easy on that model, the SSD isn't trivial for the non-mechanically inclined as you have to remove a few pieces.
Best option for a casual user I would get the 2.6GHz CPU, 8 GB RAM, 1 TB HDD model. It should be fast enough.
thanks for the replies. How would the HP mini computer stack up in everyones opinion? Really would love to switch to Chromebox but not sure if that's really enough for main family computer.
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