msannie Posted June 6, 2009 Share Posted June 6, 2009 I saw a MINI MAC today and was really taken with it. I've not paid much attention to Mac stuff for years since switching to a windows machine, but it's time to switch back. So.....does anybody know anything about them? Does anyone have any experience using them? They are so tiny it's hard to believe they qualify as a real computer! Thanks, I'll be checking back often to see what you guys say. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrstucci Posted June 6, 2009 Share Posted June 6, 2009 Hi ms annie! I don't own one so I can't speak from personal experience but I don't see how you could go wrong with a Mac mini. I have been a Mac user for 20 years and have never regretted it. Some words of advice: max out the RAM and get the extended Apple warranty. Judy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DebLynn Posted June 7, 2009 Share Posted June 7, 2009 I don't have the Mac Mini, but I've had my 24" iMac for two years this month and I LOVE it!! I'd never go back. The newly updated Mac Mini's are supposed to be fantastic! I echo Judy... make sure you have lots of RAM, which you can add yourself after purchasing the mini, and also get the extended warranty. I'm not a big fan of extended warranties normally, but with our Macs I decided to extend the warranties when it was near the end of the first year after purchasing. I was so happy I did because my iMac's hard drive failed last December and I was able to get it replaced at my local Apple store very quickly. I also highly recommend the One to One sessions that are now offered only to new Mac buyers. They are so worth it!! I learned so much at my sessions. I wish I didn't have to purchase another new Mac just to sign up again! Oh well, someday! LOL!! Good luck with your decision... Debbie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrstucci Posted June 7, 2009 Share Posted June 7, 2009 Great info there DebLyn!!! But before you decide to put RAM in a Mac mini, make sure that you can. I think there is one Mac that is very difficult to open and put in your own memory. Can't really remember which one and it might be an older model but double check that out. Each time that we have purchased a Mac, we have gotten the extended warranty and I think we have used it every time for something. So msannie, keep us updated!!! Judy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jo Corne Posted June 7, 2009 Share Posted June 7, 2009 wahoo another one of us looking to go mac... we've just changed our whole home network to mac after many years on pc and we are IN LOVE. it will be interesting to hear about the mini mac, so please let us know. might be a good one for the kids one day as they ain't touching my or dh's 24" iMac for love nor money, LOL!! (they have inherited our pc's so they can't really complain, especially as we only upgraded them about three months ago!!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DebLynn Posted June 7, 2009 Share Posted June 7, 2009 wahoo another one of us looking to go mac... we've just changed our whole home network to mac after many years on pc and we are IN LOVE. it will be interesting to hear about the mini mac, so please let us know. might be a good one for the kids one day as they ain't touching my or dh's 24" iMac for love nor money, LOL!! (they have inherited our pc's so they can't really complain, especially as we only upgraded them about three months ago!!) Oh, good thing you mentioned the RAM issue Judy. I thought all Macs could be upgraded at home. My dh upgraded my 24" iMac himself, which is so much cheaper, but I think having extra RAM added to the mini by Apple, if it's available, might be the easiest way to go. I actually have only one gig of RAM right now because when my hard drive started failing last December, we thought maybe it was the RAM we added that might be failing, so we removed it. It wasn't, but since we were taking my iMac into the Apple store anyway, we left the extra RAM out so that it only had Apple's RAM in it. Five months later we still haven't put it back, and the funny thing is, I can run PSE 6 just fine! It never crashes or runs too slow. I guess it's just the powerful iMac processor. I'm going to get the extra RAM back in there eventually though. I just like the idea that it's there! LOL!! ScrappinJo - my iMac is just mine! No one else is allowed to touch it!! LOL! I have the biggest monitor in the house and everybody is so jealous! When I have to do something on my hubby's 15" monitor for one reason or another, I am so shocked by how small it is! It's so easy to get used to a big screen very quickly! LOVE my iMac!! Debbie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrstucci Posted June 7, 2009 Share Posted June 7, 2009 Welcome to the wonderful world of Macs, scrappinjo!!! Re: RAM in a Mac mini-if I am right and it's hard to put it's only because it's hard to open. I have always put in extra memory in my new Macs but with the laptop I didn't-got lazy! When I am home I have use of a large monitor that I have hooked up to my MacBook Pro. Love that SO MUCH! I can have PSE6 open on the 15" MBP and on the extra monitor I have Picasa open with my digi stuff. Great setup. I have seen those 24" iMacs in the stores and my, they are impressive! Beautiful machines. Not only can a Mac mini be used for emailing, scrapping, etc. but also some people have set them up for a home theater. My hubby and I are talking about that. Have a great Sunday ladies!! Great to meet you all. Judy in sunny, sunny Maryland (after about 3 days of rain) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
debbiek Posted June 7, 2009 Share Posted June 7, 2009 Hi, Msannie. I've been a Mac user since the days of the old IIc (yeah, I'm really old!) and wouldn't trade my current iMac G5 for anything. Everything I'm reading in the Mac magazines and journals says great things about the Mini (when it first came out they didn't love it, but the newest versions are apparently wonderful.) I don't like that you have to purchase the monitor and keyboard, etc. separately, but if the price is good for the whole setup, I think you'd really like it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DesertScrapper Posted July 23, 2009 Share Posted July 23, 2009 I switched to Mac a couple months ago. I was very taken by the Mac Mini when I was out shopping for a new computor because my windows pc went to heck. Even though I am still learning my mac, I am absolutely in love with it. It's so dang easy to use!! I haven't bought the extended warranty yet. I know my 90days tech support will be running out in about a month, so Im wondering if I need to purchase my extended before the end of the 90 days, or is it before the end of the first YEAR? I can't remember. I need to check though so that I don't procrastinate too long and then be out of luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrstucci Posted July 23, 2009 Share Posted July 23, 2009 I am not really sure when you have to buy the Apple Care by......... 90 days or up to one year but if you plan to buy it, I wouldn't take a chance of forgetting and letting it slip! I have always bought Apple Care and have had to use it a couple of times. Well worth it. I didn't buy Apple Care for my 4th gen iPod Nano-it's not that expensive but a computer, well, that's a whole different thing. Judy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DebLynn Posted July 24, 2009 Share Posted July 24, 2009 You have a full year to buy the Extended warranty from Apple. I waited until the first year was almost up for both my iMac and my son's Macbook before I bought the extended warranties. But you do need to keep track so you don't forget. Also, you won't get the tech support after the 90 days is up unless you buy the Extended warranty right away. I figured I could just go to the genius bar at my Apple store if I had a problem, so tech support wasn't a biggie for me. But I did get use out of my extended warranty when my iMac's hard drive failed after a year and a half. I highly recommend it!! Debbie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DesertScrapper Posted July 24, 2009 Share Posted July 24, 2009 Alrighty I guess maybe I better look into it sooner rather than later, since I live in the boonies and do not have an Apple store anywhere close to me. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sara Arell Posted August 26, 2009 Share Posted August 26, 2009 Just saw this thread and am wondering if you bought the mini-Mac or not - it would seem like a really convenient size to carry around frequently provided it will hold enough memory - I would just wonder how many applications you could put on it - We have three Macs currently - my big Mac in my office with the giant screen and two laptops - one for me and one for dh. I have used Macs for over 20 years and don't know if I could use anything else. Just wondering if the mini Mac is like the new mini Dell that is really primarily for email only. Just wondered if you ever bought it! And what you think of it. Sara Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
holly1156 Posted August 26, 2009 Share Posted August 26, 2009 Hello everyone! We have a mac mini at our house (along with imacs and mac books-6 kids here!) and the mini is great. We had 4 gigs of ram installed and even are running windows xp on it.-for business reasons. One caution is that the fan needs air space around it to run well. We converted to mac from pc about 2 years ago-and all I can say is WHY didn't we do it sooner!!! Even though the cost is higher, when you buy a pc, they say it is good for about 2 years (if you are lucky) Mac is an investment that last for 4 or more years, or to get kids through school etc... It is not like those mini netbooks at all...it's a full mac. I don't know if I would carry it around though. Don't think it was designed to be mobile and I am not sure it is as durable as a laptop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scrapsoflife Posted October 5, 2009 Share Posted October 5, 2009 I DO have a Mac mini and run PS CS4 on it for graphics stuff (use it to edit all my comics and color my covers, etc.) and it works great for pretty much everything. I love that it takes up so little space (it's actually smaller than my EHD!) and "just works" like you want any computer to do. While I suppose I *could* travel with it, I'd do so cautiously and only when necessary. I got mine as a refurb so got the larger HD/RAM combo with the DVD for the same price as the lower version, new. For those still considering: it's definitely a real computer and totally worth the investment (even though the minis are generally about the price of an upper-end pc... at least when I got mine a couple years ago!). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sara Arell Posted October 5, 2009 Share Posted October 5, 2009 What's the cost of the mini-Mac? Do you think it would hold several different applications - like I use the Creative Suite on mine and lots of pics - would love to hear more about it - guess I could go to the Apple site and look at it but would love to hear what you think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scrapsoflife Posted October 5, 2009 Share Posted October 5, 2009 I think mine (and this was a couple years back--maybe even 3 or 4, I'd have to check) was around $600 or so? And it's got an 80GB hard drive, so holding files in NOT a problem. [Just checked: the $600 version is now 120GB! $800 for 320GB! That's really not a bad deal for a Mac!] I only use PS of the CS suite, but having the whole kit and kaboodle on there shouldn't be a problem. I've got oodles of music and years of photos and all sorts of open source software on mine and it runs like a champ (though I did, recently, have to disable the sleep function because it takes after it's owner, now, and doesn't like to wake up--but that's an easy work-around: just turn off the monitor instead ). I used to digiscrap with PSE 3.0 on my laptop using an EHD to store my supplies. Ugh, it was slow as molasses to grab my elements from the EHD, much less to just see the previews, etc. I upgraded to PS CS4 so I could do CMYK colors for my bookcover, etc. and just recently broached the subject of grabbing stuff from the external. Lightening fast (and I haven't even upgraded to Leopard--I'm on Cougar!). iPhoto is really easy to use to download and organize photos in (though I do all my editing in PS, of course). I still run both Mac and PC at home, just because a PC laptop is so much cheaper (and I have a Dell account, lol) and it's a good workhorse for when I'm writing, etc. but the Mac is where most of the heavy lifting happens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sara Arell Posted October 5, 2009 Share Posted October 5, 2009 Thanks for the info - that is not a bad price at all for a Mac - think I may have to look into that - we have two Mac laptops and my desktop iMac and I love them all - wouldn't consider using anything else but have been a Mac user for over 20 years. Great that I can put my Creative Suite on it - gonna call my Mac guru today. That might fit into my pocketbook! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SandiC. Posted October 24, 2009 Share Posted October 24, 2009 The mini with the larger HD (320 i think) and 4 GB memory is listed on the apple store web site for $799. My desktop is probably due to be upgraded soon and I'm sure considering this now that I've discovered the apple world. One of the beautiful things about it is that it is designed to work with your monitors and keyboards and such that you've been using with the PCs. I found a Dummies book...Switching to Mac, that really explains how Macs differ from PCs and I'm pretty sure this is a great move on my part. I'm off to the apple store to pick up my new Mac Book Pro in just a few minutes. I'll check back in soon to let you know how I love it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sara Arell Posted October 25, 2009 Share Posted October 25, 2009 Don't have the Mini, but I would love to have one - I played with one at the Apple store couple weeks ago and thought it was awesome - so easy to carry around! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sara Arell Posted November 8, 2009 Share Posted November 8, 2009 So happy to hear good things about the Mini Mac - I want one so much - must add it to my list - first the Wacom tablet then the Mini Mac! Would love to hear more about how you like it though and how many apps you can put on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lorac Posted November 8, 2009 Share Posted November 8, 2009 I don't have the Mini Mac, but I do have a Minnie Mouse. Ain't she adorable? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sara Arell Posted November 8, 2009 Share Posted November 8, 2009 Carole, she is adorable - would she like to come over for a play date with my two cats? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lorac Posted November 8, 2009 Share Posted November 8, 2009 She's on her way. But please, send her back after her play date. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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