Mac Mini?

[kenham40]

Thinking of getting a mac mini for my main rig. Would get the 1.42 (supposedly it's going to 1.5 ghz?) with 1 gig ram. (the one for 699). I mostly use Adobe Creative Suite 2, Microsoft Office: Mac and Macromedia Suite 8. Should this be fine or do I need to move to a power mac or imac? I have dual 21" IBM p260s I can hook to the mini btw.

 

[Brett13]

if you do intensive graphic work, then i would go with something more powerful. At least an iMac. But if you want to use both of those monitors, you will have to get a PowerMac as the Mini and iMac only support one monitor.

 

[kenham40]

if you do intensive graphic work, then i would go with something more powerful. At least an iMac. But if you want to use both of those monitors, you will have to get a PowerMac as the Mini and iMac only support one monitor.

Have you heard anything about the mac mini moving to 1.5ghz and a 64mb radeon? I was reading that on the web (used google)

 

[westrock2000]

I've had my 1.25Ghz Mini overclocked to 1.5Ghz for several months now and the thing is always on...haven't had any lockups yet. I strongly recommend 1Gb of RAM.


The Mini can only natively display on one monitor.....but there is a product, thats USB, that mimics a second monitor output. It will only support up to 1280x1024 (or possibly even 1024x768), but I think its only $150 or $200. I really can't remember the name of it right now, sorry

 

[stimpee]

Two (or three) things that would make me think twice about buying a macmini if i was you. Firstly, the radeon 9200 in the macmini does not support Core Image, a graphics acceleration technology in Tiger. Secondly, the card is only 32mb tho this shouldnt affect so much and the rumoured 64mb upgrade should help. Thirdly, the macmini cannot do dual monitor at this moment. There are possibly a couple of solutions to this but both of them are not currently available. The first solution is the hardware one in the way of the Tritton SEE2 USB which is probably what westrock2000 was talking about. The PC version is out but the Mac version isnt yet. Not sure what the difference could possibly be. The second solution would be thru software with the Screen Spanning Doctor software, a firmware hack for ibook, imac and emac's that gives you dual monitor support. It hasnt yet been updated for macmini but maybe it will be?

A 1.5ghz Macmini with 1GB ram, the 64mb radeon 9200 and the USB SEE2 would probably be enough though, and it seems they will all be on the market very soon.

 

[- NintendoFan -]

Well, the Mini can only support one monitor so you won't be able to dual it up. And you'd be better off waiting to make sure you can get the "new" Minis cause the 64MB on the graphics card will be very helpful.

 

[westrock2000]

Yep the Tritton was exactly what I was thinking of....and the price is even better Hopefully they will get some MAC support soon....could be very helpfull.


BTW: NintendoFan....check your signature

 

[illgiveumorality]

Have you heard anything about the mac mini moving to 1.5ghz and a 64mb radeon? I was reading that on the web (used google)

From what I've read a whole bunch of people are receiving them, and from what sources have said they haven't put them into a large enough production to announce it.

The Mini can only natively display on one monitor.....but there is a product, thats USB, that mimics a second monitor output. It will only support up to 1280x1024 (or possibly even 1024x768), but I think its only $150 or $200. I really can't remember the name of it right now, sorry

Really?

 

[thomaslfessler]

I walked into my local Apple store on Monday and picked up a new 1.5 Ghz Mini, with all the great upgrades. It works out of the box on a Sanyo Z3 Projector (1280x720), Sony 60XBR950 (1280x720), a SGI 1600SW (1600x1024) and a Compaq 17" Analog LCD.

There are serial #'s to watch for circulating on the net - I forgot where I got them from but followed them and got what I wanted (posted for your convienance)

YM531001TACG Best (M9971*/B)
YM531001TAAE Better (M9687*/B)
YM529022TA8M Good (M9686*/B)

Best luck.

This is the 1st mac I've purchased since my 840AV. I wanted to try the platform again (cheaply) before it launches on Intel and you can get real hardware for it without paying through the nose. The Mini seemed like a good small step to take. Even with the upgrades I still think its way over priced and the hardware included is too outdated. A stackable expansion bus on the bottom would have been ideal and really would not have costed that much.

Thx,
Thomas

 

[westrock2000]

I walked into my local Apple store on Monday and picked up a new 1.5 Ghz Mini, with all the great upgrades. It works out of the box on a Sanyo Z3 Projector (1280x720), Sony 60XBR950 (1280x720), a SGI 1600SW (1600x1024) and a Compaq 17" Analog LCD.

There are serial #'s to watch for circulating on the net - I forgot where I got them from but followed them and got what I wanted (posted for your convienance)

YM531001TACG Best (M9971*/B)
YM531001TAAE Better (M9687*/B)
YM529022TA8M Good (M9686*/B)

Does it have 1.5Ghz AND 64mb Radeon....or just the 1.5Ghz....because 64mb would be great. Then if an affordable non-ECC 2GB PC2700/3200 came on market, the Mini would really be an excellent solution.


Here was a thread I did about going from 1.25Ghz to 1.5Ghz. I also added a new hard disk, but it has some measurments and thoughts. You can see that was almost 4 months ago and I haven't had a single problem of locking up or anything.

 

[gigglebyte]

I walked into my local Apple store on Monday and picked up a new 1.5 Ghz Mini, with all the great upgrades.

have a hard time believing you PURCHASED a 1.5Ghz since currently there isn't such a product being sold by Apple

 

[thomaslfessler]

Ok... Believe it or NOT!

From the system Profiler: 1.5 Ghz Proc, 64Mb Radeon 9200, 80MB 5400RPM Seagate Monumentus(ST9808211A) and Apple Bluetooth Software Version 1.6.3f2

Thx,
Thomas

__________________
Primary PC: AMD XP-M 2500@ 2200Mhz, ATI x850XT AGP 256MB, 2GB Ram, HP 2335 24"LCD @ 1920x1200, 2x SGI 1600SW LCD @ 1600x1024, WB Raptor Boot Disk, 1 TB SATA Storage.

Project PC: AMD X2 3800 @ 2400Mhz, Q-Pack M-Atx Case, Jetway A210GDMS-Pro, ATI x800xt PCIx 256MB, 2x1GB OCZ Ram, 1x SGI 1600SW @ 1600x1024, 500GB SATA Storage. // Intel 830D Foxconn 945G Mobo, 2x512 OCZ DDRII waiting to be built.

Media PC: P4 2.6Ghz(socket 478), ATI 9600XT 128/ Nv6600GT 128, HD TV Wonder, 2x TV Wonder Elite, 4x200 Seagate PATA, 2x512 OCZ, Sanyo Z3 1280x720 Projector, 10' Severtson IMAX Screen, MS Bluetooth Desktop.

Hobby PC: MacMini 1.5 Stock(Sept. '05 Update - 1.5Ghz CPU, 64MB Radeon 9200, 5400RPM Seagate Monumentus) 17" HPvs17 LCD

 

[- NintendoFan -]

Ok... Believe it or NOT!

From the system Profiler: 1.5 Ghz Proc, 64Mb Radeon 9200, 80MB 5400RPM Seagate Monumentus(ST9808211A) and Apple Bluetooth Software Version 1.6.3f2

Thx,
Thomas

Screenshot?

BTW: NintendoFan....check your signature

What are you getting at?....

Does it have 1.5Ghz AND 64mb Radeon....or just the 1.5Ghz....because 64mb would be great. Then if an affordable non-ECC 2GB PC2700/3200 came on market, the Mini would really be an excellent solution.

Why, do the Mini's now except 2GB sticks?

 

[bahula03]

Ok... Believe it or NOT!

From the system Profiler: 1.5 Ghz Proc, 64Mb Radeon 9200, 80MB 5400RPM Seagate Monumentus(ST9808211A) and Apple Bluetooth Software Version 1.6.3f2

Thx,
Thomas
[/SIZE]

it's true...but there is no reliableway to get the 1.5ghz systems

 

[Centauri]

Putting an order in for a BTO should pretty much guarantee a 1.33 or a 1.5.

 

[The_Mage18]

have a hard time believing you PURCHASED a 1.5Ghz since currently there isn't such a product being sold by Apple

They're not advertising them but yes they DO exist. Check out Think Secret and the main page. What's happening is Apple is getting ready to release the next revision of the Mini but rather than slash prices on current models, they're still selling them at the current specs.

When you order one, you get a Mini that at least MEETS the specs you ordered but you may get one with the faster proc, better video and/or the Dual layer Superdrive. The Bluetooth modules on these "Easter Egg" Minis supports the latest standards.

Here's the arctile on ThinkSecret: http://www.thinksecret.com/news/0509macmini2.html

 

[bahula03]

...you get a Mini that at least MEETS the specs you ordered but you may get one with...

call apple or any apple retail store and this is the answer you will get.

 

[thomaslfessler]

I followed the Serial Number guide that was posted through a link at the AppleInsider forums - it was a gamble and it worked. I walked in and talked with the manager, explained to him what I was looking for, showed him the serial number range on my SideKick and he was completely cool about the situation. He came back with two Mini's - one with the Superdrive and one with the Combo Drive. I saved the $100 as I already have an external Sony DVD that is 2x faster than the internal.

Although there are no stickers on the outside of the box, the serial numbers appear to be accurate. Best luck to those who are looking... I've passed on the best information I could find and that worked for me.

 

[westrock2000]

What are you getting at?....

It says Readon instead of Radeon

Why, do the Mini's now accept 2GB sticks?

I'm pretty sure they would work with a 2gb stick, its just that none have been made that are non-ECC and non-registered.

 

[Thud]

Bear in mind that the updated 64MB video cards still won't support CoreImage... that's a limitation of the radeon 9200 chipset.
Expose should work better in higher resolutions though.


Looks like an incremental upgrade. For those of us with older models, Hitachi now has 80GB and 100GB 7200rpm notebook drives if you want to swap out that pokey 4200.

 

[rush24t3]

My new mini also had the upgraded hardware, even though the box AND the sticker along the bottom had the old specs listed.

 

[fibroptikl]

have a hard time believing you PURCHASED a 1.5Ghz since currently there isn't such a product being sold by Apple

This is funny in a bunch of ways.