Customer Reviews

Apple Mac mini M9687LL/B (1.42 GHz PowerPC G4, 512 MB DDR SDRAM, 80 GB Hard Drive, DVD/CD-RW Drive)

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

The Mac Mini was released in January 2005 at Mac World, and was then updated, for the first time, in July 2005. This Mac Mini is the result of that update.

Improvements - The $599 Mac Mini now sports 512 MB of DDR SDRAM, which is twice the memory the original Mac Mini included. This is a significant upgrade. The majority of users can now buy, out of the box, a machine that performs beautifully and allows a fair amount of multi-tasking. The Mac operating system, Mac OS X Tiger, thrives on memory, and 512 MB helps to create a speedy experience, for users.

Bluetooth - Bluetooth is a great wireless technology that Apple heavily backs, and it is included with this Mac Mini, an addition, from the original Mac Minis, when bluetooth was an optional add-on, at Apple.com, for $50 more. Purchase a bluetooth keyboard or bluetooth mouse, and they will work wirelessly, with your Mac Mini. It makes for a very clean and uncluttered desktop. There are also many mobile phones and PDAs, which utilize bluetooth technology, which you can sync to your mac using isync, included with Mac Mini.

Airport Extreme - This is the wireless networking card now included with the $599 Mac Mini, after being a $70+ upgrade at Apple.com, on the previous model. Do you have a wireless-b or wireless-g network in your home? If so, the Mac Mini will be able to connect to it, without problem. Again, making the computing experience simpler and less tangled.

The Good Things that Continue to Shine with Mac Mini - A buyer of the Mac Mini will continue to enjoy Mac OS X Tiger, which is the best consumer operating system in the world. It works with the hardware beautifully to provide a simple, fast, elegant, and reliable experience. One of the favorite descriptions of Mac fans, to describe Macs, is simply, "it just works."

The Mac Mini continues to include iLife '05, with great applications such as iPhoto, iMovie HD, iDVD, iTunes, and Garageband. These are all included, with every Mac Mini. You will be challenged to find any PC that includes applications that come anywhere close to the iLife suite. Manage thousands of your digital images in iPhoto, create home movies in iMovie, and create professional music in Garageband.

Appleworks is included for simply word processing, spreadsheets, etc., but you might want to pick up Microsoft Office for Mac. A student/teacher edition is available, for just over $100.

Speed - The 1.42 GHZ PowerPC G4 processor makes the Mac Mini a very capable machine. This will satisfy the horsepower needed to complete tasks in the iLife suite, included with your Mac Mini.

Hard Drive - 80 GB is a significant-sized hard drive, so you will be able to store thousands of photos and songs.

ComboDrive - The Apple Combo Drive allows you to burn music and data CDs, plus you can watch DVDs!

Drawbacks? The $599 version of the Mac Mini no longer includes a modem, if you want this version of the Mac Mini with a modem, you will have to custom-order it at Apple.com. However, the ethernet port is included on the back, to plug into a DSL or cable modem, plus you have the Airport Extreme, for wireless connections. However, if you don't have broadband, you'll need a modem for dial-up, so you will either need to order a custom-built Mac Mini at Apple.com, or buy the stock $499 model, which includes a modem, but lacks the wireless components.

Overall, Apple has created another fantastic product, with the Mac Mini, and the July 2005 update only made it better. You get more memory, plus wireless connectivity via bluetooth and airport extreme. This Mac Mini really includes everything the average user needs to enjoy the internet, manage his or her digital life, and have fun doing it all.

A lot of the reason I am so pleased with the Mac Mini has to do with Amazon.com. Great customer service, price, shipping. Buying this from the Apple store would have cost me $150 more. Now, about the computer-
First off, I was shipped a unit with upgraded Processor (1.5ghz) and Video. Also the Superdrive is dual layer, not single although I haven't been able to see if it works as a DL. So I'm pretty pleased that I have an upgrade right off the bat.

The slogan says BYODKM, so I'll tell you how I have it set up. Apple bluetooth keyboard and mouse and the display is a 50' plasma TV. This is a really cool setup for my kids, playing educational games.

About 2 days after the unit was delivered, Apple released the new Intel version of the Mini. Initially I was disappointed, but after looking at the new specs I realized I had bought the better PPC version. The Intel version shares video with the 512 main memory and has no dedicated chipset seperate.

The positives are: Small form factor, great performance, price. You just can't beat OS X in terms of reliability. I will not miss being a system administrator on my wife's dell, constantly scanning and removing malware. Price-Got mine with a superdrive for $630 shipped.

Negatives: Memory. Although units shipping now have a standard 512k, I really think I'll need to upgrade to at least 1mb. Also, after having been a Powerbook user, there is a perceptable difference in the build quality. Not bad mind you, but not quite up to par with the Powerbooks.

Overall, a great machine if you already have your keyboard/mouse/display. If not, the new imac is a much better value. Why only 4 instead of 5 stars? Well, the superdrive seems to only want to burn at 2X, not the 8X as advertised. Apple has nothing to remedy this issue yet, but will probably issue a firmware upgrade sometime.

So my advice is to take the plunge and switch over to OS X, you'll be very happy you did.

You'll get your hard disk space doubled and your processor works faster. 40GB hard disk to 80GB and 1.25GHz to 1.42GHz. This model does not come with built-in modem. You can add it if you want to by ordering directly via apple website. But if you choose the other model, that is priced $100 less, you'll get the built-in modem.

Having your CPU replaced with Mac Mini means replacing your Windows with Mac OS X. You don't have to be worried about this. It doesn't take much for you to learn how to use Mac OS X. Based on survey to the Windows-to-Mac users, all they need is spend a few hours on Mac and they'll know it well. With Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger), it is very easy to find your applications and documents (using spotlight), user automator to do tedious tasks, have useful widgets around you. To find more information about Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger), read the review on Mac OS X Tiger product page.

When you replace your current CPU with this, you'll see a big difference on your desk. You'll see a cute grey box replacing your tower CPU, leaving more space for you to store other things. This Mac Mini is the second version. It has better specification and performance than the first one. You have enough hard disk space to store all your files, music, photos, and videos. Fast processor and bigger RAM to launch more applications better and faster. You'll also get DVD/CD-RW drive to enjoy all the media you have and do some back-ups.

This Mac Mini is meant to those who are planning to move to Mac and having mouse, keyboard, monitors, and other devices that were used on Windows.

I have been using wintel machines since 1986 but I always wondered what the "other side" was like. Building and maintaining x86 architecture was (and still is) part of my job and, by extension, also became a hobby as well. Based on nearly 20 years of experience, the constant reformat/re-install/purge malware/solve software and hardware conflicts/fight random glitches cycle just seemed to be the norm and I couldn't imagine it could be different. Historically, entry into the Mac world always seemed to come at a high price and, honestly, I just couldn't believe any computer could perform as well as the Mac fans claimed they could. Then along came this little gem. I played around with one at a local computer store and started researching it on the web. Nearly every review gave it a glowing report and the price was right (especially here at Amazon) so I decided to give it a try. Amazon provided their typically great service and my mini was delivered in no time at all...I also had a pleasant surprise in that it was the "unofficial" updated version with a 1.5ghz processor and 64Mb video memory. After unpacking it and connecting the monitor, keyboard, and mouse I turned it on. It was so quiet I thought I might have a defective machine but within just a few seconds the configuration process began. I followed the prompts on the screen and within 10 minutes I was surfing the net through my wireless router and within 15 minutes I was transfering documents from my old wintel machine and had my network printer configured and ready for use. This has been the most satisfying new computer experience I have ever had. To confirm everything I have read about Mac, "it just works!"

I ordered this computer, to replace my old Blue and White 450 mHz G3, just days before Steve Jobs keynote speech at the 2006 MacWorld conference. I was a little nervious not knowing what would come out of the conference with regards to new products, but I can tell you I'm happy that I took the chance. I got a great deal from Amazon.com ($544 including shipping!) PLUS, I got a silent upgraded Mac Mini running a 1.5 gHz G4 PPC chip with 64mb of video ram (specs call for a 1.42 gHz chip with only 32 mb of video ram!!) This little guy is fast enough for what I want to do and is pretty quiet except for when you first pop in a CD. Reading from the disk kinda reminds me of the first 512Hz Macs when you inserted a 3.5 disk with all the zipping and crunching sound FX. :>) When not reading from a CD, the built-in 80 gb drive is quite and responsive. Overall, I couldn't be happier with the tremendous value of this purchase and the zippy performance of this great little machine. Two thumbs up from Tennessee!!!

The Mac mini is a beautiful and very useful computer. I love all the applications it comes with. Contrary to it's processor speed, it's fairly speedy too. OSX is a very easy to use system. I've been using Windows for close probably 13 years, and I feel right at home with OSX after a month of use. If you're thinking about switching, this is definitely the best way to wade in the waters of virus- and spyware- free OSX without getting committed with a thousands of dollars investment. My only complaint is it is a little scant on USB ports. 2 isn't really enough. You can buy an inexpensive USB hub anywhere, or get one of those nice hubs that stack underneath the mini and look excellent.

Overall, I don't regret switching one bit!

This computer is great it works with out constant problems like a Windows PC. If Mac actully supported games I would buy a high end G5 and chuck my Dell XPS right out the window, and the Dell has been great. ANY Mac is highly recommened UNLESS you play games. This computer is also completely silent unless a CD is in the drive.

This is a great computer - small and very powerful. This is the third mac computer in my house. I wanted something small because it is going in the kitchen. Very easy to set up and the Airport found my existing wireless network without me having to put in any information!

If you're the type of person who want to get into Mac OSX and just plain sick of Windows this is the computer for you. There are quite a few people out there I hear saying that the Mac Mini is a waste of money and just a toy, well they are wrong.
The Mac Mini is a fully featured computer to start with it arrives all ready loaded with OSX 10.4.2 Tiger, anyone who is frustrated with Windows idiosyncrasies and annoyances will be pleasantly surprised how easy and feature packed this OS is, even the most ridged die hard Windows fan will be tempted to the "dark side" of computing, plus with Macs you're not plagued with viruses, adware and spyware like the Microsoft counterpart.
With any budget PC you would be lucky to get any basic software with it, the Mac Mini is loaded with iLife '05, Appleworks and Safari which is fantastic software for any multimedia task you have to throw at it.
The hardware for the Mac Mini is very decent to add to the overall attractiveness of the Apple package, since the release they're now come shipped with a 1.5Ghz G4 processor and a 64MB Ati 9200 video card which is slightly faster than what Apple have advertised on their web site. For storage 80Gig is fairly decent for most multimedia while 512MB of RAM is enough to keep Tiger happy for most applications, additionally it also has BlueTooth, Airport and DVD/CD-RW drive which adds to value of the Mac Mini.
If you already have a monitor or LCD/Plasma TV and don't mind having to spend a little extra for a mouse and keyboard this is defiantly the computer to get, buy one you'll love it.

I've had my mini for about a year and have been very pleased with it. If you are going to do simple computing (managing photos, music, internet, etc.) then this computer will do the job and then some. I've been an Apple fan for a long time and have had several products over the years (two iPods, G3 blue & white, cinema display, etc.) and I have to say the mini is one of my favorites. The compact design is what all computers should strive for. The OS is stable and I've had no technical problems with it. I'm a very satisfied customer.