Customer Reviews

Apple Mac mini M9971LL/B (1.42 GHz PowerPC G4, 512 MB DDR SDRAM, 80 GB Hard Drive, SuperDrive DVD-RW/CD-RW Drive)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
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 $699 Mac Mini is a new model, in the respect that previously only $599 and $499 models were offered. The $699 model is indentical to the $599 model, but includes a superdrive, for burning DVDs. This Mac Mini 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, (...), 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 and $699 Mac Mini, after being a $70+ upgrade (...), 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, burn those movies onto DVD with iDVD, 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.

Superdrive - The Apple Superdrive not only allows you to burn CDs and watch DVDs, but you can also burn your very own DVDs! Just imagine editing your home movies in iMovie, and then burning them to DVD, with iDVD via your Superdrive. iDVD allows you to make beautiful menus, for your DVDs, so they look professional.

Drawbacks? The $699 version of the Mac Mini does not include 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, superdrive, 80 gig hard drive, and faster processor.

What is the best value of the three Mac Mini models? The $699 model is *fantastic*, if you want to burn DVDs, or simply backup data to DVDs. Remember, a DVD holds 4.7 GB of data, so that allows you to backup a lot of data. However, if you think you do not need the Superdrive, the $599 model offers the exact configuration to the $699 model, albeit absent the superdrive.

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.

I formerly used a Windows computer (not by choice) and decided to make the switch to either Linux or Mac, but when I started using a mac mini at work, I fell in love! Of course, your experience will be different depending on what you will use your mac mini for. My daily tasks on a computer consist of graphic design (Photoshop, Illustrator, Corel, Flash), web programming (Dreamweaver and Text Editors), occasional video editing, composing music, and all the other general stuff like word processing, etc.

I knew, for a fact, that I should NOT get the 512MB ram - since my computer at work uses this and it runs EXTREMELY slow when I have Photoshop and Dreamweaver open. So, I upgraded to the 1 gig ram ... it's perfect! I haven't experienced any lag at all even when I have Limewire, Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, and Flash all open at the same time!

The OS is simple and easy to understand. And best of all, I don't have to worry about stupid blue screens of death, viruses every 5 minutes, and all that weird Windows crap! I am finally at ease with my Mac and use it to control my Windows computer remotely, which works awesome!

The best thing is that there is a ton of open source software out there to download if you need any kind of program. My fear was that I would not find programs to replace the ones on my Windows computer, but Mac has it all AND the programs are much nicer in Mac.

The only downside is that the Superdrive doesn't burn as fast as I would like, but it works really well considering it's such a small drive. You just need to make sure you buy CD-R and DVD-R brands like Memorex and TDK.

AirPort automatically detected my d-link wireless network and I didn't have to do a thing to configure it!

The unit is tiny and makes barely any noise at all. It only breathes when reading a disc. It's easy to pop open, all you need is a puddy knife.

The ONE thing you need if you're going to get a Mini is ... a USB hub, since there are only two USB ports. Well, you only need it if you have webcams, external hard drives, dvd burners, printer, scanner, etc etc.

Above all, it's a great device and well worth the money!!

Easy to setup. Low price. Small size. And from Apple. What more could I ask? The mini is a wonderful introduction to the Apple line, especially those that already have an available monitor and keyboard. After working for a couple of years as a tech for PCs and Macs, and now as a programmer running on a Mac, I was always trying to find a reason to fork over the money to purchase a Mac for home, but with my 5+ PCs, I could never justify a purchase. But when Apple came out with this monitor-less & keyboard-less mini at such a great price, I had more of an incentive to 'officially' make the crossover. Of course, there are tradeoffs. I don't get the powerful G5 processor, or the ability to upgrade my RAM past 1GB, but the way I use this computer (mainly to house my music and photo collection), it's definitely sufficient. As long as you're not trying to use the mini for heavy video editing, then I would highly suggest this machine. It really is a great buy!

I bought my Mac mini (1.42GHZ) just before Apple updated it, and aside from having to pay $75 for a 512Mb stick of RAM (third-party) I couldn't be happier with this computer.
I've been reading some reviews saying that the Mac mini is fine for basic tasks but not quite adequate for more powerful apps. I disagree. Is it a PowerMac G5? heck no.
It is however a powerful and capable computer tucked into a small package. The point I'm trying to make is that it will handle demands above and beyond "normal everyday use".Again I won't claim that the Mac mini is as fast as the more expensive G5 desktops, but unless you're into very heavy multimedia work, you should be just fine with this computer.
PROS: not as fast as a PowerMac but still quite fast and snappy, small, whisper quiet, beautiful design, not as affordable as Apple would have you believe, but still very good price tag, OSX Tiger beats the crap out of Windows, good software package, that "Mac magic".
CONS: laptop HD - adding an external HD would boost speed, though I myself haven't done that yet, firewire 800 would be nice or an additional USB, more difficult than other computers to upgrade, only came with 256 MB of RAM (new models have 512) the graphics card isn't quite on par with it's other Mac siblings, though still better than decent in my opinion.
Overall, it's very simple - I love my mini.

For all those people who are concerned about space restrictions and want a powerhouse computer that will not need a large footprint, the Mac Mini is the perfect solution. Packing a boatload of power into a computer yay bigger than a coaster, there is no better power/space combination in the entire computing world!

For all the Windows users who don't want to make the switch to the Mac, with the newest Mac OS you will not look back once you get used to the ways that Apple does things the way they are SUPPOSED to be done.

As per usual Apple, the design of the Mac Mini is perfect, and it's so quiet that your own heartbeat will no doubt be louder than this quiet monster.

If you need a solid family computer that will allow you to surf the net, work with spreadsheets, check e-mail, or just do 99% of the things that you would like to be doing (I don't say 100% because it's not a gaming machine), pick up a Mac Mini for your home office, kitchen, ANYWHERE and you will NOT be disappointed!!

***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

The generation 1 mac mini is a great starter mac. I upgraded mine to 1GB at CompUSA and use it, along with an 160GB external drive, as my main media server. I have almost completed the process of importing all my CDs and some movies into iTunes. Importing video from a digital camcorder is quite easy with iLife but the G4 CPU is not up to the task for quick video editing. The newer Intel Core Duo mac mini should handle this easlity though.

This is by far the best piece of kit I have bought. Barring the negative reviews, I have not yet tries the DVD writing capabilities, but speed is not an issue with me. If it takes 30 mins then not an issue. What do you expect from the price of a G4 mac. This is superb and so far no issues from my side!

This version of the Mac mini works very well for the purpose it was bought - keep in touch with family. Be it Skype or iChat, voice and video connections are of good quality. The only surprise was that the Mac Mini does not have a microphone line in, but the iSight camera connected via Firewire has a built-in microphone, so it works like a charm.
The SuperDrive allows to burn home videos in excellent quality. The Mac takes it's time doing the mpeg encoding, but thats OK as it is so silent when working you hardly notice the computer is on.
The i-Software is easy enough to use, that even my mom is happy to make use of the computer. All in all a great buy - everything works, setup is simple and no blue screens or weird error messages.

I got my mac mini a couple months ago. I've wanted a Mac for a while now and finally got one. Im a poor college student that loves writing and recording music. I use Logic 6 on my Mini and it runs great. Cant do anything extreme with it, but it gets the job done. The main reason i like Mac so much is the software. Microsoft still has their head in the dirt and if they dont pull it out soon Mac is going to have an empire bigger than theirs. Who could possibly say XP is a better OS than Tiger. Everything on a mac just makes sense. It takes some getting use to, but once you get away from the Windows way of thinking you kinda never go back. Unix systems just run better, sorry Bill. Gates always use to talk about inovation and how they're pushing the industry forward. From the previews I've seen of Longhorn it looks like they're mimicing Mac and havent come up with anything original or innovative. Yeah Steve Jobs is a bit of an egomaniac, and likes to have all the control, but at least he has cool people working with him that make cool stuff.

This was my first Apple computer. And for what I needed it for (economy of space, playing music, videos and general surfing and downloading) it was excellent.

However, after 3 years the hard drive packed up (no reason, no excessive use, it just did) - luckily it packed up in a way that made it possible to save the data. AND I had bought Applecare, Apple's very own extended warranty, so getting a new logic board and hard drive was free! Had I not bought the cover (some $80 dollars) I would have forked out $350 just to get it fixed, plus parts and labour.

A good machine for casual users. If you're hardcore and need lots of RAM and Disc space, get a maxed out iMac or a Power Mac.