Customer Reviews

Apple Mac mini MA608LL/A (1.83 GHz Intel Core Duo, 512 MB RAM, 80 GB Hard Drive, SuperDrive)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

this is my first mac. my PC broke and i didn't want to hassle with it anymore so i took the chance and bit into the apple.

i already have a nice sony monitor so i purchased the mini (with 1g RAM) and the wireless keyboard and mouse. i've had my mini for a week and love it.

it was easy to set up right out the box. my network was recognized and i was doing basic stuff like surfing the internet, working with pictures, and using iTunes without a problem. i was pleasantly surprised to find inexpensive 3rd party apps and was doing fun stuff like ripping dvd's to my iPod and downloading from usenet. i have had no problems playing any movie from my huge avi collection.

overall this is just a nice system to work and play on. it seems fast compared to my PC (Windows XP, pentium IV @ 3g with 2000 RAM) and has the feel of a modern computer.

i am giving it 4 stars since music is really important to me and i was initially freaking out in regards to audio quality. it just didn't sound as good as the music from my PC (which had a soundblaster audio card). so i purchased the soundblaster XFi and that helped some. still disapointed i further experimented and then tried turning down the system sound (i now have mine about 25%) and let the amp in my bose companion 3 speakers do the work. this made my music sound sweet and was a big relief. i am picky though, so if you think mp3's encoded @ 128k sound OK then audio probably won't be an issue.

so i just like this thing!! i have the mini with OS X and a toshiba qosmio running XP; the mini is just more pleasant to use.

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

I had the old "single" banger Mac Mini which I sold off because it felt like a toy and was a bit slow -- although I appreciated Mac OS X for sure.

My 2 GHz PC finally cooked from one too many viruses so it was definitely time to switch over to the mac.

Okay, in comparison to the old 1.5 Ghz single banger, the duo definitely feels faster. It fees faster than my old 2Ghz PC for sure. Now the mac mini has some life!

Other than that, I appreciate the additional firewire and USB ports which were definitely a constraint on the old mac mini.

The new core duo apparently does not have a dedicated graphics board, so I thought the graphics would be remiss. Well, I'm using a nice Samsung 19 inch monitor but I don't think the graphics looks too much diffferent, but maybe I'd give a slight edge to the old mac mini.

However, I much more appreciate the speed rather than worry about the graphics so much.

Installation went off without a hitch and the Airport wireless immediately showed four bars which means its working great - as I knew it would. I've helped install Mac Mini's at other people's houses and I've always been impressed wiith the reliabliity and pick up of the Airport built in wireless.

Okay, now I'm getting ready to siintall Office Mac which is better than the PC version in my opinion.

I'm using this machine as my basic web surfing and email machine, so I don't have to worry about VIRUSES.

My PC laptop will be my serious web development workhorse.

I haven't tried the little remote yet. Not even sure what I can use it for, but it looks tasty.

All in all, I'd say the Core Duo is a big step up from the single banger mini, and comparable in speed to any reasonably hopped up PC.

Of course I opted for the one gig of memory, and a 120gb hard drive.

Highly Recommended! Yaah Hooo!

I have had this computer for about 90 days now - and so far so good! I am very pleased with it!

I am using the mac mini in conjunction with the Mac bluetooth keyboard and 'super' mouse, and a G-Technology 500 GB RAID 1 G-Safe external HDD- as the 'digital hub' of my entertainment system. I have the mini plugged DVI to HDMI into a Panasonic 42" plasma.

(DO NOT BUY A LACIE 500 GB EXTERNAL DRIVE - see my other review)

I can't rate the mini five stars, as I have had to really do some 'tweaking' to get all of my peripherals up and running. However, if I wasn't using a plasma, a wireless network, and a Nokia phone it would have been a snap to set up.

After you start up the mini, it 'steps' you through the entire process.

IF you are using a link-sys, which I am, you have to add it as a 'preferred network' and then complete the network wizard - make sure you know your network configuration!

So far, I have about 250 GB of digital music and photos, and about 50 GB of TV and video in iTunes - which I use to manage all of the content. I have had no problems making DVD's with iDVD from photos or having multiple programs open - however, I did purchase my mini with 1 GB of RAM.

In addition, I sync my Nokia 9300 with iCal and the address book. My Nokia is updated via blackberry server from Outlook 2003 running on XP at work. Once I get close enough to the mini, the Nokia 9300 talks via bluetooth to the mini. I can then sync the 9300 with the mini using iSync. I sync one way - so I only have to maintain one contact list and one calendar (Outlook at work). I did have to purchase a 3rd party software program to get iSync to recognize my Nokia 9300. I purchased that program from a German company called Nova Media and it cost about 10 Euros.

I have been using PC since '93 and I must say the Mac mini is pleasantly surprising. I would defenitley recommend the mini to anyone.

I don't know if my review is fair since I can't compare this Mac mini to others because this is my first Mac in about 20 years, so I can compare it to my Windows PC.

Since there are very few things I didn't like about this Mac, I'll list them right away:

first I have the feeling I should've gone for an Imac since 800.00 for this Mac mini is expensive, don't get me wrong it works great and has almost everything I need but the Imac offers a lot more (LCD,keyboard, mouse, more RAM, more CPU,etc) for not much more dollars. But thats not a computer flaw is a miscalculation on my part mainly because I didnt want to spend more in case I didn't like the Mac world.

Its very dificult to upgrade, as I said I miscalculated the amount of work I would do on this litlle Mac, so I ended up buying it more RAM, since I've been around computers for quite a while I was able to install it myself without major problems, but an average user would surely need to take it to a shop adding cost to it.

The main things I have loved about this Mac:
- Its quiet and small, it takes as much space as my external HD.

- Im still blown about how easy to use almost everything is in OS X, I've been a MSDOS/Windows user for 20+ years and the adjustment to the Mac system isn't nearly as big as I thought it'd be. On the contrary, I found myself missing my Mac at work where I have a Compaq, I've gotten use to the conveience of the dashboard or changing windows/apps with the mighty mouse or setting up reminders on the iCal or how fast you find files or apps with Spotlight

- Bluetooth and networking, I got it working with my wireless network in a matter of seconds, I sent all my pics from my nokia through bluetooth with amazing ease. When I setted up my network it has always been a pain for my windows machines to comunicate with each other, I conected the Mac with my HP laptop right away, I still can't believe it!!

- NO ANTISPYWARE OR ANTIVIRUS, maybe some antivirus would be needed in the future, but not the annoying type like Norton.

- The software compability didn't hit me as much as I expected, at first I thought that with no Internet Explorer, the internet experience would be limited but I haven't missed it at all, I have replaced it with Netscape although my favorite is Firefox. My main concern was with the games I had for windows, small games which I expect to run with Parallels and a Windows copy.

- It uses Unix, I use several Unix applications at work so I may be able to replace the two machines with one Mac in the future.

To sum it up I can gladly say there is life after Windows, I plan to change each of my computers at work and laptop to Mac gradually, since I may still need to run some windows apps I can do it with parallels or bootcamp, and still enjoy the security of the Mac system most of the time.

This is my fourth Mac, upgrading from the G4Cube. You can't beat the silent operation of the G4Cube, so I expected some noise. There's not much at all on this Mac, which is why it's OK to put on your desktop. Heck, it's only 6 inches by 6 inches by 2 inches tall, and it is a full computer with CD and DVD burner. My recommendation is to get 2 GB RAM - when I had 1 GB, it was OK, but then I got 2 GB and Wowhee, this thing is so fast it flies. My 2 GB RAM is now my minimum recommendation on all PCs. I added a miniStacker II which fits exactly underneath the MacMini unit, for mucho extra Hard drive storage (I digitize video, so I need lots of space). I may have added too many peripherals once (USB speakers, Firewire HD, another Firewire HD, camera, phone, iPod) and it kinda froze. unplugging them upon bootup fixed the problem. The original Apple RAM died in warranty, but it was replaced No Charge

This product has potential. Its small form factor is great. However, out of the box you're limited unless you upgrade the 512 Megs of memory. These days anything less than 1Gig is too small. Disk space is also small but there are add-on coordinating products (ie. miniStack V2) that you can attach to address this limitation. I swapped out one of the 256 Dimm cards and replace it with a Gig which resulted in a 1.256 Gigs of Ram. Now I am happy with its performance.

A great computer. The 512 MB of RAM it comes with is not enough though and will degrade performance. Install at least 1 GB and you'll see this thing fly. Highly recommended. Awesome as a HTPC.

I purchased my from Apple as a Refubished unit. my cost was $400. Typically they now sell for $599 for this unit. Do not buy the only listed here as it is seriously over-priced.


The Mac Mini is a joke right? I have a Mac Pro with 4TB of disk space and 15GB or RAM and yet even with this awesome computer, I still decided to buy a Mac Mini, and I'd like to have a dozen more.

There are always times when you wished you had small computer, one that does not use much electricity (2-3 watts at idle), and one that can perform 95% of what you want it to do. This is it.

The Mac Mini is an upgradeable computer. It is easy to add up to 3GB of memory ($70), a bigger hard-drive up to 320GB right now ($150) and soon, a new 500GB ($300) notebook drive is expected to be released, and even the CPU can be upgraded to a max of 2.33GHz--pricey, but something to keep in mind as CPU prices keep falling--you will be able to beef up this computer such that it will work well for many years. I found this one of the easiest computers to work on for doing upgrades yourself. Do a Gooogle Search and you will see that lots of people publish tips and tricks for working on these machines.

People are putting these machines in cars, on boats, of as supplemental computers hooked up to free monitors like your new flat screen TV. Mine is hooked up to a 50" Sony.

The MAC OS X operating system is fabulous, and easy to use. It is a snap to change font sizes so you can read the screen from across the room. You can change screen resolutions with a couple of clicks too.

What else is great. It is so very easy to operate one MAC from another. This alone makes this a worthy addition to your network. I plan to use mine as an Internet Web Server. You don't even need a monitor to run this computer remotely, after a few configuration changes are made. Running a Mac Mini (headless--no monitor) is common among those who use these to run servers, because it is easy to open up a window to run it remotely, from anywhere! Add a larger Firewire 400 or USB drive a a Time Machine Backup Drive, and you have an easy to use, easy to maintain, server with good backup protection.

These machines are 6.5"x6.5"x2". That is small. You can put one anywhere. Mounting cages are available to install these on the back of your old LCD monitor. That gets it off your deck and out of the way, yet still in an accessible location.

You will need a keyboard and mouse. I like the wireless keyboard and mouse that Apple sells. Their wired keyboard is nice too. You can pick these up on eBay for 1/3 of what Apple sells them for.

Ok, so what is the negative. The built-in graphics card is a bit lame, but not totally useless. Unfortunately, you can't upgrade the video. it does include a DVI output and a conversion adapter for a VGA type cable. So while you won't want this machine for extreme gaming, it is not bad for most games that are not cutting edge,and it works great for any other applications.

These are Intel processors, so feel free to install a bigger hard drive and split it in half for Windows, and OS X.

Great Hardware, great OS. Small machine, small price. Buy two today.

This is my first experience with a Mac and I'm very happy with it.
No more locking up no more pop ups no more spyware no more viruses no more control alt delete.Been using it for about three months and it has worked flawlessly. I will never go back to a PC again.