Customer Reviews

Apple Mac mini MC238LL/A Desktop

5 star:		(44)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I attached the mini to my HDTV (using mini-DVI to HDMI cable) and an optical digital audio cable. Picture and audio are perfect. It's great.

Let's start with the basics. It's whisper quite, and it uses about as much power as fluorescent light bulb when idle.

I can watch or listen to anything in iTunes using an IR remote (I use a "Logitech Harmony XBox 360" remote) via the built-in Apple Frontrow software or using Apple's magical Remote app for the iPhone (or iPod touch).

Or I can control the mini media center from my laptop across the room using Mac "Screen Sharing" (or VNC on any PC) to watch any video or audio source from the internet (Hulu, Silverlight, Flash, Amazon VOD, Netflix VOD etc.) or use the Apple DVD Player to play VIDEO_TS folders. (Please respect filmmakers and don't pirate movies.) You can watch what ever you want. You name it.

Although it's an option, it really doesn't even need a dedicated keyboard and mouse.

Other non-computer media boxes that are available can only play a fixed set of sources -- e.g. iTunes and YouTube (AppleTV). Netflix or Amazon VOD (Roku) or ripped or downloaded video files (WDTV). Support for anything outside of what those devices do today is just a wishing game or requires a lot of painstaking media format conversion.

The mini as a media center is pretty much obsolescence-proof. So while it may seem a lot more expensive than something like WDTV today, I'll bet I'll still be using the mini media center long after that WDTV has joined the pile at the back of the closet.

This Apple update of the always compact Mac Mini further lifts the model away from being an accessory. It should also silence even more people that the Mini is heading for its demise. The machine has slowly taken a solid place in Apple's line up.

I already had the last generation, Spring 2009 Mac Mini, but decided to go for yet another. The reason being is I use the Mac Mini connected to my large screen television. This allows me to easily look up information in my living room from the couch, using a wireless bluetooth mouse and keyboard. However, most of all, it takes online streaming to the television screen. Whether I want to stream from a TV network's website, or from Amazon, or anywhere in between, the Mac Mini is not limited to a specific box serving one service, but being a full fledge computer can obviously go anywhere on the Internet for streaming content. I like this. Of course, I also show off vacation images, and whatnot on the Mini connected to the big screen. The uses are really unlimited.

The purpose of my second Mini will be to connect it with a bedroom flat panel, for similar uses. The little guy is a hard worker. This entry level model is even more competent now that Apple has bumped its memory to 2 GB, which for your average work in OS X Snow Leopard is an efficient amount. The processor speed has also been bumped and hard drive size, making the entry level Mac Mini an even better value than before. Wi-Fi and bluetooth are built-in once again.

I find the entry level Mac Mini to again be the best value. The higher offering is a couple hundred more, it does give a faster processor, twice as much memory and twice as much hard drive space. If you think you'll need that, it's not a bad value, but it just seems the low end is always an especially good value, and it gets the job done. I find the inputs on the Mac Mini to be fantastic too. It has two display outputs, mini-DVI and Displayport, 5 USB ports, one firewire 800, and of course ethernet. You can plug a LOT of accessories into the Mac Mini. One such thing is an external hard drive, so if you get the entry level and find the hard drive size limiting, you can always connect external USB or Firewire hard drives for extra storage.

This mini has OS X Snow Leopard pre-installed, so you'll have the brand new operating system installed out of the box. Plus, you get iLife 09, which has the great applications like iPhoto, iMovie, Garageband, iDVD, and iWeb.

Overall, I do not use the Mac Mini at a desk as a traditional computer. I use it has a home theatre PC. Nevertheless, the Mac Mini is enough of a workhorse to certainly use it for office tasks, home photo editing, etc. It's not a slouch by any means. If you have a quality display, the Mac Mini makes a competent computer solution, but don't forget a keyboard and mouse too. I recommend it, and I'm excited to have one connected to both televisions in my home.

This is my second Mac Mini. I bought my first Mac Mini when they were first introduced. I have been using that same Mac mini for about 5 years with no problems. I finally decided to get a new one because more and more of the internet features wouldn't work anymore because I needed software upgrades that didn't fit the specs I had. However, I didn't want to make the same mistake I made the first time and buy it right before a software upgrade. This is the perfect time to buy this Mac Mini. Snow Leopard is pre-installed, and there's roughly about $150 worth of extra memory and speed for the same price as the previous model that was just released about 6 months ago.

One complaint I did have with my old Mac mini was that it was a pain to configure my internet connection. The internet setup for this new model is simply plug and play. Absolutely no configuration is needed if your plugging in an Ethernet cable, whether it's hooked up to a router or not.

I basically only use my Mac Mini for the Internet, downloading music and video for my Ipod, digital picture storage, and occasionally typing and printing a paper. If that's all your going to use it for and your sick of all the viruses and hidden internet files that slow down your computer when you use a PC, then buy this entry level Mac Mini.

I love my mac mini. Its small, it fits under my 24in monitor. After having PCs for 20 years and upgrading all my systems with windows 7 ( desktop/notebook/netbook) I thought i had the best of he computer world. Then My school started switching to mac. Mac and PC are compatible but i thought why not try out Mac OS X 10.6.

The mac mini is a nice little package that would be a perfect starter for a reasonable price ($550) So I bought one, and now... I prefer my low powered Mac Mini over my Desktop with the Quad Core, 3TB of HD storage, X-Fi audio, Bluray and DVD Burner drives. My desktop PC and Mac mini live together now, I love the fact that the mini is dead silent and uses about 14W of power versus 600W off my monster PC. MS office 2008 for mac is so much easier to use than Office 2007 in PCs. All the mac versions of my programs (firefox, bittorrent, email, Word processing, etc) are so much more stable than in my PCs. I use my mac mini for all my papers, homework, research and media (apple's strengths) And my PC does all my Video encoding, Bluray, document scanning.editing, movies, and network stuff. I have to admit, i do not like the lack of programs for mac for DVD copying and format encoding out there, not to mention no Blue RAY!!! But then, few people use that stuff anyway. The bluetooth 2.1 is great with printers (i have a canon mx860 with a bluetooth dongle), the Wireless N has impressive range. I do recommend geting the apple aluminum keyboard because its just one of the best keyboards ive ever used not to mention It has all the mac command keys. I use a notebook PC mouse, and it works just great

I did have to upgrade my mini just a tiny bit, cause I felt the 2GB of DDR3 mem was handicapping the system, I snagged a $49 single Patriot Memory 2GB DDR3 chip and replaced one of the DIMMS in the mac mini. IF you are a novice in computer upgrading, you can do it but be so carefull and slow doing it. All you need is a 3in putty knife and a 00 phillips screwdriver. You can find the video how to upgrade the mac mini Memory and HD on youtube.

Even at only 3GB of memory, my mac mini blazes and renders internet browsing and MS office 2008 faster than my uber-PC with 6GB of DDR2 RAM. Technical jargon for techies: The mac mini comes with a Fujitsu HD. Im not a fan of fujitsu, but the drive apple uses has a long and reputable and dependable record. The tech specs are not bad, Averages 65-75 MB/s transfers with about a 79 MB burst. ITs a 5400rpm drive. It works and is dependable, but i needed something more.

I strapped a Hitachi 7200rpm 16MB 500GB 7K500 HD disk and now my mac mini howels!!! It does DVD copying, torrenting, P2Ping, video and photo editing like crazy! Right now only hitachi makes the most reliable, quiet, and speedy 7200 NB hard drives 320GB or better. I would have rather dropped a 500 or 540 WD black Notebook drive, but they dont exist yet. The 2.26 GHz Core 2 Duo is no slouch, it does the work. The 2.53 Model is awesome and probably cut off a few seconds on your mp3 encodings, but if ur about seconds u wouldnt be getting a mac mini! If you are big into CPU intensive stuff like Film and audio editing, you probably should have got a iMAC or Mac PRO tower for double or quadruble the price.

IN the end, the base mac mini is a entry computer. The late 2009 base model is for people who are on a budget and what to make the jump to mac, this is a great offering thanks to the recent upgrades apple did this year. It saves power, it uses your existing mouse and keyboard, and you can really use it for all kinds of things. If you have some computer savvy in upgrading, I suggest getting this model and use the savings to get a memory upgrade. Dont worry about mixing memory chips. the mini will compensate. I spent 100 dollars in upgrade parts, bringing my total to $650. IF you are not so computer upgrader happy, this unit will do the job. You wont feel any problems unless you surf the net, use office 2008, play itunes, while copying DVDs. If you are a massive multi tasker, get the 2.53 Ghz Mac mini with 4GB and a 320 HD for an extra 200.

This is a great buy, dont hesitate. You will not be sorry. I've had mine for 2 weeks, and its has not been off since then. It goes on sleep mode automatically when its idle and autowakes up with me!

Get this mini

Comparing spec per spec versus a PC, from a pure dollar perspective the mini comes up short. I put off buying this for quite a while, but my frustrations with Windows boot times and general stability (XP pro on laptop and desktop, Vista 64 on quad core) finally pushed me into it.
What took me so long! I will never buy another PC again. This little beauty boots faster, shuts down faster, and seems more responsive than my core i7 Dell with 6 gigs of RAM. Even with a 5400 RPM hard drive it seems just as fast as the 7200 RPM SATA on my Dell. It is powerful enough to run Photoshop and Illustrator well, don't know about video editing speeds.
Two gigs of RAM seems enough, but if I had it to do over I would buy the new iMac with 4 gigs of RAM, faster hard drive and CPU, and built-in monitor. Either way you can't go wrong.
I had a USB keyboard and mouse (longtime PC user), so I didn't go for the pricey Mac stuff. The only downside to switching is the software from your PC won't work and games may be unavailable (I am not a gamer).
I would give this puppy 5 stars but I am not by nature overly optimistic. Great little machine, if you are on the fence just go for it. The next model up ($800 mini)would have been even better for me, but this is a very capable machine. Then again, if you need the options the $800 model has, kick in another $400 and get the iMac with mouse, keyboard, and monitor.

I have been a Mac user since they first came out. I was looking to replace my PowerPC G4 tower and just automatically thought my options for a desktop machine were the iMacs or another tower. And then a long time Apple friend mentioned the Mac Mini to me. I had never heard of it. After doing some research and reading reviews I decided to take the plunge. The <$600 price was also a huge plus.

I was absolutely amazed when I opened the box from Amazon and saw the little Mac Mini box. I was even more amazed when I opened that box. I figured the computer would take up all the space in the box. Instead it only took up 1/3 of the box. The Mini is about the size of a dinner napkin and 2 inches deep. I just can't get over the size of this powerful computer compared to my G4.

The Mac Mini is absolutely quiet. The apple migration feature made it very simple to move my applications and settings from the G4. I did have to do some manual moving of files from a secondary drive on the G4. It would have been nice if the migration software handled this other drive as well.

I hooked up a new Dell ST2410 24" widescreen monitor to the mini and attached my old G4 keyboard and mouse. Everything worked flawlessly. The ST2410 is a very nice monitor - I highly recommend it.

This is my 1st Mac. I've been building my own PC's for over the past 15 years. I purchased this as a 2nd computer to check e-mails and log into my work from home. Its great! Like the APPLE commercials, it just works. I am still getting used to OSX; there are things I like better about Snow Leopard and things I like better about Win 7. I still use both at home, but find myself using the Mac more than my PC. Without installing any 3rd party software I did have a few applications crash (e-mail, address book), but that is not the norm. The crash did not bring down the whole system though, and overall I find the system very stable I've also installed 3rd party software and found that very easy to do (coming from PC background). From my experience my home built Win 7 pro 64 bit is just as stable. The Mac Mini uses very little power and generates NO heat vs my PC that I can cook things on. I recommend getting base Mac mini and upgrading HD and RAM yourself considering the premium Apple charges (though I understand this voids your warranty). I have been recommending the Mac mini's to my friends/colleagues. Its a great system that does not take up a lot of space. I paired it with the new Apple bluetooth keyboard and the Logitech Performance MX mouse so I can mouse on my sofa. After using this system for a few weeks I find myself wanting a MacBook pro!

I've been eyeing this low-end Mac computer for a while, and about a month ago I finally took the plunge and bought it. And in the subsequent time that I've owned it, I could not have been happier with my decision.

I am primarily a Windows user, but have had on and off access to Macs over the years, mostly at work. I am also a big fan of all Apple products, but did not think that I could justify the high price of their computers when I could obtain a supposedly "similar" Windows system for almost half the price. Well, after years of suffering through many, many Windows annoyances that were seriously impeding my attempts to get any work done I decided to finally give Mac a full chance. As I mentioned earlier, so far I have been duly impressed.

The specs for Mac mini are comparable to a low-end MacBook computer. Given that you still need to bring your own keyboard, mouse and monitor, it is unlikely that you will be saving more than $100 - $200 for the whole system. This is still nothing to sneeze at, but if portability is something that you would need then buying a MacBook may be a better overall deal.

Over the years I've accumulated more computer keyboards and mouses than I know what to do with. I tried connecting this Mac Mini to a Dell USB mouse and keyboard, Logitech wireless mouse, and two different Microsoft wireless desktops. Each time I was able to connect and install those devices without a single hitch, and it only took a few seconds for those devices to be recognized and for them to start working properly. In fact, the Microsoft wireless desktops paired up faster with this Mac than they did with my Windows machines.

I also had an old LCD monitor lying around, so I did not need to invest into a new monitor. Be warned though: most older monitors have a VGA input, while Mac Mini has only MiniDisplay and DVI connector cables. In order to attach this computer to a VGA monitor you'll have to separately purchase a Apple Mini DisplayPort to VGA Adapter MB572Z/A. As with most Apple cables and adapters, this one is somewhat expensive - it costs about $30. In my estimate this is about three times as much as such a cable is really worth, but unfortunately you don't seem to have much choice if you want to connect this computer to a VGA monitor. I really think that Apple should have made this cable a standard addition to the Mac Mini. After all, if you are going to pay a high price of Apple's own monitors for instance, you might as well buy an iMac.

One of the things that impress me the most with Mac Mini is the incredibly short boot up time. Things have gotten so ridiculous with my three year old Windows Vista laptop that my morning routine would consist of me turning it on, going to have breakfast, and then coming back to it to finally use it. The first time I had a completely "clean" boot up of my Mac Mini (i.e. without having to go thorough all the first-time use setup procedures) I was so shocked with how quickly it happened that I literally thought that it was more or less instantaneous. The next time I actually clocked it, and I found out that the complete boot up doesn't take more than forty seconds. This is incredible. I find myself leaving my Windows computer turned on much more than I actually need to use it, because having to go through the whole boot up process (even from the hibernation mode) takes so long that my productivity necessarily suffers. Needless to say, that wastes too much energy. I can finally save some money on my electricity bills by shutting down my computer when I am not using it. This very short boot-up time is especially impressive considering that Mac Mini still uses a regular mechanical hard drive. I shudder to think how fast it would boot if it had a solid-state hard drive.

This machine is incredibly quiet. There is no noticeable fan cooling noise whatsoever. The most noise it ever produces is when a CD or DVD is being inserted or ejected. Other than that it just sits quietly on your desk.

The size of this machine is also incredible. It really is very, very small and the Mini moniker is well deserved. Even on an incredibly cluttered working desk like mine, it still finds enough room to sit.

Home networking was also a breeze to set up with this computer. Most of the computers that I have on my network are Windows machines, but Mac Mini had no trouble detecting them or being detected by them. I was particularly pleased that connecting to my Acer Aspire AH340-UA230N Home Server. In fact, other than not having the access to the administrator console on WHS (which, granted, is a big thing) Mac seemed to be interconnecting with it much smoother than Windows computers. Redmond should probably take a not of this.

Working with various software packages has been extremely smooth as well. This computer seems to have enough power to handle even larger Photoshop or movie editing projects without any major noticeable slow-downs. For most casual users I think the specs of this system ought to be more than adequate.

As many reviewers have pointed out, this Mac Mini would make a great addition to the home entertainment center. Currently I use a cheap Windows Vista PC for that purpose, but that entails dealing with all the bugs and inconveniences of Windows. When you are just trying to watch a movie or listen to some music, you don't want to be dealing with system messages and virus protection issues, and you certainly don't want to have to deal with the rebooting of your computer. Furthermore, Mac Mini is much more versatile that Apple's own Mac TV, and it is not likely that it will become obsolete any time soon, so you'll be able to access all of your media collection for the foreseeable future. The only thing, however, is that I wish Mac Mini had more robust support for various video and audio output cables. An HDMI support in particular would be really nice. Also, Apple still does not support Blue Ray, which may be an issue if you want your Mac to be all-in-one media device.

So whether you want a computer that will do all of your usual everyday tasks, or an addition to your entertainment center, this Mac Mini would certainly be the right computing solution for almost all of those needs. I could not recommend it strongly enough.

I'm going to be short here. I was unsure if this was the best computer for just under $600.00. As soon as it arrived and was plugged in, my fear subsided. Excellent, efficient, I have a Macbook so was thinking of getting a PC desktop, and now am locked in to Mac for life. They work better and are more intelligently designed. If you don't see a follow up comment 3-6 mos. down the line, I'm still a happy customer.

I bought this to be a media center for my 52" Sony HD LCD set. My media is stored on a NAS device and includes movies, TV shows, photos, home video, etc. The Mini with Front Row does a good job of giving the family a dead-simple way of accessing all of this content. Plus we can do some fun things like create music using Garage Band and play it through the surround sound system. The Apple TV is cheap but also very limited. With a little knowledge the Mini provides a very flexible alternative. Video and sound (using the mini TOS cable) are outstanding. Not seeing any stutter or delays. I run mine without a keyboard or a mouse. On the rare occasion when I want one I just use the Mobile Air Mouse on my iPhone as a combination keyboard and mouse.