I recently took the plunge an bought myself a MacMini. It's the $800 model, standard (no custom shtuff). Right away I sorely regretted not heeding Engadget's advice about the superdrive. I thought I wouldn't need it and then, as I was trying to add a partition for windows 7, I really the Benjamin I saved by not having one in there started to loose its charm. I had to "find" a 7 dmg online so i could clone it to a usb drive and then waste a perfectly good 5 gig drive installing it. Needless to say this took hours. Also, since I had to purchase Apple Care, a firewire cable, and then later on a super drive (caved, desperately needed it) I ended up spending close to $1000 on the machine. At that price I could have built my own hackintosh. And, had I followed Lifehacker's guide, it could have been a similarly potent machine for gaming.
Yes, the Mini has one of the greatest cooling systems I have ever had on a mac and works seamlessly with my Apple display. But did I buy the right computer? Spending a grand is just not what I had in mind...
Question about
Should I return my mac mini?
top answers
luqven's pick
In all honesty: you should've returned BEFORE spending the extra 200 though. Since you bought all the stuff for it you might as well use it. I think it's a great little system too though I don't have it. I guess if you go Mac OS X only there's no need for the SuperDrive anymore. You have the internet and the Mac App Store which is all you need for getting your hands on software. You can always build a bootable WinPE disk or something to do some extra maintenance. There are also good ways to create USB Windows install drive which you already did :) I don't think Hackintosh provides the same smoothness as what you have now.
mark as good answer
3 people like this answer
Clicking the mark as good answer button helps us highlight the best answers.
luqven's pick
I would say, based on your final comments, that it is the right computer. It has the latest Intel motherboards, Thunderbolt port, a "great cooling system" (as you said), a superb graphics card, and "seamlessly works with your Apple display", then it must be the right computer. At least, I would be thrilled to own it. :)
mark as good answer
3 people like this answer
Yeh, you could have built a hackintosh, but then you would get all the headaches updating and maintaining it. My son put the MAC OS on a netbook and has spent many many hours tweeking it, dealing with drivers, updates, etc. I wouldn't include the cost of Applecare in your argument. You could have saved some $$ by getting your cable at monoprice.com and purchasing an external dvd burner. You could have gotten both for around $40.
mark as good answer
0 people like this answer
I just talked my Fiances Mom into replacing her 7 year old So as Molasses Windows XP desktop for a Base model Mac Mini. I personally can't remember the last time that I used a disc drive on my 2011 Macbook Pro so i was able to easily recommend this. For her it was weird to think a PC didn't include one however she loved its small foot print and trusted me on the reliability of Mac's.
**IF you didn't already own a Cinema Display I'd say take it all back and get a Core i5 Quad core iMac however, that said, you do have cinema display and your only other option (at least officially) is a Mac Pro and those are just rediculously priced and are being almost out performed by the 2nd Gen Core CPU's. I'd say keep it. And learn to not use a disc drive, unfortunately it is the future
**IF you didn't already own a Cinema Display I'd say take it all back and get a Core i5 Quad core iMac however, that said, you do have cinema display and your only other option (at least officially) is a Mac Pro and those are just rediculously priced and are being almost out performed by the 2nd Gen Core CPU's. I'd say keep it. And learn to not use a disc drive, unfortunately it is the future
mark as good answer
0 people like this answer
follow this question
share:
Related questions
6 users following this question:
This question has been viewed 368 times.
Last activity .
Tips for giving the best answers
Sometimes it's just little details that separates a great and not so great answer! Here are a few simple tips to keep in mind:
- 1
- Be complete and thorough. Don't skimp on the details!
- 2
- Try not to answer with a question. Because that's not really an answer, right?
- 3
- A little research goes a long way. Back up your claims and assumptions!
- 4
- Try to be patient, tech questions can be complicated.
- 5
- You are awesome for both reading this and answering questions.