New Apple stuff! Flash ipods & biscuit tin sized computer!!

[mid]

Depends what you want it for, really. 40Gb storage and 256Mb memory is fine for most people if you just plan to run Safari, iTunes, iWork and iLife, like many people. It's also aimed pretty squarely at PC owners wanting an OSX box, who can dump most of their media on a network drive anyway.

[Valken]

Heh, best of luck running iDVD or Garageband with 256MB RAM AND have Safri open at the same time!

[mid]

True, for those apps I'd definitely want a beefier box. Having nearly filled the second 80Gb drive I dropped in my PC for home DVD encoding already, I know what you mean.

But for messing around with your holiday photos and DVD watching on a DVI-compliant plasma or projector it's ideal. Or would be, but...

The big problem for me is I didn't notice an optical out. Name me a PC-based box (at any price) that would look as neat and small stacked with your projector, allowing you to watch DVDs or files over a wireless network, controlled with a Bluetooth mouse. But I'd want 5.1, and that means a digital audio output.

edit - hang on, there's on on the Airport Express With AirTunes. God, if I could use that and not string a huge long optical cable from the back of the room (where the projector and Mac would go) to the front (where the Amp lives) that would be the absolute Dog's Danglies! I bet you can't, though.

[Valken]

Yeah, I'm not saying it's totally useless, it'll be great for Apple as a company...

Airport Express... well THAT'S something that I think was great... It's easily one of the best things I've ever bought.

[Super Stu]

Plenty of small PC cases about, although obviously nowhere near as small as that. I don't mean Shuttle, either.

Guess the PC is going to fall on its arse here because, to the very best of my knowledge, there are none with external PSUs and other such space saving shenanigans? Fair play though, for an under the TV job, it seems quite reasonable (lack of optical-out notwithstanding).

For a "general gubbins" computer though, it's far too expensive. Flyer came through my door last night, ?279+vat for a 2ghz dell with 256meg and 80gig, with a 15" panel. Yeah ok, it's gash, the case is big and clunky etc, but casual users won't know any better, or care for that matter.

[John Beaulieu]

top spec minimac is ?919 inc VAT ... thats with 1gb ram, superdrive, airport express and bluetooth, and wireless keyboard/mouse

i am thinking of getting one but can't justify that outlay for something which will only be a bedroom box used for browsing, itunes and maybe encoding movies etc ... is 1gb ram a must or can i get away with 512mb?

[oracle]

yeah they will, for the same reasons people bought the ipod

because it looks good

[mid]

I'm fairly sure you'll be able to do most things with 512Mb. If there's something you need to do in 1Gb, I'd look at a G5 iMac, instead. They have 2 memory slots, not 1, so you don't have to buy those painfully expensive 1Gb sticks. Plus 90% of things that want that much memory would really benefit from the faster processor, too.

edit - for what it's worth, I'm encoding from DV camera to DVD just fine on my 512Mb Windows XP machine. It's not quick, but then 2-pass VBR encoding of 2 hours worth of video never is.

[John Beaulieu]

i am guessing that anything that pushes it beyond 512mb i can do easily enough on my pc ..... all i need to know now is how easy it is to connect it to my network when my pc is running internet sharing

[mid]

Pretty bloomin' simple if you've got wireless networking in the PC.

Just for security and reliability I'd replace the USB modem on your PC with a proper wireless router anyway, though. The Linksys and Netgear seem to be the most popular models.

[ThoseOfTheUnlight]

I'd love one of these with a 20 inch Cinema display.. I never do anything on my PC that I am able to on it, only webbrowsing etc etc.

Really really tempted!

[Jushin-Thunder-Liger]

Both look great, i can see myself buying a Mac Mini just for the sake of it

[Dirty Sanchez]

Considering one of these to use as a media centre for my projector. Just need to look into the audio out options.

Have to see how quiet it is too.

[John Beaulieu]

got my price down to ?539 which is manageable ... a bit less than i was gonna spend on a shuttle as a media box so its all good (plus it looks better imo)

lack of optical out is a killer though

[Lebowski]

well im sat here at work useing a 733mhz g4 tower with 512mb ram i currentley have, photoshop cs, safari, itunes, entorage, and dreamweaver open and its running pretty fast i also do a lot of quark and illustrator work but im rambaling now, this mac mini system has double the proccesor power so should have no problem running these apps at all.

And a G4 would outstrip a ****ty 300 quid entery level dell machine so can we lose the preconceptions about this being a machine for messing with itunes and watching dvds on, a creative could quite happliy use this thing to create artwork on or edit videos.

and no im not a mac fanboy i just sheled over a grand for a pc that can run games like half life 2