[MacME]

I'm a long time PC user but this new Mac Mini has peaked my interest in possibly getting one. My question is will it have enough horsepower to run graphics programs without feeling underpowered? In particular Adobe CS using Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign and Acrobat, as well as Quark 6.5? I currently run a P4 3ghz with 512megs so that's what I would be comparing it to.

Will my Logitech LX 300 cordless keyboard/mouse work on a Mac? And if so, what would the command key map to? If I need to purchase a keyboard, what brands and models would be compatible?

I'm thinking the standard 256meg won't suffice, should I upgrade to 512meg or *eek* 1gig. Can I upgrade the hard drive and memory myself, and would it be cheaper than buying the options with the Mini? I have plenty of experience in assembling PCs but have no experience with Macs.

Any help in making my decision would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[davidflas]

I'm on the verge of buying a Mac Mini for myself. Let me share what I know already... None of the internals can be replaced without risking your warranty. Apple requires that the HD, memory, wirless card, etc only be upgraded by Apple certified establishments. I'm planning to order a maxed 1.42 Mac Mini with Superdrive 1GB ram, 80 GB HD and the bluetooth module. I will be using it for hobbyist level photo editing in Photoshop CS, burning cds in iTunes, and making the occasional DVD in iDVD. I expect that it will be fine with for my needs. However, if you need to run high in very high res you might find slow down.. This is based only on what I've read. Like you, I'd like to hear from others here that have one already.

Your logitech keyboard and mouse will work fine, the command key will map to the windows key.

[Andrew Stephens]

Originally posted by MacME:
I'm a long time PC user but this new Mac Mini has peaked my interest in possibly getting one. My question is will it have enough horsepower to run graphics programs without feeling underpowered? In particular Adobe CS using Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign and Acrobat, as well as Quark 6.5? I currently run a P4 3ghz with 512megs so that's what I would be comparing it to.

Like all non 3D apps Illustrator, Photoshop and Quark don't really put a lot of strain on the graphics card of the Mac, so one of the Mini's weaker points won't bother you. Quark is pretty light on processor use too, so that should also be fine. I would guess that in use both Quark and Illustrator are already faster than the operator for 95% of tasks as you will be constantly stopping to think about what you are doing. As far as Photoshop is concerned, yes you will feel a slowdown from your PC, but the biggest performance hit will come from lack of RAM. For best effect get 1 Gb if you can afford it but don't consider PShop with less than 768 Mb or you will be forever cursing the spinning beachball.

As for the rest of the Mac experience, there are plenty faster machines to be had, but you'll be fine for the internet and e-mail plus any word processing and web design.

In short a mini will cover you for over 95% of what you will want a Mac to do. You'll only miss your PC speed in PShop some of the time.

You didn't mention networking. The mini has 10/100, 1000 would have been nice iand is the only thing that stopped us from replacing our 1Ghz G4 Tower server with a mini!

Your mouse etc will work fine. Go buy!

[MacGallant]

Originally posted by davidflas:
I'm on the verge of buying a Mac Mini for myself. Let me share what I know already... None of the internals can be replaced without risking your warranty. Apple requires that the HD, memory, wirless card, etc only be upgraded by Apple certified establishments.

Actually upgrading the ram for the Mac mini is allowed and doesn't void the warranty, as you as you don't damage the Mac mini in the process. The same can't be said for the optical drive/hard drive self upgrade and installing Aiport Extreme or the Bluetooth module yourself.

[ncsurfer]

I am in the same boat as you. Graphic design on the mac mini. I just ordered my 1.42. I will be using the same programs as you and I think it will be powerfull enough. I plan on replacing it with a powermac or powerbook a year or so down the line.

[Hi I'm Ben]

It will feel under powered compared to your current system. It won't feel worthless.

Remember, this is a economy mac. It's not super awesome top of the line mac.
And if people come under me and say "OMG YOU IDIOT I USE MY iBOOK TO DO SUPER HI-DEF VIDEO EDITING FOR PIXAR" Well that's super. You've missed my point. The PC is and will feel faster in those particular applications.

That being said.

Get the mini.
for me, i'm so fed up with windows and spyware i could puke. Downloading a million apps to safe guard my computer is a joke.

[tooki]

Originally posted by MacME:
1. I'm a long time PC user but this new Mac Mini has peaked my interest in possibly getting one. My question is will it have enough horsepower to run graphics programs without feeling underpowered? In particular Adobe CS using Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign and Acrobat, as well as Quark 6.5? I currently run a P4 3ghz with 512megs so that's what I would be comparing it to.

2. Will my Logitech LX 300 cordless keyboard/mouse work on a Mac? And if so, what would the command key map to? If I need to purchase a keyboard, what brands and models would be compatible?

3. I'm thinking the standard 256meg won't suffice, should I upgrade to 512meg or *eek* 1gig. Can I upgrade the hard drive and memory myself, and would it be cheaper than buying the options with the Mini? I have plenty of experience in assembling PCs but have no experience with Macs.

Any help in making my decision would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

1. I agree, it won't be as fast as your PC, though it will be completely usable.

2. The Logitech website seems to indicate that model is not supported on the Mac.

3. Mac OS X uses a lot more RAM than Windows. 512MB will absolutely, positively not be enough for what you want to do. Without question, you need 1GB. Buy the RAM from Crucial.com. It's the same quality as the RAM Apple sells, at a much lower price.

tooki

[iREZ]

I do all my graphic work on my machine (specs in my sig) with no problem. With 1gig RAM you should totally be fine, especially due to the fact that the next round of CS isn't going to use 64bit technology ( for others for me).

[MacME]

thanx guys ... i've decided i want to buy one! now to figure out how.

oh, i guess everyone would recommend i get the the 1.42ghz instead of teh 1.25ghz, right? or does it make that much of a difference? don't really care if it's the 80gig or 40gig harddrive.

[Hi I'm Ben]

Originally posted by MacME:
thanx guys ... i've decided i want to buy one! now to figure out how.

oh, i guess everyone would recommend i get the the 1.42ghz instead of teh 1.25ghz, right? or does it make that much of a difference? don't really care if it's the 80gig or 40gig harddrive.

if you don't care about the drive size.. i'd probably stick to 1.25 and spend my money in other places. Of course if you can AFFORD 1.42 and it'snot a problem just keep loading it up. That extra $100 would be going into memory and HD upgrades for me. and a USB hub. and maybe a stripper.

[andreas_g4]

Originally posted by Hi I'm Ben:
if you don't care about the drive size.. i'd probably stick to 1.25 and spend my money in other places. Of course if you can AFFORD 1.42 and it'snot a problem just keep loading it up. That extra $100 would be going into memory and HD upgrades for me. and a USB hub. and maybe a stripper.

That's why I chose the 1.25 GHz. I got the 80 GB option for 50 and bought the keyboard and mouse from Apple for the 50 bucks I saved. In overall usage you won't recognize any difference speedwise. It's just 170 MHz.

Be sure to get 1 GB RAM. It's amazing how this little thing performes with 1 gig, even the 1.25 GHz.

Anyone telling you that you can't use Adobe CS on a PowerMac with 1.25 GHz(except for the harddrive, which is not a big issue with 1 gig RAM) is G5 indulged… :-)

Get am max RAM mini (regardless what model) and you'll be fine for a year or so.

[MacME]

hmmm decisions, decisions ...

i asked this in another thread but haven't gotten an answer yet. can i reuse the 256meg from the MINI, that's rendered useless if upgraded to 1gig, in my PC? it has 3 slots for 184-pin DDR DIMM and supports PC2700/PC210 (FSB533) or PC2100/PC1600 (FSB400) unbuffered non-ECC DDR DIMMs. the MINI uses 184-pin PC2700 memory and there's no difference between Mac and PC, correct?

[andreas_g4]

Originally posted by MacME:
hmmm decisions, decisions ...

i asked this in another thread but haven't gotten an answer yet. can i reuse the 256meg from the MINI, that's rendered useless if upgraded to 1gig, in my PC? it has 3 slots for 184-pin DDR DIMM and supports PC2700/PC210 (FSB533) or PC2100/PC1600 (FSB400) unbuffered non-ECC DDR DIMMs. the MINI uses 184-pin PC2700 memory and there's no difference between Mac and PC, correct?

You can use the 256 MB stick in any way you want, it will not be damaged (unless you damage it due to incautiousness, which is unlikely). I sold mine on eBay (still am…).

[ichad]

No-ones mentioned that fact that minis only have one FireWire port.

This only dawned on me on setting up the mini last night and connecting the iSight and iPod!! Not too mention the external hard disks and target disk mode macs I've come accustommed to use with two firewire ports. Lots of reaching around the mini is required on a daily basis.

I've also notice that you cannot boot a mini using the power-on button on older Apple LCDs! I'm using a DVI-ADC convertor and rather than the usual pressure-sensitive boot button, I'm greeted with a flashing LED showing what looks like Hard disk usage.

I've used this DVI-ADC cable in the past with powerbooks, so it's only the mac mini that has this problem - any ideas?

[MacME]

Originally posted by ichad:
No-ones mentioned that fact that minis only have one FireWire port.

This only dawned on me on setting up the mini last night and connecting the iSight and iPod!! Not too mention the external hard disks and target disk mode macs I've come accustommed to use with two firewire ports. Lots of reaching around the mini is required on a daily basis.

purchase a firewire hub perhaps?

[Andrew Stephens]

Anyone telling you that you can't use Adobe CS on a PowerMac with 1.25 GHz(except for the harddrive, which is not a big issue with 1 gig RAM) is G5 indulged… :-)

I think the main reason for not using CS (actually only Illustrator CS) is that it sucks HARD! I spend half my day cleaning up text that imports wrong from older versions and saving back to 10 or earlier and the text goes to buggery, plus saving back is a real pain to do as it's loads of steps. Photoshop CS is brilliant, don't use indesign so can't comment.

[mania]

a mac mini is basically equivalent to my 1.25 GHz Al powerbook which i use for web design so yeah its definitely adequate. things heat up only when i play a game now and then - or run VPC to check sites in IE <-evil browser.

[iREZ]

I agree Illusrator CS is pretty bad when opening up old files, I use 10 for that. For creating artwork though, CS aint that bad. Oh yeah, and Photoshop CS is as fantastic as people say it is.