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considering a mac mini
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Dedicated MacNNer
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Northeast USA and sometimes Europe
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Offline
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this is odd. apparently my message did not post.
What I originally said was this: I am thinking of getting a mac mini but have a few concerns:
1. is there such thing as a usb adapter for old serial port mice and keyboards? I have an ergonomic keyboard with a built in track pad mouse which I like, but it connects via serial port instead o usb.
2. does anyone know if Mac minis work with Verizon DSL?
3. Also, can you play Real Audio and Windows Media files on a Mac?
4. Back to the hardware.....is it worth it to upgrade the ram? I know many people get cheaper ram from Crucial and other places, but in general is it worth it to upgrade it or would the base system's ram be sufficient? Tasks: email, internet, IM, audio recording and sound data analysis via PRAAT software, itunes, documents.
Note; this would be a transitional model for me...it would be running simultaneously with my PC and I wold be using both machines. The mini would really just be kinda a toy just to get to know the OS.....my ultimate goal is to get a powerbook, but thats not an option right now for $$$ reasons.
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Posting Junkie
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Houston, TX
Status:
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Yes, yes, yes, and yes. Nexxxxxxxxxt!
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: Ottawa, Canada
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1. I wouldn't count on serial (or PS2) devices working properly; often they may have signalling that doesn't quite translate to what a USB input device would have. There are definitely USB keyboards with integrated trackpads, and shopping search engines will turn them up - but if you buy one, get a model with Mac-specific keys if you can.
2. Macs can get on to almost any ISP, including Verizon. For them and any other DSL service, all you need to do to make a basic connection is setup PPPoE in the network preferences.
3. Realplayer and Windows Media Player are available on the Mac. Don't expect perfect compatibily from WMP though: Microsoft didn't include support for DRM-protected files in the Mac version, and it doesn't look as good as... well, just about any other Mac player, because Microsoft didn't bother to include hardware video acceleration. Some people recommend the Flip4Mac plugin ($10), as it lets Quicktime play Windows Media and do so much more capably.
4. Of the tasks you're doing, audio recording is probably in itself enough of an incentive to upgrade to 1 GB of RAM on the Mac mini. The hard drive on a Mac mini spins at 5400 RPM at best, so you want to cache as much as possible in RAM when the data is particularly disk-intensive.
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24-inch iMac Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz
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Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Brooklyn, NY
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12" PowerBook G4, 1.5GHz, 1.25GB RAM, 100GB drive
20" iMac G5 (iSight) w/1.5GB RAM and Bluetooth keyboard and mouse.
4GB white nano.
15GB white 3G iPod.
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: Ottawa, Canada
Status:
Offline
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The problem with going with an Intel Mac mini is that the audio recording and PRAAT apps may still be written in PowerPC-only code. He could run them in emulation, sure, but I don't think I'd want to run those kinds of apps at less than full speed if I depended on them.
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24-inch iMac Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz
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