[Alt_255]

Hi everyone. I'm new in this forum, and I'm thinking on buying a Mac Mini, but I'm hesitating between i5 dual core 2.5GHz and Mac Mini Server (i7 quad-core 2.0 GHz).
I'm not intended to use its server capabilities, and as graphic card of i7 is worse than i5 (and sharing the system memory), I wonder if Mac Mini Server is the better choice or not... I will use it for listening music, Internet, watching movies, MsOficce...

What do you think?

[Cold Warrior]

Given what you'd use it for, go with the cheaper of those.

[Alt_255]

So I thought, but I like so much 7200 rpm hard disks... :-(

[SierraDragon]

Originally Posted by Alt_255 

...I will use it for listening music, Internet, watching movies, MsOficce...

What do you think?

I agree, for those apps go with cheaper. Note that all 2011 Macs have Sandy Bridge processors which have proven to be real-world quite powerful.

However we do not know where the Apple ecosystem of products is headed and the Siri AI first on the iPhone 4s IMO will revolutionize. Literally revolutionize. My expectation is that folks with basic apps will become involved with Siri over the life of any new box, and AI uses hardware hard. That is about as far as I am willing to speculate, the bottom line being expect lower-powered boxes to have shorter life cycles (which of course is no big revelation).

Still, buying today for those apps go with cheaper. Just plan on upgrading sooner.

HTH

-Allen

[SierraDragon]

You did not mention display, but I can say I am quite happy with a $300 Viewsonic VP2365wb. It is not one of the over-saturated reflective displays like so many today are.

-Allen

[OreoCookie]

For most things, the quad core will be faster.