[nickw311]

I just bought a Mac Mini yesterday and I also purchased a Dell LCD to go with it. It's kind of unfortunate that the monitor will be black and the computer and keyboard will be white. Anyway here is what I got:

1.25 ghz
512 Ram
40 Gig
wired keyboard
574 - no taxes or shipping from Powermax.com

Dell Ultra-Sharp 19" LCD with 4 USB 2.0 ports
($347 with shipping and taxes)

What do you people have and how well do you think I made out on my purchase?

[Vi0]

I think your purchase sucks to tell you the truth. You spent $1,023 on what is essentially an email-and-web-only computer.

I could have bought the same thing for $300 at the most.

You can't do very much on a mini, and the hard drive sucks as well. For more than a thousand dollars, I could have got a much faster, much more featured work machine.

Looks like Apple sold you more hype than anything else.

[nickw311]

not really the reply i expected considering I asked what monitor people use.... anyway, do you care to elaborate on what you said, especially getting the whole thing for $300 at the most.... The monitor I got for a great deal, it was $549 but I got a 40% off which brought it down to $317 before shipping. there doesnt seem to be any explination behind your strong words.... I call BS

[TiDual]

Originally posted by Vi0:

You can't do very much on a mini, and the hard drive sucks as well. For more than a thousand dollars, I could have got a much faster, much more featured work machine.

Er ... where full-featured means "doesn't come with any quality software and runs a virus masquerading as an operating system" ... nice reply. I know, I know ... don't feed the trolls.

The mini is a fine mainstream computer. Yes, the HD will feel a little slow compared to a normal desktop drive, but don't exaggerate. It's no worse than my PowerBook (1.25GHz) which does a lot more than web + email.

As for monitor, the 19" Formac displays are pretty good, and not too expensive (got for about 400 Euro, incl. tax) ... looks certainly suits the mini. I don't have a mini in my collection, but do have a couple of the Formac monitors.

[nickw311]

Thanks for the suggestion about the Formac monitor. After a quick glance at their site I could tell that the monitors definantly look better than the Dell I bought but the site was also selling them for $599 US Dollars which puts it almost $200 over what I paid after taxes and shipping.

[iREZ]

Don't mind the weenie, I think lots of people are getting an ACD or Dell 20" to accompany their Mac mini's. Just take a look at the setup thread. By the way you have a very capable machine, seeing how I get all my graphic design work using my Powerbook (specs in sig) along side my Samsung 17" LCD. It's up to you on what you think is best, I personally wouldn't have spent the money on a 19" LCD that has the same resolution as a 17" and would probably coughed up the extra $150 for the 20" widescreen that I see on sale for $450 here and there on Dell's website, but that's just me. If you're not going to be doing any FCP for hours at a time, then you've got yourself a decent setup. Congrats and enjoi�.

[Carnage Visors]

Well I am using an old Phillips 17" display, while I wait for an adaptor to use my 20" sony CRT (it uses a 13W3 connector.)

TBH so far I find the Mac mini, to be quite a capable machine, much faster than my 1ghz G4 iBook.

And to the person who said it's pretty much a web & email machine, hmmm. Well I have been playing with logic express on it, and it runs fine, so far with 6 audio tracks, and a whole load of soft synths.

I know that I won't be able to get much more out of recorded audio tracks out of this machine, but I didn't get it to do large audio recordings. I do most of my syth work in reason, then once that's done (using rewire) bounce down all of the tracks...

B

[liquidtrance123]

Personally I bought a Mac Mini w/ 20in Apple Cinema Display and its absolutely glorious. As for the mini being under powered, maybe for games, but I stopped using my PC when I bought the mini and I haven't looked back. I can barely notice a difference in the things I do daily.

My PC has the following specs and I hardly notice a difference between it and the mini in the things I do daily.

Abit IC7-Max3
P4 2.8GHz
1GB DDR433
2x Raptors Raid 0
Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB

Besides games I barely notice. Personally the Mini is a much better computing experience. And this is coming from a sole PC user for about 12 years.

[marhan]

I'm hoping to use my Dell 17" flatscreen once I finally get a Mini.

[zenatek]

NEC MultiSync FE991SB CRT

Its actually amazing how close this monitor matches the mini. The grey is exactly the same and the way the corners match the mini is just really close.

[nickw311]

with the rebate I got on the 19" monitor it was actually cheaper than a 17" Dell LCD - the offer was only available to that model.

[andrewgf]

Originally posted by nickw311:
I just bought a Mac Mini yesterday and I also purchased a Dell LCD to go with it. Kinda sucks that the monitor will be black and the computer and keyboard will be white. Anyway here is what I got:

1.25 ghz
512 Ram
80 Gig
wired keyboard
($676 with shipping, taxes and a student discount)

Dell Ultra-Sharp 19" LCD with 4 USB 2.0 ports
($347 with shipping and taxes)

What do you people have and how well do you think I made out on my purchase?

I already had a 17" Samsung 172X when I got my Mini. As it has DVI and analog and can switch between them, I have my Windows machine hooked up as well.

Its a great 17" screen. Good colour (too bright on factory settings) and 12ms response time (good for gaming and video). Nice silver finish that complements the Mini nicely.

Of course this cost me $800Oz early last year. Its come down significantly since then.

Price wise you've got a bargain. If I were to purchase now I'd go for a Dell 20" that does 1600X1200 instead.

[walkerjs]

Originally posted by Vi0:
I think your purchase sucks to tell you the truth. You spent $1,023 on what is essentially an email-and-web-only computer.

I could have bought the same thing for $300 at the most.

You can't do very much on a mini, and the hard drive sucks as well. For more than a thousand dollars, I could have got a much faster, much more featured work machine.

Looks like Apple sold you more hype than anything else.

Does this happen alot in this forum? Hmm, yeah it seems it does.

Anyway for my Mac Mini I am using an IBM P200 20" (19"...okay 18" usable) CRT with the DVI-VGA adapter. After fiddling with the settings a bit it looks nice and clear at 1600x1280. This monitor I already had and was using with my Linux workstation before I switched.

[cliffom]

Originally posted by nickw311:
What do you people have and how well do you think I made out on my purchase?

I just got home from my local apple store with a 20" ACD to go with the Mini I purchased 3 days ago. I have a 20" ACD at work as well on my Dual 1.8 G5 Powermac. I love the Apple Displays.

[nickw311]

Do I have the correct ports to hook up the monitor to the Mac Mini with no degredation of brightness or quality? Here is what the spec says on the Dell site:
Port(s) Total ( Free ) / Connector Type: 15-pin D-subminiature (blue) / DVI-D (white) / 4 x USB 2.0
Here is a link to the tech info:
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/P...=&refurbished=

[MacME]

wow ... everywhere i read, it seems everyone has the cash to dump for a ACD screen. i ended up mating my Mini with a Toshiba SD-P7000 LCD TV/DVD combo. maybe when i get more cash, i'll get a dedicated screen for the Mini, but for now the Toshiba works/looks great with it.

[jasonsRX7]

Originally posted by MacME:
[B]wow ... everywhere i read, it seems everyone has the cash to dump for a ACD screen. i ended up mating my Mini with a Toshiba SD-P7000 LCD TV/DVD combo.

You don't have the money for an ACD, but you can spend ~$750 on a 17" TV?

[iREZ]

$750 for a computer display/17" TV/DVD player/CD player as oppose to a 20" display. Not my cup of tea but I could see why somebody would go this route and still think a 20" display is too pricey for what it does. I'd love an LCD TV in my room to replace my TV (don't watch too much of it anyway) but I don't know if I could stick with only a 17", I can't wait till I could find an affordable 20"+ display that has high resolution and good TV quality, but I doubt I'll find something like that for the next couple of years.

[MacME]

hmmmm for the critics, let me explain. my 17" LCD TV/DVD was bought for LESS than the base price of the Mac Mini. plus i already OWNED the 17" LCD TV/DVD, so i'm recycling the 17" for even more use. a 20" ACD would cost me the price of the Mac MINI and the 17" combined, so you do the math! even IF i had purchased the 17" at the claimed price of $750, it's still cheaper than the $1000 for the 20" ACD! don't get me wrong, i would LOVE to own an ACD, even the older crystal ones, they looked AMAZING at the store!

i just thought ppl buying the Mac Mini would be recycling keyboard, mouse and display. but the more i read the more i see ppl buying new stuff and in particular the 20" ACD. the Mini might be an entry level Mac, but with all the upgrades ppl are thowing into it, it's become a fairly PRICEY toy!

anyhow, i'm thinking about mounting the 17" on the living room wall and have the Mac Mini and Xbox hooked up to it.

[power142]

Originally posted by nickw311:
Do I have the correct ports to hook up the monitor to the Mac Mini with no degredation of brightness or quality? Here is what the spec says on the Dell site:
Port(s) Total ( Free ) / Connector Type: 15-pin D-subminiature (blue) / DVI-D (white) / 4 x USB 2.0

I'm not sure what you're referring to regarding brightness or quality, but your mini will hook up to the screen perfectly using either the DVI (digital) or 15-pin D-sub (analog) connectors. Hooking up to the digital connection is preferable, but if Dell don't include the DVI cable then you can either buy one or just use the analog.

[JHromadka]

I don't have a mini yet (waiting for Tiger), but I already have a monitor for it that I use with a PC I built. It's a 19" Rosewill R911E. I'm very happy with it.

[icibaqu]

seems very few people have a 23" with the mini. any good reason why? (older monitors, too much money, etc...)

[iREZ]

My cousin has his mini connected to his older 23" ACD (thick bezel) via an ACD-DVI adapter and it works flawlessly. No distortions no nothing, and I play with it often too. Expose is sorta choppy, but it's not like it doesn't work as fast as any other Mac...just not as sweet to the eye.

[JHromadka]

Originally posted by icibaqu:
seems very few people have a 23" with the mini. any good reason why? (older monitors, too much money, etc...)

It's hard to justify spending more than 2x the cost of the computer on the monitor.

[icibaqu]

not when the password is future UPGRADE

booyah!

and also less when it will be the screen you watch dvd's on, etc.

[Mithras]

Thanks to some advice in the Lounge, when I get my dad a mini to use as a jukebox, I'm going to complement it with a 7" touchscreen LCD:

$269 for an absolutely lovely little interface to the music.

Some guy in Switzerland has already done a similar thing:

[CyberGreg]

I've finally got our Mini setup in the living room. I'm using a 27" LCD TV that we picked up at Fry's a few months ago. It has DVI and VGA inputs and now that I've got everything installed (bluetooth, 1GB RAM, 100GB HD) it really nice to use.

AS an FYI during setup I had to use the VGA port, the DVI displayed on the gray screen then went out.

Here's a link to the TV

[Luca Rescigno]

This is my setup:

Mac mini 1.25 GHz
Acer 17" LCD w/ DVI
250 GB Firewire hard drive
1 GB of RAM
Logitech Z-560 speakers in 2.1 setup
Logitech MX1000 Mouse
Apple Keyboard

I love this thing. Going with the mini left me with enough cash left over to get some really nice peripherals, particularly the 17" LCD and the MX1000 mouse.

Actually I haven't gotten the MX1000 yet, I'm using a semi-okay corded MS Intellimouse, but I prefer wireless.

[mbryda]

Originally posted by Vi0:
I could have bought the same thing for $300 at the most.

Where? DE-Celerons with 256MB and Inhell Extreme need not apply.

[SmileyDude]

I'm using my ViewSonic VE500 -- I've had it for a couple of years now, and I wish I had DVI. But, quite frankly, I'd rather spend some additional money on RAM, faster HD, and/or DVD burner for the mini

Besides, now that I've removed the crappy Belkin all-in-one 2-port KVM switch, the picture has gotten much better (though still not up to the standard of my Dell monitor connected to a PM G5 via DVI at work... )

[cliffom]

I finally got around to taking some updated pics of my setup with the 20" ACD. I spent an hour last night cleaning up the cables.

http://www.cliffom.net/index.php?nod...&prevDir=/misc

[Lateralus]

Originally posted by Vi0:
I think your purchase sucks to tell you the truth. You spent $1,023 on what is essentially an email-and-web-only computer.

I could have bought the same thing for $300 at the most.

You can't do very much on a mini, and the hard drive sucks as well. For more than a thousand dollars, I could have got a much faster, much more featured work machine.

Looks like Apple sold you more hype than anything else.

This is your final warning before your ban. I've told you to stop harassing people before.

[jamil5454]

Originally posted by liquidtrance123:
Personally I bought a Mac Mini w/ 20in Apple Cinema Display and its absolutely glorious. As for the mini being under powered, maybe for games, but I stopped using my PC when I bought the mini and I haven't looked back. I can barely notice a difference in the things I do daily.

My PC has the following specs and I hardly notice a difference between it and the mini in the things I do daily.

Abit IC7-Max3
P4 2.8GHz
1GB DDR433
2x Raptors Raid 0
Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB

Besides games I barely notice. Personally the Mini is a much better computing experience. And this is coming from a sole PC user for about 12 years.

One question:

Do you notice a difference in the things you do daily?

Sorry couldn't resist.

[neowolf]

I'm using a fairly cheap 17" LCD screen. VGA however works well, OS X came with a color sync profile, and a 12ms response time for ~$200. (Price fluctuates, I got it for $199.95 with $10 shipping.

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProduc...209-002&depa=0

[Goatbert]

I love my mini, though my wallet hates me because my love for the Mini made me buy a PowerBook to use at work.

I have 2 19" Hyundai L90D+ DVI LCDs on my desk, one for the mini and one for my PC. Love them both. Paid $369 for them at NewEgg a month or so ago.

-Jeff

[ae77]

Originally posted by cliffom:
I finally got around to taking some updated pics of my setup with the 20" ACD. I spent an hour last night cleaning up the cables.

http://www.cliffom.net/index.php?nod...&prevDir=/misc

sweet! I think Mini + Apple Cinema Display make a good combination.

[Janaka Cooray]

Originally posted by ae77:
sweet! I think Mini + Apple Cinema Display make a good combination.

Why are people buying ACD with the mini when the imac can be had for cheaper?

I am a 'switcher' and use my mini with an iiyama HM903DT 19" CRT (used with my PC). Panther detects this very well and chooses a very sensible default resolution and screen callibration assistant shows that colour matching is near perfect.

I see the imac as embodying the true 'mac experience' and will switch to that when funds permit. I do not see the mini as anything other than a second computer or a beginner's computer (as I believe Phil Schiller himself was quoted as saying a few days after the mini was announced.)

[cliffom]

The Mac mini is a very capable machine. I chose this and the 20" ACD over an iMac because I do plan on purchasing a powermac in the near future. The 20" will be reallocated to that machine and the mini will become a media box. I use a Dual 1.8 G5 at work and going home to the mini isn't a horrible experience as some might think. My home computing consists of monitoring my xserves, reading my work IMAP boxes, shelling into my various servers, and writing code when I am running close to a deadline. The mini does all of these without as much as a hiccup.

Originally posted by Janaka Cooray:
Why are people buying ACD with the mini when the imac can be had for cheaper?

I am a 'switcher' and use my mini with an iiyama HM903DT 19" CRT (used with my PC). Panther detects this very well and chooses a very sensible default resolution and screen callibration assistant shows that colour matching is near perfect.

I see the imac as embodying the true 'mac experience' and will switch to that when funds permit. I do not see the mini as anything other than a second computer or a beginner's computer (as I believe Phil Schiller himself was quoted as saying a few days after the mini was announced.)

[power142]

Originally posted by cliffom:
The Mac mini is a very capable machine. I chose this and the 20" ACD over an iMac because I do plan on purchasing a powermac in the near future. The 20" will be reallocated to that machine and the mini will become a media box. I use a Dual 1.8 G5 at work and going home to the mini isn't a horrible experience as some might think. My home computing consists of monitoring my xserves, reading my work IMAP boxes, shelling into my various servers, and writing code when I am running close to a deadline. The mini does all of these without as much as a hiccup.

I too have a dual G5 at work and if we use the web browsing "benchmark" then moving from the G5 to the mini is almost unnoticeable, whereas moving from the mini to my Powerbook (1GHz) is much more noticeable. The mini just feels more snappy in general than my Powerbook and is much more capable, but obviously, at processor related operations it doesn't have the raw muscle of a 2.5DP.

[jasonsRX7]

Originally posted by Janaka Cooray:
Why are people buying ACD with the mini when the imac can be had for cheaper?(snip)

I agree with cliffom. The way I use a computer is less processor intensive and more visual. Meaning that I'll appreciate a better monitor more than I will a faster computer. However, I don't like to keep the same desktop system for more than 2 years. Although an iMac would suit me just fine for performance, when it did come time to upgrade, I wouldn't like the thought of having a nice 20" monitor permanantly tied to what would become a secondary/spare computer.

That being the case, I'd rather have the flexibility of a Mac Mini and 20" ACD than a more powerful 20" iMac, even at the same price. Nothing against the iMacs though, they are really nice and great looking machines.

[jtwiskowski]

I love my mini.

Mac mini 1.42Ghz/512MB/80GB/SuperDrive/APX/BT
(running system off external 120GB 7200RPM Western Digital HD)
Apple Wireless Keyboard & Mouse
AirPort Express (AirTunes and AirFoil)
Tivoli Audio/Henry Kloss iPal (for basic audio playback and AM/FM radio)
iPod shuffle 1GB and a (3G) iPod 15GB for the car

and to answer your question I use an ...

Apple Cinema Display 20"

I love every component of my system, and will probably get the most life out of the Cinema Display, as I plan to upgrade to my mini and shuffle with every other revision or so, depending how often they get updated.

My one and only gripe is ... "of course" ... the video card. I need 64MB at least to be pleased.

My mini has been plugging away ripping and converting my DVDs into (my new and almost as cool) Sony PSP ready format and size. A bit slower than my G5 (somewhat understated) but it does everything the G5 can, just slower (Pro audio/video apps excluded that I will never need).

[sixdoubleseven]

Just picked up a Mini last night. Upgraded to 512 mb, also picked up the Apple kb and some wireless mouse, I can't remember the brand.


I also picked up a 20 Apple CRT of craigslist yesterday. Going to try and get everything set up tonight if I can find a desk.

I'm planning on only using the CRT temporarily until I can save up for either the 20" ACD or a 20" DELL, then the CRT will be going back on craigslist.