Finally an affordable Mac computer at DVinfo.net

Allan Phan · January 14th, 2005, 07:16 AM

http://www.apple.com/macmini/

Dylan Couper · January 14th, 2005, 09:43 AM

Very cool. Still twice the price of the cheapest PC though.

Boyd Ostroff · January 14th, 2005, 10:17 AM

Join the fun in this thread :-)

Takeshi McFall · January 14th, 2005, 01:20 PM

<<<-- Originally posted by Dylan Couper : Very cool. Still twice the price of the cheapest PC though. -->>>

True, but you might as well point out that Hyundai's cars are cheaper... (for a reason)

Rhett Allen · January 14th, 2005, 01:34 PM

<<<-- Originally posted by Dylan Couper : Very cool. Still twice the price of the cheapest PC though. -->>>

Show me a $250 PC! You can't even get Windoze for that price!

Dylan Couper · January 14th, 2005, 08:25 PM

<<<-- Originally posted by Rhett Allen : <<<-- Originally posted by Dylan Couper : Very cool. Still twice the price of the cheapest PC though. -->>>

Show me a $250 PC! You can't even get Windoze for that price! -->>>

No problem.
This is from an excellent brick 'n mortar store where I've been buying my PCs for the last 6 years.
http://www.rockpc.com/product_info.p...33db6c99c95e03

That's $326 Canadian dollars, which is about $265us.

Here's another computer store near me, which has poor service, but cheaper computers: They've got 4 under $350cdn.
http://www.atic.ca/index.php?page=showsys1

Did you think I was bluffing? :)

Dylan Couper · January 14th, 2005, 08:35 PM

<<<-- Originally posted by briareus : <<<-- Originally posted by Dylan Couper : Very cool. Still twice the price of the cheapest PC though. -->>>

True, but you might as well point out that Hyundai's cars are cheaper... (for a reason) -->>>

We don't allow platform wars on DVinfo, so we'd appreciate if you don't try and start one.

Thanks.

Rhett Allen · January 14th, 2005, 09:54 PM

Sorry Dylan, I didn't know you weren't looking for an equal quality and specification computer. I guess if you had to scrape the bottom of the barrel you theoretically "could" find something for almost half the price, but it's closer to half the machine. Sub-par processors, no combo-drives, no USB2, no Firewire, big ugly cases. Really not even close to the same. You want to see something (in my opinion the only thing) that even comes close to Apple in quality and style?

Point your browser to http://us.shuttle.com/

I have 2 of these and they are REALLY fine machines. One running Mandrake Linux 9.2 on a Athlon XP2100+ and the other Windows XP Pro SP2 on a Athlon XP2600+
Some of the newer models have Serial ATA RAID onboard... very nice!

Dylan Couper · January 15th, 2005, 01:18 AM

Sorry Rhett, your sarcasm is lost on me.
I said 'twice the price of the cheapest PC", not my fault you didn't read what I said correctly.

I don't really care about the size of my PC, so the Shuttle PC doesn't do anything for me, although it is very pretty.

Rhett Allen · January 15th, 2005, 01:52 PM

Sorry Dylan, my point was just that it really is a decent deal, especially for a Macintosh. It would serve them better to make the minimum installed RAM as 512MB because the OS likes RAM with all the sparkle turned on (dock effects and such) which it is by default. It's also difficult to find a computer with these exact specs for this price. I have heard many times how Macs are twice as much as PC's but in reality, they are rarely talking about similar spec'd machines, just the cheapest of each platform. That's almost like saying, why would I spend the money on an SGI Tezro Quad when I can get a Celeron PC at Walmart? They aren't quite the same. (that was a long shot I know, but you get the idea)

The thing I like about the Shuttle computers (besides the small and elegant design) is that they seem to have almost everything you could want (5.1 sound front and rear, USB2 front and rear, Firewire 400 front and rear, SVHS-out and sometimes even a built in multi card readers), but they are a little more expensive than just a plain-jane beige case. And I can stack 2 of them in the same space as 1 full size box.

Douglas Habib · January 15th, 2005, 02:42 PM

Being so absolutely ignorant (and honest) about most things technical, I gotta thank you guys for the jousting.....expecially liked the claims by "shuttle" about their being quiet. Piqued my interest all-around. I learn ALOT here; not yet qualified to post; much.....

Dan Euritt · January 15th, 2005, 05:00 PM

being able to run osx for $500 is kinda cool... and it has usb ports, so you do have a way to mix a firewire vid camera and an external usb hard drive, without sharing ports.

but the ancient ati radeon 9200 w/32mb of ram is a total joke, as was pointed out earlier... that video card won't begin to support wmv hd playback, so why bother including a 1920x1200 dvi port??

looks like stereo-only audio, if that, no multi-channel hardware, and no audio input capability.

it also uses a 2.5" 4200 rpm laptop hard drive, yuk! even if you use an external hdd for video, this turkey will be slow to operate.

it's a neat little toy to send away with your kids at college, but you can get a lot more expandability and h.p. for the same $$$ with a factory-refurb'ed dell or hp... or even a new emachines computer.

Aaron Koolen · January 15th, 2005, 06:06 PM

I think everyone misses the point with these platform wars. It's not about hardware, forget that. It's about software. So long as you're (even very) roughly the same in grunt and prices aren't in an order of magnitude higher then software is the decider.

Aaron

Boyd Ostroff · January 15th, 2005, 07:34 PM

Clearly the Mac Mini was not designed as a platform for high end applications. It has a number of compromises in order to keep the cost down and also to avoid cannibalizing too many sales of Apple's more expensive products. However if it meets your needs then it's just one more option available to you.

This might not be a bad time to gently remind everybody of the DVinfo FAQ as well :-)

Quote:

The following content will be deleted without delay or explanation (repeat offenders will be warned first and summarily booted if necessary):

1. Trolling posts fishing for flame bait.
2. Personal attacks, platform wars, bickering and pointless arguments.

Glenn Chan · January 15th, 2005, 09:23 PM

I think for the average home user, this would be a great computer. It does what most home users need their computer for (surfing, email, etc.). It's fairly cheap, sexy, easy to use, and you don't have to worry about spyware or viruses.

If you want to edit your home videos, you have iMovie which is *incredibly* easy to use. For home users that may be the number one feature they need in editing software. And it comes out of the big with firewire and software installed. Perhaps the one downside to the mac mini is the 40GB hard drive (can't hold much more than 2 hours of DV).

It's definitely a neat computer with potential uses for easy DV editing.

January 14th, 2005, 07:16 AM	#1
Allan Phan Regular Crew Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Alexandria, VA Posts: 95	Finally an affordable Mac computer http://www.apple.com/macmini/

January 14th, 2005, 09:43 AM	#2
Dylan Couper Wrangler Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Vancouver, British Columbia Posts: 8,314	Very cool. Still twice the price of the cheapest PC though. __________________ Need to rent camera gear in Vancouver BC? Check me out at camerarentalsvancouver.com

January 14th, 2005, 08:25 PM	#6
Dylan Couper Wrangler Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Vancouver, British Columbia Posts: 8,314	<<<-- Originally posted by Rhett Allen : <<<-- Originally posted by Dylan Couper : Very cool. Still twice the price of the cheapest PC though. -->>> Show me a $250 PC! You can't even get Windoze for that price! -->>> No problem. This is from an excellent brick 'n mortar store where I've been buying my PCs for the last 6 years. http://www.rockpc.com/product_info.p...33db6c99c95e03 That's $326 Canadian dollars, which is about $265us. Here's another computer store near me, which has poor service, but cheaper computers: They've got 4 under $350cdn. http://www.atic.ca/index.php?page=showsys1 Did you think I was bluffing? :) __________________ Need to rent camera gear in Vancouver BC? Check me out at camerarentalsvancouver.com

January 14th, 2005, 08:35 PM	#7
Dylan Couper Wrangler Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Vancouver, British Columbia Posts: 8,314	<<<-- Originally posted by briareus : <<<-- Originally posted by Dylan Couper : Very cool. Still twice the price of the cheapest PC though. -->>> True, but you might as well point out that Hyundai's cars are cheaper... (for a reason) -->>> We don't allow platform wars on DVinfo, so we'd appreciate if you don't try and start one. Thanks. __________________ Need to rent camera gear in Vancouver BC? Check me out at camerarentalsvancouver.com

January 15th, 2005, 01:18 AM	#9
Dylan Couper Wrangler Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Vancouver, British Columbia Posts: 8,314	Sorry Rhett, your sarcasm is lost on me. I said 'twice the price of the cheapest PC", not my fault you didn't read what I said correctly. I don't really care about the size of my PC, so the Shuttle PC doesn't do anything for me, although it is very pretty. __________________ Need to rent camera gear in Vancouver BC? Check me out at camerarentalsvancouver.com

January 14th, 2005, 10:17 AM	#3
Boyd Ostroff Wrangler Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Mays Landing, NJ Posts: 11,787	Join the fun in this thread :-)

January 14th, 2005, 01:20 PM	#4
Takeshi McFall New Boot Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Houston Posts: 10	<<<-- Originally posted by Dylan Couper : Very cool. Still twice the price of the cheapest PC though. -->>> True, but you might as well point out that Hyundai's cars are cheaper... (for a reason)

January 14th, 2005, 01:34 PM	#5
Rhett Allen Major Player Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Plano, TX Posts: 607	<<<-- Originally posted by Dylan Couper : Very cool. Still twice the price of the cheapest PC though. -->>> Show me a $250 PC! You can't even get Windoze for that price!

January 14th, 2005, 09:54 PM	#8
Rhett Allen Major Player Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Plano, TX Posts: 607	Sorry Dylan, I didn't know you weren't looking for an equal quality and specification computer. I guess if you had to scrape the bottom of the barrel you theoretically "could" find something for almost half the price, but it's closer to half the machine. Sub-par processors, no combo-drives, no USB2, no Firewire, big ugly cases. Really not even close to the same. You want to see something (in my opinion the only thing) that even comes close to Apple in quality and style? Point your browser to http://us.shuttle.com/ I have 2 of these and they are REALLY fine machines. One running Mandrake Linux 9.2 on a Athlon XP2100+ and the other Windows XP Pro SP2 on a Athlon XP2600+ Some of the newer models have Serial ATA RAID onboard... very nice!

January 15th, 2005, 01:52 PM	#10
Rhett Allen Major Player Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Plano, TX Posts: 607	Sorry Dylan, my point was just that it really is a decent deal, especially for a Macintosh. It would serve them better to make the minimum installed RAM as 512MB because the OS likes RAM with all the sparkle turned on (dock effects and such) which it is by default. It's also difficult to find a computer with these exact specs for this price. I have heard many times how Macs are twice as much as PC's but in reality, they are rarely talking about similar spec'd machines, just the cheapest of each platform. That's almost like saying, why would I spend the money on an SGI Tezro Quad when I can get a Celeron PC at Walmart? They aren't quite the same. (that was a long shot I know, but you get the idea) The thing I like about the Shuttle computers (besides the small and elegant design) is that they seem to have almost everything you could want (5.1 sound front and rear, USB2 front and rear, Firewire 400 front and rear, SVHS-out and sometimes even a built in multi card readers), but they are a little more expensive than just a plain-jane beige case. And I can stack 2 of them in the same space as 1 full size box.

January 15th, 2005, 02:42 PM	#11
Douglas Habib Regular Crew Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: LV, NV Posts: 50	Being so absolutely ignorant (and honest) about most things technical, I gotta thank you guys for the jousting.....expecially liked the claims by "shuttle" about their being quiet. Piqued my interest all-around. I learn ALOT here; not yet qualified to post; much..... __________________ Molon Labe! AOC (Ancient Order of Curmudgeons)

January 15th, 2005, 05:00 PM	#12
Dan Euritt Trustee Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Carlsbad CA Posts: 1,132	being able to run osx for $500 is kinda cool... and it has usb ports, so you do have a way to mix a firewire vid camera and an external usb hard drive, without sharing ports. but the ancient ati radeon 9200 w/32mb of ram is a total joke, as was pointed out earlier... that video card won't begin to support wmv hd playback, so why bother including a 1920x1200 dvi port?? looks like stereo-only audio, if that, no multi-channel hardware, and no audio input capability. it also uses a 2.5" 4200 rpm laptop hard drive, yuk! even if you use an external hdd for video, this turkey will be slow to operate. it's a neat little toy to send away with your kids at college, but you can get a lot more expandability and h.p. for the same $$$ with a factory-refurb'ed dell or hp... or even a new emachines computer.

January 15th, 2005, 06:06 PM	#13
Aaron Koolen Trustee Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Auckland, New Zealand Posts: 1,727	I think everyone misses the point with these platform wars. It's not about hardware, forget that. It's about software. So long as you're (even very) roughly the same in grunt and prices aren't in an order of magnitude higher then software is the decider. Aaron __________________ My Website Meat Free Media

January 15th, 2005, 09:23 PM	#15
Glenn Chan Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Toronto, Canada Posts: 4,750	I think for the average home user, this would be a great computer. It does what most home users need their computer for (surfing, email, etc.). It's fairly cheap, sexy, easy to use, and you don't have to worry about spyware or viruses. If you want to edit your home videos, you have iMovie which is incredibly easy to use. For home users that may be the number one feature they need in editing software. And it comes out of the big with firewire and software installed. Perhaps the one downside to the mac mini is the 40GB hard drive (can't hold much more than 2 hours of DV). It's definitely a neat computer with potential uses for easy DV editing.