Home > Consumer Reviews > Apple 1.25GHz Mac mini

The Mac Mini caters for PC users who have been curious about Mac OSX. If you already own your own USB Keyboard/Mouse and a nice monitor then this is the Mac for you. If you dont, then it might be more worthwhile looking at buying a second hand G4 iMac.

I'm an IT technician, and I've used PCs all my life, but I've come into contact with Macs during my College/University studies, and I've always had a soft spot for their looks. The Mini is no exception - its tiny. The first thing i noticed was the size of the box - when have you ever bought a computer and been able to carry it around using a plastic carry handle on the box!

It took 5 minutes to set up the Mac, it automatically found my network connection from my Belkin router. It found my keyboard/mouse straight away too.

A bit about Mac OS X - IT'S AMAZING! Imagine never having to install drivers, antivirus software, or firewalls.. and thats what its like. Got any device - just plug it in and the Mac recognises it.

The only thing about the 1.25GHz 40 GB Mini is that 40 GB really isnt big enough. I'm planning on investing in a 250 GB external LaCie drive. 1.25GHz doesnt sound like much but you cant comprehend how fast it actually is till you try it.

You might want more than the standard 256mb Ram if you use Photoshop or iMovie heavily, I bought 512mb from Crucial and installed it myself and its ideal.

I am not going to focus on all the technical specs. of this neat little biscuite tin,called the Mini Mac. But what, I like about it. Its size to start with is great. You can stick it on a shelf of books,on its side, and you would easily miss it. Its so unobtrusive and very quite. So quite you'd think it was'nt switched on. Setting up is a doddle, a quick registering and Mac OS X springs into life. Being a PC user for the past 10 years, this operating sytems does not take much time to get used to, its so intuitive.No more trying to find files with certain file extentions. Getting online took approx 10 secs. Just one point to remember, USE an ETHERNET cable for broadband modem's NOT usb.
I have bought this little marvel to replace my aging pc for which word processing,spread sheets,database,design and drawing was its main tasks, and I have plenty of files and folders in these formats. So obviously I still want to be able to open these. I got iworks 05 and hey presto! msword, msexcel, Accro reader pdf ect.ect. all opened no problem.It just keeps amazing me.
The mac comes all ready loaded with ilife 05 which to be quite honest, is decent software if your into music, video editing, photos, and downloads.
Games. This is not a games machine especially the basic model. Saying that it runs games far better than my aging pc.
I did try to see how many programs I could open, before it crashed, and at 7 it did just that.But the wonderful thing about this little beauty, is if you can't shut down then just switch off at the mains.Switching back on and NO BLUE screen of death or scalding by microsoft for shutting down illegally.The system just fires back up like nothing has happened.
Overall I am a very happy person and yes I'VE SWITCHED.

Top Stuff!

Having used PCs for years, I wanted to try out OSX and at £339 could no longer resist.

Everything runs out of the box and OSX is quick and doesnt crash (no more blue screens!). Also does not need mountains of firewalls or anti-spyware as it is based on a rock-solid UNIX foundation.

The bundled iLife 05 is excellent too. I think this could be a killer app for the mac mini.

I recommend this to anyone and everyone!