Flea finds a Mini home (you expect anything else:)

First the goods:

M9687LL/B MAC MINI 1.42/512/80/COMB
Subtotal 579.00
Shipping Charges 0.00
TOTAL USD 579.00

MA002LL/A IPOD,30G,WHITE-USA 269.00
MA045G/A IPOD UNIVERSAL DOCK-GEN 35.00

Subtotal 304.00
Shipping Charges 0.00
TOTAL USD 304.00

Dell UltraSharp 1905FP Flat Panel with Height Adjustable Stand,19.0 Inch VIS,OptiPlex and Precision,Customer Install *3YR Limited Warranty Monitor, Advanced Exchange

$313.65
Ship. And/or Handling. $0.00
TOTAL USD $313.65

Grand Total: $1,196.65

Reasoning:

I wanted a computer that was faster than the old iMac which just wasn't keeping up anymore :(
Not even in TT. The games were becoming miserable to play when you can't see well.

I still wanted to be able to play TT and decided to opt out of the new Intel Macs until the transition was complete. I was jonesing to get a Mini from their introduction but the weakish video kept me from jumping (so to speak). I don't need much, my most demanding video use is TT but the 32MB of video ram in the Mini kept me away. I started to worry that the Mini would be updated to the Intel chips soon too. But I had been reading on the net that Apple had upgraded the Mini but kept it quite. The reports on the net kept confirming this so I shook the dice and ordered.

Sure enough, here are the real specks:

Ya, ya, the video is still weak for the movie makers and Photoshop gurus. But like I said, my most demanding video app is TT.

And this Mini handles that superbly. Very smooth. Very easy to shoot now. I'm actually having trouble adjusting to the clear view :)

LOL, in high rez! I'm loving this. I also opted for the combo drive and not the DVD burner. I would never make a video DVD and if I was so inclined I'd personally pop for the Lacie that burns duel layers and includes the full version of Toast for almost the exact same cost as Apple's upgrade. BTW, IDVD now supports 3rd party burners.

But I did want to fool around with some video, so decided to put that $100 toward a video iPod. One word about it; Cool. DVD's, they're so yesterday :)

(Actually I'm only sorta kidding about that. Video whateverPods and large Hard Disk are where we are headed. It just makes to much sense. The folks who predicated the demise of HD's were definitely off base. Look at TiVo's.)

Plus my wife got the hand-me-down 4th generation Pod which makes her very happy.

If I plug the Video iPod into our TV the picture is quite good. Surprising and very cool. I also picked up the universal dock but can tell having another on the TV in the bedroom may be in the future. (Hey dear, wanna watch some Suicide Girls :) A LARGE external HD too. Need to wait for the CC to cool down first.

Add in the nice software Apple included in iLife '06 and I find this Mini a real winner.

Look dear, It's a Dull.

I'm really happy about the Dell monitor too. Good price, decent screen real-estate and the picture is great. Plus it has an onboard 4 port USB 2 hub. Mostly filled already. I run TT at 1024 x 820 and not full screen because the picture is too big. To funny, never would have thought I'd say that. Plus it will rotate in the stand and Tiger supports the rotation so you can make your screen 1024 x 1280 if you want. Don't have any use for it yet but may think of something.

So maybe some day this Mini will be a headless TiVo via EyeTV and be replaced with a newer shiny model.

But for now I'm gonna settle for sharpening my aim.

Last edited: Tuesday, February 14, 2006 at 7:25:03 AM

NICE!! Congrats on your new system! Very sweet.

Congrats! XD Hopefully the Bubblegunners will get a boost from your improved play quality.

Nice but too bad you can't visit some websites ...lol.

Should of waited for leopard!!! 10.5

Last edited: Tuesday, February 14, 2006 at 3:30:10 PM

Thought this thread was about Flea's new home.
...right above mine.

_{I hate chilli night at Flea's.} :(

^^^ ROFL!

^^ Good God, LOL

^^^ lmao! Where are the windows, KBC?

AHAHAHAHAA...

The grants site works on Linux.

PS: Not to gloat, my Linux PC can blow away that mac.

Last edited: Tuesday, February 14, 2006 at 4:34:12 PM

Well it is one of the cheapest ones...

What's a "Linux PC?"

Is that one of those new game consoles from Mediocre-soft?

Hey Flea, congrats on the new 'puter. I need one myself. Cant compete anymore with the boys on TT. :S

Watch out KBC, sh*t flows downhill!! XD

^ one of the main tennet of the plumbing profession, but remember, the fumes diffuse up... I don't see any vent on the top, so beware, flea...

Good to hear about the little mini (upgraded video card) Enjoy that fine machine!

It's a computer with linux on it. :P

Flea, I briefly talked to a friend of mine who bought a Mini. He told me that he didn't buy a monitor and has it hooked up to his TV. Know anything about this? He's on a job for the next month or so out of town so I've not been able to ask him.

Merry Christmas Flea. Hope you like all your new stuff, I wish I had some of it.

It's a MAC. Have fun playing thinktanks and surfing the web. (Considering that's all macs can do) :P

@Rogue
Depends on the TV and what you expect to do. If your friend happens to have something like a big Panasonic LCD projector TV they already sport a DVI connector, as do many HDTV's. (Kind of crossing the boundaries between monitor/TV.) I considered a LCD/TV/monior but you generally don't get the pixel resolution a "monitor" provides in the realm of desktop real-estate. I haven't seen a standard TV make a good monitor yet. Yes you can hook up with a DVI to s-video adaptor but anything beyond a movie would probably be hard to use as a monitor. I guy really wants to use the DVI if he can with a bunch of pixels. eyetv looks cool.

@ Nathan

I know :(

I think Time Magazine said it best:

"Stop and look at Apple for a second, since it's an odd company. It has been around long enough and has a high enough profile that it's easy to forget that. While most high-tech firms focus on one or two sectors, Apple does all of them at once. Apple makes its own hardware (iBooks and iMacs), it makes the operating system that runs on that hardware (Mac OS X), and it makes programs that run on that operating system (iTunes, iMovie, Safari Web browser, etc.). It also makes the consumer-electronics devices that connect to all those things (the rapidly multiplying iPod family), and it runs the online service that furnishes content to those devices (iTunes Music Store). If you smooshed together Microsoft, Dell and Sony into one company, you would have something like the diversity of the Apple technological biosphere."

We're suffering in Mac land.

Look on the bright side we don't get early the amount of viruses that a PC does ( :P ) and Macs generally work very well. I've had my mac for almost 2 yrs and it works very smoothly

:)

Last edited: Friday, February 17, 2006 at 2:14:58 AM