[geeks] Advice on buying a new Mac

[John Francini]

1GB is good for most things, unless you end up running either

a) stuff under Rosetta (the PowerPC emulator), such as MS Office or  
Photoshop

b) Parallels (to have multiple OSes running in virtualization)

in which case you should go straight to 2 GB.  3rd party memory is  
significantly cheaper than Apple's offerings.

Any digital monitor with resolution up to 1920x1200 is supported.
Any analog monitor up to 1920 x 1080 is supported.

Also, one thing no one else mentioned: the Ethernet port is 10/100/1000.

As an inveterate Mac person, the only thing I've ever used AppleCare  
for is hardware failure; there's enough information on the Mac Web  
where you can get nearly any software question you might possibly  
have answered.

I strongly suggest AppleCare on laptops.  I don't tend to recommend  
it on desktops.

The mini, however, seems to be neither fish nor fowl.  It does use  
laptop components, but it's not quite as size-compromised.

Now if only they would upgrade it to Core Duo 2, as they've done for  
the iMac...

Cheers,

John Francini



On 13 Nov 2006, at 11:08, Dave K wrote:

> I'm thinking it's time to buy a Mac.  As I know a few of you here are
> Mac fans, I'm hoping you can give me a little advice.
>
> I don't need or want another laptop, so the MacBooks are out, the Mac
> Pro is just too expensive at the moment, and I don't have the desk
> space for another monitor, so that rules out the IMac.
>
> Therefore, I'm looking at the "bigger" Mac Mini:
>     * 1.83GHz Intel Core Duo
>     * 512MB 667 DDR2 SDRAM - 2x256
>     * 80GB Serial ATA drive
>     * SuperDrive 8x (DVD+R DL/DVD1RW/CD-RW)
>     * Mac OS X - U.S. English
>     * Intel GMA 950 graphics
>     * Accessory kit
>
> I'm assuming I'll be able to use one of my Samsung 204B monitors,  
> right?
>
> What options should I go for:
> Is 1 meg of RAM enough, or should I go for 2?
> Is there any special benefit to adding a bigger disk internally,
> versus using external/network storage?
> Should I go with the Apple keyboard/mouse, or 3rd party?
> What actually is iWork, and is it worth $79?
> And what about AppleCare?
>
> Thanks.
> --
> Dave K
> Unix Systems & Network Administrator
> Mount Laurel NJ
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