[abhinav.s]

Folks, a little help from the regular mac users please.

The home laptop is hardly ever taken around anywhere. I also have a spare monitor & an old USB keyboard. I was thinking of shifting to Mac from a long time but the price has always kept me at bay. Was also confused with Air/Pro range. Recently when browsing the apple website, I chanced upon the Mac Mini. Not sure how i missed this all this while. Given that the home laptop is sparingly used for internet browsing, downloading HD movies and viewing them using headphones as well as it not being carried around much, I was thinking the Mac Mini makes a lot of sense for almost half the price of the 13" Air.

But there are few clarifications and hope you can help me here.

1. The processor of the Mac Mini says its 3rd Gen Intel while those of the Air are 4th Gen. Will this be a significant disadvantage for the use case above?

2. The headphone jack shown in the site seems like it can only take apple/ipod/iphone ear phones. Can it also take the normal Philips/Bose headphones (non-USB)?

3. Is there a torrent client like uTorrent for Mac? In the same vein, is VLC compatible with mac or is there a better alternative?

Thanks for your help in advance.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by abhinav.s

1. The processor of the Mac Mini says its 3rd Gen Intel while those of the Air are 4th Gen. Will this be a significant disadvantage for the use case above?

If you need more power, there is a quad core version available.

2. The headphone jack shown in the site seems like it can only take apple/ipod/iphone ear phones. Can it also take the normal Philips/Bose headphones (non-USB)?

Its the standard 3.5 mm Jack. I use non-Apple head phones.

3. Is there a torrent client like uTorrent for Mac? In the same vein, is VLC compatible with mac or is there a better alternative?

Ask me Have been using all of them for more than 2 years! You also dont need that costly Apple Keyboard/mouse. A basic Logitech set would just do fine! Its my primary computing system at home, used for every computing job under the sun. Be it photography, academics, documentation etc. If you dont care about the display, then its best MAC system you can get at that price point. Decide on the dual or the quad core version and then if you want upgrade to 16GB RAM. You can do it on your own. You dont need to goto Apple for it. Thats best part for Mini.

[abhinav.s]

Originally Posted by ampere

If you need more power, there is a quad core version available.

Thanks a lot for the clarification on the points! The quad core is indeed tempting. A little bit of research yielded that the major tweak in 3rd gen v/s 4th gen is power consumption where the 4th gen consumes lesser power than 3rd.

So think I will indeed get my first mac home sooner than i thought. And a very good point about a normal keyboard and mouse.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by abhinav.s

So think I will indeed get my first mac home sooner than i thought. And a very good point about a normal keyboard and mouse.

I have the basic dual core version which I upgraded to 8GB RAM. The dual is enough for most requirements. Only when I run photo editing, I see it being slow. Else its more than enough.

However the biggest advantage for the quad core version is the option of using solid state memory.

[tilt]

Originally Posted by abhinav.s

1. The processor of the Mac Mini says its 3rd Gen Intel while those of the Air are 4th Gen. Will this be a significant disadvantage for the use case above?

For the use you have outlined, the lower-spec Mini will do just fine. I have an old first-gen Mac Mini - the first one that was ever made, with a PowerPC chip - the G4. I do everything on it that you have said. That said, of course, the philosophy is that you always buy the highest spec you can afford, so that you are good for a few years into the future.

Originally Posted by abhinav.s

2. The headphone jack shown in the site seems like it can only take apple/ipod/iphone ear phones. Can it also take the normal Philips/Bose headphones (non-USB)?

Yes it can. It is a standard headphone socket.

Originally Posted by abhinav.s

3. Is there a torrent client like uTorrent for Mac? In the same vein, is VLC compatible with mac or is there a better alternative?

Yes there is. "Transmission". The best and easiest torrent client for the Mac. It is open-source and works on Linux too.

Cheers and welcome to the Mac family. You will enjoy it.

[tilt]

Sorry for the double-post, but I forgot to add that VLC does indeed work on MacOS X.

Mods, I could not find a way to edit my post after it had been posted, so, my apologies for the double-post.

Cheers

[Monolithic]

Originally Posted by abhinav.s

3. Is there a torrent client like uTorrent for Mac? In the same vein, is VLC compatible with mac or is there a better alternative? Thanks for your help in advance.

uTorrent is available for mac. You can download it from their site. Apart from that Transmission too works.

[Fillmore]

Originally Posted by abhinav.s

Folks, a little help from the regular mac users please.

One minor point to be kept in mind in case you are planning to use it with an old LCD monitor hanging around. This one has only HDMI/USB ports.
Most of the old LCD / LED monitors come with VGA/DVI ports only.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by Fillmore

One minor point to be kept in mind in case you are planning to use it with an old LCD monitor hanging around. This one has only HDMI/USB ports.
Most of the old LCD / LED monitors come with VGA/DVI ports only.

They mostly used to provide a DVI to VGA converter. I now see on Apple site they provide a HDMI to DVI adapter. If one wants to use the HDMI port directly (if available on his display), as you rightly said he/she will need a separate HDMI cable.

[abhinav.s]

Originally Posted by tilt

Cheers and welcome to the Mac family. You will enjoy it.

Originally Posted by tilt

Sorry for the double-post, but I forgot to add that VLC does indeed work on MacOS X.

Originally Posted by Monolithic

uTorrent is available for mac. You can download it from their site. Apart from that Transmission too works.

Thanks for the clarification tilt & Monolithic.

Originally Posted by Fillmore

One minor point to be kept in mind in case you are planning to use it with an old LCD monitor hanging around. This one has only HDMI/USB ports.
Most of the old LCD / LED monitors come with VGA/DVI ports only.

Originally Posted by ampere

They mostly used to provide a DVI to VGA converter. I now see on Apple site they provide a HDMI to DVI adapter. If one wants to use the HDMI port directly (if available on his display), as you rightly said he/she will need a separate HDMI cable.

Good points Fillmore & ampere. I checked and the monitor has the DVI port but no HDMI as far as i can see. So maybe the HDMI to DVI that apple provides should help here.

Thanks for the help so far. I have mostly zeroed in on the dual core version for the limited use that I have. But last moment might end up with quad core one too!! Will report here post the purchase.

Quick query, is it good to go for the Apple care for Mac Mini? Or rather is it required since it does not have an optical drive, display etc.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by abhinav.s

Good points Fillmore & ampere. I checked and the monitor has the DVI port but no HDMI as far as i can see. So maybe the HDMI to DVI that apple provides should help here.

Just confirm on the DVI type. I just hope they are same. Also did your monitor come with a DVI cable ? I think it should mostly have come with a VGA cable as its most common. In that case you will need a HDMI to VGA female.

Thanks for the help so far. I have mostly zeroed in on the dual core version for the limited use that I have. But last moment might end up with quad core one too!! Will report here post the purchase.

Dual core is more than enough. Just buy more RAM separately and upgrade the memory alone. Basic one is too low.

Quick query, is it good to go for the Apple care for Mac Mini? Or rather is it required since it does not have an optical drive, display etc.

Always good to have Apple care plan. Need not buy now. But please sure you buy one year gets over. Else you wont be allowed. Idea would get it in 3-4 months.

[abhinav.s]

Originally Posted by ampere

Just confirm on the DVI type. I just hope they are same. Also did your monitor come with a DVI cable ? I think it should mostly have come with a VGA cable as its most common. In that case you will need a HDMI to VGA female.

Thanks.. You are right. It is only a VGA cable!!

Originally Posted by ampere

Dual core is more than enough. Just buy more RAM separately and upgrade the memory alone. Basic one is too low.

Basic is 4GB OEM. Should 8GB suffice? Also does it support 16GB maybe later on a few years down the line if the need based on use arises?

Originally Posted by ampere

Always good to have Apple care plan. Need not buy now. But please sure you buy one year gets over. Else you wont be allowed. Idea would get it in 3-4 months.

This is the good thing about Apple care. We can opt for it a few months before the 1 year expires. I see some good deals on Amazon currently for Mac Mini apple care. Will think about it after using the Mini for a few months!

[ampere]

Originally Posted by abhinav.s

Basic is 4GB OEM. Should 8GB suffice? Also does it support 16GB maybe later on a few years down the line if the need based on use arises?

http://www.apple.com/mac-mini/specs.html


Its configurable up to 16GB. I think 8GB should be good. Because beyond that I think/suspect the machine may choke more for performance rather than memory. An 8GB DDR3 1600Mhz costs about 5K.


Also when buying a DDR3 memory card, make you get the speed and the memory correct. Because we have DDR3 and DDR3L in the market.

As regards on when to upgrade memory, that I leave it to you. Depends on need. I wanted for Photo Editing. Hence I immediately upgraded to 8GB.

[libranof1987]

Originally Posted by libranof1987

MacBook Air users in the house; need your opinion.

I am in the market to buy one and following are the configurations available:
Option 1: 1.3 GHz i5, 4 GB RAM, 128 GB Flash drive
Option 2: 1.3 GHz i5, 4 GB RAM, 256 GB Flash drive

4GB -> 8GB RAM is $ 100 more
1.3 GHz i5 -> 1.7 GHz i7 is $ 150 more.

Almost certainly, I will install Windows thru' Parallels. I will have 10 GB worth of songs, 20 GB worth of data. If I can do with 128 GB hard drive, I can move the pictures to a portable drive.

1) Is 128 GB enough? Or is 256 required for all the software and Windows?
2) Is 4 GB RAM enough? I won't use the laptop for gaming, video editing or any other heavy duty processing. I might use it for Excel modelling (on Windows) though.

Thanks!

I just got myself the MacBook Pro! Retina Display, 2.4 GHz i5, 8 GB RAM, 256 GB HDD.

It's going to take some time getting used to, since I've used Windows for about 15 years now; but I love it so far!

[sumithb]

Originally Posted by libranof1987

I just got myself the MacBook Pro! Retina Display, 2.4 GHz i5, 8 GB RAM, 256 GB HDD.

It's going to take some time getting used to, since I've used Windows for about 15 years now; but I love it so far!

Welcome to the club! I have been using a Mac for more than 5 years and have loved it. You can find videos here to get you started. Also, install Quicksilver, you won't have to take your hands off the keyboard . You might also want to consider Crossover if you have some must have windows only app lying around.

Have fun