Mac Mini Review

Introduction

In the beginning, I started out on Windows based PC’s. At one point I dabbled in Linux, but verily I say unto ye, I returned to my Windows heritage. Always I had extolled the virtues of Windows and detested anything related to Apple. Their designs were often fruity, overpriced, and reeked of an elitist attitude. But somewhere in 2002-2003 Apple started to redeem themselves with a little device called the iPod. The design philosophy was elegant and efficient but still a little pricey. Whatever this shift in paradigm thinking was, I think it’s reflected in the Mac Mini. Being such a low priced offering along with the observation of the innovative evolution of OS X over the years I felt it was time to put aside my prejudices and give it a whirl. I didn’t use any benchmarking suites so this review won’t give any specific hard data but a quick Google search will get you that information. Plus, the hardware is relatively low-end and for the typical person that would get a Mini this is mostly irrelevant anyways. Here is a picture of my setup at home; you can see the Mini atop of my PC:

Hardware

The Mac Mini is pretty much the lowest end of the current Mac generation so my expectations for this G4 1.25 GHz machine were low from the start. The basic configuration comes with 256MB SDRAM but the upgrade to 512MB is almost a necessity. And for only $50 more, you’d regret it not to opt for it. The unit also comes with a DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive that can burn at 24x and read DVDs at 8x. I should also add that there is a 1.42 GHz version of the Mini that cost $100 more. It also includes an upgrade from a 40GB drive to 80GB. I would not recommend this upgrade though because all the other reviews I have read have said that the increase in CPU speed is negligible at best and not worth the extra $100. So unless you need the extra hard drive space, and I doubt you would with a machine of these specs, then save your money on this upgrade.

The downside to the Mini is that it only has two USB ports. Fortunately my KVM switch allows me to combine my keyboard and mouse into one USB port saving an open port for me. There is an unfortunate side effect to this though and I will cover it later. One workaround for this would be to buy an Apple keyboard that has two USB ports on it acting as a USB hub. However, if you are used to a PC keyboard I would definitely NOT recommend the Apply keyboard. The keyboard layout is much different with the keys Print Screen, Scroll Lock, and Pause being replaced with extra function keys F13-F16. The top row on the number pad is also replaced with volume controls. Also, the Windows function key seems to work fine in lieu of Apple’s Command key.

The side effect I mentioned earlier in regards to my KVM switch has to do with USB hubs. My KVM switch combines a USB keyboard and mouse and any other USB device that is plugged into it all into one USB port. So it is essentially a USB hub as well. The Mini doesn’t seem to recognize some devices plugged into it, like my joystick and web cam. So I’m not sure how it would act with a dedicated USB hub, so just be weary of this if you are thinking of getting one.

Much to my surprise the system runs a lot smoother than I thought it would. Most of the time my CPU usage stays below 50-60% and when it does go that high or higher the system doesn’t start to chug and bog down like Wintel machines tend to do. Read/write times for the hard drive were also very acceptable. Overall system performance has exceeded my expectations for the price point of this system.

OS X

This is probably the most compelling reason that I bought the Mac Mini. Since OS X 10.3, dubbed Panther, was released I’ve read many good things about the operating system. And since most Apple hardware costs a premium it has never been something I could just splurge on to try out until the Mac Mini rolled around. The version that shipped with the Mini was 10.3.9. Right out of the gate I was impressed by the ease of use of the OS and the fluid GUI. I thought there would be a steep learning curve to using it but it turned out to be quite the opposite. I found it to be very intuitive in most areas.

One of the features I was most impressed was a function called Exposé. Any time I’m on my computer I tend to keep at least 8-15 windows and programs open at any given time. Which can clutter up pretty quick and make it tough to navigate around what you are doing. Exposé provides a simple, effective, and appealing way of managing them.

If you want to see all the windows you have open you press the F9 key and all windows will automatically resize and move so that you can see each window in it’s entirety at once. When you click the window you want, they go back to the way they were before and the window you select is on top. Or if you want to see the desktop you press the F11 key and all the windows will move off the edge of the screen and return when you press it again. The feature is so handy that I mapped the two function keys to my mouse instead of the keyboard.

The web browser that OS X comes with is called Safari. It supports one of the features that I use the most when I browse sites and that’s tabbed browsing. If you don’t know what that is and you keep many web browser windows open, you don’t know what you’re missing. It’s the main reason I switched from Internet Explorer to Firefox. It also has a download manager like Firefox that will allow you to pause and resume downloads. All in all I’ve been pretty pleased with it. It also has a “sanitize” feature that will clear all your personal information out of cookies, delete saved website passwords, and get rid of anything else privacy related.

Software

For the price of the Mini you not only get OS X but iLife ’05 among other programs. Those two things alone is roughly $200 worth of software. iLife is a suite of programs that include iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie HD, Garageband, and iDVD. I haven’t had the time or the means to really test these out to their full extent though. iDVD worked great playing movies. Playback was smooth even with other programs running in the background and the controls are attractive and easy to use. I haven’t had a chance to try out iMovie yet as I haven’t had time to figure out how to pull video off my friend’s camcorder. Garageband looks like an interesting program that is like Fruity Loops or ACID Music Studio. The software that it comes with is a pretty attractive package.

The other software I use on a regular basis is Microsoft Officer 2004 Mac. Yup, ol’ Billy makes it for Mac too. And it works just as well as its Windows counterpart. Which is a necessity for me because everything the Marine Corps does admin-wise is done in Office file formats. For instant messaging I use a program called Adium. It ties in just about any instant messaging program you can think of into one handy interface. Best of all, it’s free!

The biggest complaint I have against any software is Quicktime. Apple expects you to pay to get all the features to simply play back movie files. What REALLY irks me about this is that one of these features is the ability to watch movies full screen. I find that utterly ridiculous and if Apple wants people to adopt their movie standard such practices are only going to end up hurting them.

Performance

When it comes to doing many things at once, the Mac and OS X seem to handle it exceedingly well. I keep a lot of programs open at once and like I said before, I usually stay around 50-60% CPU utilization. And when it does peak out it will still let me switch between programs with little chugging. Most applications will open up in around 3-5 seconds. Load times are minimal.

The Mini is equipped with an ATI Radeon 9200 with 32MB RAM. So by no means is this a gamer’s rig. Curious to see just what the video card could handle I decided to load up a copy of Homeworld 2 that I obtained. When it started up I wasn’t surprised to get a message stating that certain graphical options weren’t supported and would be disabled. However, once I started playing the game it ran smooth as butter and still looked pretty good. This might have been my biggest surprise. However, you won’t catch me playing games on it on a regular basis. That’s the job of my PC.

Conclusion

Nowadays I find myself using my Mini for most of the mundane everyday things I do on a regular basis. When I need to do something specific then I’ll switch over to my PC using my KVM switch. Overall, I’ve been more than pleased with the Mini and wouldn’t have any qualms about recommending it to other people. This would be a great computer for a relative that isn’t too computer literate and would only do basic things like use the internet, listen to music, and write papers. I wrote this review so that Mac-curious PC users out there might be able to decide if trying out a Mac is right for them or someone they know. In the end, I would never ever give up my PC though. How else would I get to play those great cutting edge games and PC only applications? I wouldn’t say that I’ve switched, just that now I am a dual-user. If there is something you think I left out or you would like an answer to please post a comment and I will edit the relevant information into my review.