Editor's note: While this is not a hands-on review of this specific model, we did review the higher-end 2.0GHz Mac Mini. This write-up of the 1.83GHz model is based on our experience with the more expensive one, which shares many of the same characteristics.
At $599, the 1.83GHz Intel Core 2 Duo-based Apple Mac Mini is the least expensive Apple computer you can buy today. You'd be hard-pressed to find a Windows system this stylish and this small. If you're truly unconcerned with performance and instead aspire toward simply an attractive, untethered workspace, the baseline Mac Mini will deliver. For $599, however, you can find much faster, smaller Windows desktops. The Mac Mini includes wireless-networking features that you won't find in more expensive Windows desktops, but aside from that and looking pretty, there's not much this system can do that a Windows PC of the same price can't do better.
With a 1.83GHz CPU, only 1GB of RAM, and a paltry 80GB hard drive, you should limit your performance expectations for the low-end Mac Mini. Compared with our benchmark tests of the 2.0GHz unit, you can expect that the 1.83GHz Mac Mini will lag on everything by a small but likely noticeable amount. Perhaps the lackluster performance is no surprise given the lower-end specs, but we should add that even the performance of a $799 2.0GHz Mac Mini disappointed us compared with the speed of a $500 eMachines system. At $599, the 1.83GHz Mac Mini narrows that price gap, but it's at the cost of a likely even slower performance.
If you work with digital media, such as photos or video (the tasks for which most people associate with a Mac), you really need 2GB of RAM. Such an upgrade, however, jacks the Mac Mini's price up another $150, which is disproportionately expensive compared with similar upgrades in Windows-based systems.
Another downside to the 1.83GHz Mac Mini is that it only comes with a DVD/CD-RW combo drive and an 80GB hard drive. The higher-end model gets you a full-fledged DVD burner and 120GB of storage. This brings us to a major criticism of the Mac Mini product family in general. In either model, Apple limits you to only 160GB of hard drive space at most, via a 5,400rpm laptop hard drive. Compared with the larger, faster hard drives in budget Windows PCs and the iMac, the Mac Minis look weak in comparison.
