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stars
"3 days with a mac mini... not bad" on by orange636
Pros: elegant, pretty quiet, and fast.
Cons: audio is underserved =(
Summary: Out of the box and setup quickly. Found my network (although I wasn't sure of "DHCP" what??) and was up and running within minutes. My first Mac. Cool.
I've used windows for years but the basics with os x, like web browsing, itunes, and photos, are all easy. So first impressions are enjoyable and plus this Core Duo with 1K ram feels fast; faster than my windows machine with a pentium 4 @ 3g and 2K ram.
I guess it's OS X that makes the difference? Whatever, photos and itunes is a lot faster and that's a happy experience.
Day two, well, music is really important to me and I spent the day trying to figure out how to get this mini to sound better. My PC with a soundblaster sound-card was sweet, so I tried the new X-Fi from creative, which just plugs into a USB port and it helped a little. Music quality is still a dissapointment however. I'd give this Mac a "10" if the audio was as good as my PC.
I'm picky though, so this may not apply to the average person who thinks 128 mp3's are OK.
By day three I was able to figure out more complicated stuff regarding OS X like where are my programs (aside from the dock thing)?
And I also ripped a dvd to my ipod. Cool.
Blue screen of death? Well, not really, but it did lock up on me today. I tried waiting, I tried "apple" - "Q" but it wouldn't quit programs, and I guess there is no "control-alt-delete" slam, like with windows, so I powered off and then back on.
I'm up again and no problems. So that's three days with a Mac from a PC user's point of view.Updated
so simple, yet maybe apple should just print this on the box: turn down the system volume to ~25% and use the amp in your speaker system.
my music now sounds as good as it did with my PC using a Soundblaster card.
i also have to say that Tiger can play any video i have: avi video is no problem (i thought i was going to have trouble with my huge collection).
plus there is a lot of cheapie software out there, like handbrake, VLC, and igrabnews, so there simply are no obstacles for switching from a PC to a Mac.
i was nervous about the change from a PC (and still have a lot to learn about OS X) but now that i did it: mucho happy amigo. tag you're it!
- 3 replies to this review
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I am posting from my PC but love my new mac mini...its truly like being in a brand new relationship...music is very big to me too and I have on my HP some music collected but unfortunately lost to many crashes...ehh!!!...I stand some chance to reauthorize my Rhapsody acct and recover on threat of cancellation of my years of subscription... i tunes is nonnegotiable so the same crashes killed me!! Ex who was a professional musician got custody of cd's....<br>I got the dog....sooooooo...seeing your post hhas made me feel hopeful that I can find enjoy my time spent online...<img border="0" src="http://www.cnet.com/i/mb/emoticons/happy.gif" alt=":)"> Please post your discoveries...Crazy about my mini except thatI am caught in tedium burning cds on HP to burn/import to i tunes...not able to figure out how to do otherwise...
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Thanks for this post. Just got my new mac mini and wasn't satisfied with the sound after I hooked it up to my speakers/sub woofer. But, after reading your review and subsequent post I was able to achieve to desired result. Thanks again.
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Thanks for the review, orange636. You might have learned this by now, but unlike Windows if an application locks up in OSX you can click on the Apple icon in the upper left and choose Force Quit from the menu to close the locked up application. I think it works better than CONTROL-ALT-DEL in Windows.
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