129 replies to this topic

[The iMac Man]

innuenstu, on January 11th 2005, 04:20 PM, said:

<here is another question> If you please. Will maxing up to 1ghz of memory from my 768 help for   games<wow/EQ> or any app etc.?

It'll make little to no difference in gaming.  RAM really has no effect on your frames per second.

It may make a little difference with normal computer usage and apps, but it'd still be a very slight difference, if any.

[Endymion]

a2daj, on January 11th 2005, 04:26 PM, said:

I'm not saying anything of the sort.  You tend to miss the point on a few things, including my original intent of my first post and steer the conversation into a completely different direction.  I don't have the time to sit here and explain it to you.

Oh I get a few things, but if you can explain to me why an advertising arm will have the expertise to benchmark and review a video game when they're hired to push the computer I'll be all ears. I guess they'll just have Call of Duty laying around since they don't do any work there?

I think they made the comparison they wanted to make very precisely. It does play Halo better than a bargain PC in its range. I don't see what's wrong with using stock footage. The page you're looking at may not have even been made by gamers, or Mac users for that matter.

[bookman]

I'm impressed, mainly by Apple's ability to take rather banal specs and put them in a very cool form factor; I can't wait to see one of these in person.  That is one tiny, full-featured computer.

And really, for the price, these are reasonably good specs. Would you rather have a Mac Mini plus all the bundled software, or a Celeron, Integrated Intel Graphics, and Windows home edition?

[converted2truth]

innuenstu, on January 11th 2005, 03:20 PM, said:

Thanks for your help. As for monitor not a problem, i would want more ram as expected. I just figured faster bus etc. would be nice, for me. Now on my 1ghz emac 7500 768 ram.<here is another question> If you please. Will maxing up to 1ghz of memory from my 768 help for   games<wow/EQ> or any app etc.? I have been told frames per second are not as important on rpg's as with games like halo etc. but if it helps in anyway that'd be nice and i can hold out on a new mac. or is it not worth the $100 for memory? i know the ati 7500 is killing me, but nothing i can do

It would run NO faster at all if your dropped a gig of RAM in there.  Just everytime you wanna load WoW or EQ, start from a fresh reboot to free up all the RAM.  Sometimes my G5 will only have 400 something free memory with no apps open... a fresh reboot will free it up everything but ~128-200MB of my RAM.

Now if you leave the computer on for days and want to load WoW without rebooting first, then upgrading the RAM might merrit some speed increase...

I tend to leave my mac on all the time because it's running web/ssh services... so that's why all my RAM dissappears over one month of not being rebooted...

[Rubel]

I'm currently wrestling with leftover aging PCs, putting FreeBSD on them to make cheap server machines. While installing and messing with the OS is kinda fun, I don't find massaging the hardware into behaving at all entertaining. I'd love to have a little $500 mac like this running as a fileserver and mp3 radio station. Too bad there's only 80 gigs max.

[rareflares]

this is not even remotely a gaming Mac.  whoever doesn't understand this is simply a moron.



This Mac is the same price as an iPod!  how the hell are you people complaining?

I know tons and tons of PC users who would never buy a Mac simply because of the cost and that they want to use their existing monitors.  I'm not talking about gamers here at all.  My uncles, grandparents, my friends' relatives, i.e. the general consumer.

They've all seen the iPod and love it.  They all have seen my Powerbook and iLife and they are amazed.  But they never have considered a Mac because of the reasons I listed above + other worries about compatibility, etc.

This is Apple's attempt to get some more marketshare.  That's all i see the Mac mini as.

[CorT]

can anything but ram be upgraded in this thing (the mac mini)?

[kingarthur_kom]

Rubel, on January 11th 2005, 05:18 PM, said:

I'm currently wrestling with leftover aging PCs, putting FreeBSD on them to make cheap server machines. While installing and messing with the OS is kinda fun, I don't find massaging the hardware into behaving at all entertaining. I'd love to have a little $500 mac like this running as a fileserver and mp3 radio station. Too bad there's only 80 gigs max.

  What's stopping you from putting on an external firewire or usb HD?

This mini-Mac is for all the people who complained that they wouldn't buy a Mac because they are too expensive. I know a few of them. Seriously this is not for hard core gaming at all! No hard core gaming system is cheap.  

[The iMac Man]

rareflares, on January 11th 2005, 05:22 PM, said:

This is Apple's attempt to get some more marketshare.  That's all i see the Mac mini as.

Well, then maybe they should go back to trying to please the market share that they already have.

I'm tired of seeing new iPods.  I want to see some updates to their existing line of MACS!  Remember that... back when Apple made Macs, not iPods?!  Remember when Apple cared more about computers, than gadgets?  

All I'm saying is, I've been a Mac user since they came out, and it's been quite awhile since Apple released something that really amazed me.... and, that was the G4 iMac.... 3 or 4 years ago.  It seems like everything since has either been iPods, or weakling little Macs trying to get PC users to switch.

[bookman]

rareflares, on January 11th 2005, 05:22 PM, said:

this is not even remotely a gaming Mac.  whoever doesn't understand this is simply a moron.

Disagree - it can load and run pretty much any Mac game out there - sure, you'll need to knock the eye candy down a notch or two, and yes, it will be outclassed by tomorrow's games, but there are hundreds of games you could enjoy on this Mac. I guess it depends on your definition of gaming Mac.

Quote

This Mac is the same price as an iPod!  how the hell are you people complaining?

Ill agree here.

[Sizzle]

Does anyone else think it's a little weird that the 1Gb iPod Flash player costs $149 while to upgrade the Mini by 1Gb of Ram costs $425?  I know its different Ram and Apple has always overcharged for Ram, but that is such a huge markup.

I did buy the $600 Mini, but I am going to upgrade the Ram myself from OWC or RamJet.

[The iMac Man]

rareflares, on January 11th 2005, 05:22 PM, said:

This Mac is the same price as an iPod!  how the hell are you people complaining?

If you ask me, that's more a sign of the overpricing of the iPod.....  

[innuenstu]

bookman, on January 11th 2005, 04:45 PM, said:

rareflares, on January 11th 2005, 05:22 PM, said:

this is not even remotely a gaming Mac.  whoever doesn't understand this is simply a moron.

well i play games everyday on my emac,no complaints really, but 500 for a neat machine easily portable,and a lil faster than what i got sounds like a bargain to me.
signed,
The moron.
i'm willing to bet after much thought, the games i play it will be awsome, i mean wow looks pretty damn good on my emac, so im sure i will notice much more. last time i had a modern graphic card was my pc with a 16mb voodoo2000, so it'll be good enough for me, i play games that usually take me a very long time to complete, and dont buy every fps they throw at ya, after playing mmorpg's every thing else is way to linear for me

Disagree - it can load and run pretty much any Mac game out there - sure, you'll need to knock the eye candy down a notch or two, and yes, it will be outclassed by tomorrow's games, but there are hundreds of games you could enjoy on this Mac. I guess it depends on your definition of gaming Mac.

Quote

This Mac is the same price as an iPod!  how the hell are you people complaining?

Ill agree here.

[Mayhem]

Sizzle, on January 12th 2005, 12:57 AM, said:

I did buy the $600 Mini, but I am going to upgrade the Ram myself from OWC or RamJet.

Looking at the Mac mini specs reveals that Memory upgrade must be performed by an Apple Authorized Service provider. Doing it yourself just might void that warranty...

[Lampeft]

Glades7, on January 11th 2005, 12:13 PM, said:

Dammmn take a look.  While its not that powerful, that machine is tiny.  What do you think?

http://www.apple.com

I really like it.  At this point it's not for me (if I were to get a new Mac, I'd go for a G5 tower), but I think it's a very cute, ultra-entry-level Mac.  I've already brought it to the attention of a Mac-curious friend.  It seems like a savvy move on Apple's part.  I hope it's a success.

[the Battle Cat]

rareflares, on January 11th 2005, 04:22 PM, said:

this is not even remotely a gaming Mac.  whoever doesn't understand this is simply a moron.

People who do not agree with you are not morons.  In the future, I'd appreciate you staying away from inflammatory statements such as that.  Argue until you are blue in the face, but keep it civil.

[Mattg]

If their is one thing that consistently surprises me, it's my complete lack of understanding when it comes to Apple's market. If you had asked me last year if iPod sales would have like, quadrupled by this time, i would have said no way. Well, they have.

With that, what i expect out of this mini is one of the greatest surges in Apple market share in a while.

Think about it--
Remember when we always said if we just had something more advanced than our beloved G4's everything would be ok? No so. G5's are great rigs but market share has remained stagnant. I have always thought that Apple's bug problem was that we didn't have a cheap box. Now we do. Would I have liked a more PC like all parts upgradable approach, sure, but this is a great step in the right direction.

I applaud Apple in this regard. While I think I'll toss my 500 bucks at a copy of Final Cut HD, one of these machines will be in definite consideration next year.

[CorT]

i was told Americas Army would play fine on this (9th post down).  thats game enough for me. if it can run AA it can run CoD (CoD runs fine for me but AA is slugish so i'm assuming AA is more demanding).

[Rook]

a2daj, on January 11th 2005, 08:41 PM, said:

The iMac Man, on January 11th 2005, 12:29 PM, said:

Most...pointless...Mac...EVER.

Seriously, who is the target audience of this Mac?

...please don't tell PC users to buy this Mac... they will only be disappointed and would probably never buy a Mac again.

That'd be one of the targets.  It's obviously not targeted toward whatever audience you would fall under   It's for the masses that would like to try a Mac but don't want an all in one and are scared away from the PowerMac's pricing.  There are a lot of PC users that wouldn't mind a relatively small investment in a Mac Mini to get OS X.  They don't really worry about performance because the target audience isn't going to be hardcore gamers or Maya using professionals.  The people that want to use OS X and iLife but not worried about uber performance are the target audience.  You don't need a G5 to use iPhoto or iMovie.

My mom's been hounding me about a new Mac to replace their PowerMac 7500 w/ G3 upgrade and this would be perfect.  They don't need an eMac and the iMac is still a bit pricey, but the Mac mini... that's going to make a great birthday gift for her.  She doesn't need a G5.  

It would be interesting to see if you can use this next to your TV as a mini media center of sorts...

I agree with a2daj.  I think there is definitely a market for this little machine.  Granted. I'm not in that market as I have only ever purchased their pro machines (Power Macs), but for allot of people this could be very attractive.  I think this would be perfect for my folks as well.  Obviously this is not intended for the serious gamer despite what Apple says concerning Halo.  Then again, neither the eMac or iMac are good choices for the serious gamer and any serious gamer should be intelligent or informed enough to know that.  I think that for people that want an inexpensive system to manage their iTunes, surf the net, email and take Apple's iApps for a spin this is a great option.  Heck, they can even try their hand in DV editing and DVD authoring for a mere 600.00.  How is this a bad thing?

[The iMac Man]

Rook, on January 11th 2005, 08:58 PM, said:

I agree with a2daj.  I think there is definitely a market for this little machine.  Granted. I'm not in that market as I have only ever purchased their pro machines (Power Macs), but for allot of people this could be very attractive.  I think this would be perfect for my folks as well.  Obviously this is not intended for the serious gamer despite what Apple says concerning Halo.  Then again, neither the eMac or iMac are good choices for the serious gamer and any serious gamer should be intelligent or informed enough to know that.  I think that for people that want an inexpensive system to manage their iTunes, surf the net, email and take Apple's iApps for a spin this is a great option.  Heck, they can even try their hand in DV editing and DVD authoring for a mere 600.00.  How is this a bad thing?

I love how everyone is saying, "People will want this... not me, but someone will."  Who?  Who are these people that will want it?  I honestly don't see a target audience for this computer....

And, they CAN'T try their hand at DVD authoring, because the Mini only comes with a Combo drive...