How well does the Mac Mini look with an LED Tv?

I'm considering a Mac Mini over an iMac to cut costs, especially because I already have a 32in LED 1080p Samsung HDTV. Would I connect it with a thunderbolt cord or with an HDMI cord from the Mini to tv? Currently my 13" MBP, early 2011 plugged into a 40in HDTV looks terrible with the Thunderbolt to HDMI. Do you get a better display output? Thanks

It will be easier to connect via HDMI since Minis have HDMI out and your TV certainly has HDMI in. You can use Thunderbolt but would need a Thunderbolt to HDMI adapter, so I don't see the point of doing that unless you have a second HDMI display you wish to use simultaneously.
I find the output quality to be fine. Of course, TVs vary widely in quality. And you must remember that 1080p equates to 1920x1080 resolution, which is not particularly high resolution for a desktop monitor nowadays.

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How Well Does the Mac Mini handle Garageband?

Hi, I'm wondering about how well the mini handles garageband. My sister may finally be leaning towards getting their first mac for her family. They are long time old version windows users, I think they have a 6 year old HP running Win2k still. So they don't do a whole lot with the pc as it is. They are a musical family, very involved with their church and school. She has finally realized that macs are widely used in music creation (even though I've been telling them that for years and she's starting to do some research on garageband. I recommended the mini since budget is a big priority for them. Am I setting them up to be disappointed? I've already told them to wait until the intel version is released since it will most likely be faster/more effecient. After spending say $800 for mini and non-apple lcd and 1gb of ram, would going the extra $500 to get the imac instead be the smartest route. Just concerned its either going to be not enough power (mini) or more then they're ready for (imac). Any thoughts?

Hi Leandro
I use GarageBand 3 on my mac mini without a hitch
what so ever and I can even have several other fairly
intensive apps up and running without it
complaining.
Considering that your sisters family are using the
system that they currently own without really feeling
that they are falling behind, the mac mini will be a
fantastic advantage to their lifestyle. It's plenty
powerful and it's pretty much silent meaning that it
would make a great "first mac" for them to
experience. With regards to the intel mac mini, we
don't know that there is going to be one as of yet.
Steve Jobs did however, announce that all Macs were
going to be purely running on an Intel Core by next
year, meaning that if Apple don't discontinue the mac
mini line, it would be of a greater advantage. There
is no indication as to when an intel chip will appear
inside a mac mini, so you could well be waiting
anything from a matter of days to months or even
never!
At the end of the day, the current mac mini, some of
which are now shipping with a 1.5gHz G4 processor and
64MB Graphics will be the perfect solution for your
sister and her family.
Hope this helps
-pos
thanks for the quick reply. I am concerned about them having a positive first experience with a mac, I've been preaching it to them for a good ten years now! Her husband is the real stubborn one, he would need the most convincing. Good to know that it runs well on the mini and with such praise. Which model do you have and did you max the ram? I told her about the hard drive/hub stack kit which would have a faster drive to boot from. I forgot about the 1.5's. I was sure it was a rumor. Didn't know about the 64mb video card though...that would be a great boost as well!

How does the mac mini perform with cs5

Just curious
How does the Intel HD Graphics 4000 in the new mac mini perform with cs5 photoshop cs6 photoshop?
thanks
Ted

Jeff, I appreciate your comment, so you haven't had any problem with using the painttools in CS 6 photoshop and the 3d type etc, in other words all the features that CS6 photoshop has.
I was thinking about buying the mac mini but was concerned how it works with CS 5 (which I have) I will have to take another look at the MiniMac server with the 3000 card. I do a lot of Digital Painting primarily Painter 12.2 but and would like to use the Painter brushes in CS 5 ( have not upgraded to CS 6.) My Imac is 6 years old and really is not fast enough.
Thanks for replying
Ted

What displays does the mac mini work with?

and what kind of plug do they work with I'm getting one off of ebay a 8GB model from 07

Any good common brand should work fine. Pick something that is 1080p that suits your budget and is of a suitable size for the room.
Note that currently there is a graphics driver issue with the HDMI output as well as the mini displayport to VGA adapter, so when you connect a TV via either, you may have glitches on screen or just a black screen. Reportedly Apple is working on fixing that.
PS: The TVs are LCD TVs with LED backlighting or LED edge lighting.

Does the Mac mini work with my current keyboard and mouse ?

Does the mini work with my current mouse and keyboard? HDTV ?

TV yes if it has a VGA, HDMI or DVI input
Mouse and keyboard: I have no idea since you provided no information as to which ones you have.
Any mouse and keyboard with USB connections will work included ones for a PC.

How reliable is the Mac Mini or iMac (2009) models?

Greetings to you all. I have a question directed at anyone who owns the 2009 Mac Mini or has recently bought a Mac Mini either last year 2009 or this year, 2010. My Acer Aspire L-100 finally died on 29th Dec 2009 as a result of USB failure caused by a windows auto update. Fed up with Microsoft, I am thinking about switching over to Mac and thought the Mac Mini or iMac would be a good start. I am however troubled by the numerous complaints I am reading on the Apple website posts regarding the 2009 model Mac Mini loosing sound after a month or two of use and some posts claim that the sound on their Mac Mini is distorted, crackling and some had broken systems out of the box. How many of you have had similar sound issues with the Mac Mini? Also, is it better to get the iMac 21.5 inch instead? Has anyone had hardware issues with the Mac Mini and or the 21.5 inch iMac in less than 2-6 months of use? If so please let me know so that I can make up my mind, whether to purchase Mac computer platform or just build my own customized machine. What I need to know is, how reliable or durable is the mac mini computer, especially the 2009 model and how does the mac mini, especially with its small size, handle temperatures? Does the mac mini overheat? Please help. All information will be highly appreciated.

Remember, Apple offers a 1 year hardware warranty and 90 days free software support, both of which can be extended to three years from date of computer's purchase. This means if you appear to have what is a technical issue with your machine off the bat, Apple will cover the lemon issue, if it is obvious it is not an issue you the user could have caused. Mind you, if issues appear much later during the ownership, it gets harder to justify that it is a manufacturer issue. As long as you don't upgrade the internal hardware, the hardware test CD that comes with the machine will be able to tell if there is a manufacturer issue with the machine. All bets are off, if you change the RAM, or hard drive beyond the specs of the machine. Apple publishes the specs of the machine on http://support.apple.com/
Your machine shouldn't overheat unless you excede the published specs.
The advantage of the Mac is that malware and viruses are practically a nonissue, and everything you usually could desire is already built-in to the machine. So while you could build your own machine, you can't really get the integrated hardware and software as you do with the Mac.
Yes, the 27" iMac has been hit hard with issues, more around the display than anything else. I for one, if were forced to get an iMac, would get the 21.5".
I've not seen any specific Mac Mini issues really come to the fore.
If sound is lost on a Mac Mini, it usually is due to the fact that minijack connectors themselves are fragile to begin with, and endusers tend to jiggle them a lot in the connector, causing the connectivity to get lost. If you are careful to follow these directions about cables*:
http://www.macmaps.com/frayguide.html
You should avoid most of those issues. Thankfully there are 5 USB ports on Mac Minis, and USB audio is frequently better than the built-in audio, except when adding your own 5.1 speaker system with mini-Toslink connector speakers.
Don't forget the number of posters to this board, don't even amount to 1 tenth of a percent of all purchasers of iMacs, Mac Minis, or MacBooks any one quarter. Thus the remark you said was "rude" is not. It is factual. You are basing your information on what amounts to less odds of happening than a space program disaster with NASA. Mostly people who have problems are posting, and those who don't rarely do post.
I recently had a hard drive die after the three year warranty was spent, but hard drives I've seen die on Acers and Dells on the first day of ownership too, so that's nothing new. Backing up your data is the best way to deal with data loss*:
http://www.macmaps.com/backup.html
- * Links to my pages may give me compensation.

How well does the wireless "Wild Charge" pad work with the iPhone?

how well does the wireless "Wild Charge" pad work with the iPhone?

I have tried similar things, and no, it has not become corrupted. So it should be fine

How well does the iPhone 5s/5c work with Wind Mobile?

I'm going to be (hopefully) getting the iphone 5s or 5c soon and I'm trying to decide on which carrier to go with. How well does the iphone 5s/5c work with wind mobile and how fast is the internet with data?

http://www.windmobile.ca/
iPhone: Wireless carrier support and features

How well does the Ipad2 work with the verizon 4g hotspot?

How well does the ipad2 work with the verizon 4g hotspot?

WoW Macbook Pro 2011 15" i7 2.3Ghz quad core AMD 6750 hi-res AG OSX gameplay with FPS and temps
MacBook Pro 17in. Review (Early 2011)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiEDf_l0PqY

Does the Mac mini mid-2010 have an active PFC power supply?

I'm about to buy a UPS unit to run my NAS, and I'd like to connect my Mac mini to it as well. Does the Mac mini mid-2010 model have an active PFC (power factor correction) PSU (power supply unit)?
I've read that if it does (as the Dell XPS series do), then one of the cheaper UPS units won't work because those typically have modified/simulated sine wave outputs (you'll only notice when the power is out and the UPS is feeding power from its battery). It would mean I'd have to buy one of the more expensive UPS units like APC Smart-UPS SC620 or CyberPower CP1000PFCLCD.
I can't seem to find any resources that explain this. Please?

FWIW, I use one of these:
http://www.cyberpowersystems.com/products/ups-systems/soho-ups/cp425slg.html?sel ectedTabId=overview&imageI=#tab-box
for my HTPC setup. I have a 2010 Mini with a couple of USB drives plugged
into it, my 42" Samsung LCD TV, cable modem, cable box, and an Airport Extreme
Base Station running off of the backup power ports (not my 5.1 receiver for obvious
power reasons). With all on, I get enough time to gracefully power down the Mini with
time to spare when power goes out. When not watching TV or listening to music,
the cable modem and AEBS can run a long time during a power outage.
I have had this setup for around 2 years and have had no ill effects on any of
the gear and I do periodically have everthing powered then yank the AC
cord to cycle the battery.

Does a mac mini 2007 with osx 10.6.8 supports 10.7?

I have a friend who has a Mac Mini 2007 with osx 10.6.8, and he wants to upgrade 10.7 for different reasons, does the mac mini supports it?
Processor: Core 2 duo 2GHz
RAM: 2 DDR2
Thanks

Upgrading to Lion
If your computer does not meet the requirements to install Mountain Lion, it may still meet the requirements to install Lion.
You can purchase Lion by contacting Customer Service: Contacting Apple for support and service - this includes international calling numbers. The cost is $19.99 (as it was before) plus tax. It's a download. You will get an email containing a redemption code that you then use at the Mac App Store to download Lion. Save a copy of that installer to your Downloads folder because the installer deletes itself at the end of the installation.
     Lion System Requirements
       1. Mac computer with an Intel Core 2 Duo, Core i3, Core i5, Core i7,
           or Xeon processor
       2. 2GB of memory
       3. OS X v10.6.6 or later (v10.6.8 recommended)
       4. 7GB of available space
       5. Some features require an Apple ID; terms apply.
Upgrading to Mountain Lion
To upgrade to Mountain Lion you must have Snow Leopard 10.6.8 or Lion installed. Purchase and download Mountain Lion from the App Store. Sign in using your Apple ID. Mountain Lion is $19.99 plus tax. The file is quite large, over 4 GBs, so allow some time to download. It would be preferable to use Ethernet because it is nearly four times faster than wireless.
     OS X Mountain Lion - System Requirements
       Macs that can be upgraded to OS X Mountain Lion
         1. iMac (Mid 2007 or newer) - Model Identifier 7,1 or later
         2. MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer) - Model Identifier 5,1 or later
         3. MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later
         4. MacBook Air (Late 2008 or newer) - Model Identifier 2,1 or later
         5. Mac mini (Early 2009 or newer) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later
         6. Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later
         7. Xserve (Early 2009) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later
To find the model identifier open System Profiler in the Utilities folder. It's displayed in the panel on the right.
     Are my applications compatible?
         See App Compatibility Table - RoaringApps.
     For a complete How-To introduction from Apple see Upgrade to OS X Mountain Lion.

How stable is the mac mini as a server?

Hi List,
I am planning to get the mac mini with snow leopard server.
Has anyone tried it?
How stable is the mac mini as a server?
I'd be setting it up for 10 mac clients.
It will be used as a file/print/dhcp server.
thanks.
Dp

max out the memory to reduce / eliminate paging. although you might not need to in your situation. I think printing is a light use of memory. Inkjet printers are heavy on the cpu.
electronics don't usually fail. It's the moving parts. Doesn't the mini take the 2.5 inch drives that are not as reliable as the 3.5? An external drive will get past this.
You could get an external bootable harddrive.
You need an external Firewire drive to boot a PowerPC Mac computer.
I recommend you do a google search on any external harddrive you are looking at.
I bought a low cost external drive enclosure. When I started having trouble with it, I did a google search and found a lot of complaints about the drive enclosure. I ended up buying a new drive enclosure. On my second go around, I decided to buy a drive enclosure with a good history of working with Macs. The chip set seems to be the key ingredient. The Oxford line of chips seems to be good. I got the Oxford 911.
The latest the hard drive enclosures support the newer serial ata drives. The drive and closure that I list supports only older parallel ata.
Has everything interface:
FireWire 800/400 + USB2, + eSATA 'Quad Interface'
save a little money interface:
FireWire 400 + USB 2.0
This web page lists both external harddrive types. You may need to scroll to the right to see both.
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/1394/USB/EliteAL/eSATAFW800_FW400USB
Here is an external hd enclosure.
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/MEFW91UAL1K/
Here is what one contributor recommended:
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=10452917#10452917
Folks in these Mac forums recommend LaCie, OWC or G-Tech.
Here is a list of recommended drives:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=5564509#5564509
FireWire compared to USB. You will find that FireWire 400 is faster than USB 2.0 when used for a external harddrive connection.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UniversalSerial_Bus#USB_compared_toFireWire
http://www23.tomshardware.com/storageexternal.html
Here are two utilities for making a complete backup of your internal hard drive. I've recommend using one of these so that you can create a bootable system on your external hard drive. ( PPC require a firewire connected drive. ) Once created, you can run your system from the external drive. Hold down the option key on your keyboard then power on your machine. This will bring you in startup manager click on the drive image you wish to boot then click on the arrow key to the right.
"Clone, synchronize, backup. Schedule and forget it."
http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html
"SuperDuper is the wildly acclaimed program that makes recovery painless, because it makes creating a fully bootable backup painless."
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html
Robert

Does the iPod Mini Work with Windows?

I am thinking of buying an iPod mini but I don't have an Apple computer. Does the iPod mini work with Windows efficiently? Thanks....

Hello Ian,
Can you be really specific about the necessary Windows XP updates needed? I run XP Pro on a rather new computer and just got an IPOD mini. I'm ready to tear my hair out because iTunes seems to crash my computer every time I change one CD for another. iTunes runs REALLY, REALLY slow for me. Also read on the board that iTunes 6.0 and the mini don't work well together. True or not true?
Thanks - Genevieve

I just purchased the Mac Mini Server with the intention of replacing Lion Server with Lion for the first hard drive while installing Windows 7 thru Bootcamp on the second hard drive. Is it possible for me to do this? Thanks.

I just purchased the Mac Mini Server with the intention of replacing Lion Server with Lion for the first hard drive while installing Windows 7 thru Bootcamp on the second hard drive. Is it possible for me to do this? Thanks.

I would use Parallels or VMWare and use the second drive to hold the virtual machine. That way the VM only uses the space that it needs and you can still use the remainder of the drive for other things, not to mention that you would not need to reboot to run windows.
Also Time Machine does not back up a boot camp partition.

Does the Mac Mini Server include iLife?

Hi,
I couldn't find a question to this anywhere...
I'm considering buying a Mac Mini Server soon.
Question - Does the Mac Mini Server include iLife?

When Apple first came out with the Mini with Snow Leopard server, even their sales support people said it came with iLife. (They no longer make that mistake.)
By using the statements of sales support and by referring to the claims on the iLife page (which you quote) -- with some insistence on my part -- I was able to get AppleCare to send me iLife for free. Worth a try. Though frankly, my time would have been better spent just buying the iLife.

How well does the Mac Mini look with an LED Tv?

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