Mac mini for a friend

hi
my mate really hates macs, and for know reason, he hasnt come in contact with them before, he just loves windows to much. So i have a plan, he listed all the software he will loose if he got a mac, these were these:
ms office
firefox
photoshop
studio MX
msn
so im thinking of buying a mac mini (wanted one for some time, for my dad) and lending it to him with all that software installed. let him use it for 2 weeks and then ask him what he thinks of macs.
my question is this:
will the software run very "fast" on a mini?
as you can see i have a imac G5 so im used to fast speeds, and ive never actaully used a mini, so i dont know how they preform. Its just i dont want to lend him a computer which makes apple / macs look bad because there not as fast as his wintel machines.

I must say, a month ago i was a windows boffin, but since i got a mac, i havnt used windows much. Today i fixed my brothers laptop which had 27 viruses, hes only had that a week . And i kept finding that i would go to the wrong side of the screen to minimise because im used to mac.
I also used to take pride in the fact that i can programme, but i really cant think of anything to programme on my mac, i feel like everything i need, i have already which is just great
2 years ago, i hated macs, never used one but as soon as i head they didnt have a "right click" i thought they were stupid, but after spending hours in the schools recording studio, i learnt how to use the OS, ever since kept asking my parents for a mac, but they said know, so i got a job and now i own well. . . you can see, and im very glad ive stoped with windows.
I dont see how people can like it, many of my friends love it and say they would never use mac os. I do think that if steve himself turned up at there houses with a copy of Mac OS tiger and said "you can have this for you computers, but you must uninstall windows" they would jump to it and format there hard disks without a second thought.
I just hope that my mate ben will like a mini, i guess i could let him use my G5 but i feel likes its my baby, im very protective, i check for updates everyday, i clean it alot and i just look after it, i would be heart broken if it had a scratch or worse, didnt boot up.

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Hello!
I am wondering how many users are there out there using a Mac Mini for DSP to allow for more processing power.
wondering what types of experiences people have had out there/how well the machines work together. and if you would or would not recommend doing so
i would assume that it would help out with all of the processing and makes things sound better in the end?

I don't do it on a regular basis, but I tested out using an intel mini as a node on a G5, and it worked fine. Probably added about an additional 25% of what the quad could do (so if the quad did 100 of a plugin, the mini added 25 more).

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sorry, I'd like to butt in here:
I would like to do the same thing, so I am curious about this forum and rather than starting a new one, can I get some advice on this possibility:
Mac Mini
1.83GHz Intel Core Duo
2GB 667 DDR2 SDRAM - 2x1GB
80GB Serial ATA drive
Glyph External HD 250 Gig
Mackie Onyx 1620 w/Firewire
Logic Pro 7.2
thoughts?
The most number of tracks I could see at once would be 16.
Here is something I am most curious about...
Firewire Hard drive
Firewire Interface/mixer
Firewire camera for FCP
to much firewire?
Please let me know if you have other thoughts aswell...
Shuke
thanks guys, this forum is fantastic!

Mac mini for video / music production

hello!
i'm really into music and video, i currently do all my video work in premiere pro on the pc, and music is done in a combination of packages like reason, soundforge, etc.
i'm really tempted by the offer of a mac mini for a few hundred pounds complete with garageband, imovie, etc. plus i can always get final cut on there too.
I am serious about what i do and would want high quality results. what i'm asking is basically, consdiering the specs of the mac mini, (i'd have to go for the top of the range to get the dvd writer) will it be capable of performing well with video work and more importantly, will garageband let me do professional sounding sequencing and mixing?
or am i kidding myself that the mini is capable? because if the option is buying a G5, i'll use the cash to upgrade my windows pc instead. it's all about tools for the job for me, i've got no brand loyalty.
thanks for any advice / opinions!!
-the swan

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Which Mac mini for home server, Aperture & HTPC

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I'm buying a Mac mini for:
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I was planing to go for Server version (with bumped up RAM to 8GB), but now I read about video card and I'm not 100% anymore.
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Thak you all for help!
Vasja

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I'm not sure how many/much of the 'server' functionality you're going to be using as it sounds more like file transfer and other tasks that could be accomplished through normal Lion.
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Hello Folks,
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Alternative advice on EHD that I should rather use?
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JDT

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http://www.computer-darkroom.com/blog/will-an-ssd-improve-adobe-lightroom-perfor mance/
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edit:
welcome to discussions... i'm a newbie too

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For the keyboard and mouse, I got the logitech dinovo mini keyboard because it has a trackpad integrated in the keyboard. While some of the buttons lack functionality, I will probably use ControllerMate to program them as well as difficult keyboard shortcuts. The other nice thing is if you have a "learning" programable remote because you can program it with the apple remote signal as well as the EyeTV remote and reduce the amount of clutter on the couch.

Can i use my mac mini for some users at the same time?

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I was recently given a Mac Mini from a friend. It is an old version (model A1176) and cannot support a current version of iPhoto from the app store. It originally came with iLife, but was apparently wiped when they cleaned the hard drive to give it to me, and they cannot find the CD to reload it. I can no longer find iLife '11 in the app store. Is there anything I can do to be able to store photos from my iPhone onto the computer?

You Model does not support the latest iLife
What specific Mini do you have? The A1179 covers three models
How to identify Mac mini models
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Otherwise you will have to call Apple and order the iLife DVD or get a DVD from Amazon or other places.

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I don't know... But I'm getting tired of waiting. And getting a different model of Mac doens't work for me, because I want to use my own screens. (I'm running two large screens in "portrait" mode.)
Also, I have a Windows 7 PC at work, and I've come to realize that I don't mind Windows 7 and don't see it as intrinsically better than the Apple OS. In fact Windows & has generally been mariginally more stable, and a lot faster then the OS on my Mac. In fact I got both systems around the same time and the Windows 7 system did better with less RAM and is "aging" better.
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I moved away from Apple in 2007 and have never looked back !
I use the ASRock Vision X 420D http://www.asrock.com/nettop/Intel/VisionX%20Series%20(Haswell)/
Its the same size as the current Mini but a bit taller - BUT it is FULLY user upgradeable and about the same price once you make a mini upto the same spec.
I run Windows 8.1 on it and love it - yes there are lots of people bleating on about the 'metro' style of Win 8 but if you configure it (which has been a feature from launch, not a 3rd party hack) you never have to see the metro interface and you have a standard desktop.
As to woodmeister50 comment of : Also, with Win8, many third party add on companies have dropped support etc. is that not the same for Mavericks ?!
Custom mini
ASRock Vision X 420D, 16Gb Ram, 3x 512Gb SSD, AMD Radeon R270X, WiFi (n, ac)

Buying a Mac mini for music

I'm buying a Mac mini in September - so I will have Snow Leopard - to use with the latest version of Logic and the latest version of Pro Tools and use for my college work and recording my band. I plan on using an M-Audio MobilePre USB, external hard drive and multitrack firewire interface for recording. Will I be able to use all of these devices simultaneously by using some kind of firewire hub without any noticable latency or driver/hardware problems? If it will not be as plug and play can somebody offer some kind of assistance? I am getting the 120GB model with a 2GB memory upgrade so I can get the maximum graphics memory as well. Thanks in advance.

I cannot answer your other questions, but I believe that you can confirm this with Apple, you can go ahead and make your purchase now and get a free copy of Snow Leopard when it is available. Apple has always had a free upgrade program for those who made recent purchases just before the upgrade release date.
Dah•veed

Mac mini for a friend

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