Mac mini questions and advice.

i'd like to eventually purchase a mac mini, but is the apple care protection plan worth it??? sorry multiple questions will a fully loaded mac mini 160 gb hard drive and 2 gigs of ram be an improvement over my current set up... pentium 4, 1.60 GHz.... 1.59 GHz, 512 mb of ram... 70.2gb hard drive
one more question, will there be any trouble hooking up the mac mini to my 32 inch sony lcd.
sorry for all the questions, would appreciate any advice and feedback.

Can you give us the model number of your 32 inch Sony lcd? The Mini supports resolutions up to 1920x1200. We need to find out what kind of beast your 32 inch Sony is; it sounds kinda big for a regular monitor -- more like a TV display.
Hard to say if the Mini will be an improvement over your PC, unless we know what programs you want to run. It would obviously be an improvement in term of security; you won't be worrying about keeping virus definitions up-to-date every week.
I use a KVM switch to run my Mini and a PC with an IBM keyboard and a Dell LCD monitor. I had to experiment with several models of KVM to find one I liked.
I also use Parallels to run Windows and Linux directly on my Mini at the same time I run Mac OS. Useful for work-flows that require Mac and WinXP/Linux programs simultaneously.
You can buy and register AppleCare anytime during your first year of ownership. AppleCare gives you access to phone support, which might be useful to a first-time Mac user. You can buy AppleCare for less from some on-line retailers -- for example google for lacomputercompany. Be sure you buy the correct AppleCare for your Mac.
Wireless generally works fine, though some non-apple wifi routers with old firmware have issues. In instances of range or compatibility problems, often a wireless ethernet bridge can solve the problem. These are inexpensive and involve no software, since they plug into the mini's ethernet port.
If you are doing massive one-time file transfers, I'd strongly recommend connecting your Mini directly via ethernet cable to your router. This will save time and eliminate several possible sources of trouble. Save the wifi for your web interactions after you transfer the bulk of files from your PC.
Regarding pictures and music ... if they are in standard formats like mp3 and jpg, then iTunes and iPhoto should be able to import them just fine. If the music is protected by Microsoft's "plays-for-sure" digital rights management scheme, you may be out of luck. If your music is already in iTunes for Windows, also no problem.
Although you didn't ask, at some point you may need external storage for your Mini. Be sure to get an external drive that supports Firewire. This is preferable to drives that just support USB, though you can get models that support both. Firewire will be significantly faster and more reliable with your Mac.

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