hi all, i am new to mac products. i feel that mac mini is nice and im planning to buy 1 (its time to upgrade computer ^^), but mostly i will run windows xp under normal task and osx for my video and music editing. is mac mini a good choice? as i have limited budget. and 1 thing, if running under windows mode, is this machince can be used for gaming? or in other word, in windows mode, the performance of the hardwares will not be that efficiently utilized as running osx?

mac os has little support by games developer so some games cannot be played on mac os. It's the operating system problem. not the computer problem.
About the stability, mac os is much more stable than windows. the performance should be the same since all the hardwares are the same.

hmm..mac mini is good but for more performance..better you take the imac..

its more expensive but worth buying..i also using mac for video editing..the imac is more than enough..

futhermore, u got the HD graphic card with imac..but with mac mini only have the intergrated gc which doesnt good for gaming..

i not try the boot camp yet..but i.ve read somewhere, that said, u can running window at full speed..mean no problem at all..

wise choice is imac..i only using imac c2d 2.0ghz, with 2gb ram..

yeah, i can understand that. since now apple pc can run windows os using bootcamp. if we install games in the windows os in a mac pc, will the gaming requirement is the same as windows based pc? or a lower spec apple pc (running windows) will perform better than a generic pc?

dejavu........ i tot i saw this thread b4

If you are buying a whole new computer, then the iMac is cheaper. But if you just buy the mac mini and use your existing monitor, keyboard etc, then the mini is cheaper.

i think the fair thing to say is... there is no best of both worlds... and if there is... it does not come cheap...

if budget is limited...PC would be the best choice in my opinion... just get a better m/b, proc and more ram...it should run video editing suites quite well except you are looking forward to use Final Cut and Shake on the Mac, then it'll be a totally different story...

i don't see any instability issues with wintel machines... i use both and my PC is less than 1/5th the price of my office computer but does the same thing (maybe not as fast)... maybe i am not fully utilizing my machine

the good thing i can think of getting the iMac is the screen is better calibrated in terms of colour compared to using 3rd party monitors on the mini that do not have properly calibrated profiles on the mac... i guess colour is important to you on your video editing jobs...

video editing jobs, u need to get the imac 24 incher

well.....thanks for all the info. but somehow im still doubt will it be a waste to buy a mac pc. as usually i use my pc to do p2p sharing (means i rarely off my pc), surfing, IM, of course gaming(not really a heavy gamer, juz dota and some nice topics), soon will be catching up my sound and video editing skill again. so will imac still my choice??

yea, imac FTW!!!!!!!!!

yup..imac is the wise choice..its not waste the money..

you got everything inside..buy from mac studio for now then you'll get 1gb free ram..

p2p sharing also available in a mac...
azerues for example... or transmission is also some good torrent client...
and, yes, i rarely turn my macbook off becoz i'm using my macbook for p2p purpose...

i play dota in my mac as i have the mac version...

so basically u can use mac for stuff u mention above...

i guess i wont buy that fast as need to save $$....... coz juz started working abd im juz a humble technician onli...... gonna save $$ 1st and i plan to get the 24" imac. i know blizzard did released mac version's warcraft 3......but can it support BS? isn't BS onli for windows based pc? or u all play thru official battlenet?

This post has been edited by joshua_chin: Dec 3 2007, 04:29 PM

But I still can't find a Mac BT client which can bypass streamyx throttle yet. So, now running Deluge for Ubuntu in WMWare.

streamyx throttle...? I thought it was a bullshit.... or maybe on certain locations...

I haven't been having problems with BT clients, just a tweak from the Firewall settings on my Mac and port-forwarding my wireless router, I've got download speeds as high as 196KB/s

i think is the software settings that caused the bt from stop downloading. i did experienced the same situation which i thought is the ISP provider fault, but the dl turns out fine after i installed the latest version of p2p client(2 days ago).

Nope... BS only got in windows... i seldom play in BS... i only play LAN with my hsemates throu wifi with couples of laptops....

i think u need install winxp for BS... vista i tried to make it work but failed...

good luvk to u then

You can use Cadega/WINE to run Windows.exe games on top of OSX. Its possible. In fact the UNIX Core makes it possible to do anything !

i don't think you'd want to have an iMac turned on full time... air conditioning in your room??? not sure about current iMacs... but i seen a friends iMac G5 failed with bulging capacitors (the non-solid type was used at that time)... it was just a bit over 1 year and warranty ended cos he never bought apple care plan as he thought apples could last a lifetime..repair cost was like around RM1.5k for the logic board...now he is scared his screen will go next as it is acting a bit weird lately...maybe he is just a magnet for bad luck...

i think killing a PC is much cheaper than killing a Mac...

Parallel Desktop??? since Microsoft is not producing Virtual PC for the Mactels anymore...

bulging capacitors and failed logic boards were a common issue within the non-iSighted iMac G5s. It has nothing to do with Macs running 24/7... I used to have an iSight-based iMac G5, (yes, rare ones, not the Intel version), that runs a lot hotter than their Intel counterpart, running 24/7 crunching nothing but SETI@home at 100% load.... even without air-conditioner turned on daytime. It runs fine.... Though now I have an updated machine, I still regret selling that off...