apple or not?

[matt_london]

I am thinking of buying an Apple Mini Mac as i already have a flat screen and a keyboard for my work laptop. All I want it for is surfing and itunes so it doesnt have to be powerful.

Does any one have one ? and what are pro's / cons of an apple over Windows pc?

Thanks

Matt

[WoWo]

I have one, in much the same way when it came to replacing my PC I went for the mac mini because all I really do is surf the net, play music or send emails. The Mac Mini can do all of this no problem.

In reality the Mac Mini is really a laptop (almost all of the components are from the iBook) in a small package

The pro's are it's cheap (even when compared to Dell), looks fantastic, makes next to no fan noise, does all the things you need. It's also seriouslty small.

The con's, difficult to upgrade (I'd recommend getting as good a spec as you can afford), doesn't offer much gaming potential and of course any windows software wont work on it.

Having said that the standard Mac applications (you get iLife with it) are more than good enough for almost anything.

The other rather obvious this is it's different from windows, much better in most respects.

[WoWo]

Should say in the interests of fairness, it does start to slowdown a bit when your using iMovie to manipulate movies (video editing) and also garage band can be slow at times, but for everything else it's more than fast enough.

[PurpleLinzi]

yaaawwnnn, god this is really boring

[commoner]

lol..I have and still occasionally do, use both....... IMHO Apple has no pros, just cons, when compared to a PC....<G>

[fo3nix]

Apples get the job done. They're there to let you do what you want to do, and do it fast.

For typing letters, spreadsheets, internet, iTunes, all that kind of thing, the Mac Mini will suit your needs perfectly.

In general, Apple products are better than windows-based machines in every respect, except for the fact that far fewer games are made on Apples. If you aren't bothered about playing games on your computer (instead, why not play them on a PS2 or XBOX, where they often come out earlier anyway?), then go Apple.

Be prepared to give a week or two learning the new interface. It is very different in many ways than XP. In many of these ways its simpler, but it still takes getting used to.

As WoWo says, the main two cons of the Mini in particular are that 1) its small, so like a laptop, its more complex to upgrade yourself than a larger-sized desktop machine, and 2) its only for general use, not for intensive image processing or things like that. If you're planning on doing the latter and still want a Mac, get one that's designed to do that sort of thing, like a Powermac.