Apple Mac Mini MGEN2LL/A Desktop Review
Apple Mac Mini MGEN2LL/A Desktop Review
I don't know what all the fuss was about. I guess that over the year, Mac Mini has created a cult with devoted followers and people viewed this as a betrayal by Apple. This is my first Mac Mini, but I have been a Mac user for a long time. I have a couple of Macbook Pros, include an old 17"MBP that I bought back in 2006 and it is still going, even though there has been no software upgrade for a long time.
The Mac Mini is larger in real life than I expected. It is a box about 7" square and 1" thick. Small foot-print on your desk, but packs so much power! Running very cool too, almost no heat generated from it. Some would suggest you search Amazon or Apple stores for older but more powerful models, but then you'd really miss out on new features such as 2 thunderbolts, 4 USB 3.0 ports and Intel Iris graphic processor.. To me, these are the features worth upgrading for. You may have more processing power in the older versions, but still would be saddled with restricted bandwidth for I/O and old graphic processor. Anyone who work in the information technology sector (I am) would tell you the real bottle-neck in a computer is its I/O capacity. You could never have enough I/O bandwidth! I selected the 2.6GHz I5 version with 1TB drive and Intel Iris graphic processor.
The machine is a joy to use! Yosemite, perhaps the best Mac OS version ever makes the Mini even more enjoyable to use. Everything works as it should, solid and fast. But any Mac users can tell you, that the OS did most of the work for you to leave you to concentrate on the thing you really use it for, whether editing a video or retouching a photograph. You would need an Apple display to use FaceTime, I don't have one so probably either have to rig up something or save enough $$ to buy an Apple display. By the way, graphics looks amazing on an Asus display that I already have. Iris processor really makes my cheap monitor sing! The HDMI connection transfer both video and audio, so even less cables on your desk.
I am not a graphic artist nor a photographer so don't have a lot of demands for processing power. 8GB of memory is enough for what I used it for, but I can see the need in distant future to add more memory, which you can not do with this version of Mini. That was why I took a star off! But I believe by then, someone might come up with something clever or I just simply buy a new Mac. Remember, $200 to jump to 16GB or $300 to go to Intel i7 is half of the cost of the basic Mac Mini. So that was why after pros and cons, I decided on this version.
So if you are on the fence whether to buy a Mac as first-time user, or upgrade from an old Mac, go for it! You won't regret it. And don't make your decision entirely on the negative reviews.
The Mac Mini is larger in real life than I expected. It is a box about 7" square and 1" thick. Small foot-print on your desk, but packs so much power! Running very cool too, almost no heat generated from it. Some would suggest you search Amazon or Apple stores for older but more powerful models, but then you'd really miss out on new features such as 2 thunderbolts, 4 USB 3.0 ports and Intel Iris graphic processor.. To me, these are the features worth upgrading for. You may have more processing power in the older versions, but still would be saddled with restricted bandwidth for I/O and old graphic processor. Anyone who work in the information technology sector (I am) would tell you the real bottle-neck in a computer is its I/O capacity. You could never have enough I/O bandwidth! I selected the 2.6GHz I5 version with 1TB drive and Intel Iris graphic processor.
The machine is a joy to use! Yosemite, perhaps the best Mac OS version ever makes the Mini even more enjoyable to use. Everything works as it should, solid and fast. But any Mac users can tell you, that the OS did most of the work for you to leave you to concentrate on the thing you really use it for, whether editing a video or retouching a photograph. You would need an Apple display to use FaceTime, I don't have one so probably either have to rig up something or save enough $$ to buy an Apple display. By the way, graphics looks amazing on an Asus display that I already have. Iris processor really makes my cheap monitor sing! The HDMI connection transfer both video and audio, so even less cables on your desk.
I am not a graphic artist nor a photographer so don't have a lot of demands for processing power. 8GB of memory is enough for what I used it for, but I can see the need in distant future to add more memory, which you can not do with this version of Mini. That was why I took a star off! But I believe by then, someone might come up with something clever or I just simply buy a new Mac. Remember, $200 to jump to 16GB or $300 to go to Intel i7 is half of the cost of the basic Mac Mini. So that was why after pros and cons, I decided on this version.
So if you are on the fence whether to buy a Mac as first-time user, or upgrade from an old Mac, go for it! You won't regret it. And don't make your decision entirely on the negative reviews.
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