mac mini or macbook - convince me

I have a blackbook and wouldn't trade it for the world. Unless they came out with 12" blackbook. Then I would.

The portability of a smaller laptop, plus the speed of a desktop. Get a bookendz docking station, and you have the best of both worlds. A multi-monitored desktop, complete with peripheral connections, and a portable laptop.

Get a laptop. You won't regret it.

ryan, I'm assuming you have the mini? Is it not as portable as one might assume? I figured since it was so small taking a monitor and keyboard upstairs along with the mini wouldn't be too much of a hassle. And as long as  I go somewhere there is a computer I could use those peripherals. I'm waffling here...outside of a house or car I usually don't spend $1000 at one time on a product.

I have a mini also, and it's nice, but it's nowhere near as convenient as the macbook. My mini was so unused as a desktop, I just turned it into an HTPC, so now it's connected to my tv and stereo. No need for an AppleTV when the computer's right there.

As I said before, get a macbook. It opens so many more possibilities than just a "tower"

I love my mini for my desktop machine. I have 2 gigs in it, an external hd with usb/firewire built in and it is very fast. It is not portable in the sense of a laptop, but, if you wanted, you could easily take it to another room - you'd just have to plug in all the peripherals. And the price, not bad at $599/$799 - great for your first mac.

The MacBook Pro is just an awesome machine. I love mine. It is blazing fast at only 1 gig, 2.13mhz Core 2 Duo. The portability is fantastic and you can set it up to use a monitor, keyboard, mouse, etc. The price is what hurts, but I'd spend it again because it is very much worth it.

I like the Pro laptop better than the non-Pro because of several key features:

* up to 3gigs of memory that i can add at a later time
* The 2.13 is blazingly fast
* Great video card
* I LOVE that the keyboard lights up in the dark
* 120gig hard drive is very roomy
* 15" monitor is much easier on the eyes than a 13" when coding

In my opinion, it is very important to weigh out why you need a new computer, how long you expect it to last and what you feel you need to get out of the computer. When I switched from PC to Mac, I knew I wanted to switch, but I also wanted to make sure I didn't spend too much, in case for some reason I didn't like the Mac. So, I got the Mac mini to see how I would like it.

My wife and I like to go away for the weekend, once a month to every other month, and I need to be able to keep up with things while I am gone. Sometimes I have projects going on (it seems like I always do) that I need to put a couple of hours in while I am gone, or we like to have something to watch DVDs on. My wife likes to check her email and keep up with some things she is involved in. So, for us, a laptop really was something we wanted and needed, but I wanted to make sure I really liked the Mac, before I went ahead and got a Mac laptop.

Being convinced that I would never turn back to a PC, I thought about what I would need and what the computer would do for me. No matter what laptop I purchased, it would make money for me, by being a machine I can code on for my freelance work and some day job work. So, the laptop then became an investment in my productivity for my work. This then made me think about being able to increase the speed as time goes by, hence the room to add 3 gigs of memory. I often times program at night, so the keyboard that lights up was a great passive feature so that I wouldn't have to buy a USB light to plug into the laptop. We like to watch DVDs on occasions, so a decent graphics card would be great. Having a large harddrive is always important to me, because I like to replicate my desktop as much as possible. (same programs, etc)

The 2k hit to the pocketbook was actually hard to swallow when I paid for my machine. But, I have already made that up and then some by using it to do freelance work. So, my laptop has paid for itself and I can write it off as a tax deduction because I use it for work.

So, for me, I saw it as an investment that allowed me to work from anywhere, and also will be a machine I'll be happy with for years to come because I can upgrade the memory considerably. Perhaps my view point might be of help, if not, forget I said anything.

Off of what you have stated, if it was my decision to make, I'd probably go for the laptop - MacBook Pro. You can use it, out of the box, with an existing monitor. I am using a windows mouse with my desktop machine and was previously using a windows keyboard.

But, that all comes back to what you have to spend. The Mini is a great machine for the price, but I feel that the MacBook Pro will probably last much longer and still be a fast machine. The MacBook Pro can also hook into a monitor and external peripherals and allow you to be mobile if you need to. But, if you are constrained by money or want to make sure you are happy with the Mac as a whole, I'd say try the Mini first, and if all goes well and you feel you need to be more portable, you can always save for the laptop.

Regardless, you still get the same great OS and all the cool apps that come with it. The mini allows DVD burner and CD burning, it does lack the graphics card, but watching movies isn't that bad without it. I haven't ever played games on it, so I cannot speak to that.

So, I guess the key question is, what is your budget?

You could get the Mac Mini ($799), upgrade it to 2gigs of RAM, get an external harddrive for backups and a nice LCD monitor for around 1500.

Check out this place for hard drive cases with or w/o hard drives - http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer%20 … /FWU2MSV2/

hehe, you gotta get the best for your money. I think you'll get tired of a 13" screen and you could a 19" lcd monitor for the mini that would be much better.

Think of it this way, how small of writing/design do you mind looking at for how long? The text on a 13" monitor at 1024x768 or higher is actually quite small. Also, if you do any designing at all, the details will be harder to see. Your eyes could strain and you could get headaches from straining over long periods. That is what I thought about when I was at first considering a 13" laptop.

You might also then be able to fit in your budget textmate (which is an incredible and must have program - there are so many features that go unnoticed) and any other software that you might want. Some people compare textmate and radrails, but honestly radrails doesn't belong in the same category as textmate and no other text editor can come close to being as powerful as textmate.

Then there is parallels, which you may need to do testing in window browsers. I think it took less time to install windows via parallels than on a PC.

I got my 19" from Frys Electronics (http://www.frys.com) and paid $170 for it. They often have sales on various things, so you can get some good deals there. I wasn't too hung up on getting a name brand, as they cost more (sometimes considerably), but LCD monitors are always coming down in price. You could also look at Ebay. I've gotten computer equipment there for cheap. (2gigs of RAM for my mini for $200). The key to Ebay is buying from someone who has a lot of feedback and the feedback is good.

I wouldn't worry about getting windows vista, xp would be good enough, besides you'd have to pick one of seven versions in vista and who knows, perhaps the cheapest wont allow you to browse the web (j/k). That would be a waste of money in my opinion. I never use windows unless I need to test my apps in different browsers. Other than that, I try to stay far away. Besides, Apple provides everything I need.

I've heard that Apple is possibly having another event on Feb 20 that may introduce their new OS, iWork 07, iLife 07, to be available in the first week of March. If you have the time to wait, it might be beneficial to see if they do make that annoucement and buy your mini after they have released those product because the new OS and iLife 07 will be installed with your new computer and you won't have to pay extra to get them.

Also, I've heard that iWork 07 will have a spreadsheet application that is suppose to be awesome. I've been wanting to get iWork, but am waiting for the 07 release so I can get the spreadsheet program as well as Pages and Keynote.

I can't wait for the new OS, iWork, and iLife. I could never say enough good things about Apple's OS and i-packages. They really know how to do software right.

If you have kids ( I think I saw that you have two now - congrats!!) Apple's OS has built in parental controls that can lock the system down as tight as you want. What makes this so good is that it is tied into the operating system, which means it is much more secure than a third party parental system.

Gotta love the Apple!