Rob Griffiths has just done a series of three articles where he takes a A maximum look at a mini Mac and it's an excellent read if you want to find out more about how the Mac mini has made the transition to Intel. So, inspired by this and since my Mac mini was delivered this afternoon, I thought that I'd do my own take on this to give you *my* first impressions. Just for some background, my plan is to use the mini to store my growing iTunes music collection. It'll be hooked up to my TV using the DVI/s-video adapter and to my amplifier using the optical out. I went for the 1.66GHz Core Duo with 1GB RAM.

Right then, first things first - this thing is small. I've seen lots of minis before, but until I put one on my own desk, I just didn't really comprehend how small they are. As everybody keeps raving, the packaging is up to the usual Apple quality, everything being packed securely inside the box and wrapped up individually. Thankfully it doesn't take too long to unwrap everything and, after plugging in a monitor/keyboard/mouse, I was up and running. The really great thing that I like about the Mac OS X installation/configuration routine is that it doesn't take very long at all - tell it where you live, what keyboard layout you have, how you want to connect to the Internet and you're basically done. I think I was fully up and running in about 15 minutes. Sadly the OS install takes a considerable amount of time, but more about this shortly.

Since this is my first Intel Mac, I just wanted to say something about performance. Wow, this thing is fast compared to my 12-inch G4 PowerBook! Native apps load incredibly quickly. Finder, Safari, System Preferences, TextPad, etc, etc - they basically load up in a single dock bounce! I'm amazed. Once those pesky MacBook Pro issues are sorted out (whining screens and the like), put me down for one of them.

Next I paired up an old Microsoft Bluetooth keyboard and mouse to the mini so that it could break free of the cables. To be honest, I don't intend to actually use the keyboard and mouse because I'm going to be relying mainly on Front Row. Speaking of which, since I'm going to use the mini mainly for storing my iTunes music collection, I then copied it across from my PowerBook using a firewire cable and the old "boot in firewire disk mode" trick. Very quick and saved me copying it over my wireless network. Aside from ensuring that any music downloaded from iTMS was authorised for the new Mac, I don't think I really had to do anything else apart from tweak a few items here and there - security, screensavers and so on.

With the config done, I unplugged the monitor/keyboard/mouse and headed downstairs into my lounge to plug the mini in to my TV and amp. After firing the mini up, I launched Front Row for the first time. Now, it's worth pointing out that my TV is a fairly old (8 years, perhaps) 4:3 ratio CRT and I'm feeding the display signal via the DVI/S-video adapter, which is subsequently fed into my TV using an S-video to SCART adapter. Admittedly it's never going to be fantastic quality and Mac OS X itself is kind of readable at most resolutions. Front Row, on the other hand, rocks. Apple remote in hand, sitting on the sofa, navigating my iTunes music. Perfect, and exactly what I had in mind for this little Mac. No keyboard, no mouse and no Mac OS X experience needed, which really makes it accessible to anybody.

Well, it's gone midnight so what on earth am I still doing up? Hmm, good question. Currently, I'm waiting for Mac OS X to be reinstalled on my mini. Yes, the same mini that only turned up earlier today. The only minor problem I had was that I couldn't get the Airport card to reconnect to my "preferred" network after a restart or sleep. I know this is possible because it works flawlessly on my PowerBook. A quick Google around threw up some suggestions and so I then went into a phase of trying something, sending the mini to sleep, trying something else, restarting it and so on. Having done this about half a dozen times I now can't get the mini to boot at all and I get the "You need to restart your computer" message. Great, a kernel panic on startup.

After some more Googling, I tried a few things (Disk Utilities, hardware diagnostics, zapping PRAM, etc) and nothing worked. My last option? Reinstall the OS. Not the ideal solution but hopefully the one that will work.

In summary, when it works, the Mac mini is fantastic. When it doesn't it's just a pretty box with a white light on the front. I'm still waiting for the install to complete. I hope this works otherwise this 'lil Mac is heading back to Apple.

Responses[1]

Posted by Simon Brown on 16 March 2006 00:59:56 GMT #