# Mac mini - most reliable Mac?



## monokitty (Jan 26, 2002)

I'm basically sharing the experience I've had with my 1.42GHz Mac mini I purchased last March in 2005(BTO: 1GB, BT/AP, Combo). I've had my Mac mini now for a solid 14 months without a single issue. The hardware has been perfect, and the software hasn't become corrupted or beaten yet. As most of you know, I'm an Apple Technician and I service Macs for a career - in the past 12 months, I've counted a total of just under two dozen Mac mini's coming in for service - all of them with only minor hardware issues, including defective power supplies, optical drives, and 56K modems. We sometimes get half that number of iBooks in the run of a single working week. I have AppleCare on my Mac mini good until 2008, but I get the feeling I'll never have to put it to use (which is a good thing, and no, it doesn't make me feel like I'm wasted money on it).

Is it just me, or is the Mac mini the most reliable Mac currently available, along with the Power Mac G5? What are your experiences with the Mac mini, if you own one?


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## TrevX (May 10, 2005)

Lars said:


> I'm basically sharing the experience I've had with my 1.42GHz Mac mini I purchased last March in 2005(BTO: 1GB, BT/AP, Combo). I've had my Mac mini now for a solid 14 months without a single issue. The hardware has been perfect, and the software hasn't become corrupted or beaten yet. As most of you know, I'm an Apple Technician and I service Macs for a career - in the past 12 months, I've counted a total of just under two dozen Mac mini's coming in for service - all of them with only minor hardware issues, including defective power supplies, optical drives, and 56K modems. We sometimes get half that number of iBooks in the run of a single working week. I have AppleCare on my Mac mini good until 2008, but I get the feeling I'll never have to put it to use (which is a good thing, and no, it doesn't make me feel like I'm wasted money on it).
> 
> Is it just me, or is the Mac mini the most reliable Mac currently available, along with the Power Mac G5? What are your experiences with the Mac mini, if you own one?


I have the exact same experience as you. I've had mine for a year this month and its been solid. Its nice and quiet and speedy enough for my needs. Apple nailed this one for sure.

Trev


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## Pelao (Oct 2, 2003)

Sounds good, and it makes sense since there was no 'new' technology, hardware or software, in the Mini. it should just work.

Perhaps a little unfair comparing it to a mobile computer though - by their nature they take a bit more of a beating. 

Maybe compare to the eMac. There are a lot more emacs in existence so that will of course skew the results, and of course you would have to take monitor issues out to make the comparison valid, but it is perhaps the most easily comparable Mac.

Lars, I bet you really make use of your Mini too. Isn't it great when stuff just works like that?


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## Macaholic (Jan 7, 2003)

Mine has worked quite well given its specs until a large, 70 minute iMovie project I worked on this weekend. Man, LOTS of spinning beach balls! It was quite laborious! With only 512MB RAM, however, the problem surely laid there. So, maybe the Mini didn't have a fair shake.

Render times are bearable for personal use, although it took quite a while to render the iLife 06 white iMovie animated theme that had moving video in all of the dropzones. But this is probably the most extreme test the little pup could be subjected to. Rendering all the DVD elements prior to a burn also takes a LONG time. This is one of those functions where you start it... then go to bed. the next morning, TAKE ADVANTAGE of those rendered elements and burn all the copies you need.

For non-media work, the system runs just fine -- but booting from my Firewire drive helps that quite noticeably.

As far as dependability of the hardware, no issues at all


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## Pelao (Oct 2, 2003)

> Mine has worked quite well given its specs until a large, 70 minute iMovie project I worked on this weekend. Man, LOTS of spinning beach balls! It was quite laborious! With only 512MB RAM, however, the problem surely laid there. So, maybe the Mini didn't have a fair shake.


My kid was working on an iMovie project this weekend (just under 90 mins) using our eMac. It's a 1.25, with 1GB RAM. It handled the load fine - not swift, but no beachballs. So the RAM would make a bif difference I am sure, plus perhaps the faster HD?


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## Howard2k (Feb 9, 2005)

I just upgraded mine late last week from 512MB to 1GB. WELL worth the investment, especially now that you can pick-up 1GB of RAM for ~$120.


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## tedj (Sep 9, 2004)

I've a 1.42/1gb mini. Best computing experience I've had. Ever. No complaints whatsoever, and so well priced. In fact, its resale value is far below what its worth to the mini owner, so I could simply never sell it Bravo, Apple.


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## Trevor... (Feb 21, 2003)

zero failures here, relative to the eMac, iBook G4 and iMac G5 which all experienced unacceptable failure rates.


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## Macaholic (Jan 7, 2003)

Howard2k said:


> I just upgraded mine late last week from 512MB to 1GB. WELL worth the investment, especially now that you can pick-up 1GB of RAM for ~$120.


ALL RIGHT ALL RIGHT!!  Time for more RAM. But I have a problem: I'm unsure as to the *exact* specs when buying from "PeeCee shops". Generally, the RAM for a G4 Mini is PC2700 (DDR333). But, there are variables i9n RAM specs that I do NOT know would apply to a Mac mobo:

There's "CL3" and "CL2.5" specs. What do I need for the Mini or does it matter?
There's 400MHz RAM, can't find 333MHz at tigerdirect. Does it matter?
DIMM Type: UNBUFFERED What do I need for the Mini or does it matter?
Error Checking: NON-ECC What do I need for the Mini or does it matter?
What the hell is "Pin cap"?? What do I need for the Mini or does it matter?
Anything ELSE?? Chips on one side? Two sides? What do I need for the Mini or does it matter?

I live minutes away from a Tiger Direct. They have 1GB for $94.00! Would this work??

HALP!! :baby: 

Signed,

Useless Me.


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## darkscot (Nov 13, 2003)

works for me Macaholic


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## Macaholic (Jan 7, 2003)

darkscot said:


> works for me Macaholic


 This RAM will work? If so, SOLD!


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## capitalK (Oct 21, 2003)

I remember having the exact same conversation with on o the techs at Carbon shortly before I left. I was looking around in the service department and noticed there were very few minis compared to other machines.

I'm actually buying a mini this week.


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## macsackbut (Dec 15, 2004)

Lars, I have the same machine as you and I love it. I have it booted off an external FW drive, which gives it a slight speed bump too. 

The only issues I can think of are the missing startup chime, which one of the Tiger updates fixed, and the hard drive "clunk," though now that I'm booting off the external, it's no longer an issue for me.

I doubt I'll be upgrading for another year to 18 months, but if I were upgrading now, I would have serious trouble deciding between a core-duo Mini and one of the new MacBooks. Normally, my aging iBook would be the one to be replaced, but the idea of slipping a new Mini under my 20" ACD and having a machine with the same form factor but 4x faster is mighty tempting.


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## Howard2k (Feb 9, 2005)

Macaholic, 

I'd give that one a shot. I originally replaced my stock memory with a Kingston 512MB DIMM., When I upgraded to 1GB I wanted a Kingston DIMM but they were out of stock so I bought Corsair instead. So far so good.

In BOTH cases, before I put the Mini's case back on I booted off the CD with the hardware diags on it and ran the full diagnostic. There is a memory test component. Passed both times. Gave me a bit more comfort 

And I bought PC3200 instead of PC2700, just in case I need to use it in my PC later.


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## JPL (Jan 21, 2005)

Yup the mini I had worked great, I gave it to some friends of mine and 2 months later the HD died-( 1 week out of warranty) Put in a new one and it sems to be off to the races now.


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## Macaholic (Jan 7, 2003)

Thanks Howard2k 

Anyone else??


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## BobbyFett (Jan 12, 2005)

i bought the 1.4 as soon as it was announced, so i've had it for about 16 months or so. at the time i thought it was pretty speedy but i don't know whether it's because my HD is almost full (usually between 10 & 15GB free at any given time) or what, but I am noticing a hell of a lot of slowdown these days.... and I'm running 1gb of ram too.


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## PirateMyke (Jul 14, 2005)

HELL KNOW!!!! my intel mini has been nothing but a pain in the ass... and it's not just me it's most intel mini owners from what i've read/hear.


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## Macaholic (Jan 7, 2003)

PirateMyke said:


> HELL KNOW!!!! my intel mini has been nothing but a pain in the ass... and it's not just me it's most intel mini owners from what i've read/hear.


Elaborate.


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## Akira (Apr 8, 2006)

I agree, please.
I've heard the exact opposite myself, people saying they're absolutely incredible. I responded though because I've wanted a new mac for a long while since I have little to no experience with them(couldn't afford one, but now that I can).
I've had my eyes on the mini for a long while, I was skeptical about the intel version at first with the DRM talk, but I'm back into the buying mood and have my eyes on the 1.66 mini duo with 1GB of ram. Please, converse, I'd love to hear about it.


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## Macaholic (Jan 7, 2003)

Akira said:


> I agree, please.
> I've heard the exact opposite myself, people saying they're absolutely incredible. I responded though because I've wanted a new mac for a long while since I have little to no experience with them(couldn't afford one, but now that I can).
> I've had my eyes on the mini for a long while, I was skeptical about the intel version at first with the DRM talk, but I'm back into the buying mood and have my eyes on the 1.66 mini duo with 1GB of ram. Please, converse, I'd love to hear about it.


Definitely GO with the Macintel Mini


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## thejst (Feb 1, 2005)

I love my (ahem...my wife's) 1.25 mini. Picked it up off e-bay for a steal, and it has beaten my expectations of it. 

I would agree with the statement that it's the most dependable mac yet, but my imac intel hasn't let me down either...yet...

James


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## PirateMyke (Jul 14, 2005)

Macaholic said:


> Elaborate.


i shall.. you see.. My airport card is fried... it's slowing down insane amounts.. my OS is corrupt and i have to service it at the WORST place known to man... *shivers* hi-tech micro solutions *shivers*

Now when somthing like this happens one asks himself... what did i do to the poor thing... so i says to myself "what did i do to the poor thing" so i thought and thought.. and i found out an appropriate answer.

NOTHING!!!!

i only use this mac for iChat (Video chats mostly), iTunes/iPod, iPhoto, GarageBand, and iWork '06 (Pages)... oh yea Internet (duh)

so where on them lines did i screw things up.. i dont download songs.. i dont go on iffy web sites... so like.. WTF

and if i do a google search for "intel mac mini aiprot issues" i normally find a few articles about bad airport cards... so yes.. there you go!


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## monokitty (Jan 26, 2002)

A bad AirPort can hardly account for your Mac mini being "terrible." A single hardware failure is barely worth complaining over. Had you had multiple hardware issues, then I could see your point. Hardware fails occassionally - it's not justification to label your Mac a piece of junk. 

Your Mac mini slowing down is usually caused by a lack of maintenance. Either way, it's a user-fault, not the Mac's fault.


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## Banny (Jul 8, 2005)

How about the eMac? It has been good to me for a solid 8 months now. Not quite 14 but the eMac was one solid machine IMO.


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## PirateMyke (Jul 14, 2005)

Lars said:


> A bad AirPort can hardly account for your Mac mini being "terrible." A single hardware failure is barely worth complaining over. Had you had multiple hardware issues, then I could see your point. Hardware fails occassionally - it's not justification to label your Mac a piece of junk.
> 
> Your Mac mini slowing down is usually caused by a lack of maintenance. Either way, it's a user-fault, not the Mac's fault.



I do maintain my mac, and i never said my mac was junk.. i clearly said iv been having problems with it since i bought it.. and i've done everything i know and can do... and now i have to bring it in...

it's just my experience...

and like apple tells me EVERYTIME i call them with more issues... (note ive been a mac user since i was 3 years old.. i am now turning 19) apple tells me that new hardware brings new unaccounted flaws. and i agree with that. Apple is pushing very hard to get intel macs out there... and they've done very very well considering that they weren't supposed to have 1 mac intel by this summer.. but look at them.. all intel but the PM... so obviously i have to expect the odd bug or too..

im just saying im having problems.. thats all.


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## Macaholic (Jan 7, 2003)

Lars, I wouldn't float such a pat answer, myself, but PirateMyke I wouldn't throw the Mini out with the bathwater if i were you, either.

Using your words for a Google search (with no quotes), all I found are two threads that fit PirateMyke's scenario:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=387407&tstart=0

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2220330

With a dog's breakfast of solutions tossed about.

Bummer, PirateMyke.

Skimming the thread, many people were pointing the finger at the Core CPU. But that could only be part of the problem. The PPC Mini is old, tested technology all around (although one could ay it's a radical motherboard design), but the INTEL Mac Mini is new in more ways than just the CPU. It's got a NEW motherboard for Apple, new many things related to the motherboard. In essence, it's a Rev.

Having said all that, I still doubt that it warrants the indictment PirateMyke is giving... but yet PirateMyke is still dead in the Wireless Water.


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## Macaholic (Jan 7, 2003)

PirateMyke, I wouldn't take the absence of an Intel tower to "mean" anything like you're inferring. Adobe, ProTools and many other heavy-iron creative software (aside from Apple's own) is not Universal binary. This -- and more important that Apple is probably waiting until the Conroe CPU comes out -- is a good reason why they're not in a big hurry.


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## PirateMyke (Jul 14, 2005)

i used to have the top end G4 mini.. worked like a charm.. upgraded to intel the day they came out.. got caught in the bad batch.. and there goes the neighborhood... whatcha to do?


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## Macaholic (Jan 7, 2003)

Well, I "CRACKED" open my Mini (boy, what a fun time THAT is the first time around) and shoved a 1Gb stick in there. So get this. This video project I was working on over the weekend that I mentioned earlier? Well, by the time it was loaded and I dragged here and there about the iMovie timeline just to get the project "loaded", if you will...

*there was less than 200MB of free RAM left out of that gig!*

I knew it would be the RAM, and no wonder the poor thing had the trouble it did. it is still hesitant a bit at times, but nowhere NEAR what it was before.

YAY! :clap:


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## 9mmCensor (Jan 27, 2006)

Odd, i was under the iBook G3's were the most reliable iBooks.


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## jonmon (Feb 15, 2002)

mine has been running perfectly as well and i leave it on all the time


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## Fruvous (Apr 16, 2006)

9mmCensor said:


> Odd, i was under the iBook G3's were the most reliable iBooks.


I assume you are reffering to the clamshells???

We have 30 well used ibook 500/256/20 12 inchers, and usually at any given time, 3 to 5 of them need some exteme loving.

I had a G3 800 that I had 8 logic board failures in 14 months.


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## macsackbut (Dec 15, 2004)

9mmCensor said:


> Odd, i was under the iBook G3's were the most reliable iBooks.


Gosh, where did you hear that? While my own iBook has been a warrior, they have been notorious for logic board failures. As far as I know, the G4 iBooks are better, but I think even some of those were prone to logic board problems.


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## Fruvous (Apr 16, 2006)

I forgot to add, my MacMini 1.25/256/40 has been a trooper... Well over a year, ZERO problems, on 24/7.


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## krs (Mar 18, 2005)

I have four "newer" Macs in the family.
A Mac mini just over a year old
A 450 MHz G4 about seven years old (yes, I call this newer)
A 1.25 MHz G4 about 3 years old
A 700 MHz eMac about 4 years old

Haven't had any problems with any of them.
In fact, all of them except the 450 MHz G4 get zero maintenance; the 450 MHz G4 gets a little bit - preferences. MS Outlook, but it's also the one that is used the most by far.
So I can't really say the Mini is the most reliable - it's actually the only Mac where the DVI port does not work with my LCD monitors, but that is a design issue not a reliability issue.


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## Macaholic (Jan 7, 2003)

I should go on record and say that both my 6.5 year old Sawtooth G4 Powermac as well as my Rev. A Mini have given me no problems. The Sawtooth, however, has been upgraded, significantly, with only the power supply and the motherboard still being original.

I will now go and touch a cord of wood.


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## 9mmCensor (Jan 27, 2006)

Fruvous said:


> I assume you are reffering to the clamshells???
> 
> We have 30 well used ibook 500/256/20 12 inchers, and usually at any given time, 3 to 5 of them need some exteme loving.
> 
> I had a G3 800 that I had 8 logic board failures in 14 months.


i forgot about the sarcasm on the internet doesnt work too well. sorry.


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