I guess to start off, a while back I was looking to get back into the Apple universe. I had switched back to PC for a time, and though I do like Windows 8, I just missed OSX. So I thought to make the switch back, however it just wasn’t in the budget for a nicely upgraded iMac. Since the Mac mini got a refresh at the end of last year I thought I would check them out, being that they are a little less in the price category. After having an iMac once before I was sceptical of a Mac mini being able to perform as well, and after my initial purchase of the Mac mini I thought my concerns were well founded.
The Mac mini was very sluggish and occasionally a pain to even try to use, of course I was using the default RAM so I thought I would try and upgrade the RAM and see if that would make a difference. Oh I guess I should say that I did opt for the higher end Mac mini which has an Intel Core i7 processor so the sluggishness was blowing my mind. I didn’t realize that with that processor and 4 GB (default for Mac mini’s) of RAM would not be sufficient. However, I procured 16 GB of RAM from Crucial, and the difference was night and day. The Mac mini now runs like a dream and I have no issues with it at all, other than that I wish it had a better graphics card, but even with what I do that hasn’t been a hinderance so far. Of course, what I use my Mac mini for is for everything that you can do on a computer except of course Windows gaming. Plus I do my video editing on it, and have had no problems there.
So I guess bottom line is, if you are looking for a moderately priced Mac, which I would consider and entry level computer, then I believe the Mac mini is a definite winner. Just remember to upgrade the RAM, but I would do as I did and get the RAM from Crucial, and not Apple because Apple does charge a little more for the RAM. The RAM is very easy to upgrade which I demonstrate in this video. So in conclusion I would give the Mac mini a 4.5 out of 5 stars.