Apple MAC Mini - £279

davilown

Found this on the dvdforums from the t@xman - hope it helps someone!!!

:beer: monster

"For those that missed out on the PCworld bargain, I notice that BTshop have (what looks like the top of the range) G4 version for only £279 :
http://www.shop.bt.com/invt/cae182?...ADRL5gjJw%3D%3D

If it is, then it includes DVD burner, and is probably actually 1.5Ghz and 64mb gfx card (the later version was upgraded internally without advertising the fact)........I got one from PCworld, and I got to say I'm quite enamored by it - absolutely lovely machine to use!"

Clasics

2.5% cashback through Quidco.... (I should be on commission).

t@xman

There's a nice little £10 off voucher floating around too.......if you have a bit of a search

natanddan1

davilown wrote:

Found this on the dvdforums from the t@xman - hope it helps someone!!!

:beer: monster

"For those that missed out on the PCworld bargain, I notice that BTshop have (what looks like the top of the range) G4 version for only £279 :
http://www.shop.bt.com/invt/cae182?...ADRL5gjJw%3D%3D

If it is, then it includes DVD burner, and is probably actually 1.5Ghz and 64mb gfx card (the later version was upgraded internally without advertising the fact)........I got one from PCworld, and I got to say I'm quite enamored by it - absolutely lovely machine to use!"

Great price but this is an old model, the new model has the faster intel core processor, the advantage is you can actually install windows XP on the new one so have the best of both worlds. XP & OSX for just over £100 extra.
However, if this does not appeal then this is a blinding offer, I bought one for my daughter last year and she loves it.

steve1905

Hi, any chance of a clue on that £10 voucher - please.

t@xman

Take a look on the "I want to buy" website for details.

newfoundglory

Buyer beware on this item. If you do indeed get the old spec Mac mini, and if this ships with Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger you are going to have serious performace problems (the BT site days it only has 256mb of RAM!). Tiger needs at least 512mb!

The shortage of RAM suggests this Mini might only ship with Mac OS X 10.3 Panther (leaving you to pay for the upgrade to Tiger - thats £80!), plus a memory upgrade to at least 512mb RAM so Tiger runs okay.

Also, the 80gb HDD on older Mac mini models was only 4200rpm.... slow by the standard 5400rpm put in most laptops and the 7200rpm in desktops. The older minis also only had 32mb of graphics memory.

Of course, you could take a blind risk and hope its one of the late-2005 "silent upgrade" G4 Mac minis, which had faster hard drives (5400rpm) and more graphics memory (64mb). The info on the BT site might only be a "minimum specification", we have no way of knowning. It doesnt even state which version of Mac OS X is included in the box!!

As i said.... BUYER BEWARE.... this might be an old old model, despite the apparent good price, as a Mac user myself going by the lack of information provided on the site.... I DEFINITELY WOULDNT BUY IT!

If anyone has already ordered one, let us know what you get!

t@xman

newfoundglory wrote:

Buyer beware on this item. If you do indeed get the old spec Mac mini, and if this ships with Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger you are going to have serious performace problems (it only has 256mb of RAM!). Tiger needs at least 512mb!

I don't know where you get your info, but all Mac Mini's come with 512mb, and 10.4, as detailed on the Apple spec page (for original Mac Mini) http://support.apple.com/specs/macmini/Mac_mini_orig.html

steve1905

Still struggling to find that voucher. Maybe I'm a bit thick

Spec on BT site does state 256mb RAM

t@xman

Oh, I see the BT site may have specced it wrong, as I'm almost 100% that they all came with 512mb.

newfoundglory

No, they didnt! Steve Jobs showed the Mac mini at Macworld in January 2005.

The very very first Mac minis from January 2005 onwards shipped with 10.3 Panther and had only 256mb of RAM (hence my serious concern above, as Tiger wasnt even out at the time). At the time Tiger started shipping (summer 2005), retail copies of Tiger disks were put in the Mac mini boxes which had Panther installed on them (but the Macs themselves still only had 256mb of RAM!)

About a month later, the first Mac minis which shipped with Tiger pre-installed all had 512mb RAM minimum inside (the "original" specification you just linked to above!)

You might actually be buying one the very first Mac minis which ever came out...