Mini desktop advice sought

scousedave

Hello All.

I have just bought an apple mini mac for £399.00 from John Lewis. Fortunately they have a good returns policy as it is incredibly slow. I don't play games just general browsing.

I was wondering if anyone can offer me good advice on what I should buy next as I need a mini desktop computer which I run through my tv.

I looking at one the more expensive mini macs
http://www.johnlewis.com/apple-mac-mini-mgen2b-a-desktop-computer-intel-core-i5-8gb-ram-1tb/p1741279

http://www.johnlewis.com/apple-mac-mini-mgeq2b-a-desktop-computer-intel-core-i5-8gb-ram-1tb-fusion-drive/p1741284

I am also considering one of the Dell alpha models.
http://www.dell.com/uk/p/alienware-alpha/pd?refid=alienware-alpha&baynote_bnrank=0&baynote_irrank=0&~ck=baynoteSearch&isredir=true

If anyone could please offer any advice it would be greatly appreciated....thank you

RumRat

They are all a bit of an overkill for just a bit of HTPC and general browsing.
Plenty of MINI PC's for sale at a fraction of the price...

scousedave

Thank you for your reply...
Im just very concerned being stuck with a computer that I can't return if its slow like the one I have at the moment so would rather buy a pc that has more than I require and able to deliver upon my needs plus also have a 10 year old boy who most probably will play games in the not too distant near future.

[Deleted User]

A Raspberry Pi.

Fightsback

Have a look around at the Gigabyte Brix. Pick of the Brix bunch is the
Intel Core i5-4570R, it has Iris pro graphics.

Cisco001

For what you are doing, I would suggest you look at i5 with 8GB RAM and SSD

But you will be looking at something like £700

However, I personally would opt for mini-itx custom build instead. You can't return it, but you can always upgrade it if you want to.

r_b

scousedave wrote: »

I have just bought an apple mini mac for £399.00 from John Lewis. Fortunately they have a good returns policy as it is incredibly slow.

I was going to buy the exact same one to use as a media centre but I have been advised by a friend to stay away from the low speck for the reasons you mentioned.

I decided to buy the next one up and it's great so if you can afford it, I strongly recommend you do that.

John Lewis are great for returns and everything customer service related but Apple aren't too bad and every now and then you can get a discount. Have you got any student friends? You can use the Student Discount they offer and save a bunch of money or if you or any friends own a business, you can setup a business account aand get some discount as well.

jeallen01

FWIW, if you buy any sort of MAC unless you have a very good reason because of an application that is MAC-only, then I think you must have money to burn.


I consider that non-Apple PCs may be more complex, but they are better value for money in the longer run.

tavernman

Daft question , yeah I specialise in those, it's slow for general browsing no games etc....was your old one slow too? It could be your ISP/router etc

Big_Graeme

Fightsback wrote: »

Have a look around at the Gigabyte Brix. Pick of the Brix bunch is the
Intel Core i5-4570R, it has Iris pro graphics.

Another vote for the Brix range, I've been rolling out desktops based on the i3 version for the last few days, great bit of kit, nippy with 4GB+ of RAM, quiet and can be hidden easily.

For those in the know you can even run OSX on them...

scousedave

tavernman wrote: »

Daft question , yeah I specialise in those, it's slow for general browsing no games etc....was your old one slow too? It could be your ISP/router etc

Thank you for your reply. I don't think it is my router as my previous computer was fast until it packed up and also while I have been waiting for pages to load I used my phone which loaded instantly, using the same wireless connection.