Mini desktop advice sought

scousedave

Thank you for all your replies. I have had a look at the brix range but they are a build yourself barebones computer...I would be rather dubious about buying something like this as I wouldn't know where to start.

I have seen this advertised and seems like a good deal and would suit my requirements....any thoughts please

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00M0M827Y/ref=pe_385721_37986871_TE_item
Thank you so much

gonzo127

http://www.dinopc.com/shop/pc/configurePrd.asp?idproduct=1998 might be a good starting point, and you can customise it to meet your requirements/budget, ok its not as small as the mac mini, but the ability to customise it and also game on it (for your child) might be worth the extra size

garybuk

jeallen01 wrote: »

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.

Absolute rubbish and it's spelt Mac [as in short for Macintosh].

'Better Value' is subjective; you buy a £300 rubbish laptop from Lenovo (with Spyware pre-installed) or HP and in a year or two you have to replace it, and again; totalling around £900? No resale value; look on Ebay at going rates for Mac's a 5 year old machine can easily get £400 - £500 for them; they also tend to last considerably longer than your cheap Windows laptops.

When you start buying decent Windows (Pre-Installed) laptops then you start getting into the same price range as Apple's Machines.

Apple OS X is also based on Unix; you have the best of both worlds; complex unix power and ease of use in the front end.

Don't mistake iPad's for the laptops.

People peddling absolute rubbish should actually learn about what they spout off.

I can show you a £1000 Macbook Air that absolutely annihilates a cluster of Quad CPU / 256GB RAM HP Servers in some very complex scientific computations. (Basically my job!) Due to the availability of Core Data / Unix Low Level Disk IO API's

Fightsback

garybuk wrote: »

I can show you a £1000 Macbook Air that absolutely annihilates a cluster of Quad CPU / 256GB RAM HP Servers in some very complex scientific computations. (Basically my job!) Due to the availability of Core Data / Unix Low Level Disk IO API's

Please do, complete with references. I look forward to challenging this utter balderdash with glee.

20aday

I have the Mac Mini late 2014 model that sells for £569 here.

I appreciate investing in an Apple computer is not "money saving" as there are comparable mini-desktops out there with better specs for the money but it does what I want it to do and will continue to do so for the next few years.

If you can live without an internal SuperDrive and the fact you can't upgrade the RAM (beyond the Online Store options) then it's fine.

S0litaire

Check out Zotac.com

They do a few small itx mini PC's all you need to stick in is some RAM and a slim HDD, all can run Windows or Linux.

S0litaire

Fightsback wrote: »

Please do, complete with references. I look forward to challenging this utter balderdash with glee.

Technically he is right....
...
...
If the Servers are running in software emulation with no GPU and the Mac is dumping all the work into the dedicated CUDA or whatever chips are on the GPU... lol

Fightsback

S0litaire wrote: »

Technically he is right....
...
...
If the Servers are running in software emulation with no GPU and the Mac is dumping all the work into the dedicated CUDA or whatever chips are on the GPU... lol

Well just chuck a cheap GPU node into the cluster, it's no magic and certainly not Apple magic. SLES cluster anyone ? I'm sure if he actually knew what he was talking about he would have already told his boss.