I drank the Kool-Aid, but I did not drink the MS-tea...

[RAMd®d]

I put my 'Phone Store Credit towards a mini.

Being on the fence about a 2.0, I grabbed one yesterday and set it up last night.

It needs a faster HD, so a miniStack will be ordered soon. I'll add RAM, but that's not a priority. It's fairly fast using one app at a time.

Using Handbrake 0.9, I encoded a 1h44m movie in 44m, using the OEM 'Phone preset. This is *many* hours faster than my 2.0 G5 with 2G, and probably a 5400rpm (same speed as the mini, I think) HD.

Small, compact, but noise when the fan kicks in. Even a fanned Cube would be quieter.

One oddity-- it's connected to a 24" display via VGA (since the display is also connected to my MDD via DVI) and when I select 1900x1200, I get verticle banding. At the next lower resolution (16XXx10XX?) the banding is gone. I haven't tried using DVI yet.

I'll use it as is until Leopard ships, then I'll partition the HD with my Work and Rescue partitions. Maybe stick a 1T HD in the mS.

I like the mini, and it should work well for its dedicated purposes, but I'm still giddy about my 'Phone.

[Sam3]

miniPhone L E A D E R ! ! ! !

I'm going to get memory for my mini, OWC has 2x1 matched pair for $77.50 this week! Looking at getting a 160 gig 5400 rpm drive in there as well. Though I've been told a 7200 rpm is better. But 7200's are much more expensive.

[Tommie Milwaukee]

I just ordered a 7200rpm 160gb drive for my mini yesterday. Also have an external firewire drive. I have 2 gig ram installed. She's plenty fast for my needs.

[chas_m]

Please take your time and do the RAM upgrade carefully. It's easy to forget to plug everything back in -- the Intel Mac mini is considerably more difficult to upgrade than the G4 version as far as RAM goes.

Enjoy your machine -- other than the lack of video card (same prob I have with my MacBook, but it's only the minorest of issues), I think the minis today are great little powerhouses.

[DaviDC.]

Yes, be very careful! The fan connector to the motherboard is fragile.
http://forums.macresource.com/read/1/238...msg-238544

[Sam3]

Maybe I'll pay Larry to do it.

On the oither hand, I deal with electronics all the time and I shouldn't have any problems, but since it's mine and not the TV stations...

[RAMd®d]

I like the fact that the mini will see 3G o' Goodness, so I'll go it all at once, when the time comes.

A faster (read: 7200) HD would be nice, but that's not a real consideration at the moment. Maybe, when it's time to upgrade the RAM.

Sometime ago I bought a game for my MDD- Close Combat- First To Fight, after seeing at at a previous MWSF.

It looked great there, but not so on my MDD with an ATi 9600 card. A 9800 caused problems too soon for me to check the game. I don't know if it's the card or the MDD.

But on the mini, the game looks much better. Actual texture, and some hint of some reflections that just aren't there on my MDD. Now this is still not the amazing realism that I saw on the "new" G5s with some Sierra Hotel ATi card. That was fantastic.

But given that this game is running in Rosetta, it's very impressive in both texture and fluidity.