digitalshawn.com the life of a guppie

general update mac mini

I know it seems as if all I can talk about lately is macZOT! and even though I do love their service I have been keeping busy with other things as well.

I decided it was time to purhase a new computer.  Apple was able to introduce their updated line of intel iMac’s and MacBookPro’s early to consumers. As I had an iSight and Monitor; and still love my iBook G4 neither the iMac or MacBookPro suited my needs.  However, some bloggers will recant as the worst Apple announcement ever as Steve Jobs introdued the updated mac mini and I instantly fell in love. 

However some people were not impressed and their complaints consisted of two items:

• the mac mini wasn’t truly the media center they were expecting
• the new intel mini’s came with intel integrated graphics. 

As I play games about three times a year the last point was moot in my decision making criteria.  I weighed my options after some deliberation bought the new intel mini with my Apple Developer Connection discount. 

So far the mini has been perfect.  Small form factor, excellent power for my needs, dvd burner and the general coolness factor is exellent.  I was left with one question, what to do with my old computer….

My old computer was a MDD Power Mac that was upgraded to the hilt.  I upgraded the ram, hd, and even added a dvd burner.  It was truly my first great computer.  I’m not sure if the greatness could be attributed to the hardware or the operating system but its purchase was something I never regretted.  The one thing that drove me crazy about it was the fan noise.  It was unfortunately extremely common with that model. 

I thought about listing the item on ebay and saw that they were going for around $600 – $700 bucks (almost the purchase price of my new mini) and then I was told of a company out of Tampa called Mac of All Trades.  Their website had a contact form to fill out if you were interested in selling your computer.  It wanted the computer specs and any upgrades that were performed on it.  I filled it out on a Friday night and recieved a Purchase Order the following morning.  I agreed to their acquisition of my computer and set up arrangements to ship it to them.  They received my computer on a Thursay and by the following Monday I had my check from them.  It was an amazing transaction and I wil certainly look to do business with them in the future. 

As I said the mini has been perfect and impressive with its size and power, the one thing I neglected to do was increase the hard drive past the standard 80 gigs.  After determining my music and photo collection was close to 30 gigs I went looking for an external hard drive solution and Other World Computing came to the rescue with their ministack v2.

In the next entry I’ll walk through the install and setup process and give my thoughts about the ministack v2.  Unfortunately I have to head back to work as the lunch break is almost over.