Mac Mini as a trial first Mac?

[fury]

Originally Posted by PDACPA

Can the 1.66 intel Mac Mini run Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard? Found a deal on one but it has the tiger OS.

Yes, but you'll need to buy a retail copy of Leopard, as far as I know - $129

[FlwrPwer]

I had one of the first minis that came out. Ordered it the month they were released. My mine at 4 1/2 years old ran Leopard. The problem was it was not going to run Snow Leopard when that is released. Think about it. We all know a new OS version is happening soon. Make sure the mini you get will be able to run it.

[PDACPA]

Any reason not to get a copy of leopard off ebay? My mini is just sync with my iPhone, iCal, and play with the Mac as PC's are what work needs.

[FlwrPwer]

Originally Posted by PDACPA

Any reason not to get a copy of leopard off ebay? My mini is just sync with my iPhone, iCal, and play with the Mac as PC's are what work needs.

Yeah, I said this too when I got my iphone on July 11th. By July 17th I had a brand new iMac. The older mini was just soooooooo slow. In general. And trust me, I dont do much on my computer except surf the internet and chat...and run my iphone.

I say go with a brand-new out-of-the-box mini. You won't be unhappy

[PDACPA]

Any others running Leopard on a 1.6 mini?

[Ramesh]

Originally Posted by PDACPA

Hey I donated two Osborne's with dual 5 1/4 floppys and a screen that was like half the size of the iphone to Salvation Army. They had no clue what they were.

I have found that most of the Mac Mini's with the intel chip sell on Ebay for close to $500 (and some do not have Leopard). I was also watching the Apple store for a refurb, but will probably just buy a new one for $599 if no refurb's show up.

I have to have PC's for my office due to the programs we run and the related databases (others have tried to run WinXP on a Mac with the programs and it is getting there, but not 100%). The Mini is going to be to have the ilife and calendar and mobile me as well as for my iphone.

New thought: Can I still keep my itunes on my PC with Vista and have the Mac itunes too (both with the same information)?

TuneRanger will let you sync your libraries over multiple platforms, so you should be fine.

As for your mini question - I was going to start with mini, and I figured for the cost, I would just buy an iMac. Looking back, I'm VERY glad I did. I like the display, and the Apple peripherals. I know I wouldn't have been happy on a 4:3 17" screen, using a logitech mouse. So plus the performace I relieved is much more powerful than a mini.

[kneshoba]

I have a mini running leopard. Had to upgrade ram. Spend the extra change and get an iMac you wont be sorry. I use MacBook Pro as a primary the mini is the kids machine.