Any reason why I shouldn't swap home pc for a Mini Mac?

[oneofsuesylvesterscheerios]

haven't even considered this before but it's been 'sold' to me as a great alternative this morning.

All my word docs and work stuff can be used on the mini mac, apparently...
No disk drive, but is this really a problem??

any thoughts?

It depends on what you want to use it for.

The mac mini is quite a basic machine and certainly the standard 2GB it comes with isn't something I'd like to use it with. I'd probably want to shove more RAM into it which again bumps up the price.

Yes you can use your word/excel docs but you would either have to buy Microsoft Office (if you are quick you can get this cheap from software4students) or use OpenOffice which is free but not MS Office.

The no disk drive isn't a massive issue as long as you are ok with using USB drives and consider where you will be putting the unit.

To make the best of the mac, you will need a good monitor & keyboard. So I'd say at least a 21" monitor with wireless keyboard/mouse. Otherwise it's akin to buying a Gucci handbag but carrying it around in a Primark shopping bag. It does the job but really!!!!

And what do you mean by "work stuff". Specifically what programs?

To be fair I think unless you already have a good monitor/keyboard and the most basic of requirements then you will get better quality desktop PC's. That said, Mac's are lovely looking!

Hmmm well I won't be getting a doobly-spangly new monitor just yet so the old one will have to do. Might upgrade later though.

I use PowerPoint, word & excel for work, nothing out of the ordinary. We don't download much, don't do gaming, etc (except stuff like angry birds!)

Bloke I spoke to suggested I not get Office for the Mac but instead buy the Mac versions of these 3 programs as they can be opened from original formats and saved as Word etc as well. Seemed a decent suggestion?

I don't understand what you mean about not getting Office for the mac but buying mac version of the programs??

Software4Students are selling it for £38 at the moment. You can also use OpenOffice for free which will be fine for most documents.

We migrated from Windows to Mac at work a year ago and made the move to iWorks. Pages and Keynote are probably both better than Word and Powerpoint, but Numbers isn't a patch on Excel IMO. Lots of strange niggles that suggest the package just isn't as mature and well rounded as Excel. It's there because an office suite has to have some sort of spreadsheet functionality, but really Numbers doesn't fit with Apple's airy fairy creative emphasis and it's very much the poor cousin of iWorks.

iWorks will save stuff to .doc/.xls/.ppt and will play nicely with MS formats.

Depending on the nature of your work though, you may be better off with Office for Mac, or just look at LibreOffice which is free. You need to factor in the cost of new software into the buying cost of a Mac Mini, compared to just using your existing copy of MS Office on a new Windows box.

As with all Apple products, you're paying a premium for a Mac Mini, and it's a bit underpowered if you're comparing like for like. You also lose the pretty aesthetic value of the Mac if you're pairing it with dodgy old Dell peripherals and a screen that doesn't do it justice!

The thing is, if you spring £520 on a Mac Mini, or £609 to up the RAM to 4GB, and then consider the extra cost of a new monitor to do it justice, you're already spending the best part of £700-800.

In which case, you're almost as well looking at a 21.5" iMac for £999, which has an awesome screen, includes an optical drive, comes with the 4GB RAM as standard, as well as a beefier CPU, beefier graphics and includes peripherals like the gorgeous brushed-metal keyboard. The Mac Minis make very good home servers for media work and playing stuff to TVs, etc, but considering the absence of any monitor of peripherals, they're very expensive for what you get. Yes, it's more than you need because it's a better machine, and obviously a grand is a lot to spring for an iMac, but you very definitely get your extra £400 worth compared to a Mac Mini. The whole package is much better value compared to a Mini which isn't very good value at all really.

I would say ignore the Mac Mini. Go the whole hog for an iMac, or replace the Windows box with a new one (£350 max) and keep your old peripherals and software.

• They're £927 on Amazon at the moment which is odd as the price you pay is normally set by Apple. Unusual to see new Macs discounted like that.