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Apple Mac mini MC238LL/A Desktop

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Apple Mac mini MC238LL/A Desktop

(56 customer reviews)

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Features

Intel Core 2 Duo Processor 2.26GHz
2GB DDR3 RAM
160GB 5400RPM Hard Drive
GeForce
Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard

Description

Theres nothing like Mac mini. At just 6.5 inches square and 2 inches tall, its designed to take up far less room and use far less energy than any other desktop computer. Mac mini was engineered to fit a lot of computer into a little space. Its powered by an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, with advanced NVIDIA graphics and fast DDR3 memory. Theres plenty of storage space up to 500GB1 for just about anything. And it comes with Mac OS X Snow Leopard, the worlds most advanced operating system. Who knew something so small could be so huge? Mac Mini-2.26GHz & 160GB HD plus NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics Mini-DVI to DVI Adapter 110W power adapter and power cord Install/restore DVDs Printed and electronic documentation

Product Details

Product Weight:	6.0 pounds
Package Length:	9.1 inches
Package Width:	9.0 inches
Package Height:	6.9 inches
Package Weight:	6.3 pounds
Average Customer Rating:	based on 56 reviews

Customer Reviews

Average Customer Review: 4.5

( 56 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

64 of 67 found the following review helpful:

Makes a great media center Oct 23, 2009 By Richard
I attached the mini to my HDTV (using mini-DVI to HDMI cable) and an optical digital audio cable. Picture and audio are perfect. It's great.

Let's start with the basics. It's whisper quite, and it uses about as much power as fluorescent light bulb when idle.

I can watch or listen to anything in iTunes using an IR remote (I use a "Logitech Harmony XBox 360" remote) via the built-in Apple Frontrow software or using Apple's magical Remote app for the iPhone (or iPod touch).

Or I can control the mini media center from my laptop across the room using Mac "Screen Sharing" (or VNC on any PC) to watch any video or audio source from the internet (Hulu, Silverlight, Flash, Amazon VOD, Netflix VOD etc.) or use the Apple DVD Player to play VIDEO_TS folders. (Please respect filmmakers and don't pirate movies.) You can watch what ever you want. You name it.

Although it's an option, it really doesn't even need a dedicated keyboard and mouse.

Other non-computer media boxes that are available can only play a fixed set of sources -- e.g. iTunes and YouTube (AppleTV). Netflix or Amazon VOD (Roku) or ripped or downloaded video files (WDTV). Support for anything outside of what those devices do today is just a wishing game or requires a lot of painstaking media format conversion.

The mini as a media center is pretty much obsolescence-proof. So while it may seem a lot more expensive than something like WDTV today, I'll bet I'll still be using the mini media center long after that WDTV has joined the pile at the back of the closet.

55 of 58 found the following review helpful:

Going for my Second Mini Oct 22, 2009 By Steve H "books911"
This Apple update of the always compact Mac Mini further lifts the model away from being an accessory. It should also silence even more people that the Mini is heading for its demise. The machine has slowly taken a solid place in Apple's line up.

I already had the last generation, Spring 2009 Mac Mini, but decided to go for yet another. The reason being is I use the Mac Mini connected to my large screen television. This allows me to easily look up information in my living room from the couch, using a wireless bluetooth mouse and keyboard. However, most of all, it takes online streaming to the television screen. Whether I want to stream from a TV network's website, or from Amazon, or anywhere in between, the Mac Mini is not limited to a specific box serving one service, but being a full fledge computer can obviously go anywhere on the Internet for streaming content. I like this. Of course, I also show off vacation images, and whatnot on the Mini connected to the big screen. The uses are really unlimited.

The purpose of my second Mini will be to connect it with a bedroom flat panel, for similar uses. The little guy is a hard worker. This entry level model is even more competent now that Apple has bumped its memory to 2 GB, which for your average work in OS X Snow Leopard is an efficient amount. The processor speed has also been bumped and hard drive size, making the entry level Mac Mini an even better value than before. Wi-Fi and bluetooth are built-in once again.

I find the entry level Mac Mini to again be the best value. The higher offering is a couple hundred more, it does give a faster processor, twice as much memory and twice as much hard drive space. If you think you'll need that, it's not a bad value, but it just seems the low end is always an especially good value, and it gets the job done. I find the inputs on the Mac Mini to be fantastic too. It has two display outputs, mini-DVI and Displayport, 5 USB ports, one firewire 800, and of course ethernet. You can plug a LOT of accessories into the Mac Mini. One such thing is an external hard drive, so if you get the entry level and find the hard drive size limiting, you can always connect external USB or Firewire hard drives for extra storage.

This mini has OS X Snow Leopard pre-installed, so you'll have the brand new operating system installed out of the box. Plus, you get iLife 09, which has the great applications like iPhoto, iMovie, Garageband, iDVD, and iWeb.

Overall, I do not use the Mac Mini at a desk as a traditional computer. I use it has a home theatre PC. Nevertheless, the Mac Mini is enough of a workhorse to certainly use it for office tasks, home photo editing, etc. It's not a slouch by any means. If you have a quality display, the Mac Mini makes a competent computer solution, but don't forget a keyboard and mouse too. I recommend it, and I'm excited to have one connected to both televisions in my home.

35 of 36 found the following review helpful:

Excellent product Oct 24, 2009 By CordlessTaco "S"
This is my second Mac Mini. I bought my first Mac Mini when they were first introduced. I have been using that same Mac mini for about 5 years with no problems. I finally decided to get a new one because more and more of the internet features wouldn't work anymore because I needed software upgrades that didn't fit the specs I had. However, I didn't want to make the same mistake I made the first time and buy it right before a software upgrade. This is the perfect time to buy this Mac Mini. Snow Leopard is pre-installed, and there's roughly about $150 worth of extra memory and speed for the same price as the previous model that was just released about 6 months ago.

One complaint I did have with my old Mac mini was that it was a pain to configure my internet connection. The internet setup for this new model is simply plug and play. Absolutely no configuration is needed if your plugging in an Ethernet cable, whether it's hooked up to a router or not.

I basically only use my Mac Mini for the Internet, downloading music and video for my Ipod, digital picture storage, and occasionally typing and printing a paper. If that's all your going to use it for and your sick of all the viruses and hidden internet files that slow down your computer when you use a PC, then buy this entry level Mac Mini.

15 of 15 found the following review helpful:

GREAT mutitasker, HTPC, SERVER,School Computer/MEdia server Jan 18, 2010 By MedicAbe
I love my mac mini. Its small, it fits under my 24in monitor. After having PCs for 20 years and upgrading all my systems with windows 7 ( desktop/notebook/netbook) I thought i had the best of he computer world. Then My school started switching to mac. Mac and PC are compatible but i thought why not try out Mac OS X 10.6.

The mac mini is a nice little package that would be a perfect starter for a reasonable price ($550) So I bought one, and now... I prefer my low powered Mac Mini over my Desktop with the Quad Core, 3TB of HD storage, X-Fi audio, Bluray and DVD Burner drives. My desktop PC and Mac mini live together now, I love the fact that the mini is dead silent and uses about 14W of power versus 600W off my monster PC. MS office 2008 for mac is so much easier to use than Office 2007 in PCs. All the mac versions of my programs (firefox, bittorrent, email, Word processing, etc) are so much more stable than in my PCs. I use my mac mini for all my papers, homework, research and media (apple's strengths) And my PC does all my Video encoding, Bluray, document scanning.editing, movies, and network stuff. I have to admit, i do not like the lack of programs for mac for DVD copying and format encoding out there, not to mention no Blue RAY!!! But then, few people use that stuff anyway. The bluetooth 2.1 is great with printers (i have a canon mx860 with a bluetooth dongle), the Wireless N has impressive range. I do recommend geting the apple aluminum keyboard because its just one of the best keyboards ive ever used not to mention It has all the mac command keys. I use a notebook PC mouse, and it works just great

I did have to upgrade my mini just a tiny bit, cause I felt the 2GB of DDR3 mem was handicapping the system, I snagged a $49 single Patriot Memory 2GB DDR3 chip and replaced one of the DIMMS in the mac mini. IF you are a novice in computer upgrading, you can do it but be so carefull and slow doing it. All you need is a 3in putty knife and a 00 phillips screwdriver. You can find the video how to upgrade the mac mini Memory and HD on youtube.

Even at only 3GB of memory, my mac mini blazes and renders internet browsing and MS office 2008 faster than my uber-PC with 6GB of DDR2 RAM. Technical jargon for techies: The mac mini comes with a Fujitsu HD. Im not a fan of fujitsu, but the drive apple uses has a long and reputable and dependable record. The tech specs are not bad, Averages 65-75 MB/s transfers with about a 79 MB burst. ITs a 5400rpm drive. It works and is dependable, but i needed something more.

I strapped a Hitachi 7200rpm 16MB 500GB 7K500 HD disk and now my mac mini howels!!! It does DVD copying, torrenting, P2Ping, video and photo editing like crazy! Right now only hitachi makes the most reliable, quiet, and speedy 7200 NB hard drives 320GB or better. I would have rather dropped a 500 or 540 WD black Notebook drive, but they dont exist yet. The 2.26 GHz Core 2 Duo is no slouch, it does the work. The 2.53 Model is awesome and probably cut off a few seconds on your mp3 encodings, but if ur about seconds u wouldnt be getting a mac mini! If you are big into CPU intensive stuff like Film and audio editing, you probably should have got a iMAC or Mac PRO tower for double or quadruble the price.

IN the end, the base mac mini is a entry computer. The late 2009 base model is for people who are on a budget and what to make the jump to mac, this is a great offering thanks to the recent upgrades apple did this year. It saves power, it uses your existing mouse and keyboard, and you can really use it for all kinds of things. If you have some computer savvy in upgrading, I suggest getting this model and use the savings to get a memory upgrade. Dont worry about mixing memory chips. the mini will compensate. I spent 100 dollars in upgrade parts, bringing my total to $650. IF you are not so computer upgrader happy, this unit will do the job. You wont feel any problems unless you surf the net, use office 2008, play itunes, while copying DVDs. If you are a massive multi tasker, get the 2.53 Ghz Mac mini with 4GB and a 320 HD for an extra 200.

This is a great buy, dont hesitate. You will not be sorry. I've had mine for 2 weeks, and its has not been off since then. It goes on sleep mode automatically when its idle and autowakes up with me!

Get this mini

14 of 14 found the following review helpful:

Mac mini MC238LL/A Jan 30, 2010 By denny
Comparing spec per spec versus a PC, from a pure dollar perspective the mini comes up short. I put off buying this for quite a while, but my frustrations with Windows boot times and general stability (XP pro on laptop and desktop, Vista 64 on quad core) finally pushed me into it.
What took me so long! I will never buy another PC again. This little beauty boots faster, shuts down faster, and seems more responsive than my core i7 Dell with 6 gigs of RAM. Even with a 5400 RPM hard drive it seems just as fast as the 7200 RPM SATA on my Dell. It is powerful enough to run Photoshop and Illustrator well, don't know about video editing speeds.
Two gigs of RAM seems enough, but if I had it to do over I would buy the new iMac with 4 gigs of RAM, faster hard drive and CPU, and built-in monitor. Either way you can't go wrong.
I had a USB keyboard and mouse (longtime PC user), so I didn't go for the pricey Mac stuff. The only downside to switching is the software from your PC won't work and games may be unavailable (I am not a gamer).
I would give this puppy 5 stars but I am not by nature overly optimistic. Great little machine, if you are on the fence just go for it. The next model up ($800 mini)would have been even better for me, but this is a very capable machine. Then again, if you need the options the $800 model has, kick in another $400 and get the iMac with mouse, keyboard, and monitor.

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