Apple Mac Mini (1.25GHz)

Pros: super cool experience,stable,quiet,

Cons: must add memory 256 not enough,must buy usb hub 2 not enough, insane 1 gig memory price

Summary: I have been a windows user and pc builder since 1996. I have always critisized mac users, and now Ive become a diehard one! why? its so stable and simple to use! Do what everyone is telling you and get the extra memory. I got the 1.42g and 80 g hd only because it was the last one left at the apple store in tampa fl otherwise I would have gotten the 499 one. I added ram up to 512 and its very quick! I went from a 2.4 gig p4 1gig of ram to this and I really dont feel like I sacrificed anything. If your new to macs, youll need to download "acquisition" its a peer to peer software like kazza or imesh only for macs (had mac and pc stuff) because software is out there!!! you know when you go to copy a cd and it asks if you want to burn the image to the hd first? well thats how it works on a mac, only you TELL it where to burn that image, and they actually have a file name for that! You can send that over the internet, take it, burn it to a cd and it acts just like the cd itself!! I downloaded Virtual PC and that lets you load a windows operating system onto a virtual computer it creates for you. once done, you can load programs to your virtual computer and use programs that you cant use on a mac. It really gives you a sense of whats going on in the world when you can play with windows xp like its some kind of toy, but thats what windows OS is to the Mac OS X panther version you get. the ilife is great, I was making movies in no time. I am saving the garage band for later!! I got the apple keyboard because its so cool looking, and its a small usb hub too. I plugged my mouse and printer (my printer has a power supply) into the keyboard, and keyboard into usb 1 of the computer. USB 2 of the computer is where I plugged the Belkin USB hub (get the kind you have to plug a power supply in). My Scanner and Ipod go into the belkin. Then I got Microsoft OFFice for mac and I can use that for classes. There are so many choices on what you want to use for a browser (install mac aol, mac Mozilla, mac netscape, or use the safari, or internet explorer for mac already on there. several programs for pop 3 email, but I like the mac mail with Ilife. I tunes and I photo will change the way you work with photos and songs and I just got my Ipod photo today and its seamless integration with the computer is incredible. No more anti virus, adaware, regclean,defrag, scandisk, !!! make sure you bring up all those and more norton system programs when someone trys to tell you that a pc has more software than a mac!! I think this review is getting too much on pro of mac vs PC, but I cant help it, thats how I feel like Ive been sold! I also got a 99.oo printer with 99 rebate so its on ebay right now! I have my mac mini on my dest and I had to clean around it because its so small!! everyone who sees it is impressed with how small it is! worried about problems? you have a one year warranty. when thats over, if the cd drive takes a dump? well you go buy any external usb or firewire cd-dvd-r/rw drive! hard drive goes out on you? you can replace it with any 2.5 " ide laptop hard drive, or any usb2 or firewire external hard drive. put your mac cd rom in (that came with the computer) and choose install operating system (mac osx) to the external hd. when your done, you go to start up section, choose the ext. hd, and restart. now your booting off the external hd!! Overall , Id have to say Im very impressed with how well the computer works! If I could change anything, Id say to apple, add more $ and included the keyboard and mouse, and add one more usb port (there is room for one if they wanted to).one more thing, stop asking so much for the 1 gig of ram! you can sell more of them!!! THATS IT! GOOD JOB steve jobs, youve gotten another windows user to switch over to the dark side.....(oops, I mean, er, FROM,..... !!!!