Apple Mac Mini (2.26GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 160GB, Fall 2009)

Pros: Connectivity, Reasonably Fast, Great Design, Flexible in Application, Energy Efficient.

Cons: Poor graphic card performance, should ship with 4GB standard, Love to see an SSD option.

Summary: So you're not going to find a prettier PC. I mean-- it's Apple-- these guys know design better than anyone.

I bought one for use as a home commander for an Insteon controller. And for that application, it's an ideal machine. It's also a great solution for a server. Reasonably fast for the price, it's a real desktop alternative. It also "sips" power instead of guzzling like a full desktop. Nice because in my application, since it is on most of the time. If you were looking for a machine to do word processing-- look no further. It's ideal. For email? Perfect.

But this machine really suffers in the graphics department. Slow and slower. Anything needing a significant redraw bogs the system down. Complex web pages, flash animation, anything involving a lot of graphic card work slows the system down significantly.

Apple needs to stop the practice of raping people over RAM. 4 gigs should be the standard at this point.

I would also like to see an SSD option. I know-- what? It's slow! But think about it-- for a home server-- you'd have a quieter unit with no moving parts to break. Kind of compelling, to my mind.

Anyhow-- I've not been disappointed by the purchase. It's doing what I ask. But thank goodness I'm not editing Photoshop files-- I'd have to bring a lunch and a dinner to the session!