well, I have worked with apples for my whole life, and consider myself an expert. My company has one of every mac currently in production, in addition to an 'iLamp' (iMac G4). The Mac Mini IS the way to go for ANYTHING budget wise that is sub-2000$. The processor can be easily and reliably over-clocked to 1.58 GHz from the LOW END MODEL (in other words don't waste money on the high-end one) which barely slower then a 17" powerbook running at 1.67, and only marginally slower than a single 1.8 GHz PowerMac G5! The ONLY qualm that I would have with it is that you would have to crack motion to get it to run (motion's checker wont verify the video card), but if you don't need motion and / or are willing to crack it , the the Mac Mini is a SUPERB system for the price you're paying for it... OTHER THINGY: FCP is NOT the way to go unless you have SURPLUS money.. simply go with FCExpress HD (recently out). It is much easier to master, and there is not that much it cannot do that FCP can.... unless like I said, you have SURPLUS money or KNOW that you specifically need a feature that it has has express doesn't, go with express...

just my 2 cents...




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hmm didn't know you could overclock a mac mini, i think the mac mini processor is similar to the ibook g4 ones, would that mean i could overclock mine, and if so how.

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i eat hobbits!!!!!!

1.58Ghz, not 5.8!

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AMD Athlon 1700 (@2200mhz from 1466 sod the noise!) - 768mb pc3200 - 200GB Maxtor - Pioneer 106 - GF4 Ti4200 - twinhan/visionplus pci dvb-t - random pci analogue tv tuner - A7v600-x (to replace the a7n8x-d that died...) - random 17\" CRT
Sony STR-DE425 & Eltax c205s;
xBox w/20GB HDD- executer 2.3b;
xBox - standard;
Konica/Minolta dimage z10 w/2x512mb SD;
iRiver h340;
A silly amount of Cat-5 and usb cables

OPPPS! yeah typo ouch...
here's the overclocking thingie, and it only works on the Mac Mini by dint of apple 'cheating'....

Apple didn't really cheat, it's the same in the PC market.

After a while, a CPU fab becomes so efficient that it can knock out every chip so that it's capable of top whack.

Add this to the fact that it's cheaper to have one production line making everything, and to limit the speeds of some of the chips and sell them cheaper, than it is to actually make several speed tiers.

YES, some chips are better quality than others (hence some being good "overclockers"), but the ones that don't perform so well at the higher speeds get marked down, and some of the ones that DO perform at top whack get marked down as well, just to satisfty demand.

In the PC overclocking scene, it's desirable to get a chip so specific that you know which specific factory it was made in, even what week it was made, so that you get the best performing chip possible.

It's quite common to get 40-50% "extra" out of a processor, and as long as the temperatures are kept under control, you've nothing to worry about.

If the Mac Mini was cheaper, i'd think about buying one. I'd only use it as a media centre, but my xbox isn't struggling yet. Once we get HD, mind...

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AMD Athlon 1700 (@2200mhz from 1466 sod the noise!) - 768mb pc3200 - 200GB Maxtor - Pioneer 106 - GF4 Ti4200 - twinhan/visionplus pci dvb-t - random pci analogue tv tuner - A7v600-x (to replace the a7n8x-d that died...) - random 17\" CRT
Sony STR-DE425 & Eltax c205s;
xBox w/20GB HDD- executer 2.3b;
xBox - standard;
Konica/Minolta dimage z10 w/2x512mb SD;
iRiver h340;
A silly amount of Cat-5 and usb cables