$600 Mimi computer Shoot-out... Mac v. PC

System Shootouts ^ | 3/25/2006 | Charles Gaba

[Swordmaker]

System head to head comparison of equally priced and sized Mac and PC computers available for sale right now in the $600 price range. Apple Mac Mini versus AOpen Pandora Mini PC.

Apple Mac Mini - Intel Core Solo

AOpen Pandora MiniPC - Intel Celeron M

Two guesses who copied who on the design...

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by Charles Gaba

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Read the System Shootout FAQ before proceeding! • All images and logos are copyright (c) 2004 the respective companies.

DATE CONFIGURED: 03/25/06

Best of Field
(in my opinion)

Apple Mac mini

AOpen Pandora Mini PC

Design/Styling:

Silver-White "Lunchbox"

Silver-White "Lunchbox"

Mobility:

3 lbs

3 lbs

Component Access?

Difficult to access

Difficult to access

Cords/Cables:

n/a

n/a

Desk Space Used:

42 sq. inches (6.5" x 6.5")

42 sq. inches (6.5" x 6.5")

Noise Volume:

Nearly silent

(Unknown)

Energy Use:

110 Watts (maximum)

65 Watts (maximum) (???)

Processor: Notes

1.5 GHz Intel Core Solo

1.4 GHz Intel Celeron M

L2 Cache:

2.0 MB

1.0 MB

RAM Type:

DDR2-SDRAM PC2-5300 (667 MHz)

DDR2-SDRAM PC2-4200 (533 MHz)

Front Side Bus:

667 MHz bus

400 MHz bus

RAM Amount:

512 MB (1 DIMM)

512 GB (1 DIMM)

Max. RAM:

2.0 GB (2 slots)

1.0 GB (1 slot)

Hard Drive Capacity:

60 GB

60 GB

Hard Drive Type:

Serial ATA

ATA

Hard Drive Speed:

5400 RPM

5400 RPM

CD-RW:

24x16x24x CD-RW (slot-loading)

??? CD-RW

DVD-/+RW:

8x DVD-ROM (slot-loading)

??? DVD-ROM (slot-loading)

Floppy/Other Drive:

--

--

PCI/AGP Slots:

--

1 internal mini PCI slot

Internal Bays:

1 2.5" drive bay (filled)

1 2.5" drive bay (filled)

External Bays:

1 5.25" drive bay (filled)

1 5.25" drive bay (filled)

Mouse:

optional (works w/any USB mouse)

optional (works w/any USB mouse)

Keyboard:

optional (works w/any USB keyboard)

optional (works w/any USB keyboard)

Remote Control:

Apple Remote included

--

USB Ports:

4 USB 2.0 ports (on CPU back)

2 USB 2.0 ports (on CPU back)

FireWire Ports:

1 port @ 400 Mbps

1 port @ 400 Mbps

Legacy Ports:

--

--

Video Card:

Intel GMA950 graphics processor

Intel GMA900 graphics processor

Video RAM:

64MB of DDR2 SDRAM (shared)

64MB (???) of DDR2 SDRAM (shared)

VGA Out:

Yes (adapter included)

Yes (adapter included)

DVI Out:

Yes

Yes

RCA-Out:

optional adapter

Yes

S-Video Out:

optional adapter

Yes

TV Tuner:

optional (Elgato Systems)

optional

Dual Display Support?

--

Yes (w/optional PCI card ???)

Display:

optional (works w/any DVI or VGA display)

optional (works w/any DVI or VGA display)

Display Upgradable?

n/a

n/a

Display Resolution:

n/a

n/a

Maximum Resolution:

1920 x 1200

(Unknown)

Brightness/Contrast:

n/a

n/a

Viewable Angle:

n/a

n/a

Audio In:

optical digital audio input/audio line in

analog microphone in

Audio Out:

optical digital audio output/headphone out

analog line out

Speakers Included:

internal mono speaker

--

Video Camera:

optional

optional

Ethernet:

10/100/1000 Base-T

10/100/1000 Base-T

56k Modem:

optional USB modem

optional USB modem

Wi-Fi Card:

integrated 802.11g (54 Mbps) card

optional

Bluetooth Card:

integrated Bluetooth 2.0+EDR module

optional

Hardware Extras:

--

--

Included OS:

Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger; BSD Unix;

X11 Window System included

Windows XP Home Edition

Windows Support:

via 3rd party ???

DOS/95/98/ME/2000/NT/XP (Native)

Mac Support:

OS X (Native)

Mac OS 8 (via Basilisk)

Linux/Unix Support:

Various flavors (Native)

Realtime Metadata Search/Organization:

Spotlight (system-wide)

(includes Smart Folders, Content Search, etc)

(Google desktop search available)

Modular Desktop Utilities:

Dashboard (system-wide)

(Konfabulator available as free download)

Task Scripting:

Automator/AppleScript (system-wide)

Windows Script Host

Save-as PDF:

Native (any file; includes encryption)

--

Faxing:

System-wide (requires optional modem)
Send/Receive logs/archives included

Fax Service not installed by default

Zero-Config Networking:

Bonjour (system-wide)

Bonjour for Windows available

Handwriting Recognition:

Inkwell (system-wide)

--

Voice/Speech Recog:

Voiceover (system-wide)

(limited to certain non-core apps)

Web Serving:

Apache w/Perl, Python & PHP included

(XP Pro only)

Data Backup Utility:

(iBackup, PsyncX, etc. available as free download)

Included

Developer Tools:

Xcode 2.0; GCC 4.0;

Quartz Composer included

(free download of compiler/linker/diff tools)

File Compression:

System-wide Zip compression

System-wide Zip compression

File Encryption:

FileVault system encryption

(XP Pro only)

Word Processor:

TextEdit (Word compatible)
or OpenOffice (free download; Word comp.)

NotePad
OpenOffice (free download; Word comp.)

Spreadsheet:

OpenOffice (free download; Excel comp.)

OpenOffice (free download; Excel comp.)

Presentation:

OpenOffice (free download; PwrPt. comp.)

OpenOffice (free download; PowerPoint comp.)

Database:

OpenOffice (free download)

OpenOffice (free download)

Drawing/Painting:

OpenOffice (free download)

OpenOffice (free download)

Page Layout/Publishing:

Comic Life

--

Website Authoring:

iWeb 1.0

--

Font Management:

FontBook 2.0

no on-the-fly font enabling/disabling

Projects/Planning:

Omni Outliner

--

Web Browser

Safari RSS 2.0

Internet Explorer 6

Image/PDF Viewer:

Preview 3.0

Image Viewer

E-Mail/Address Book:

OS X Mail 2.0 / Address Book 4.0

Outlook Express

Calendar Program:

iCal 2.0

--

Data Synchronization:

iSync 2.0

(XP Pro only)

System Data Transfer:

System Migration Assistant

Settings Transfer Wizard

Chat/AV Conferencing:

iChat AV 3.0
(others avail. as free dl: ICQ, AOL IM, etc..)

Windows Messenger
(others avail. as free dl: ICQ, AOL IM, etc..)

Multimedia Software:

Front Row (works w/Apple Remote)

Quicktime 7.0; DVD Player 4.5
(WMP & RealPlayer avail as free downloads)

WMP 10
(RealPlayer & QuickTime avail. as free download)

PVR Software:

optional (Elgato Systems)

optional

Financial:

Quicken 2006 for Macintosh

--

Reference:

Dictionary/Thesaurus; Sherlock 3.0

--

Digital Photography:

iPhoto 6.0, ImageCapture; Photo Booth

Google Picassa avail. free dl

Digital Video Editing:

iMovieHD 6.0

MSFT MovieMaker 2

CD Burning/Music:

iTunes 6.0; OS X Disk Burner; OS X Burn Folders

XP Disk Burning; WMP 9;
iTunes avail. as free download

Audio Engineering:

GarageBand 3.0

--

DVD Burning/Authoring:

iDVD 6.0; Disk Burner

Std. XP Burning

Games Included:

Big Bang Board Games; Chess

Mine Sweeper, Asstd. classic games

Total Software Titles Available:

"Fewer" (numbers unknown)

"More" (numbers unknown)

Additional Software:

Asstd. system software

Free Services:

1 month .Mac trial

--

Viruses/Trojans/Worms:

No known viruses, trojans,

worms or spyware affect OS X.

Between 1,200 - 70,000 known viruses

(depending on your source)

Security Alerts:
Source: U.S. Dept. of Energy

In General: far less common,
far less serious, fixed more quickly.

In General: far more common,
far more serious, fixed less quickly.

Firewall:

Built-in, fully configurable

Warranty:

1 yr. ltd./at-home; 90 days phone

1-yr. limited (hardware only)

Customer Service:

Scored 74% by Consumer Reports

(Highest Rating)

(Unknown)

Subtotal:

Base system price: $599

Base system price: $275
+ 1.4 GHz Celeron M upgrade: $69
+ 512 MB RAM upgrade: $52
+ 60 GB hard drive upgrade: $84
+ MSFT Windows XP Home upgrade: $89
+ Assembly & Testing: $25

- Rebates if any:

--

--

+ Ground Shipping:

n/c

$14

Total Price as configured:

(tax not included)

$599

$608

Got a beef with any of this? A helpful suggestion? Join the Discussions!

[Swordmaker]

System shoot out between Apple Mac Mini with Intel Core Solo and AOpen Mini PC with Intel Celeron M.... PING!

If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.

[BunnySlippers]

Boy, they didn't do much to differ from the Apple design, did they?

[romanesq]

It matters little of the imitative pc. It can only run windows xp which is usable but handicapped on so many levels especially with rampant viruses.

The mac mini on the other hand has an awesome operating system that if you choose can load windows xp as well. You can run either operating system whenever you want.

But the Mac OS X system is oh so elegant and civilized in comparison.

[tomzz]

For that same six hundred dollars intelligently spent at MarketPro shows, I can put together a PC which will blow the Mac into the weeds and run Ubuntu linux on it, which doesn't exist for Macs to my knowledge.

[Mr. Blonde]

Is the Mac Mini an old picture? It only has two USB ports but it does have a modem. The comparison says it has 4 USB ports and no modem.

[SunkenCiv]

Uh-oh.

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[JRios1968]

Now that's an UGLY computer!

[Yossarian]

For that same six hundred dollars intelligently spent at MarketPro shows, I can put together a PC which will blow the Mac into the weeds and run Ubuntu linux on it, which doesn't exist for Macs to my knowledge.

At that same size? That's part of the appeal. I've hidden my Core Duo Mini in my entertainment cabinet, and you can hardly tell the thing is there. Even if you could, you wouldn't mind, 'cause it looks so good.

By the way, I'm running SUSE Linux 10.0 on the Mini as we speak. (It triple boots Mac, XP Pro, and Linux. Soon I'll try running them all virtual via Parallels.)I've also loaded Gentoo, from a CD-booting distro.

[SunkenCiv]

Bad news -- it's not only virtual reality, but a virtual machine, running on ANY PLATFORM. Run for it, run for your lives!

[Swordmaker]

Uh, could that possible be "Mimi"?

[Swordmaker]

Is the Mac Mini an old picture? It only has two USB ports but it does have a modem. The comparison says it has 4 USB ports and no modem.

Could be... I did a Google search for an appropriate view... might be the older model.

[SunkenCiv]

Yup. ;')

$600 Mimi computer Shoot-out... Mac v. PC
System Shootouts | 3/25/2006 | Charles Gaba
Posted on 06/01/2006 12:16:49 AM EDT by Swordmaker
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1641576/posts

[Swordmaker]

For that same six hundred dollars intelligently spent at MarketPro shows, I can put together a PC which will blow the Mac into the weeds and run Ubuntu linux on it, which doesn't exist for Macs to my knowledge.

But, Tomzz, 99% of computer users could not and would not... that's alright for a geek... but not for Mom and Pop and people who merely want to USE their computers.

[JRios1968]

[JRios1968]

Bad news -- it's not only virtual reality, but a virtual machine, running on ANY PLATFORM. Run for it, run for your lives!

[Swordmaker]

Yup. ;')

Then there should be TWO Mimis, both armed with 12 gauge shotguns... Which computer would survive a couple of loads of birdshot? ;^)>

[Swordmaker]

No, that looks more like the original iMac in Indigo Blue...

[SunkenCiv]

You're scarin' me...

[JRios1968]

They cost about the same...