Hi all, I'd like to get a Mac for my mom sometime, and the iMacs are rather expensive. I was thinking of a Mac Mini, but are they compatible with standard peripherals (monitors, keyboards, mice, et cetera)? Any suggestions/cautions/experiences?

They should work fine with your keyboard, mouse, and monitor, as long as they use USB & DVI. (I don't think the mac mini has HDMI ports, I can be wrong)

Only thing to worry about is stuff like Command and Apple keys missing, but it's not a terrible loss, I'm sure you can find a keymap somewhere, and let your mom know which keys change with MacOSX.

my housemate has a mac mini....

you get 1 DVI port that will feed most new monitors and you also get a DVI-VGA adaptor that lets you use older scrreens

the keyboard and mouse are USB and while it will work with any USB keyboard i would recomend a MAC keyboard as thease have the eject button for the CD slot and the volume contralls...

otherwise you will have to eject using the finder. as there is no hardware eject button on the unit.

you can use any USB mouse with a mac though and i see no reason to get a apple mouse apart form the bidirectional scrooling


apple keyboards cost $29 if you are in the USA
£19 if you are in the UK

Both the Microsoft Intellimouse series and any Logitech as far as I can tell work with a Mac as they have drivers you can download/come on the install CD for the extra buttons if any on the mice you can assign actions to. With a Logitech brand you might even be able to get away without the Mac keyboard as when I was setting up my mouse there is the option to pick the keyboard you are using and there are a lot of options for the mouse button bindings, I would imagine there would be the similar for their multimedia keys on the keyboard as well can't be certain though as I have a Mac keyboard for my machine.

if you want to go the whole hog logitech make a wireless keyboard especially for macs with an eject button and all!

Is a Mac Mini as good as an iMac, aside from it being a separate unit from the screen and all?

My whole company switched to Mac Minis and MacBook Pros. I've also gotten a few other people to switch to Mac Minis. With modern peripherals you should have no problems as long as each is USB. VGA adapter will work for any monitor. Most printers and cameras also "just work".

the cheapest iMac is the same specs as the slightly higher mac mini.

with a slightly bigger hard drive but a worse optical drive.

17" Imac:

* 1.83Ghz Intel Core2 Duo
* 512MB memory
* 160GB hard drive1
* 24x Combo drive
* Intel GMA 950 graphics

Ships: Within 24 hours
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$999.00


cheapest Mac mini:

* 1.66Ghz Intel Core Duo
* 512MB memory
* 60GB hard drive
* 24x Combo drive

Ships: Within 24 hours
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$599.00

more expensive mac mini:

* 1.83Ghz Intel Core Duo
* 512MB memory
* 80GB hard drive
* SuperDrive 8x (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)

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$799.00

iMacs are much better than the mac mini, if you have the money. Reason? iMac for 1,000$ (Be it the lowly 17" one) has x2-x3 the space, a monitor (Apple makes nice ones, but they're expensive) and a better CPU. Oh, and much-needed USB ports. (I wouldn't use a Mac Mini without a hub, that you can pick up for like 5$ by the way.)