If you really think a MAC mini is such a failure, go try to buy an old one on eBay.
You will pay more for a 2 year old mac mini than you can buy a much more powerful brand new PC. The point is, the mini is built better, has a better OS, and is desirable enough for people to pay up to get it. The fact that you want to put a card in it to do something is silly. The average corporate company could take 1000 small dell boxes and replace'em with mini's. Keep the monitor, keep the mouse, plug the thing in and go. The small number of people that need to do the custom video card crap just shows a lack of understanding of the business world in commenting about it.
The fact of the matter is, the one area in business that the MAC is actually dominant, are functions that are heavily graphic in nature. Instead of adding a better graphics card to a DELL, what they REALLY do is get rid of the dell and us a real graphics machine.
Unfortunatley you are SOOOOOOO wrong on that.
the Mac Mini keeps a high price on ebay because Apple have hardly changed it since they moved it to intel. That means that they stay pretty current with brand new mac mini's and the price stays high.
If apple overhauled the hardware and stuck gaming graphics in it then the price would crash for mac minis on ebay.
Also, a basic Dell business box only costs $398 (vostro with XP Pro Vista downgrade option & DVDRW with similar spec to a mac mini)
Mac mini with dvdrw $599
Now, if an IT department went to their bosses and asked for the budget to get 100 new PC's and said
"Mac mini's - total cost $59,900 or Dell's - Total cost $39,800 and the dells will work correctly with exchange and active directory on the Windows Server"
$20,100 cheaper, even accounting for a corporate AV package and a hardware firewall you are still sitting with plenty of spare cash"
I love Mac's but that conversation is not going to take place in big business until Apple hits the budget box market. So, probably never.
the Mac Mini keeps a high price on ebay because Apple have hardly changed it since they moved it to intel. That means that they stay pretty current with brand new mac mini's and the price stays high.
If apple overhauled the hardware and stuck gaming graphics in it then the price would crash for mac minis on ebay.
Also, a basic Dell business box only costs $398 (vostro with XP Pro Vista downgrade option & DVDRW with similar spec to a mac mini)
Mac mini with dvdrw $599
Now, if an IT department went to their bosses and asked for the budget to get 100 new PC's and said
"Mac mini's - total cost $59,900 or Dell's - Total cost $39,800 and the dells will work correctly with exchange and active directory on the Windows Server"
$20,100 cheaper, even accounting for a corporate AV package and a hardware firewall you are still sitting with plenty of spare cash"
I love Mac's but that conversation is not going to take place in big business until Apple hits the budget box market. So, probably never.
You clearly don't have any idea what you're talking about, but I'm sure you sleep better that way.
Let me see, the Mini has hardly been changed? Right.
Over the same period, a Dell pc has hardly changed, if you want to claim that then it's the same for both. (other than the class of CPU, the speed of CPU, the amount of memory, and some other things.... sure nothings changed)
Oh, and the price for used MAC mini computers stays up because Apple doesn't lower the price of the new ones?
Then why is a 2 year old PC a piece of junk and a 2 year old MAC mini about 10% less than a brand new one?
Could it be because people find value in them and bu them, and the PC's you can't give away?
Thinking that adding a gaming video card, or needing a dvdrw for business support is crazy.
If you really want to attack the business world, the ripe market is for basically network terminal devices. Make a Mini with no cd drive at all, and THAT's something the business could use.
The problem with that, you can't make money on the model.
Don't bring me "Apple should do what Dell is doing if they want to be in 'Business'" because Dell isn't going to survive the way they are going. Their margins are crashing and they pretty much have to do that to survive. But you
can only cut so far to survive before the cutting itself kills you. The longer they are tied to the OS anchor,
the more sickly their model becomes. (active directory does little good if you don't dare take Vista)
There was a time when Gateway and Compaq were very successful in the business world.
Holding your prices down, and slashing your margins so you can't survive is NOT what "Apple should do....".
There will always be a market for cheap throw away hardware. And that market will be owned by Dell.
It can't support more than two companies. HP will do well, Dell will be a sick weaker sister,
and eMachines, Gateway, and IBM will get out. Apple is way too smart to go after the commodity
PC market. Make a mini with low power usage and about zero OS issues compared to windows and
it'll do very well. The fact that a few people think it should be a clone of a PC because they
only know that world isn't going to change APples plan nor should it.
You sound like a total stupid idiot, I just upgraded the disk drive in my laptop by taking out the battery, removing 4 screws, sliding out the old drives rack, replacing it with a 250 gb that I picked up at Micro-Center, and put it back together.
I used free software from the internet, to back the entire old drive image onto a USB drive.
I rebooted from the USB external drive after the new drive was inplace.
I then copied the image from the USB external drive onto the new internal drive.
Then I rebooted from the internal drive and my Leopard is completely functional without even reinstalling the OS!
Took one screw driver and about 5 minutes to replace the drive.
I don't know just how little you know about Apple products PC-Fanboy.... but it's clear it's so little that it can't be measured.
What kind of laptop do you have? Getting into a MacBook Pro is a tad more complicated and voids your warranty if you do it yourself.
Our company forced our art dept over to AD last year and we have more issues now than we ever did before. They've locked us totally out of our machines to the point where we cannot run Disk Utility without an admin password from IT.
We now have more server glitches where we get locked out of certain servers and when trying to move folders on the server prompts us to say we do not have permissions. Don't even get me started on all the temp files that get created now that were never there before.
It takes my PowerMac G5 almost 3 minutes to just get to the log in screen from a cold start now where before I didn't even have enough time to put my keys and lunch away before it was waiting on me.
Don't blame Active Directory, blame the IT management who come up with the group policy that restricts your activities. Control of the desktop to minimize support and down time is critical in large Enterprise environments, this is necessary to keep the environment stable. It's a fine line between keeping the environment stable and keeping the end user from being productive.
Active Directory will work with Macs you just have to spend the time to configure them in the first place.
As for computers, Mac Pros are overkill for 95% of the workforce. Macs won't hit it big in the large enterprise environments because:
1) Fear and mistrust of OSX by most IT shops
2) Conservatism of IT shops in general
3) Custom apps barely work in Windows, and booting with boot camp defeats the purpose of moving to a modern OS
4) Only one supplier of hardware
5) Current models (besides laptops) don't meet the needs of most large shops. They have to be cheap and have the hard drive/dvd player/memory easily replaced.
He's full of shit... Don't bother listening to wbrasington, there isn't a Mac made that a drive can be replace in 5 minutes, well maybe a Mac Pro with an open bay, but thats about it.
He's full of shit... Don't bother listening to wbrasington, there isn't a Mac made that a drive can be replace in 5 minutes, well maybe a Mac Pro with an open bay, but thats about it.
Indeed he is. It's interesting to note how Mac defenders refer to the MacBook Pro as the "perfect" laptop. But when the difficulty of taking apart and repairing the MacBook Pro is pointed out, then that "perfect", "professional" MacBook Pro suddenly changes to a 13 inch "consumer" MacBook, which happens to have a user replaceable hard drive. And when the difficulty of servicing desktop Macs is pointed out, then all those iMacs that Apple fans are defending suddenly turn into Mac Pros.
He's full of shit... Don't bother listening to wbrasington, there isn't a Mac made that a drive can be replace in 5 minutes, well maybe a Mac Pro with an open bay, but thats about it.
In his defense the MacBook's HDD can be replaced in about 5 minutes and the MBP really does need easier access to the HDD. I'd put money on it that the new cases for the MBP will offer an easy to replace HDD.
In his defense the MacBook's HDD can be replaced in about 5 minutes and the MBP really does need easier access to the HDD. I'd put money on it that the new cases for the MBP will offer an easy to replace HDD.
I've got a macbook, I doubt it can be replaced in 5 minutes and even if it's splitting hairs on the time, the warranty is void if I understand Apples terms correctly.
I've got a macbook, I doubt it can be replaced in 5 minutes and even if it's splitting hairs on the time, the warranty is void if I understand Apples terms correctly.
Have you tried it? When you take off the battery there are 4 screws and you have access to the HDD and RAM. It's a good design, one that I hope carries over to the MBP.
While Apple says that replacing the HDD yourself will void the warranty that is just them, like other OEMs, covering their ass. I've mailed in Macs over the years for repair under warranty with upgraded RAM and HDDs without incident. In fact, one issue I had was because of bad 3rd-party RAM that stopped working in a PB after 6 months of use and coincidentally after an update to a fresh version of OS X onto my aftermarket HDD (I think it was a 5400RPM over the 4200ROM drive that it came with) and they installed a newer version of iLife than mine came with restore disc. They returned the PB with a fresh copy of OS X installed and the defunct in a separate package explaining the issue.
If Apple cares to be a serious contender in corporate I.T. departments, they ought make an expandable Macintosh that suits the needs of business users. Such a Mac would be designed to permit easy replacement of the hard drive and video card, provide space for one or two PCI cards, and not have a built-in screen. Essentially, this would be an expandable Mac Mini. (Remember the design of the IIci and IIcx machines?)
I imagine Apple would be concerned that this Enterprise Macintosh might cannibalize sales of iMacs in the consumer space -- but I recall how Apple initially restricted the eMac to educational institutions. They might consider restricting an Enterprise Mac to corporate users who buy in volume.
um , i think you just described the mac pro.
in regards to the event, i see the "no subscription" bit as good news. We already know its not just a bug fix and "worth the 8.0" title, according to rose, so there must be some great new feature.
my guess is we will see the media streaming (to iphone, touch, and possibly other macs) feature included as patented by apple a few weeks back.
i just hope it goes further than music streaming to include vid content as well...
Have you tried it? When you take off the battery there are 4 screws and you have access to the HDD and RAM. It's a good design, one that I hope carries over to the MBP.
While Apple says that replacing the HDD yourself will void the warranty that is just them, like other OEMs, covering their ass. I've mailed in Macs over the years for repair under warranty with upgraded RAM and HDDs without incident. In fact, one issue I had was because of bad 3rd-party RAM that stopped working in a PB after 6 months of use and coincidentally after an update to a fresh version of OS X onto my aftermarket HDD (I think it was a 5400RPM over the 4200ROM drive that it came with) and they installed a newer version of iLife than mine came with restore disc. They returned the PB with a fresh copy of OS X installed and the defunct in a separate package explaining the issue.
I replaced one in an iBook and when it turned out that it was the MB that was screwed up not the original HD they wouldn't even fix it, at all, I wasn't even asking for a warranty repair. So I don't believe that they would turn their head to something like that at this point, as it already bit me once.
You clearly don't have any idea what you're talking about, but I'm sure you sleep better that way.
Let me see, the Mini has hardly been changed? Right.
Over the same period, a Dell pc has hardly changed, if you want to claim that then it's the same for both. (other than the class of CPU, the speed of CPU, the amount of memory, and some other things.... sure nothings changed)
Oh, and the price for used MAC mini computers stays up because Apple doesn't lower the price of the new ones?
Then why is a 2 year old PC a piece of junk and a 2 year old MAC mini about 10% less than a brand new one?
Could it be because people find value in them and bu them, and the PC's you can't give away?
Jesus, you are a complete Apple fanboy of the worst type.
Dells machines are PC's and in a two year period basic business box PC hardware has changed dramatically e.g. clock speed etc etc. The Mac mini is pretty stagnant, a 'slight' speed boost Apple have changed fuck all on the motherboard. So yeah, you cant give a PC away as its spec is well below the spec of new systems. The Mac Mini hasn't moved.
No, it doesn't void the warranty -- at all -- if you do it yourself. The only thing that is voided is the warranty on parts that you break while you're in there.
I've got a macbook, I doubt it can be replaced in 5 minutes and even if it's splitting hairs on the time, the warranty is void if I understand Apples terms correctly.
You don't understand the terms correctly. Even the MacBook Pro's hard drive can be user replaced without voiding the warranty. Just be careful while you're doing it.
And I can easily replace the MacBook's hard drive in less than one minute plus shut down, restart and installation time. If you really want, I'll put up a Youtube video to prove it.
And that's where Windows really sticks it to you. With Mac OS, there's a simple utility to copy over your Applications and settings onto a brand spanking clean install of the OS on your new hard drive, without reinstalling a thing except the OS (which takes less time than installing Windows anyway). That saves literally days worth of labor compared to performing a Windows hard drive upgrade, depending on how much software you need to install.
Jesus, you are a complete Apple fanboy of the worst type.
Dells machines are PC's and in a two year period basic business box PC hardware has changed dramatically e.g. clock speed etc etc. The Mac mini is pretty stagnant, a 'slight' speed boost Apple have changed fuck all on the motherboard. So yeah, you cant give a PC away as its spec is well below the spec of new systems. The Mac Mini hasn't moved.
I think the point is that a 2 year-old budget PC can't run a new Windows operating system (e.g. XP) efficiently, if at all, while a 2 year-old Mini can easily run business applications on a brand new Mac OS release (e.g. Leopard). That's one reason Macs don't depreciate.
A PC's maximum useful life is usually 2-3 years. A Mac is easily 3-5 years.
That said, the Mini is definitely due for an update.
Comments
If you really think a MAC mini is such a failure, go try to buy an old one on eBay.
You will pay more for a 2 year old mac mini than you can buy a much more powerful brand new PC. The point is, the mini is built better, has a better OS, and is desirable enough for people to pay up to get it. The fact that you want to put a card in it to do something is silly. The average corporate company could take 1000 small dell boxes and replace'em with mini's. Keep the monitor, keep the mouse, plug the thing in and go. The small number of people that need to do the custom video card crap just shows a lack of understanding of the business world in commenting about it.
The fact of the matter is, the one area in business that the MAC is actually dominant, are functions that are heavily graphic in nature. Instead of adding a better graphics card to a DELL, what they REALLY do is get rid of the dell and us a real graphics machine.
Unfortunatley you are SOOOOOOO wrong on that.
the Mac Mini keeps a high price on ebay because Apple have hardly changed it since they moved it to intel. That means that they stay pretty current with brand new mac mini's and the price stays high.
If apple overhauled the hardware and stuck gaming graphics in it then the price would crash for mac minis on ebay.
Also, a basic Dell business box only costs $398 (vostro with XP Pro Vista downgrade option & DVDRW with similar spec to a mac mini)
Mac mini with dvdrw $599
Now, if an IT department went to their bosses and asked for the budget to get 100 new PC's and said
"Mac mini's - total cost $59,900 or Dell's - Total cost $39,800 and the dells will work correctly with exchange and active directory on the Windows Server"
$20,100 cheaper, even accounting for a corporate AV package and a hardware firewall you are still sitting with plenty of spare cash"
I love Mac's but that conversation is not going to take place in big business until Apple hits the budget box market. So, probably never.
Unfortunatley you are SOOOOOOO wrong on that.
the Mac Mini keeps a high price on ebay because Apple have hardly changed it since they moved it to intel. That means that they stay pretty current with brand new mac mini's and the price stays high.
If apple overhauled the hardware and stuck gaming graphics in it then the price would crash for mac minis on ebay.
Also, a basic Dell business box only costs $398 (vostro with XP Pro Vista downgrade option & DVDRW with similar spec to a mac mini)
Mac mini with dvdrw $599
Now, if an IT department went to their bosses and asked for the budget to get 100 new PC's and said
"Mac mini's - total cost $59,900 or Dell's - Total cost $39,800 and the dells will work correctly with exchange and active directory on the Windows Server"
$20,100 cheaper, even accounting for a corporate AV package and a hardware firewall you are still sitting with plenty of spare cash"
I love Mac's but that conversation is not going to take place in big business until Apple hits the budget box market. So, probably never.
You clearly don't have any idea what you're talking about, but I'm sure you sleep better that way.
Let me see, the Mini has hardly been changed? Right.
Over the same period, a Dell pc has hardly changed, if you want to claim that then it's the same for both. (other than the class of CPU, the speed of CPU, the amount of memory, and some other things.... sure nothings changed)
Oh, and the price for used MAC mini computers stays up because Apple doesn't lower the price of the new ones?
Then why is a 2 year old PC a piece of junk and a 2 year old MAC mini about 10% less than a brand new one?
Could it be because people find value in them and bu them, and the PC's you can't give away?
Unfortunatley you are SOOOOOOO wrong on that.
Mac mini with dvdrw $599
By the way, another thing.
Thinking that adding a gaming video card, or needing a dvdrw for business support is crazy.
If you really want to attack the business world, the ripe market is for basically network terminal devices. Make a Mini with no cd drive at all, and THAT's something the business could use.
The problem with that, you can't make money on the model.
Don't bring me "Apple should do what Dell is doing if they want to be in 'Business'" because Dell isn't going to survive the way they are going. Their margins are crashing and they pretty much have to do that to survive. But you
can only cut so far to survive before the cutting itself kills you. The longer they are tied to the OS anchor,
the more sickly their model becomes. (active directory does little good if you don't dare take Vista)
There was a time when Gateway and Compaq were very successful in the business world.
Holding your prices down, and slashing your margins so you can't survive is NOT what "Apple should do....".
There will always be a market for cheap throw away hardware. And that market will be owned by Dell.
It can't support more than two companies. HP will do well, Dell will be a sick weaker sister,
and eMachines, Gateway, and IBM will get out. Apple is way too smart to go after the commodity
PC market. Make a mini with low power usage and about zero OS issues compared to windows and
it'll do very well. The fact that a few people think it should be a clone of a PC because they
only know that world isn't going to change APples plan nor should it.
Mac is NOT an acronym, it's short for Macintosh.
and that's what I said........
You sound like a total stupid idiot, I just upgraded the disk drive in my laptop by taking out the battery, removing 4 screws, sliding out the old drives rack, replacing it with a 250 gb that I picked up at Micro-Center, and put it back together.
I used free software from the internet, to back the entire old drive image onto a USB drive.
I rebooted from the USB external drive after the new drive was inplace.
I then copied the image from the USB external drive onto the new internal drive.
Then I rebooted from the internal drive and my Leopard is completely functional without even reinstalling the OS!
Took one screw driver and about 5 minutes to replace the drive.
I don't know just how little you know about Apple products PC-Fanboy.... but it's clear it's so little that it can't be measured.
What kind of laptop do you have? Getting into a MacBook Pro is a tad more complicated and voids your warranty if you do it yourself.
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/...2119528,00.asp
I hate Active Directory.
Our company forced our art dept over to AD last year and we have more issues now than we ever did before. They've locked us totally out of our machines to the point where we cannot run Disk Utility without an admin password from IT.
We now have more server glitches where we get locked out of certain servers and when trying to move folders on the server prompts us to say we do not have permissions. Don't even get me started on all the temp files that get created now that were never there before.
It takes my PowerMac G5 almost 3 minutes to just get to the log in screen from a cold start now where before I didn't even have enough time to put my keys and lunch away before it was waiting on me.
Don't blame Active Directory, blame the IT management who come up with the group policy that restricts your activities. Control of the desktop to minimize support and down time is critical in large Enterprise environments, this is necessary to keep the environment stable. It's a fine line between keeping the environment stable and keeping the end user from being productive.
Active Directory will work with Macs you just have to spend the time to configure them in the first place.
As for computers, Mac Pros are overkill for 95% of the workforce. Macs won't hit it big in the large enterprise environments because:
1) Fear and mistrust of OSX by most IT shops
2) Conservatism of IT shops in general
3) Custom apps barely work in Windows, and booting with boot camp defeats the purpose of moving to a modern OS
4) Only one supplier of hardware
5) Current models (besides laptops) don't meet the needs of most large shops. They have to be cheap and have the hard drive/dvd player/memory easily replaced.
What kind of laptop do you have? Getting into a MacBook Pro is a tad more complicated and voids your warranty if you do it yourself.
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/...2119528,00.asp
He's full of shit... Don't bother listening to wbrasington, there isn't a Mac made that a drive can be replace in 5 minutes, well maybe a Mac Pro with an open bay, but thats about it.
+++ There are a lot of pinheads in big corporations.
He's full of shit... Don't bother listening to wbrasington, there isn't a Mac made that a drive can be replace in 5 minutes, well maybe a Mac Pro with an open bay, but thats about it.
Indeed he is. It's interesting to note how Mac defenders refer to the MacBook Pro as the "perfect" laptop. But when the difficulty of taking apart and repairing the MacBook Pro is pointed out, then that "perfect", "professional" MacBook Pro suddenly changes to a 13 inch "consumer" MacBook, which happens to have a user replaceable hard drive. And when the difficulty of servicing desktop Macs is pointed out, then all those iMacs that Apple fans are defending suddenly turn into Mac Pros.
He's full of shit... Don't bother listening to wbrasington, there isn't a Mac made that a drive can be replace in 5 minutes, well maybe a Mac Pro with an open bay, but thats about it.
In his defense the MacBook's HDD can be replaced in about 5 minutes and the MBP really does need easier access to the HDD. I'd put money on it that the new cases for the MBP will offer an easy to replace HDD.
In his defense the MacBook's HDD can be replaced in about 5 minutes and the MBP really does need easier access to the HDD. I'd put money on it that the new cases for the MBP will offer an easy to replace HDD.
I've got a macbook, I doubt it can be replaced in 5 minutes and even if it's splitting hairs on the time, the warranty is void if I understand Apples terms correctly.
I've got a macbook, I doubt it can be replaced in 5 minutes and even if it's splitting hairs on the time, the warranty is void if I understand Apples terms correctly.
Have you tried it? When you take off the battery there are 4 screws and you have access to the HDD and RAM. It's a good design, one that I hope carries over to the MBP.
While Apple says that replacing the HDD yourself will void the warranty that is just them, like other OEMs, covering their ass. I've mailed in Macs over the years for repair under warranty with upgraded RAM and HDDs without incident. In fact, one issue I had was because of bad 3rd-party RAM that stopped working in a PB after 6 months of use and coincidentally after an update to a fresh version of OS X onto my aftermarket HDD (I think it was a 5400RPM over the 4200ROM drive that it came with) and they installed a newer version of iLife than mine came with restore disc. They returned the PB with a fresh copy of OS X installed and the defunct in a separate package explaining the issue.
If Apple cares to be a serious contender in corporate I.T. departments, they ought make an expandable Macintosh that suits the needs of business users. Such a Mac would be designed to permit easy replacement of the hard drive and video card, provide space for one or two PCI cards, and not have a built-in screen. Essentially, this would be an expandable Mac Mini. (Remember the design of the IIci and IIcx machines?)
I imagine Apple would be concerned that this Enterprise Macintosh might cannibalize sales of iMacs in the consumer space -- but I recall how Apple initially restricted the eMac to educational institutions. They might consider restricting an Enterprise Mac to corporate users who buy in volume.
um , i think you just described the mac pro.
in regards to the event, i see the "no subscription" bit as good news. We already know its not just a bug fix and "worth the 8.0" title, according to rose, so there must be some great new feature.
my guess is we will see the media streaming (to iphone, touch, and possibly other macs) feature included as patented by apple a few weeks back.
i just hope it goes further than music streaming to include vid content as well...
Have you tried it? When you take off the battery there are 4 screws and you have access to the HDD and RAM. It's a good design, one that I hope carries over to the MBP.
While Apple says that replacing the HDD yourself will void the warranty that is just them, like other OEMs, covering their ass. I've mailed in Macs over the years for repair under warranty with upgraded RAM and HDDs without incident. In fact, one issue I had was because of bad 3rd-party RAM that stopped working in a PB after 6 months of use and coincidentally after an update to a fresh version of OS X onto my aftermarket HDD (I think it was a 5400RPM over the 4200ROM drive that it came with) and they installed a newer version of iLife than mine came with restore disc. They returned the PB with a fresh copy of OS X installed and the defunct in a separate package explaining the issue.
I replaced one in an iBook and when it turned out that it was the MB that was screwed up not the original HD they wouldn't even fix it, at all, I wasn't even asking for a warranty repair. So I don't believe that they would turn their head to something like that at this point, as it already bit me once.
You clearly don't have any idea what you're talking about, but I'm sure you sleep better that way.
Let me see, the Mini has hardly been changed? Right.
Over the same period, a Dell pc has hardly changed, if you want to claim that then it's the same for both. (other than the class of CPU, the speed of CPU, the amount of memory, and some other things.... sure nothings changed)
Oh, and the price for used MAC mini computers stays up because Apple doesn't lower the price of the new ones?
Then why is a 2 year old PC a piece of junk and a 2 year old MAC mini about 10% less than a brand new one?
Could it be because people find value in them and bu them, and the PC's you can't give away?
Jesus, you are a complete Apple fanboy of the worst type.
Dells machines are PC's and in a two year period basic business box PC hardware has changed dramatically e.g. clock speed etc etc. The Mac mini is pretty stagnant, a 'slight' speed boost Apple have changed fuck all on the motherboard. So yeah, you cant give a PC away as its spec is well below the spec of new systems. The Mac Mini hasn't moved.
What kind of laptop do you have? Getting into a MacBook Pro is a tad more complicated and voids your warranty if you do it yourself.
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/...2119528,00.asp
No, it doesn't void the warranty -- at all -- if you do it yourself. The only thing that is voided is the warranty on parts that you break while you're in there.
I've got a macbook, I doubt it can be replaced in 5 minutes and even if it's splitting hairs on the time, the warranty is void if I understand Apples terms correctly.
You don't understand the terms correctly. Even the MacBook Pro's hard drive can be user replaced without voiding the warranty. Just be careful while you're doing it.
And I can easily replace the MacBook's hard drive in less than one minute plus shut down, restart and installation time. If you really want, I'll put up a Youtube video to prove it.
And that's where Windows really sticks it to you. With Mac OS, there's a simple utility to copy over your Applications and settings onto a brand spanking clean install of the OS on your new hard drive, without reinstalling a thing except the OS (which takes less time than installing Windows anyway). That saves literally days worth of labor compared to performing a Windows hard drive upgrade, depending on how much software you need to install.
Jesus, you are a complete Apple fanboy of the worst type.
Dells machines are PC's and in a two year period basic business box PC hardware has changed dramatically e.g. clock speed etc etc. The Mac mini is pretty stagnant, a 'slight' speed boost Apple have changed fuck all on the motherboard. So yeah, you cant give a PC away as its spec is well below the spec of new systems. The Mac Mini hasn't moved.
I think the point is that a 2 year-old budget PC can't run a new Windows operating system (e.g. XP) efficiently, if at all, while a 2 year-old Mini can easily run business applications on a brand new Mac OS release (e.g. Leopard). That's one reason Macs don't depreciate.
A PC's maximum useful life is usually 2-3 years. A Mac is easily 3-5 years.
That said, the Mini is definitely due for an update.