New Mac-mini FINALLY!! but now what to buy?!?

Ok so now that the new Mac-mini, iMac, and Macbooks are up and available. What are people going to buy? I'm planning on doing iphone/ipod touch development so I really need a mac but i wanted to wait for a new mac-mini since they are so cheap and seemed like a good alternative. However, Mac released an update to the Macbook(the white version) which is VERY tempting. I mean 599-799 for a mini sounded like a great idea but without a keyboard or monitor it seems a little limited...yet a Macbook is only about $200 more and PORTABLE.
I think I'm going to go Macbook with $100 more for 4 gigs of ram.
What are other people thinking about the updates?
B

 

I'm bought my macbook almost 2 years ago. I'm thinking I'll probably upgrade to a new macbook soon. I'm strictly a laptop user. I haven't had a desktop in a long time. Having the ability to do my work wherever I want is important to me, so I think for the extra money, the macbook is the way to.

 

I'm waiting for the current generation of Pro towers to come on to the user market, then I'll get an 8 core, and upgrade with a GE force 5600 card.

I'll be pumping that power!

No more lag, ever! Not even emulating Crysis on full graphics will be able to slow me down!


YAY!

 

Well, considering the fact that the macbook has a better processor, better memory and it comes with a screen an speakers , I think it's self explanatory.

 

The mini has a speaker. If you want decent sound, you'd have to hook either one of them up to external speakers anyway. Coming with a screen is a drawback for me...I'd rather have a decent display than the relatively poor 18-bit screen in a Macbook. (Which is common for notebooks, not just Macbooks.) Also if the screen dies, the entire computer goes with it.

--Eric

 

Hmmm, so lets crunch some numbers aye. (aus dollars by the way)

mac mini : $AU1000

Cheapest monitor (Dell 19 inch) I could find : $AU199

total : $1199

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Price of a macbook : (aus) $1650

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Of course I always use headphones so speakers are kinda out of the question. So there you have it, better deal all round!


And now I'm off to play some battlefield on my S***ty G5 until I get enough money to buy one!

 

The point is not to buy the cheapest monitor you can find, the point is to buy the best monitor. Never skimp on monitors--you're looking at them for hours at a time. As far as ergonomics go, it's the most important part of a computer. You want a nice, good-sized, comfortable, high-quality display.

--Eric

 

Well, the best method is to have a really good monitor and a really crappy one to test the look of your game on. I do work on the good monitor and then constantly pop it over to the crap one to see what it will look like for the LCD (least common denominator). It's the same as a high end sound studio having a generic boombox in the corner to try out their mix on a horrible sound system to check the EQ.

Another reason to do this is to test the Gamma... your secondary monitor can be set to Windows Gamma. A lot of my work has proven to be way too dark when tested on Windows.

But as far as the new Mac mini, it seems like the perfect Unity iPhone machine. The 9400 can generate Occlusion Culling (not possible on the 950 GMA) and it seems plenty beefy enough for development.

 

Yep, definitely a lousy monitor for testing graphics, although that's less important if you're primarily programming. You want the pain in your skull to be from banging your head on the desk when you spent the last hour trying to fix what turned out to be a really stupid logic bug--not from eyestrain.

--Eric

 

Do you think it is a good "game machine" in general?

 

Well...it's better than the old mini! It's not going to come close to a machine with a medium/high end dedicated card.

Forgot to say before, the mini now has Firewire 800 too. This is a good thing...external storage for backup is not an option, it's a necessity. None of the Macbooks have Firewire anymore except the low-end model, which is still only Firewire 400.

--Eric

 

I think I just found the answer I'm looking for:

and a youtube video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVeI916yKLU

 

Well, besides having a PC (which I don't play any retail games on) and Crysis not being entirely fun, so "game performance" isn't an issue for me... my question is, do I need a specific Mac monitor for a Mac Mini or can I use any monitor that would hook up to a PC?

 

It has Mini DisplayPort and Mini-DVI (with a Mini-DVI to DVI adapter included). There are also adapters for Mini DisplayPort.

--Eric

 

Oooh thats cool, I could connect it to my epic tv....