I’ve been keeping an eye on Craigslist recently, trying to find deals on a couple of items. One thing I wanted to buy was a Mac Mini to replace my parents’ current computer (my old laptop). I like the fact that it has a small footprint, so they can leave it on top of a closet instead of taking up desk space. Originally I wanted to get an original model Mini (G4 with wifi) for $300 or so. Instead I ended up paying $460 for a Intel 1.66Ghz Core Duo with 2GB RAM, which originally came out in 2006. It’s pretty spiffy and runs Leopard fine (speaking of which Leopard is really sweet, it has built-in VNC so I can basically run the mini in headless mode — except that if I have no keyboard/mouse attached, warning dialogs will block and prevent the VNC service from starting upon reboot).

Although it was more than I wanted to pay, I think it was a good deal (assuming the wheels don’t fall off in a week), because I also got the Apple Wireless Keyboard and the Apple Wireless Mighty Mouse (both actually run off Bluetooth) in the deal (which would have come to $150 new). A bonus out of getting an Intel Mac is that I can run Windows through Boot Camp. My mom complains that she can’t use IE to visit corporate websites using Firefox or Safari. Although, restarting the computer to visit some sites might be a little too complicated; maybe I should look at virtualization options.

Posted by Kevin in Blogs Tags: apple, shopping, techlust