Apple Mac mini M9971LL/B (1.42 GHz PowerPC G4, 512 MB DDR SDRAM, 80 GB Hard Drive, SuperDrive DVD-RW/CD-RW Drive)

This was my first Apple computer. And for what I needed it for (economy of space, playing music, videos and general surfing and downloading) it was excellent.

However, after 3 years the hard drive packed up (no reason, no excessive use, it just did) - luckily it packed up in a way that made it possible to save the data. AND I had bought Applecare, Apple's very own extended warranty, so getting a new logic board and hard drive was free! Had I not bought the cover (some $80 dollars) I would have forked out $350 just to get it fixed, plus parts and labour.

A good machine for casual users. If you're hardcore and need lots of RAM and Disc space, get a maxed out iMac or a Power Mac.

The generation 1 mac mini is a great starter mac. I upgraded mine to 1GB at CompUSA and use it, along with an 160GB external drive, as my main media server. I have almost completed the process of importing all my CDs and some movies into iTunes. Importing video from a digital camcorder is quite easy with iLife but the G4 CPU is not up to the task for quick video editing. The newer Intel Core Duo mac mini should handle this easlity though.

This version of the Mac mini works very well for the purpose it was bought - keep in touch with family. Be it Skype or iChat, voice and video connections are of good quality. The only surprise was that the Mac Mini does not have a microphone line in, but the iSight camera connected via Firewire has a built-in microphone, so it works like a charm.
The SuperDrive allows to burn home videos in excellent quality. The Mac takes it's time doing the mpeg encoding, but thats OK as it is so silent when working you hardly notice the computer is on.
The i-Software is easy enough to use, that even my mom is happy to make use of the computer. All in all a great buy - everything works, setup is simple and no blue screens or weird error messages.

They sell old stock items which may have old software. I called Apple to register this and they told me Amazon should have NOT sold this. Apple only sells items within 90 days and this product was over 4 months.

For all those people who are concerned about space restrictions and want a powerhouse computer that will not need a large footprint, the Mac Mini is the perfect solution. Packing a boatload of power into a computer yay bigger than a coaster, there is no better power/space combination in the entire computing world!

For all the Windows users who don't want to make the switch to the Mac, with the newest Mac OS you will not look back once you get used to the ways that Apple does things the way they are SUPPOSED to be done.

As per usual Apple, the design of the Mac Mini is perfect, and it's so quiet that your own heartbeat will no doubt be louder than this quiet monster.

If you need a solid family computer that will allow you to surf the net, work with spreadsheets, check e-mail, or just do 99% of the things that you would like to be doing (I don't say 100% because it's not a gaming machine), pick up a Mac Mini for your home office, kitchen, ANYWHERE and you will NOT be disappointed!!

***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED