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General => General discussion => Topic started by: The Doc on 27 December 2011, 18:24

Title: What's the cheapest / lowest spec mini mac I can buy that will run iTunes well?
Post by: The Doc on 27 December 2011, 18:24
Greetings,

I'm after buying the cheapest / lowest spec mini mac I can buy that will run iTunes well as my of doesn't get along with iTunes and never has.....

I am presuming that I can use an external hard drive with a mini mac?


Please take note of the following information prior to giving an answer.

1. I'd never have another computer as my main source due to my job, nothing I have for work will work on Mac or if it seems like it will it goes nuts.

2. Event if it did I don't want a Mac anything more than I already have.

3. The specific spec of my pc is unimportant but know that it does every other task required with

4. I want the mini mac as I can hide it behind one of my monitors so it would be invisible.

Thought and help please?
Title: Re: What's the cheapest / lowest spec mini mac I can buy that will run iTunes well?
Post by: Jay on 27 December 2011, 18:33
£529 according to the Apple site, same price on Curry's. Same price as you'll find most places as Apple doesn't give much margin to resellers, if you know any students you might get a little off :wink:

Seems a bit overkill just to get iTunes working properly though. Apple are c#nts and I swear make iTunes run crap on Windows purposely. Would you be willing to run OSX86? :lipsrsealed:
Title: Re: What's the cheapest / lowest spec mini mac I can buy that will run iTunes well?
Post by: bobbarley on 27 December 2011, 18:34
Other option is to go second hand, OR just use Windows?
Title: Re: What's the cheapest / lowest spec mini mac I can buy that will run iTunes well?
Post by: fecked_tt on 27 December 2011, 18:37
external hdd will work fine - you will have to reformat it probably. mac uses some ghey format and not NTFS so in order to share between PC and mac you'll have to use xFAT (format on PC WIN7)

been through all this with my macbook pro :)
Title: Re: What's the cheapest / lowest spec mini mac I can buy that will run iTunes well?
Post by: JC on 27 December 2011, 18:43
operator error  :undecided:
Title: Re: What's the cheapest / lowest spec mini mac I can buy that will run iTunes well?
Post by: The Doc on 27 December 2011, 18:44
operator error  :undecided:

No mate  :wink:

Happy to buy used from fleabag but not happy to ever plug any I / apple anything into my lovely PC ever again  :grin:

I agree with about the post that apple seem to have "go slow" software for windows users  :wink:
Title: Re: What's the cheapest / lowest spec mini mac I can buy that will run iTunes well?
Post by: damien010685 on 27 December 2011, 18:44
There is a program you can download called tuxera means you can use any drive on mac no problems
Title: Re: What's the cheapest / lowest spec mini mac I can buy that will run iTunes well?
Post by: The Doc on 27 December 2011, 18:45
There is a program you can download called tuxera means you can use any drive on mac no problems

Cool, so we know that I can use an external drive, what's the scor on fleabag?
Title: Re: What's the cheapest / lowest spec mini mac I can buy that will run iTunes well?
Post by: Jay on 27 December 2011, 18:48
External drive will work fine, but why?  :huh: iCloud sync's all your music doesn't it, without a PC/Mac? iTunes is ghey and out of date anyways and should be sent to /dev/null.

http://www.osx86project.org/ for cheap iTunesness if you must have OSX.

http://www.paragon-software.com/home/hfs-windows/ if you don't format the external drive properly and cba to copy sh!t over and reformat etc or use the NTFS-3G driver to access NTFS drives on a Mac.
Title: Re: What's the cheapest / lowest spec mini mac I can buy that will run iTunes well?
Post by: The Doc on 27 December 2011, 18:51
I don't like like clouds, I like to back up my back ups at home base  :wink:
Title: Re: What's the cheapest / lowest spec mini mac I can buy that will run iTunes well?
Post by: Jay on 27 December 2011, 19:03
I think you still can back it up normally, it just syncs all your music across all your iPhones/iPod/iPads/iPoo's/iPee's etc
Title: Re: What's the cheapest / lowest spec mini mac I can buy that will run iTunes well?
Post by: The Doc on 27 December 2011, 19:05
Cool stuff, I have apple tv bought for me by Mrs Doc for christmas but running it via my pc / iPhones / pad etc is not making my pc happy (or me)
Title: Re: What's the cheapest / lowest spec mini mac I can buy that will run iTunes well?
Post by: Adam on 27 December 2011, 23:02
You have a PM Craig.
Title: Re: What's the cheapest / lowest spec mini mac I can buy that will run iTunes well?
Post by: The Doc on 27 December 2011, 23:24
Ta mate  :wink:
Title: Re: What's the cheapest / lowest spec mini mac I can buy that will run iTunes well?
Post by: The Doc on 30 December 2011, 20:11
cough  :nerd:
Title: Re: What's the cheapest / lowest spec mini mac I can buy that will run iTunes well?
Post by: DubFan on 31 December 2011, 05:01
Why don't you buy a network (NAS) hard drive like this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/LaCie-Network-Space-Connected-Storage/dp/B00392HE78/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1325307496&sr=8-1 (http://www.amazon.co.uk/LaCie-Network-Space-Connected-Storage/dp/B00392HE78/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1325307496&sr=8-1).
Then plug it into your network anywhere in the house, put all your music/media files on it and then you can access all the files from your new Apple TV.
There are lots of NAS drives around that run an iTunes server, which means that the Apple TV will be able to see and access the files.
Title: Re: What's the cheapest / lowest spec mini mac I can buy that will run iTunes well?
Post by: The Doc on 31 December 2011, 08:50
Have network / NAS, but I want a seperate apple product / network that does not link into my "windows" network in any way, shape or form, also want to use it to backup iphone / pad etc
Title: Re: What's the cheapest / lowest spec mini mac I can buy that will run iTunes well?
Post by: JC on 31 December 2011, 09:14
to be fair,

if you want it for

apple tv

backing up phones / pads

the tunes of I ness

then is the word CHEAPEST a good idea ?

 :undecided:
Title: Re: What's the cheapest / lowest spec mini mac I can buy that will run iTunes well?
Post by: The Doc on 31 December 2011, 09:22
to be fair,

if you want it for

apple tv

backing up phones / pads

the tunes of I ness

then is the word CHEAPEST a good idea ?

 :undecided:

I think so yes, I'll be looking elswhere for the answer me thinks  :wink:

Title: Re: What's the cheapest / lowest spec mini mac I can buy that will run iTunes well?
Post by: Jay on 31 December 2011, 10:13
Cheapest (free) is to load OSX86 on a normal PC (dual boot), however its not so legal - just don't tell your missus :lipsrsealed:

Cheapest 'proper' solution would be to find a refurb Mac Mini on ebay, ebid, GumTree etc
Title: Re: What's the cheapest / lowest spec mini mac I can buy that will run iTunes well?
Post by: The Doc on 31 December 2011, 10:24
Cheapest 'proper' solution would be to find a refurb Mac Mini on ebay, ebid, GumTree etc

Thank you.

Ok so will any mini mac operate iTunes successfully?

Title: Re: What's the cheapest / lowest spec mini mac I can buy that will run iTunes well?
Post by: Jay on 31 December 2011, 10:26
should do, just make sure its an intel Mac Mini so you aren't stuck with an old version of itunes.
Title: Re: What's the cheapest / lowest spec mini mac I can buy that will run iTunes well?
Post by: The Doc on 31 December 2011, 10:27
Thank you very much - how easy was that  :wink:

Intel based mini mac searching now.....