Is the Disc Drive on the Mac Mini good enough?

[cgbissett]

I have noticed that a few Mac Mini owners, on this forum, use or recommend using an external disc drive for the Mini. Is this because the drive on the Mini is poor, or are there other reasons?

 

Regards Craig

 

[alfamatt]

I bought a mac-mini early this year & have so far ripped 300-400 cds using apple lossless.

The only real criticism I have so far is that on some cd's it doesn't automatically rip them &/or doesn't eject them when finished. My current best guess is that it may be a bit fussy if the cd's are a bit thinner than usual or maybe the centre-hole is slightly off centre?

I reckon that of the 3-400 I've ripped so far, this has happened maybe 10 times, so its not the end of the world.

Matt.

 

[4est]

I have had a similar experience as Matt. One thing that I have noticed is that it rips considerably slower than my iMac. I am not sure about Matt's reasoning though. For me if it does not rip, I have to eject and it will often work on the second attempt.

 

[wgscott]

I found when I decided to rip the remainder of my CDs a few weeks ago that about 50% of the time, the inserted CD did not automount. I used Disk Utility to mount the disk in those cases, and then all was fine. I assumed it was some preference I had wrong, but maybe it is a bug.

 

[KeithL]

I recommend external drives for ripping large numbers of CDs, mainly because they are usually much quicker. The Mini's slot loader should be ok for the occasional rip.

 

[cgbissett]

Chaps,

 

Thanks for taking the time to reply, it does give me food for thought. I used my 7 year old Dell Laptop to rip my current library, just over 900 CD's without any issues. Perhaps the iMac is a better solution, any thoughts?

 

Regards Craig

 

[alfamatt]

If you've just ripped your library of 900 cds with no problems using a Dell, that sounds like you have a nicely operational system. Why are you looking to change a successful Set-up?

I like the way the Mac-mini works for me, but if I'd just ripped my library, I doubt I'd be wanting to change my system!

The mini starts up quickly & is near- silent in operation. It's going to be with me for years to come, but if your Dell works for you, why change it?

Matt

 

[cgbissett]

I have used the last year or so as an experiment in Computer Audio, my Dell is showing it's age in other areas. I also want a new PC or Mac that I can place on my AV rack. My library is a little messy due to trying different formats and media players. I have enough knowledge now to start fresh, with several copies. Hence the plan to move to A new source.

 

Cheers Craig

 

[alfamatt]

Hi Craig

One of the BIG deciding factors in choosing a Mac-mini is that it is near-silent in operation & so can easily live on the hifi rack in the music room, with no background computer fan etc noise.

I'm not a long-time Apple fan-boi, but I have to admit that at least as far as music/media is concerned, the Apple stuff just seems to work very easily with minimum fuss & maximum results.

The only downsides are the initial cost, which is significantly higher than buying a normal PC or Laptop &

being labelled a bit of a ponce because its not a real computer blah-blah-blah.

The positives are the, as I say,

ease of use (I'm certainly no computer whizz-kid, but the Apple way of doing things makes conversion over from PC's very easy)

(nearly)Silent operation

Small size & ease of siting on the hifi rack

It just works!

Hope that helps a bit.

Matt.