At present I use an iMac and iBook (soon to be replaced by MacBook). I was thinking of investing in a Mac mini, just to use for writing. The idea would be to just use it for Scrivener, a web browser and probably DevonThink Pro. Anyone had experience of this sort of set up?
Scrivener works fine on my old, original PPC Mac Mini. 
Best,
Keith
I have a new Mac Mini (the 1.83 core duo) and love it. Scrivener works fine on it. It also works fine on my Powerbook 15" and my old iBook 12" (all with 10.4.9 on them). 
The dual screen option works very nice with the Powerbook, but I noticed that I was fiddling with all the stuff rather than just writing, so I’m back to one screen. Maybe later…
With a monitor on an articulated arm and a bluetooth keyboard, I can pretty much set my mini system up just so.
A mini will be more than adequate for those needs.
I’d suggest loading up on RAM to get the most bang for your buck.
I’d recommend not less than 1GB and preferably 2GB or more.
OS X loves RAM.
Good luck with the new machine!
And get the RAM when you buy the mini, upgrading those things is not for the faint of heart.
Oh, they’re not so bad…as long as you’re not afraid of putty knives. You think they’re bad, try upgrading an old Power Mac 7600. You have to completely remove the power supply from those things to get to the RAM.
I’m brave - I changed the keyboard on my old Powerbook Wallstreet II - but I’m not that brave. 
My mini arrived with 2GBs RAM.
Add my voice to the others - get as much RAM as you can afford when ordering it. Not only does it speed things up, but it also makes the computer last a little longer in terms of becoming obsolete (at least in my experience).
My husband uses a mini and it’s great. But I’d listen to the advice regarding more RAM. He has to reboot (restart) the computer on occasion to clear out the existing RAM due to slow downs. I’d max out the RAM on your mini. (sorry, just couldn’t resist!)
RAM is your cheapest upgrade. Tiger uses it extensively, but it has always been so.
That’s the “headspace” where your computer actually thinks. You can’t have too much of that!
I’ve learned to just max out the computer at the start, if at all possible. Especially if the thought of doing it yourself is daunting. We’re handy enough to just buy the chips and put them in, and that’s a saving. Having a techy friend can be another option; most of them just love doing stuff like that.
But however you do it, it has to be a consideration that should be factored in with the initial cost of the computer. The difference between minimum and maximum RAM, on speed and performance but also those mysterious glitches, can be astounding.
If you are thinking of buying a MacMini soon it might be worth taking a look at this:
The Mac mini is Apple’s low end desktop.
Product Mac mini
Recommendation: Don’t Buy - Updates soon
Last Release September 06, 2006
Days Since Update 232 (Avg = 151)
If you’re not concerned with speed then any old mac mini or even cube would do it. I got a macbook and a first gen ppc mini. The mini serves as a backup server and a desktop computer. No problems whatsoever with using scrivener. When it comes to word processing I use mellel and iWork and they both work great, my girlfriend needs to use word and excel and on the mini it runs like lightning, at least compared to word/excel on the macbook with rosetta.
Mini update:
The new mini nano is predicted to arrive on or about the 23 of November.
Thinner and a little wider.
Photo here:
xyhd.tv/2007/10/industry-new … -mac-mini/
This resonates reasonably well with most rumour sites. (other site links added after antony’s post - for tidiness).
google.com/search?ie=utf8&oe … +mini+nano
Enh, not really. It’s the fabled “MacBook Nano” that the rumor sites have all been counting down to lately. The Mini is definitely in need of an upgrade, but then so is the Mac Pro, and there’s been precious little evidence for that. This story’s over a week old, and I haven’t seen it corroborated anywhere else.
I’d be suprised if anything other than the laptop line is updated before the holidays, and even that’s looking increasingly unlikely as time wears on.
But all of those reports point back to a single rumour, from a site (Mac OS Rumors) that historically has shown very little accuracy. The only one which doesn’t is MacRumors, and their conjecture is based purely on the length of the product cycle.
I’m not saying the Mac NanoMiniNanuNanu definitely won’t happen, but I’ll be surprised if it’s before Xmas. And to say that it resonates with “most rumour sites” is innacurate. The MacBook Nano, by contrast, has so far been reported on three or four different sites, all using a different source.