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Need a new home computer for Mrs, kids and me possibly. Kids will play bbc games and iplayer, Mrs will use to browse web as can't do everything on an iPad she keeps telling me.
Is a Mac mini ok? I'll poss use for go pro movies, storing pics etc.
Seems an affordable way to have a Mac desktop. Should I look out for anything? Do they come with a keyboard and mouse?
Great little computer, doesn't come with monitor, keyboard or mouse, reason being it was designed to be a direct replacement for an existing home PC, so would take advantage of the existing periferals, just plug'n'play.
Mine was one of the last of the 2010 models with an optical drive built in, which was reduced in price; I had the optical drive taken out, and a second HDD installed in the bay, as the connections were already there, and I bought a BT keyboard and Magic Trackpad, the monitor is my 40" Sony Bravia.
Lovely little thing, fits exactly under one corner of the telly, and I have an external optical DVDS drive sat on top of the Sky box below that. TOSLink optical cable from the headphone socket goes to optical in on my Yamaha a/v amp, and I control audio playback via Remote on my phone or pad.
I got an extra 2Gb of RAM thrown in for free when I got it, I think total cost was around £680.
Oh, and for what you want, editing GoPro video, photos, etc, it would be ideal, you get iMovie as part of the software suite, along with the revamped Photo app.
You get Bandcamp as well should you fancy knocking up the odd chart hit or two... 😉
Bandcamp? Why not Garage band?
They don't come with mouse/keyboard
You don't need expensive apple ones , I use a Logitech k400
Mine uses the TV as a monitor as well
The base Mac Mini is now cheaper but is a much lower spec - it's a very low power laptop CPU. Will do fine for most desktop use (browsing, office apps, flash games, etc) but you'll really feel the difference if you're playing about with 1080p gopro vids.
If you can find the extra £160 for the middle spec one it's a much faster CPU, more RAM and the better Intel Iris graphics which will actually handle fairly modern games OK (especially if you don't mind putting the settings down a bit).
If you're not constricted to buying new (for whatever reason), look for a late 2012 model Core i7 Mac Mini 2nd hand. The new Mac Mini's are lower spec, and much less upgradeable than the last generation. The Dual Core i5's and i7's are OK for general use, but they're about 30-40% down on computing power compared to the outgoing quad core i7 models.
I just picked up an ex display (had been sat inside a cabinet loaded with a demo video on a loop for the last 12 months!) 2.3GHz i7 late 2012 (although bought early 2014 originally) model for £550. I can upgrade the RAM myself (up to 16GB, the new ones you're stuck with what you spec as standard), I can upgrade the HDD to an SSD myself (again, you're stuck with what you get on the new Mini's), and it's FAST... It's about 20% faster than a current generation i5 iMac even, whereas the new Mac Mini's lag some way behind performance wise.
If you already have an iOS device, download "MacTracker" which will give you all the details on each model, along with the all important GeekBench scores (a benchmark for the computer's performance, that is much easier to understand than Clock Speed, number of cores etc. as it's an absolute number). The Mac Mini I just got has a GeekBench score of over 10,700, the latest dual Core i5 mini's are scoring under 6,000 for the 1.4GHz model, and only about 7,500 for the 2.6GHz model.
All that said above, for what you describe your usage to be, the Mac Mini is an ideal solution