I recently purchased a Mac Mini from the Apple store for 500 pounds. It is the cheapest Mac currently available from Apple. Even though it's cheap, it's still a thing of beauty. The design is amazing, software is too. It comes with an i5 processor, 4 GB RAM & 500 GB HDD. Comparing this to a Macbook Pro (or Air), do you think it was a good decision? In the long run, was it cheaper to get this than those (the only extra thing I had to buy was the Apple keyboard & trackpad for my own convenience, I own a wonderful LCD TV)? I mainly use the Mac mini for programming tasks, watching videos on Youtube and Netflix, and browsing the web.
I'd say you made the right decision, although you did sacrifice portability to some degree. You'll likely experience fewer problems with the Mini compared to a Macbook due to the very nature of laptops. A Macbook will start to suffer various problems after two or three years of ownership. For instance, the battery will start to lose its charging abilities, the hard drive could start to break down, and the logic board might even go. This happens to all laptops, though. On the other hand, you have no battery to worry about with the Mini. Fewer problems will arise in that same two to three year period comparatively. I'd go with the Mini, assuming you don't have to constantly be using a computer while on the go.
I agree, Mac Minis are very good products even though they are probably more expensive than an average CPU with the same specs. My cousin has had one for a very long time and it still works great. Although, it did get slow after some years because he kept installing a lot of programs on it including games, but after a reformat and an OS upgrade it went back to running like it was brand new.
