Love my Mac mini, I must first say. I am a web development student and we use a lot of adobe programs for our classes. My very old windows computer couldn't handle the adobe monster. Mac mini is a powerhouse. I downloaded a ton of adobe programs and It works effortlessly. I use a I-MAC in school, so I was used to the MAC OS. I see no really big difference between the I-mac at school that I use everyday and the mac mini that I use at home. OK, I-Macs are beautiful that's it.. The mini comes with 4 usb's which is pretty good. But, I hooked a USB hub to one of the USB on the mini. It's not convenient to pick up the Mini and turn it around and place flash drives in it every time. But, I do the same thing with the $ 4000 I-mac at school too. Things that make the mini great is it works with my HP IPS monitor perfectly, just plug it in and calibrate it.( It looks a little like a IMAC display) I didn't need to download any monitor display programs, I use with it the rocket fish web cam(plug & play on mac), I also use with it the samsung SE-208 external dvd writer( for listening to my CDS and it's plug and play too) If, you are a student like me or someone who likes doing more than one thing at a time...
I use the Split screen app for looking using two windows at one time. I like to use photoshop and go on google chrome at the same time... best $6.99 that I ever spent for a app. Don't forget to get dropbox also for uploading files . (It's a lifesaver and saves up room on your computer)
The only thing that sucks with this edition mac mini is that apple made it tough to upgrade the system hard drive. But, people are doing it on youtube, so it is possible. If, you upgrade the hard drive yourself that would void your warranty. With that in mind, I purchased this model with 8GB and the 1 terabyte on the recommendation of a classmate who works for apple care. I must say she was correct. It is great for anyone who is entering the apple system the first time or anyone who doesn't have $ 2000 and more to blow on a I-MAC. I bought my mac mini from apple. It cost me $723 with student discount( apple calls $ 20 bucks a student discount), ouch. Amazon is a good deal for buying one.