Is the Mac Mini right for me?

D

DJ-phYre

Guest
I have been a PC user all my life. I have used Windows 3.1 up to Windows XP. I also have experience with FreeBSD and Linux...

It seems with the release of the Mini I can now experience the Mac OS and Mac System without throwing out a forturne.

There has been a lot of speculation on the point that the Mini is the 'bare' minimum. Basically I am going with the base $499 model and upgrading the RAM to 512MB. I have seen rumors on PC forums that this Mac Mini is not 'self serviceable' and that if I ever wanted to get new RAM I would have to send into Apple. Is this true? Can I just get 256MB of RAM and buy my own RAM to throw in this machine?

Basically I just need to know before I put any money into it. Any information would be helpful.

DJ-phYre
 
Joined
Jun 11, 2003
Messages
4,915
Reaction score
68
Points
48
Location
Mount Vernon, WA
Your Mac's Specs
MacBook Pro 2.6 GHz Core 2 Duo 4GB RAM OS 10.5.2
It sounds like they recommend that you have an Apple rep do any changes or upgrades, if it cancels your warranty.. that I am not sure of.
 
OP
D

DJ-phYre

Guest
Murlyn said:
It sounds like they recommend that you have an Apple rep do any changes or upgrades, if it cancels your warranty.. that I am not sure of.

It was also mentioned that 1GB of RAM is a must... They said that OS X is such a memory hog... Would 512MB suffice?
 
Joined
Jun 11, 2003
Messages
4,915
Reaction score
68
Points
48
Location
Mount Vernon, WA
Your Mac's Specs
MacBook Pro 2.6 GHz Core 2 Duo 4GB RAM OS 10.5.2
512 would suffice, definitely, most everyone upgrades to at least 512 and most everyone is happy with it.
 
Joined
Aug 22, 2004
Messages
138
Reaction score
1
Points
18
Location
Lancashire England
Your Mac's Specs
iBook 1.33 Ghz, 768 RAM
I would say that 512MB RAM is perfectly good for most purposes.
I have 1GB RAM in my G5 iMac but only because i do lots of intensive graphics work in Adobe CS and it suits my needs better.

It really is just a matter of what you want to do with your Mac .

Hope this helps
Paul
 
Joined
Jan 11, 2005
Messages
29
Reaction score
0
Points
1
DJ-phYre said:
There has been a lot of speculation on the point that the Mini is the 'bare' minimum. Basically I am going with the base $499 model and upgrading the RAM to 512MB. I have seen rumors on PC forums that this Mac Mini is not 'self serviceable' and that if I ever wanted to get new RAM I would have to send into Apple. Is this true? Can I just get 256MB of RAM and buy my own RAM to throw in this machine?

Basically I just need to know before I put any money into it. Any information would be helpful.

DJ-phYre

I've had a chat with the guy in my local apple shop, and although he says he's never seen one, because they've not entered europe yet, it seems that upgrading ram/bluetooth/airport etc will seem to be far more tricky, with the ram needing a 'kit' to install it. He says all the other macs you just slip the cover off and slide it in, yet with this being a 3-tier system with two mainboards on top of each other, could be far more tricky. And they'd probably have to charge to install it, cos it could take ~30 mins, rather than 20secs...

He suggested getting the spec i'm after through the built-to-order stuff when I buy it, even though the memory is quite expensive, will be cheaper than sorting an upgrade later...

Jude
 
OP
D

DJ-phYre

Guest
Judestone said:
I've had a chat with the guy in my local apple shop, and although he says he's never seen one, because they've not entered europe yet, it seems that upgrading ram/bluetooth/airport etc will seem to be far more tricky, with the ram needing a 'kit' to install it. He says all the other macs you just slip the cover off and slide it in, yet with this being a 3-tier system with two mainboards on top of each other, could be far more tricky. And they'd probably have to charge to install it, cos it could take ~30 mins, rather than 20secs...

He suggested getting the spec i'm after through the built-to-order stuff when I buy it, even though the memory is quite expensive, will be cheaper than sorting an upgrade later...

Jude
I am just getting an upgrade up to 512MB... $425 for 1GB upgrade is insane... I bought 1GB for my new PC (PC3200) and payed a little over $200 for high quality DDR... I just want to try the Mac, I don't believe I will be doing anything intensive on it. I do all my video and photo editing on my PC with Photoshop CS and other stuff...
 
Joined
Nov 26, 2004
Messages
913
Reaction score
38
Points
28
Location
Oklahoma
DJ-phYre said:
It was also mentioned that 1GB of RAM is a must... They said that OS X is such a memory hog... Would 512MB suffice?

Just who is this "they" in "they said"? Certainly can't be some one that knows all that much about a Mac. Any so called review of any Mac on a PC forum i would say is rather subject to much bias and out right stupidity and FUD...sounds about like a review right out of Redmond... does the statement that "linux and open source are a cancer" ring any bells for you?

OS X is not a "memory hog", you will find the large majority of mac users under or at 1 gig. 512 seems to be about what the average mac user runs at, unlike winders where 1 gig is almost a bottom line machine for doing much.

If your gona give the mini a "fair trial", i would certainly upgrade the 256 to 512. 256 just simply is not enough to actually do things with, but buy it that way, don't go messin with anything that might void the warranty. Give the mini a fair shot, don't expect it to match a P4 3.0, but i think you will find that it will give other low end systems, and some mid systems quite a run for the money.
 
OP
D

DJ-phYre

Guest
James said:
Just who is this "they" in "they said"? Certainly can't be some one that knows all that much about a Mac. Any so called review of any Mac on a PC forum i would say is rather subject to much bias and out right stupidity and FUD...sounds about like a review right out of Redmond... does the statement that "linux and open source are a cancer" ring any bells for you?

OS X is not a "memory hog", you will find the large majority of mac users under or at 1 gig. 512 seems to be about what the average mac user runs at, unlike winders where 1 gig is almost a bottom line machine for doing much.

If your gona give the mini a "fair trial", i would certainly upgrade the 256 to 512. 256 just simply is not enough to actually do things with, but buy it that way, don't go messin with anything that might void the warranty. Give the mini a fair shot, don't expect it to match a P4 3.0, but i think you will find that it will give other low end systems, and some mid systems quite a run for the money.
The 'they' I am referring to are people on another forum. I know most are PC users, that is why I came here for advice and suggestions. I am going to upgrade the memory to 512, that should put my price a at almost $599 as the 1.4GHz is... I wanted to get Airport Extreme, but I don't believe I will looking at the price... I wil ljust stick to wired...

I was wondering could I run a KVM switch from my PC to my Mac? I have a Dell 2001FP and I could easily plug the Mac Mini into my VGA input on the monitor, but I would really only like to have one set of keyboard/mouse sitting in front of me. I see that the Mac Mini only takes USB Keyboard and Mouse, how could I share my current mouse/keyboard with the Mac and my PC?

I use a Logitech Wireless DUO... the Keyboard is PS2 but the mouse is USB......
 
Joined
Nov 26, 2004
Messages
913
Reaction score
38
Points
28
Location
Oklahoma
DJ-phYre said:
I wanted to get Airport Extreme, but I don't believe I will looking at the price... I wil ljust stick to wired...

I was wondering could I run a KVM switch from my PC to my Mac? I have a Dell 2001FP and I could easily plug the Mac Mini into my VGA input on the monitor, but I would really only like to have one set of keyboard/mouse sitting in front of me. I see that the Mac Mini only takes USB Keyboard and Mouse, how could I share my current mouse/keyboard with the Mac and my PC?

I use a Logitech Wireless DUO... the Keyboard is PS2 but the mouse is USB......

You would probably be smart to stick to "wired" for now anyway as you may decide that you don't want to "Mac it" any more, you can always add the goodies later on if you decide Mac is for you.

Afraid I'm not up to snuff on Mac in general and mini in particular, but i would think that by using a usb hub you could plug in your mouse and a usb keyboard, or is there a converter for the PS2 keyboard to usb? I think there is, That way you would have usb ports open to use a printer/scanner/external hard drive/or whatever...
 
OP
D

DJ-phYre

Guest
James said:
You would probably be smart to stick to "wired" for now anyway as you may decide that you don't want to "Mac it" any more, you can always add the goodies later on if you decide Mac is for you.

Afraid I'm not up to snuff on Mac in general and mini in particular, but i would think that by using a usb hub you could plug in your mouse and a usb keyboard, or is there a converter for the PS2 keyboard to usb? I think there is, That way you would have usb ports open to use a printer/scanner/external hard drive/or whatever...

I am probably just going to share a printer. My printer is hooked up to my Slackware box and is just shared... I hardly hook anything to my desktops as I use the server for anything. The Mac Mini will look awesome next to my Shuttle SN83G5 SFF PC...
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top