mac mini install questions

Hey all,

I'm planning to be a new mac user! After seeing my girlfriend's Powerbook I cannot resist. BTW, I apologize if these questions have been addressed before, I tried searching on specific topics and didn't find what I was looking for.

My plan is to buy a 499 mini, then add 512 kb of ram to it. I would like to also add airport, and then probably buy an external bluetooth dongle (My monitor has 4 usb ports so space shouldn't be a problem). I've already got a dell 17" lcd and logitech wireless combo on order. Here are my questions.

1.) It seems that the quickest way to get a mac mini (other than retail) would be to buy it through amazon (that would save shipping and tax). The problem is, is that I couldn't configure it with options. So...

2.) SHould I buy from the apple store w/ educational discount and wait? How long have people been waiting for?

3.) Can I buy an airport card and install it myself? I already plan to install the ram myself, would an airport card be difficult/impossible? I've heard that the mini requires some special adapter that may not be sold to customer, but only to service people.

Thanks for the help!

I ordered mine through the Apple site and it says it will ship by February 3, but I'm hoping sooner.

I haven't seen anything about being able to add an Airport card or where to get this "special adapter" from, I've only seen that people were able to upgrade the RAM and hard drive (I think the hard drive user upgrade would void your warranty though).

So the consensus is, is that if you want airport, then you should buy through apple and have them install it?

THanks

I hope you mean 512MB RAM, but then of course - rumor has it that Billy G. said "640K ought to be enough for anybody." =)

I'm pretty sure the Airport card can be installed yourself - and as long as you don't *break* anything when upgrading, no warranty will be broken.