building mac mini

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Hey Guys,

I'm new here, and forever I have sworn I would never touch a mac but I am interested in trying one out for various reasons.

I was thinking about getting a mac mini 2GB and upgrading it to 8GB via third party memory. I also noticed it had a 5400 RPM drive, I have lots of 640GB WD Black (Dual Processor) 7200RPM 64 Cache drives and even some raptors, is switching the hard disk to something faster difficult?

My windows box is running Intel G2 SSD drives and raptors, hard disk performance is always important to me, I also run liquid cool system, so any small tweaks I can make to make the experience better would be helpful without getting to deep into it. If I really like it I will buy a Pro.

I run Lightroom 3 and Adobe Creative suite, (although I rarely use photoshop and mostly do my work in Lightroom 3). That is what I want to try mostly initially, but I also want to try other things I typically do in Windows and see how it is under MacOS.

I thought about just getting an iMac as the cost isn't too much of a problem, but I already have 3 24" monitors on my desk and other things and I don't have room to put another monitor, I was just going to throw the iMac Mini on an alternative port of my main HP LP2475w. So the mini is attractive entry point as I don't need to deal with an additional monitor. Although I still have to deal with second keyboard/mouse which is a pain but I can just move one when i am working on the other.

I would rather just try buy the Snow Leopard disk and try it out on VMWare, but the Mac mini is pretty cheap and I don't want to deal with the hassles.
 
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Memory is a cinch. Hard drive is another story. I would use the one that comes with it and see if it will work for you before attempting to upgrade. The Mini has become a very capable little machine:

Mac Mini Model A1347 Teardown - iFixit
 

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I was thinking about getting a mac mini...

You should tell us what sort of Mac-mini you're thinking of purchasing (new or used...and if used, which model). Mac-mini's have been available since January, 2005...and depending on what model you buy...there have been some significant architecture changes which could definitely limit the things you mentioned wanting to do.

- Nick
 
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Memory is a cinch. Hard drive is another story. I would use the one that comes with it and see if it will work for you before attempting to upgrade. The Mini has become a very capable little machine:

Mac Mini Model A1347 Teardown - iFixit

I would run the stock drive initially, unless it wasn't that difficult, 5400 RPM drives gives me headaches and would love to just swap it before I put real data on it.

Is the drive swap difficult physically, or the actual install of the OS?
If it is physical, I don't mind, I've been building computers since I was 10 and there isn't much tearing down that bothers me.

Are the iMac's much faster?
Is the 2.66 processor really worth the $150 upgrade price? The memory I can do myself, but I believe the processor you have to chose up front and can't switch later on. 5400RPM drive is unacceptable for me, and I won't use anything long term that isn't 7200/10000 RPM with a large cache.

I assume if I swap out the disk with a WB Black or Intel SSD and bump it up to 8GB, it should perform very well even with PS & LR?
 
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You should tell us what sort of Mac-mini you're thinking of purchasing (new or used...and if used, which model). Mac-mini's have been available since January, 2005...and depending on what model you buy...there have been some significant architecture changes which could definitely limit the things you mentioned wanting to do.

- Nick

Sorry about that Nick,

I would purchase one new.
 

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Does the mac mini take standard hard disks or only 2.5"

Depends on what you mean by "standard hard disks". In the "Macintosh World"...Mac-mini's have always had 2.5" hard drives (since 2005)...although initially they were IDE...now they're SATA. So a "standard hard disk" for a Mac-mini is a 2.5".:)

- Nick
 
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2.5" only.

I can throw a Raptor X in it as I have some 2.5" 300G ones around. Provided the install of the OS isn't difficult, I would likely go that route.

Does it come with install media or can you at least make a disc?

Standard disk, I meant the full size drive, but forgot it was likely a 2.5" drive.
 
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I can throw a Raptor X in it as I have some 2.5" 300G ones around. Provided the install of the OS isn't difficult, I would likely go that route.

Does it come with install media or can you at least make a disc?

Installing the OS is very, very simple. It will come with a disc specific to that model.
 
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Installing the OS is very, very simple. It will come with a disc specific to that model.

So provided I swap out the disk physically, reinstalling the OS the new disk is pretty trivial?

If I put in 8GB ram & Raptor X 300G disk, would I have a pretty good performing machine or would it not give me a good experience of Snow Leopard. I am a heavy user and would really want to put it through its paces, but I am not going to swing a Mac Pro right out of the gate, I don't know how much I am going to like it. I have almost no experience with MacOS.

Which brings up another question, what is the learning curve with Snow Leopard coming from hightech Windows user since 3.0 days.
 
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So provided I swap out the disk physically, reinstalling the OS the new disk is pretty trivial?

If I put in 8GB ram & Raptor X 300G disk, would I have a pretty good performing machine or would it not give me a good experience of Snow Leopard. I am a heavy user and would really want to put it through its paces, but I am not going to swing a Mac Pro right out of the gate, I don't know how much I am going to like it. I have almost no experience with MacOS.

Which brings up another question, what is the learning curve with Snow Leopard coming from hightech Windows user since 3.0 days.

Indeed. You could clone the drive, but since there is nothing there anyway I would just do a clean install. The experience should be very decent. If you know your way around computers in general it will not take more than a few days to be off the races. I am not saying you will know everything about Mac OS X, but you will have no trouble getting stuff done.
 

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So provided I swap out the disk physically, reinstalling the OS the new disk is pretty trivial?

Pretty much. Boot from the disk...follow the onscreen instructions.

But in your case (considering you're using drives that may have been previously used in Windows computers)...you probably will need to reformat the different drive you're installing so it will work in a Mac. When you boot from the Mac OS install disk...you need to open "Disk Utility" to format the drive.

Which brings up another question, what is the learning curve with Snow Leopard coming from hightech Windows user since 3.0 days.

I would say just use it...then when you can't figure something out...post questions here.

- Nick
 
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Thanks everyone, great help.

I am probably going to pick up a mac mini tonight, and order 2x4GB ram sticks for tomorrow from one of my distributors.

One thing I didn't get answered, is the processor difference between the stock one and the upgraded 2.66 that big of a deal? $150 seems steep for the processor jump, the memory & hard disk I can do cheap since I already have Raptor X drives and the memory third party is probably super cheap. I'll buy the processor upgrade if it is significant boost, but if not I would rather not waste the money.

What is your take on the One on One Service for $99. I am extremely gifted with computers, but I have no experience with MacOS, I assuming I will be fine and the One on One service is likely to be very basic for me, but $99 is fairly cheap when it comes to training if I can book hour long sessions as I need throughout a year.
 
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I would save my money on the processor and skip the One on One. That's why we are here. If you are truly "gifted" it will be a walk in the park. May the force be with you.
 

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One thing I didn't get answered, is the processor difference between the stock one and the upgraded 2.66 that big of a deal? $150 seems steep for the processor jump...

I agree with "mdfuller" that it's probably not worth it. But also remember that the cpu in Mac-mini's is NOT upgradeable. So when you buy one...you're stuck with what you got.

- Nick
 
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How would a mac mini (w/ 8GB ram, raptor X 10K RPM drive) compare to an iMac? Are the iMac's a whole lot faster reguardless, or will the mac mini give me a good experience?

I am a heavy demanding user, but I don't want to drop $2,500-$4,000 on a Mac Pro without playing with it for a while and see if I like it. I am a hardcore Windows user (although I use Linux a lot for server environments) but I really want to try MacOS and see how it compares.

I thought about buying a mid level iMac but I really don't want another screen if I can avoid it. I know a lot of people go the Mac Book route, but I just don't want to be using Photoshop & Lightroom off a laptop, even if I route a real keyboard/mouse/monitor laptops are typically much slower than equivalent desktop and a lot more expensive.
 

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How would a mac mini (w/ 8GB ram, raptor X 10K RPM drive) compare to an iMac? Are the iMac's a whole lot faster reguardless, or will the mac mini give me a good experience?

The biggest difference between a $699 Mac-mini...and most of the iMacs is the graphics hardware. The graphics hardware in the iMacs are superior.

$699 for a new Mac-Mini is a "bargin basement" price in the world of Macintosh computers. If you want a "better" Macintosh computer...you're going to have to spend more $$$!;)

If you want a more "quantitative" approach...take a look at these benchmark numbers (they don't include graphics benchmarks):

http://www.primatelabs.ca/geekbench/mac-benchmarks/

- Nick
 

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