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- Aug 21, 2009
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Hey everyone, I have never owned any mac outside of my early 2007 macbook pro. That thing just bit the dust about a month ago.
I picked up a used mac mini 3.1 / late 2009 / 2.53 mhz / 4gb ram / 500gb hdd with the power supply / usb mouse / usb keyboard / dvi adapter for about $130 bucks plus $20 shipping. It came with 10.6 installed.
That seems like a decent bang for my buck, and is already faster/better than the MBP I was used to. So far so good, about 6 hours into owning it.
I plan to use this for a few months until a refresh on the imacs, then upgrade to something nicer. I'll probably give this to my non-tech savvy parents, re-sell it, or keep it as a back up.
Question time:
1. I read that this can support up to 8gb ram. Should I upgrade to get the most longevity? I know this has DDR3 as opposed to my MBP which was DDR2. My parents won't use it for much other than email/youtube/netflix. I know I won't be editing 4k on it, but I may do some light editing, hoping at least 720p, I photoshop some as well (nothing filter heavy or after affects heavy).
2. Should I upgrade the OS? Snow Leopard is not really being supported anymore, but things are functional at the moment. I read that it can support up to and including El Capitan. Should I just go as modern as possible? Or go with Yosemite? (I have prior installers from my MBP that I never used).
3. Should I upgrade the drive to SSD? I've never had one before, so I'm not totally sure about the pros/cons.
If I upgraded the ram and got a 128gb ssd that would bring the total investment to about 300 bucks. (Again, I figure I could always re-sell it for about what I paid).
Thoughts?
- Thanks.
I picked up a used mac mini 3.1 / late 2009 / 2.53 mhz / 4gb ram / 500gb hdd with the power supply / usb mouse / usb keyboard / dvi adapter for about $130 bucks plus $20 shipping. It came with 10.6 installed.
That seems like a decent bang for my buck, and is already faster/better than the MBP I was used to. So far so good, about 6 hours into owning it.
I plan to use this for a few months until a refresh on the imacs, then upgrade to something nicer. I'll probably give this to my non-tech savvy parents, re-sell it, or keep it as a back up.
Question time:
1. I read that this can support up to 8gb ram. Should I upgrade to get the most longevity? I know this has DDR3 as opposed to my MBP which was DDR2. My parents won't use it for much other than email/youtube/netflix. I know I won't be editing 4k on it, but I may do some light editing, hoping at least 720p, I photoshop some as well (nothing filter heavy or after affects heavy).
2. Should I upgrade the OS? Snow Leopard is not really being supported anymore, but things are functional at the moment. I read that it can support up to and including El Capitan. Should I just go as modern as possible? Or go with Yosemite? (I have prior installers from my MBP that I never used).
3. Should I upgrade the drive to SSD? I've never had one before, so I'm not totally sure about the pros/cons.
If I upgraded the ram and got a 128gb ssd that would bring the total investment to about 300 bucks. (Again, I figure I could always re-sell it for about what I paid).
Thoughts?
- Thanks.