Various Mac Questions...

I've been looking at possibly getting a Mac Mini, but there's a few things on my mind...


1) For much less money, I could get a comparably specced PC to the 2.0Ghz Mac Mini. But, am I correct in thinking that because of the nature of Vista - to get a machine that peforms (speed-wise) comparably the specs of the PC actually need to be better than comparable?

2) if i'm right in my thinking, does anyone know what spec PC i'd need to match a 2.0Ghz Mac Mini with 1MB of RAM?

3) How much difference to peformance would choosing the 2GB of RAM make, and how much difference to peformance would the bigger hard drive make?

4) Hard-drive wise - what kind of external drives are compatible with Mac's? And would I be better getting an external hard drive when I need one instead of paying £30 for an extra 40GB? (120GB -> 160GB)

5) Would the peformance be better if I stored all my documents on an external drive, and just left the internal one for System files and applications - or is that just wasting space?

6) If I wanted to Boot Camp my Mac Mini, would it have an effect on peformance? Or because it's a seperate partition on the drive would it make no difference to Mac OS X?



thanks to anyone that can answer any of those questions - and just ask if you're not sure as to what i'm getting at...

i will answer 3 + 4

3) Really depends what you are going to be doing. I just upgraded my macbook from 1gb to 2gb of ram, I dont notice much difference on my every day things like mail, surfing etc (although it is a little nippier) the most noticable difference comes with idvd, garageband, iphoto and adobe products. Much quicker response times and smoother operating.

4) Correct me if I am wrong but most external hard drives work with mac, i would suggest getting as large a one as you can afford and one that support firewire (as its alot quicker than USb 2.0) - I would store everything on your mac and just backup to your external

3) I upgraded my imac (dont use apple ram - as in there fitters) myself from 1gb to 2.5gb and it did boost general operating, not bootup time but now I can see photoshop performs better along with vmware and when I have loads of apps open over the whole day it helps.

4) I think all external hd's should work with your mac as long as they are either USB or Firewire. I have a mybook 320gb and couldn't live without it.

I will answer #6...

Installing windows through bootcamp should not affect the performance of leopard because, as you said, it is on a different partition...

However, if you make your bootcamp partiton big enough so that your leopard partition is running out of room, you will see leopard's performance affected..

Just make sure you keep it so your leopard partition has around 20 gigs or more and you will be fine...

1) You could get a comparable PC that's cheeper then the Mac. Mac's have always been more expensive. Mac's also don't suffer from many/any viruses, OS X is generally more stable, and the OS is a little more user friendly. You can also run windows on your Mac if you choose, but you can't run OS X on a PC. Everyone has their own reason for justifying the extra cost.

2) Most if not all of the components in Mac's are available to purchase. You could build a custom PC with the exact same specs as a Mac Mini (Minus the proprietary stuff, Airport and whatnot.)

3) The more RAM the better. Goes for any Mac or PC. An external hard drive won't really "boost" performance.

4) Almost any external hard drive is compatible with a Mac. You may have to format it first though.

5) It's mainly user preference. Some people have the operating system on one drive, and all their documents/videos/etc on other drives. Some cram everything on to one. Theoretically, you save some wear on the drive it you keep them separate, but you most likely won't notice it. Now, if your system drive crashes, and you store everything separate, your data is saved. If it's all crammed onto one, and you have no backups, your screwed.

6) Like others have said, as long as both operating systems have enough hard drive space, you won't notice anything.

-Adam