Apple's Mac mini - Tempting PC Users Everywhere
by Anand Lal Shimpi on January 25, 2005 7:39 AM EST- Posted in
- Mac
Upgrading the mini
Now that you've seen the innards of the Mac mini, it's pretty obvious that there are only a few things that you can really upgrade in this machine. You can replace the hard drive; however, you're going to want to make sure that it lines up with Apple's custom connector in order to work properly.
Memory installation is pretty easy, considering it uses regular desktop 184-pin DDR DIMMs (you still need to buy Mac specific memory - G4 or G5 memory will work because the motherboard is quite sensitive to the SPD on modules). The first thing I noticed was that the left latch on the memory slot can't be extended all the way. Apple definitely did their best to not waste a single centimeter in here:
The default memory that ships with the Mac mini comes from Hynix and features no heatspreader (not that one is needed, as there are obviously no memory overclocking options on the machine). Unfortunately, all of the Mac memory that we had in the lab came with heatspreaders, but to our amazement, our OCZ G5 modules actually fit in the system. It was a tight fit as you can see below, but it worked:
Original 256MB stick installed on the left.
OCZ 512MB stick installed with heatspreader on the left
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Ecgtheow - Tuesday, January 25, 2005 - link
#56: Probably not.sluramod - Tuesday, January 25, 2005 - link
Probably stupid question, but I'll ask anyway...Is Tiger upgrade going to be free for Panther users?
Alex
HardwareD00d - Tuesday, January 25, 2005 - link
the Mac Mini sounds like it would be a fun toy to play around with, but it's a bit too expensive for what you get. If you don't mind paying close to $600 for a screenless laptop, go for it. I personally hate laptops cause they have such crappy performance. They're only useful if your always on the go.msva124 - Tuesday, January 25, 2005 - link
Exactly #53. I can't see the word of mouth from all of the 256MB mini owners being too great, which is a shame because at 512MB it would have had a much better reputation.bob661 - Tuesday, January 25, 2005 - link
#35Unless the buyer is an AT reader or the salesman is an AT reader or the Best Buy ad says buy the extra 256MB of ram, they'll buy the unit at $499 without upgrades. Unless they specify the extras or a salesman suggests getting some extras, they'll get the unit as is. If it gets too much over $499, they'll choke and go get a Dell with the "free" flat panel. Like #32 said, cost and name. I guess it really is hard for some of you to imagine yourselves as a typical computer buyer.
downtowncb - Tuesday, January 25, 2005 - link
Anand concedes:"Working as a simple file, ftp or web server with no end user interaction in the OS, you can get by with a 256MB configuration, and the same goes for a single user, single application usage environment..."
I know that most of the people here would never dream of using a machine with only 256 MB of RAM, but for a few people 256 MB is enough, especially those who just need a cheap, reliable web server that they can stick in the basement and administer with VNC or even ssh.
MIDIman - Tuesday, January 25, 2005 - link
I'm not sure if this has been mentioned above, but I think a smaller system, along the lines of something at mini-itx.com's store front would be a more useful comparison than the stock Dell. It would allow a better representation when you take size into the comparison.IMHO - when these two are put side-by-side, you'll find similar performance issues as well - i.e. needs for 512mb, a faster HD, etc.
elvisizer - Tuesday, January 25, 2005 - link
48, that might be it- i always keep my pictures huge, since I don't have a webpage of my own like anand :)sprockkets - Tuesday, January 25, 2005 - link
Perhaps the applications alone are worth me trying a Mac Mini. BUT, more ram, and use Hitachi's 7200RPM hdd and that will make it MUCH better.Then again, I rather just use apps on a completely GPL system rather than a proprietary system. If only it was easier to find more PM itx systems, a PM system in a cubit case would appeeal more to me.
jasonsRX7 - Tuesday, January 25, 2005 - link
I get the feeling that he's using export to resize the pictures for the web. Just dragging them out of iPhoto will retain their original size.