2010 Mini v 2.1 Mini upgrade

[los-graphicos]

Just looking for a couple of views/advice from the forumites here if possible please!

I'm looking at the options with my 2.1 Intel Core 2 Duo 2 GHz 667 MHz Mac Mini, and whether it's worth shelling out about £100 for a new hard drive and to max out the memory, or whether it'd be more worthwhile getting the Mac Mini 2.4GHz 320GB, which is currently being sold for just over £400 on one or two websites. The Mini is used for design work using the usual Creative Suite 4 suspects for print and web design, there's no video editing work and I don't use the Mini for gameplaying either so neither of those areas are really of interest or come into the equation when looking at possibly upgrading/buying new. A brand new Mini is beyond my resources at the moment, as is upgrading CS4 to C5.5 which would be something of a necessity given the presence of Lion on the new Mini, so I'm thinking the 2010 Mini would give things a bit more of a boost and also so be a little more future proof with it's larger memory allocation of up to 8Gb for future use with OSX Lion and CS5.5 in particular? So, which option do people here think is better, upgrading or buying new?

One other note, I'm using an old Apple ADC monitor with my current Mini, obviously I've got the ADC adapter to connect it to the Mini's DVI port, if I bought the 2010 Mini would I need an additional/alternate adaptor to hook the monitor up?

TIA!

 

[japtor]

Your thread title is a bit confusing, cause from the post it sounds like you're debating upgrading your 2,1 model vs buying a 2010, while the 2009 mini was 3,1. Basically, do you have a 2,1 or 3,1?

If you have a 3,1 I'd just upgrade it since it can take 8GB (assuming the firmware is up to date), and cause the 2010 model wasn't a huge spec upgrade over them. GPU was about 2x but the CPU was a minor bump.

If you have a 2,1 just get whatever 3,1 or 4,1 (2010) model you can find within your budget, either one will let you upgrade to 8GB and have much faster graphics. CPU wise it'll vary depending on what you find, but it'll be more or less linear with the MHz, like the 2.4 will be about 20% faster than the 2.0 (probably a bit more cause other improvements, but in that ballpark).

As for the video adapter, both 2009 and 2010 models came with DVI ones, Mini DVI to DVI with the 2009, and HDMI to DVI with the 2010. You should be ok there unless you have the ADC CRT screen, then you might be in a bit of a bind.

 

[los-graphicos]

Your thread title is a bit confusing, cause from the post it sounds like you're debating upgrading your 2,1 model vs buying a 2010, while the 2009 mini was 3,1. Basically, do you have a 2,1 or 3,1?

If you have a 3,1 I'd just upgrade it since it can take 8GB (assuming the firmware is up to date), and cause the 2010 model wasn't a huge spec upgrade over them. GPU was about 2x but the CPU was a minor bump.

If you have a 2,1 just get whatever 3,1 or 4,1 (2010) model you can find within your budget, either one will let you upgrade to 8GB and have much faster graphics. CPU wise it'll vary depending on what you find, but it'll be more or less linear with the MHz, like the 2.4 will be about 20% faster than the 2.0 (probably a bit more cause other improvements, but in that ballpark).

As for the video adapter, both 2009 and 2010 models came with DVI ones, Mini DVI to DVI with the 2009, and HDMI to DVI with the 2010. You should be ok there unless you have the ADC CRT screen, then you might be in a bit of a bind.

Sorry about the title confusion there, one of those moments where you know you've made an obvious mistake but can't see it despite it being right in front of your eyes, so apologies there.

Thanks for the advice in the reply there, very helpful and informative, and straightforward too It's the LCD ADC Apple monitor that I've got with adaptor so by the sounds of things I should be ok with the pre-supplied adaptor that comes with the 2009/2010 Mini?

 

[japtor]

Yeah it should be fine assuming the adapter just takes in a plain DVI-D signal like most LCDs. I figure worst case if you buy one used and it doesn't come with one you can find adapters on Monoprice for pretty cheap I think, or $20-30 straight from Apple.

 

[los-graphicos]

Yeah it should be fine assuming the adapter just takes in a plain DVI-D signal like most LCDs. I figure worst case if you buy one used and it doesn't come with one you can find adapters on Monoprice for pretty cheap I think, or $20-30 straight from Apple.

Great, thanks very much for the help & advice there

 

[Sfdoddsy]

Great, thanks very much for the help & advice there

Why would you upgrade to the 2010 model? You can buy the 2011 on Amazon for about the same price as 2010s sell for on eBay.

If you need an optical drive they are cheap as chips.

The only 2010 model worth considering as an upgrade is the server, but even then I'd rather have the extra power of the 2011 models

 

[los-graphicos]

Why would you upgrade to the 2010 model? You can buy the 2011 on Amazon for about the same price as 2010s sell for on eBay.

If you need an optical drive they are cheap as chips.

The only 2010 model worth considering as an upgrade is the server, but even then I'd rather have the extra power of the 2011 models

Because going up to the new model would be an extra expensive of £110 in itself, plus an optical drive, if I wanted to add a bit more memory too you're talking over £200 extra and that isn't an option for me right now.

Regarding Amazon, maybe it's different elsewhere but in the UK the new entry level Mini is going for around £530 - the 2010 Mini can be bought elsewhere for £380 for an ex demo model, or £419 brand new - if you can show me where the brand new 2011 Mini is going for around £400 I'd be most appreciative, as would several other people I would think!

 

[rogan]

just over £400, where ?

 

[los-graphicos]

official Apple reseller in the UK - only way to get a new 2011 Mini for that kinda price that I can see would be to buy one in North america and bring it back with you