iMovie user...should I upgrade my Mini?

[ericinboston]

Hi all! I have a Mini from 2007 (right after the refresh in late summer '07 so it has the 64-bit Intel Core 2 Duo). We really only use the Mini for iMovie and iDVD.

Currently it has the stock 160gig 5400rpm drive and 2gig RAM.

I am considering upgrading the RAM to 4gig and the drive to a 320gig 7200rpm and reinstall the OS (there really isn't anything on the Mini to back up).

But, even though technically this will make the Mini perform better, will I see much of a true performance improvement when using iMovie and iDVD? I mean, the rendering takes F O R E V E R currently in iMovie and ditto for whatever iDVD is doing when it is trying to make the master before burning the dvd.

I believe most of the perf problems are due to the drive speed but it also never hurts to have as much ram as you can afford.

So...would you bother with all the egg-shell-tip-toeing I need to do to upgrade it or just leave it alone? We only make a few movies a year...$90 is not a problem on the upgraded parts. I'd love to hear from people who did a similar upgrade for the purpose of iMovie and iDVD...

Thanks in advance!

-Eric

 

[MTI]

You're more likely to see a bigger improvement in rendering times by investing in an ouboard H.264 device, like the Elgato Turbo or Turbo HD.