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Is Mini self upgrade really worth it?

Richard8655 said:
Waste of time only if you don't like what you hear. Sorry, everyone has an opinion, OP included.
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Don't like what I hear? I could care less whether you spent $1000 from Apple on your mini, that's your business. Just means you have more money than me. It's rather evident that everyone has an opinion as a lot of people replied to your "question" which wasn't really a question.
Richard8655 said:
Eyeball rolling goes well with those geeky upgrade skills.
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Seriously, what elementary school are you in? Everyone has kept from suggesting personal attacks but you, yet you are in a very small minority of people that agree that having apple do the upgrade makes more sense.

This group of people here is actually trying to save you money and help you, Yet you think we're all crazy.

Oh well, no skin off my back. As long as your happy with your purchase that's what should matter to you. Good luck!
 
txnoob said:
Don't like what I hear? I could care less whether you spent $1000 from Apple on your mini, that's your business. Just means you have more money than me. It's rather evident that everyone has an opinion as a lot of people replied to your "question" which wasn't really a question.

Seriously, what elementary school are you in? Everyone has kept from suggesting personal attacks but you, yet you are in a very small minority of people that agree that having apple do the upgrade makes more sense.

This group of people here is actually trying to save you money and help you, Yet you think we're all crazy.

Oh well, no skin off my back. As long as your happy with your purchase that's what should matter to you. Good luck!
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I have no problem with your opinion and point of view. I never labeled your posts as "a waste of time" nor commented about rolling my eyes at what you had to say. So I agree, this stuff's unnecessary. Why not just let people say what they think without the personal comments?

No, I don't think self upgrade is crazy, and is perfectly legitimate. It's just that no one here ever gives the other side to that. And it seems when someone in that small minority does, some people get personal in frustration.
 
jjahshik32 said:
Self upgrade is really really worth it.

I bought the $599 mini, took the RAM out and stuck 4gb in there ($45), put a hitachi travelstar 7200rpm 320GB hdd in there ($65).

All in all it was easy and cost much cheaper than the $799 with MUCH better specs.

It runs as my main machine for now and I use it for dual display (1 on the mini displayport via the 24" LED ACD) and the other connected to my 40" Sony Bravia XBR6 through the mini DVI port and works really well and fast.

On the 2nd monitor through the sony bravia xbr6, I just have plex player loaded full of all my hd tv shows and all bluray mkv 1080p movies and plays without any hitches while I d/l and browse the web on the 24" LED ACD at the same time.

I'm even considering staying away from the new Mac Pros since this one mini does it all!! Quality and performance is insane for the price.
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When you've got a second, can you try ripping a cd and let us know how long it takes on this setup? Same for ripping and burning a dvd if you can. Would be greatly appreciated!
 
Richard8655 said:
No, I don't think self upgrade is crazy, and is perfectly legitimate. It's just that no one here ever gives the other side to that.
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Here's part of your original post:
"Sorry to rain on the party, but I still don't see what the excitement is about going to the trouble of risking a Mini upgrade."

You've stated your opinion. The majority who upgraded stated theirs. What do you want? To start a flame war?
We're not going to agree with you, as we've done it.
Move on.
 
bigbird said:
Here's part of your original post:
"Sorry to rain on the party, but I still don't see what the excitement is about going to the trouble of risking a Mini upgrade."

You've stated your opinion. The majority who upgraded stated theirs. What do you want? To start a flame war?
We're not going to agree with you, as we've done it.
Move on.
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I'm not looking to change your mind, just sharing opinions. Why don't you move on. Start your own thread.
 
Whackintosh said:
When you've got a second, can you try ripping a cd and let us know how long it takes on this setup? Same for ripping and burning a dvd if you can. Would be greatly appreciated!
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Sorry, I never rip any dvd's or rip anything for that matter. I just d/l all my mkv 1080p bluray movies for free *ahem* newsgroups and just use plex to play them all.
 
Richard8655 said:
I'm not looking to change your mind, just sharing opinions. Why don't you move on. Start your own thread.
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Bigbird et al. are right. You started it and we all get to play, whether you want us to or not. It's really not much of a risk to crack open a Mini so long as you take your time. That's just how it is. I've done it at least a dozen times, and each time it went back together without a hitch. It's sure worth $160 (or more) to me (and apparently everyone but you).
 
Cave Man said:
Bigbird et al. are right. You started it and we all get to play, whether you want us to or not. It's really not much of a risk to crack open a Mini so long as you take your time. That's just how it is. I've done it at least a dozen times, and each time it went back together without a hitch. It's sure worth $160 (or more) to me (and apparently everyone but you).
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The first time I've done it EVER with this generation Mac Mini(never owned one until now), I only looked at the putty knife guide but the internals, I had to figure it out on my own.

Since I got the Mac Mini on the first day it was announced there were no online guides for the internals so I opened it up without the guide. It took me about 2 hours to slowly look at it and figure it out (the hdd replacement was the hardest) but the RAM was extremely easy to figure out.

Hell if I had the guide (which is available from ifixit.com or other sources online now) I could probably have done the whole thing in 15 minutes.

Now that I've done it once, I can probably change the HDD and the RAM within 15 minutes.

Its freaking easy. :D
 
Cave Man said:
Bigbird et al. are right. You started it and we all get to play, whether you want us to or not. It's really not much of a risk to crack open a Mini so long as you take your time. That's just how it is. I've done it at least a dozen times, and each time it went back together without a hitch. It's sure worth $160 (or more) to me (and apparently everyone but you).
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Fine. I don't happen to agree it's worth it. So let me express my opinion and you can yours. Why is this a problem?
 
Richard8655 said:
So let me express my opinion and you can yours.
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You already did. About a dozen times, in fact. We get it. You don't think it's worth it for you to upgrade your Mini. We get it. What are you still trying to prove? To convince everyone looking at this thread that because you don't think it's worth it to upgrade, that nobody else should upgrade either?
 
Cave Man said:
It's not a problem. It's just that you're in the substantial minority. But telling someone to start their own thread when they're voicing their opinion is really over the top.
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But it's not over the top to tell someone to move on, and what they say is a waste of time? And why is being in a substantial minority somehow wrong? Are we all supposed to conform?
 
bigbird said:
You already did. About a dozen times, in fact. We get it. You don't think it's worth it for you to upgrade your Mini. We get it. What are you still trying to prove? To convince everyone looking at this thread that because you don't think it's worth it to upgrade, that nobody else should upgrade either?
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No. I'm just fed up with the attacks and snide remarks just because I'm not agreeing with the majority. If you really hate what I'm saying, why do you keep coming back here and posting how wrong I am?
 
Richard8655 said:
No. I'm just fed up with the attacks and snide remarks just because I'm not agreeing with the majority. If you really hate what I'm saying, why do you keep coming back here and posting how wrong I am?
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I never once posted anything about your being wrong. You're entitled to your opinion. You stated it. I agree totally with you that if you're uncomfortable with upgrading your Mini, for whatever reason, then DON'T! I would never try to convince you otherwise. But when you start trying to convince others with your money and damage reasoning you will get arguments from those who have upgraded. This is a well known "do-it-yourself" type of forum. For you to get on here and discourage the do-it-yourselfers, well you know what kind of response you're going to get. What did you expect from this forum?
 
txnoob said:
Did you check out this video?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KaHNLR6Aac

Seriously, unless you have no manual dexterity or a paranoid, it's not that hard.
I'm not judging your decision. I just want you to realize how simple it is.
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Wow they made upgrading the MacMini easier. There isn't a wire that you have to remeber to connect back up, to keep the fan contral. I don't know it just seems it's a lot easier then on the MacMini (Intel 1g 2,g).


The only thing holding me back is opening the thing. If I had this MacMini I would do the upgade my self. :/

Hugh
 
Upgrading a mini does not void the warranty on the logic board. Just the parts that are replaced... or that is what I understood with my under warranty last revision PPC G4 mini when I swapped out the hard drive and upgraded the ram.

To me that's the only thing that should concern folks. Use a plastic hard spatula as I did and there are no scratches, either.
 
Compromise

Another possible solution is to buy and cheapest MacMini and all the parts yourself and have an authorized Apple Service Center perform the work for you. I called two places here in LA and they both quoted me $100 for the work to install the RAM and HD.

So you can still get a faster 7200rpm HD and have peace of mind that your warranty is still valid and maybe still come out saving some money. ;)
 
Hugh said:
The only thing holding me back is opening the thing. If I had this MacMini I would do the upgade my self. :/
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The easiest part for me was opening the case. I have big hands and fingers. Without a magnetic tipped screw driver I would have had a real tough time dealing with the 4 small screws that hold the upper drive case to the lower unit.
 
Regarding the earlier discussion. The reasons I myself am wanting a mac mini is because it is a pretty sweet and decently powerful machine from the research I have been doing, but mostly because it can handle a fair amount of graphic and web design for $1000 less out the door. For a machine, comparing it to the $1500 imac anyway. So I can be able to afford a machine for school, and over time be able to upgrade the heck out of it. :-D Just makes me giddy thinking about taking that thing and throwing in 4gb of ram, and a 7200 rpm hd. (hopefully a 500gb) That thing will be sweet. And while saving a decent amount of money. Who knows, maybe by the time I get a computer, then have money for upgrades; those SSD will be reasonable **crossing fingers**.
 
mac mini 2.0 $599
6% back for purchase thru Chase shopping link = -$35.94
Price match to MacConnection's 579.99 price = -$19.01
subtotal = $544.05
owc 4gb ram = 65.00
wd 7200/320G = 79.99

total = $689.04
:)
 
DanTheMan said:
Another possible solution is to buy and cheapest MacMini and all the parts yourself and have an authorized Apple Service Center perform the work for you. I called two places here in LA and they both quoted me $100 for the work to install the RAM and HD.

So you can still get a faster 7200rpm HD and have peace of mind that your warranty is still valid and maybe still come out saving some money. ;)
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We have a place here would do it for around $65. That is to have the memory and hard drive installed for you. (Apple authorized Service store)

Hugh
 
But it's so fun to upgrade it yourself! Half the reason for doing the upgrade is the fun of ripping into the internals yourself, isn't it?
 
bozz2006 said:
But it's so fun to upgrade it yourself! Half the reason for doing the upgrade is the fun of ripping into the internals yourself, isn't it?
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It does give you a sense of accomplishment, as well as the financial gratification that you beat the Apple business model of expensive upgrades.
 
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