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Mac Mini - first time buyer
- Thread starter Liquinn
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Nonsense. Having more than 8GB of RAM will not cause problems.
The new Mac mini supports up to 16GB of RAM, regardless of what Apple specs say. This is true of many models.
It won't.
You can find specs on all Apple products, including maximum RAM:
- By visiting EveryMac.com: Actual Maximum RAM
- By using Mactracker
- By entering your serial number here to find specs for your model. (Be aware that some models can use more RAM than Apple shows. Check EveryMac or MacTracker to verify.)
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What do you mean mods? XDCongrats on the Mac, Liquinn!I felt the same when I bought my Mini; definitely a leap of faith with (pretty much) no regrets!
@sunnyj... I'm interested in what mods you can do?
Everything just works, which coming from a Windows background is nice and refreshing.
I'm going to download a few pas and stuff now, OSX is nice though
Yeah, I see.
Shall I update to 16GB or stick to the RAM that came with it which was 2GBs?
That's up to you. Many say RAM is cheap, so why not get more, even if you don't need it. However, RAM prices will continue to fall and if you don't need it now, but do need it later, you're likely to pay a lower price later.Yeah, I see.
To determine if you can benefit from more RAM, launch Activity Monitor and click the System Memory tab at the bottom to check your page outs. Page outs are cumulative since your last restart, so the best way to check is to restart your computer and track page outs under your normal workload (the apps, browser pages and documents you normally would have open). If your page outs are significant (say 1GB or more) under normal use, you may benefit from more RAM.
Mac OS X: Reading system memory usage in Activity Monitor
I added 8gig of ram almost immediately after purchase.. it was cheap enough. As for further upgrades. I see little point in the short to medium term. My last PC had a 38gig HD - which I never actually filled. I kept most of my 'stuff' on an outboard HD. Now, with 500gig to play with I keep everything on the mini's HD and still have (at this moment in time) 327gig free.. it will take me some considerable time to use that up. It will be at that point I'll consider an upgrade... probably once the warranty has expired. I expect the hardware will by then be considerably cheaper than it is now.
I don't need extra speed as compared with my previous PC this tiny little box is blisteringly fast for my purposes. I'm not a 'gamer', The most resource hungry app I'll be using regularly will be aperture. And possibly lightroom later in the year.
I don't need extra speed as compared with my previous PC this tiny little box is blisteringly fast for my purposes. I'm not a 'gamer', The most resource hungry app I'll be using regularly will be aperture. And possibly lightroom later in the year.
Yeah; cheers for the reply. I'm surprised how fast my Mini is, my PC laptop has 2GB RAM and that's so slow compared to this.
I want my Macbook Pro even more now. So I guess by the time I get my Macbook Pro, I could probably upgrade both my Mac Mini and soon to be MBP up to 16GB with very little cost, I'd imagine xD.
well one of my disapointment is the I7 CPU is only 4 cores!!!
How many cores are you expecting? 12?
I don't know if you are us or uk or another country but a pair of 4gb sticks are under 40 bucks in the usa
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231341
this is 18.99 for one stick 38 for 2 sticks the discount code is EMCJKKE36 that gives you a 20% discount 31 dollars for the pair. they will not get much lower then that. that is less then 4 dollars for a gb!
this is the link for 16gb it is 170 dollars
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231531
I think it will still drop lower. this is about 10.50 per gb
Yeah, I see.
Lion does not run optimally in 2gb of RAM and almost all users would notice a speed improvement going to 4gb, particularly on a hard drive based Mac where paging is much slower than on an SSD.
Light users who only run a handful of apps at a time and stick to apps that came with the Mac or other lightweight apps can do just fine with 4gb. It's a sweet spot for routine use and that's why it's the base configuration for most Macs.
Heavier users who tend to run more apps at once, do more memory intensive things with third party software, or use virtual machines can benefit from even more memory and 8gb serves the majority of power uses well at a very modist cost (about $50 for quality brand name memory).
While most folks wouldn't see a benefit beyond 8gb, the 2011 minis will accept 16gb with no issue. And if you are a heavy enough user that a lot of paging is still happening (look at activity monitor or a utility like menu meters) then this is an option, but a fairly costly one for quality name brand memory (several hundred dollars).
Since you only have 2gb I'd definitely recommend an upgrade. Many folks can run optimally under 4gb so the choice is yours to go to 4 or 8 but since 8 is so inexpensive it's what I'd recommend and helps future proof your mini.
I would not generally recommend more than 8 unless someone with 8 was still encountering excessive paging because it's so expensive and so few would need it. If you are wondering why I have 16 it's because in addition to my routine use I tend to run some very memory intensive simulation software and virtual machines I process video streams in so they need to run smooth. Paging with 8gb was minimal for normal use but got noticeable with simulations and VMs running. With 16gb nothing I do generates any paging.
I have the 2.3 GHz version and added 8 GB RAM. Love it! I just downloaded Civ 5 and I am impressed what this integrated video card can do. Glad I made the switch to Mac, it just works......
Yeah, I'm getting there with it. This is really making me want the Macbook Pro even more now.
It's true, it does just work compared to a Windows based machine.
Using a Mac at college and owning one are two different things - I used to think the PPC Macsat college were good till I got my Mac :L
Well no... 8 like on my pc Laptop!
That is really the only thing that makes me angry with the minimac!
this low end:
Intel® Core™ i7-2620M Processor
(4M Cache, 2.70 GHz)
2 cores 4 threads!!
This the one I have on my PC laptop... dates 09!
Intel® Core™ i7-720QM Processor
(6M Cache, 1.60 GHz)
4 cores 8 threads!
The difference in GHz does not make it up.
Drives me crazy for the price!
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Is there a prudent need for more RAM? I find the high-end RAM more than enough.
If only TB externals were cheaper. The moment those aren't so pricey, the Mac Mini will be perfect.
It's an amazing machine! I think the Mini is the best design of all current Macs, though it is always the lesser of power.
Well no... 8 like on my pc Laptop!
That is really the only thing that makes me angry with the minimac!
this low end:
Intel® Core i7-2620M Processor
(4M Cache, 2.70 GHz)
2 cores 4 threads!!
This the one I have on my PC laptop... dates 09!
Intel® Core i7-720QM Processor
(6M Cache, 1.60 GHz)
4 cores 8 threads!
The difference in GHz does not make it up.
Drives me crazy for the price!
Still the i7-2620M is +- 4% faster overall
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-Core-i7-2620M-Notebook-Processor.40108.0.html
and then also faster proc does not mean your laptop is going to faster.
Don't stare blind on numbers.
Oh No I dont stair blind on numbers! I do 3d rendering so its all based on CPU!
and I benchedmarked the same render on my 2009 pc and on the mini mac and the mini mac is +35% of time!
Sorry...
Oh No I dont stair blind on numbers! I do 3d rendering so its all based on CPU!
and I benchedmarked the same render on my 2009 pc and on the mini mac and the mini mac is +35% of time!
Sorry...
Yup. According to CPU bench - PassMark
The mini dual core = 3921
Your old quad core = 3291
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I feel like I'm going to have buyers remorse when the new models of these come out.
But I guess if you're always going to wait around for the newest release, you'll never be happy right?
No, because new computers, CPUs and other stuff is always coming out in regular cycles. You can always sell your mini and get the latest model. You won't lose too much, but usually there is no point in upgrading every refresh cycle. It's not worth it for the minimal real-world speed increase.
nah
This is real life benchmarked
My mini is
2.7GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i7
8GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x4Go
and it is slower than my PC I7 8 thread period!
Dont get me wrong I really like my Mini Mac put Apple could have put in a quad core 8 threads..
This is real life benchmarked
My mini is
2.7GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i7
8GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x4Go
and it is slower than my PC I7 8 thread period!
Dont get me wrong I really like my Mini Mac put Apple could have put in a quad core 8 threads..
nah
This is real life benchmarked
My mini is
2.7GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i7
8GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x4Go
and it is slower than my PC I7 8 thread period!
Dont get me wrong I really like my Mini Mac put Apple could have put in a quad core 8 threads..
They did. It's called a mac mini server.
It's difficult to comment on what you're doing without seeing more info, but it simply makes no sense at all.
Edit: Cinebench R10 64-bit is a very good indicator of CPU rendering speed and great for comparisons. It's as real world as a repeatable test can be since it renders an image.
i7 720 QM - 10024
i7 2620M - 11508
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