Mac Mini: How much RAM necessary for Home Theater usage?

[Allusion]

Hello everyone,

I've been planning on getting a Mac Mini for Home Theater use, and was originally going to scoop up the old model, then bam, the refresh hit today, which brought some plesant upgrades.

There are so many threads already about the 1gb model and upgrading it and so on and so forth.

I'm basically planning on using this sytem for playing DVDs and for playing video files, up to 720p though VLC, maybe some light web browsing as well. Probably minimal application use otherwise.

How much RAM do I really need in this system? I could buy the upgrade and do it, but I'm not even sure it's worth it...

Thanks =)

 

[HiFiGuy528]

RAM is cheap, go 4GB!

 

[Durandal549]

Well, since you can pick up 4gigs for around $50-$60 and do it yourself, I would say go that route. Grab a putty knife and go to town

 

[iParis]

1GB should be enough but may be a little laggy.
2GB should be perfect.
4GB just to be safe.

Well, since you can pick up 4gigs for around $50-$60 and do it yourself, I would say go that route. Grab a putty knife and go to town

You'd have to be very experienced and careful while doing that.
Not the average Joe can upgrade ram in a Mac mini.

 

[Durandal549]

You'd have to be very experienced and careful while doing that.
Not the average Joe can upgrade ram in a Mac mini.

I agree that it can be daunting and that you have to be careful. However there are some really good guides online that really help. I have done mine twice and didn't have any real experience before that. Go slow, be careful, and don't freak yourself out.

Then of course I did mine when I was still in school and $100 was worth the savings of doing it myself. YMMV

 

[Allusion]

The only thought/concern I am having now is if there is confirmation yet that the vRAM scales according to the amount of system memory detected.

There's presently what seems like alot of speculation on it, but no real confirmation yet by any users. That could be a dealbreaker for me if it doesn't scale.

 

[azdunerat]

if you have never opened the case on a mini I have a few first timer things I learned.

First Start on the back of each side of the case. Closest to the ports. Second whe you have to take the tiny ass little cable off the front DONT USE, I repeat DO NOT use pliers, Use the smallest flat head screwdriver you can find to lift it up. after that the only other pointer I have is if you dont have mag head 00 philips screw driver putting the screws back in can be tricky. If you have some liquid dish soap, apply a tiny amount the head of the screw it will stick just fine.

other than that just google it and enjoy

 

[robotartfashion]

The only thought/concern I am having now is if there is confirmation yet that the vRAM scales according to the amount of system memory detected.

There's presently what seems like alot of speculation on it, but no real confirmation yet by any users. That could be a dealbreaker for me if it doesn't scale.

i really do feel that it does, according to the description of the 9400m this makes sense

i wouldn't sweat it, although if you're willing to wait, that's never a bad idea to make sure there are no other issues

 

[robotartfashion]

sfroom posted this in another thread relating to the mini:

"I called today and spoke to one of Apple's "Product Engineers". He explained that while the min/max is locked, it should scale to 256 with 2 or 4 gigabytes for ram. It's limited to 128 with 1GB, because if the 9400 took 256, that would leave only 768 to run the system, which is a little light for OSX."

there's your answer

buy away!

 

[Ballis]

1 gig is plenty.
i use the old 2 ghz mini with 1 gig ram for HT usage.
Plays 1080P with no glitches at all. I use plex though, not vlc.