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sunrobby

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 17, 2006
141
0
Indonesia
Hi, im a new switcher, first i have MBP 2.0 Ghz, im quite happy with it. And decided to replace my PC with mac mini. I bought mac mini intel core duo 1.66 GHz, 512 RAM. I know it's definately slower than my MBP, but i just wonder if the mini should be this slow. It'll take about 5 seconds if i point out my cursor to hot corners to load up screen saver. It'll take another 3 seconds from screen saver to show the login screen. It'll take about 3 seconds to change desktop (using Desktop manager). It'll take about 3 seconds after i pressed f12 to bring the dashboard. But that is just for the first time, the second time will be normal (e.g. after wake up from sleep, i change the desktop, it'll take 3 secs. After that it'll be normal. After a while using the mac, but not using desktop manager, and use it again, it'll back to slow again, as well as the dashboard etc, the second time i access it, it would be normal speed). Is everybody's mini like this also?
 
It's definitely lack of RAM.

Performance symptomps for having too little RAM are exactly as you describe. It takes a long time to switch between apps or environments (Dashboard and in your case virtual desktops).

If you want to continue using it with 512MB of RAM without getting slowed down, you should ditch Desktop manager, avoid unnecessary widgets in Dashboard and use as few applications as possible at the same time.

It's either that or upgrade to having at least 1GB of RAM. You might want to buy an extra 1GB stick, which should give you a total of 1,25GB or 1,5GB depending on whether there is one or two sticks of RAM in your mini already.

Note: Starting Dashboard for the first time since a reboot will always take a few seconds, but after sleep it should be smooth if you have enough RAM.
 
The core solo is definitely the slowest intel mac (by far), but 512 will cripple it. Go up to at least a gig, it will give you a speed boost on the things you are doing.
 
thanks for the reply, so am i lack of RAM? i know that standard 512 MB looks like a small amount of RAM. i'll consider to get more. So my mini is normal? Anybody mini's having standard RAM also slow like mine?

To Macer, i think the permissions is ok, cause i never change it..


PS: Sorry because i post this in a wrong room, it should be under macintosh computer.. just now i open macintosh computer to find my topic in case somebody reply, i couldnt find it, and there you go, seems i posted it under buying tips.. :p
 
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