Mac Mini - Snow Leopard, CS3 etc

[cwodesign]

Hello guys,

This is my first posting after browsing for so long! I am currently the owner of an aging Dual 800 Quicksilver and running Tiger on it. Been working on this machine for almost 7 years and still runs like a champ. It is starting to show its age big time, especially in CS3.

Just wondering if I should hold off on getting the Mac Mini until Snow Leopard comes as its default system? Do you think Apple will give the mini another boost in specs this year? I'll be getting the Mini this year at some point with the Dell e-IPS 22" monitor.

I'm a little nervous since I have heard so many issues with CS3 and Leopard (at work, we tried it and it constantly crashes). I don't want to bother with CS4 (or CS5 for that matter).

How much faster would the new mini be compared to what I have now?

And ONE last thing....

I know the 2009 mini has only been out for a short time, has anyone attempted to put in more RAM than the 4 GB supported? Photoshop is a hog for RAM if working on multiple layers, etc.

Thanks for your feedback,
cwodesign

 

[Cave Man]

Hello guys,

This is my first posting after browsing for so long!

Welcome to the forums.

How much faster would the new mini be compared to what I have now?

In a word - substantially. If you want quantitative data, visit the GeekBench pages at Primate Labs and search for your machine and the Mini.

I know the 2009 mini has only been out for a short time, has anyone attempted to put in more RAM than the 4 GB supported? Photoshop is a hog for RAM if working on multiple layers, etc.

I don't know of anyone who's tried this, but unless Apple's handicapped its EFI (which they've done in the past) it likely will take 6 gb. Also keep in mind that Photoshop has a 3 gb file size limit in OS X. Of course, if you have that extra RAM it is possible to exploit it.

 

[rrijkers]

I heard it runs terrible when adding more than 4 GB

 

[Justibackwardsn]

I'm a little nervous since I have heard so many issues with CS3 and Leopard (at work, we tried it and it constantly crashes). I don't want to bother with CS4 (or CS5 for that matter).

I haven't heard of CS3 crashing on leopard. We have CS3 at school and it works just fine. We are using it with a Mac Pro, but its so bogged down from destructive students and like 4 servers that its hardly what it should be. Any new mac should work great with CS3.

How much faster would the new mini be compared to what I have now?

I'm guessing a lot. My White MacBook is about the same specs as the new mini. I have CS4 and it works great!

I know the 2009 mini has only been out for a short time, has anyone attempted to put in more RAM than the 4 GB supported? Photoshop is a hog for RAM if working on multiple layers, etc.

I highly doubt it is upgradeable over 4GB. 1. If it were, Apple would offer it to make more money. 2. It would take away from the sales of the iMacs that hold up to 8GB. I'm sure its not the system that couldn't hold it, but Apple themselves putting a control on the system. Plus DDR3 is sooo expensive right now for 8GB of ram, you probably wouldn't buy it anyway.

 

[Cave Man]

I heard it runs terrible when adding more than 4 GB

Where did you hear that?

I highly doubt it is upgradeable over 4GB.

Other than speculation, do you have evidence to support this assertion? It is clear that Apple has a history of doing such things. For instance, the last gen Mini "officially" supported only 2 gb of RAM, yet there are plenty of us who installed 3 gb, and some even 4 gb (for 3.1 gb available plus dual-channel).

 

[rrijkers]

Where did you hear that?

Somewhere in these forums, these mobo sould be able to, howeer the system tend to get all sloppy and unresponsive if you utilize more then 4GB

 

[Mr_Brightside_@]

Sorry to side track, but THANK YOU. I had NO idea CS3 ran on PPC; I originally heard that the suite wouldn't support us and didn't really need it at the time, but I do now.

 

[rrijkers]

Sorry to side track, but THANK YOU. I had NO idea CS3 ran on PPC; I originally heard that the suite wouldn't support us and didn't really need it at the time, but I do now.

You know CS4 is out already right?

 

[OldMike]

Somewhere in these forums, these mobo sould be able to, howeer the system tend to get all sloppy and unresponsive if you utilize more then 4GB

The only thing that I have read, so far, is that 8GB does not work. I have not read one test of running 6GB in the new mini yet (and I am waiting to see one).

 

[mac.andy]

I don't know if Apple will do another hardware refresh of the Mac Mini or iMac for Snow Leopard - but I'm betting on it

No new iMac for me until Snow Leopard is included in the box with my new iMac!

 

[cwodesign]

Thanks

Hey everybody, thanks for all the feedback in regards to the question!

I'm just going to hang on to the Quicksilver G4 for a few more months until the Mini comes with Snow Leopard. It has been great to hear positive reports about the Mini so far on this forum and it can run dual monitors!

If the Mac mini can "unofficially" support 6 gb that would be the perfect amount of RAM, but if not I'll go with the 4 gb.

I would also consider the iMacs if Apple hadn't put on those horrid high gloss glass screens on them. At least with the Mini you can pick what monitor you want with it.

So far, Apple really hasn't come up with the perfect solution at the right price point aka the legendary "Mini Tower" with 2 SATA bays, a Quad Core, support for 8 gb, 2 PCI Express etc.

As for the CS3 problems with Leopard, we've tried everything on our G5 machines at work and it crashes. 2 of our designers had to go back to CS2 for work. I told my IT to leave my G5 on Tiger and it runs CS3 with no problems.

I've been running CS3 on my computer but it is SLOOOOWWW...

Thanks!
cwodesign ::