Ordered 2.26 mini, should I return it for 2.53?

[student_trap]

Hello all, ill make this quick.

I have ordered a 2.26 mini, but am thinking that I should have gone for the 2.53 to be future proof, as after watching a youtube video on upgrading minis, there is no way that i would attempt it.

Also, the upgrades are the same cost from apple:

2.53 mini with 4GB ram and 320 GB hard drive = £596

2.26 mini with 4Gb ram and 320 Gb hard drive = £459 + £94 + £45 = 593

What do you guys think?

 

[Gordy]

Hello all, ill make this quick.

I have ordered a 2.26 mini, but am thinking that I should have gone for the 2.53 to be future proof, as after watching a youtube video on upgrading minis, there is no way that i would attempt it.

Also, the upgrades are the same cost from apple:

2.53 mini with 4GB ram and 320 GB hard drive = £596

2.26 mini with 4Gb ram and 320 Gb hard drive = £459 + £94 + £45 = 593

What do you guys think?

You cannot upgrade the cpu on the current mini's, but the ram and hdd are possible. Personally if you aren't happy to do the upgrades yourself then 2.53ghz one is your only option

 

[Raima]

Yeah, cancel the order and get the 2.53Ghz if you're not going to upgrade it yourself. Sounds logical to me as long as you'll use the additional spec.

 

[student_trap]

You cannot upgrade the cpu on the current mini's, but the ram and hdd are possible. Personally if you aren't happy to do the upgrades yourself then 2.53ghz one is your only option

Yeah, cancel the order and get the 2.53Ghz if you're not going to upgrade it yourself. Sounds logical to me as long as you'll use the additional spec.

thanks for the replies, that is what i have been thinking.

Right now i know that 2.26/2/160 will suit my needs, but I am not sure of the future.

Can anyone give a guide to what the 2.26 machine would be able to handle over the next few years, and what it would not be able to

 

[yamawho]

thanks for the replies, that is what i have been thinking.

Right now i know that 2.26/2/160 will suit my needs, but I am not sure of the future.

Can anyone give a guide to what the 2.26 machine would be able to handle over the next few years, and what it would not be able to

Considering the 2.26 or 2.53 mini's are not cutting edge to begin with, you maybe splitting hairs.

Sure 4GB of ram is better but if you think your going to get faster internet as a benefit think again. Basic tasks do not require it.

2.26 vs 2.53 = very little difference, none you can see anyways ...

The question is what are you going to do with it ?

I have the 2.26 with 2GB ram and 160GB hdd and added an external 1TB firewire hdd and I'm very happy.

 

[student_trap]

Considering the 2.26 or 2.53 mini's are not cutting edge to begin with, you maybe splitting hairs.

Sure 4GB of ram is better but if you think your going to get faster internet as a benefit think again. Basic tasks do not require it.

2.26 vs 2.53 = very little difference, none you can see anyways ...

The question is what are you going to do with it ?

I have the 2.26 with 2GB ram and 160GB hdd and added an external 1TB firewire hdd and I'm very happy.

thanks for the reply

I bought it for my girlfriend as her primary computer, although as we live together, and I have a mac pro, she does have access to a powerful computer if necessary.

Her uses will be primarily pages documents that are over 100,000 words in length, surfing, syncing her nano. Although I am wondering whether over time she may want to do more on it (especially as I will usually be on the mac pro myself!).

However I had intended to dual boot with windows so that I could check windows compatibility when making websites.

With this in mind my main concern is the smallish hard drive which will need to boot 2 OS's.

If possible, it would be nice to do some old school gaming on the windows partition, although this is in no way critical.

Finally, in time the box may end up being used as a HTPC.


[EDIT], also note that apple had given me a good will gesture of £150, so the final cost of the 2.26 with applecare was £345 and so the £137 price difference amounts to 40% of the cost of the unit itself

 

[yamawho]

From your last reply, sounds like you would be better off getting a more up to date windows 7 system with a 500GB hdd 4 GB ram and up to date cpu for half the price ...

That being said, anything more than the basic mini would be a waste of cash in your case. Put the money towards an external hdd since your going to need backups, additional storage and to use time machine.

 

[dh2005]

I have ordered a 2.26 mini, but am thinking that I should have gone for the 2.53 to be future proof

As an owner of one such 2.53GHz/4GB Mini, let me shatter the illusion that it's "future proof"!

It's a perfectly fine little computer, but it's nothing devastating. It can't run Half-Life 2 particularly well (that's almost six years old... forget about the "future"), and if I'm asking it to do something demanding, like copying a few dozen gigabytes via USB or remuxing high definition video, it can't really do anything else at the same time; if I ask it to open a web browser even, it'll just sit there like a wally for a minute or more before finding my home page. Using Windows, anyway.


But I stress; it's a decent machine, and I recommend it.

 

[Abyssgh0st]

Why would you not for the same price?

 

[student_trap]

Why would you not for the same price?

Because I would otherwise not upgrade the machine

As an owner of one such 2.53GHz/4GB Mini, let me shatter the illusion that it's "future proof"!

It's a perfectly fine little computer, but it's nothing devastating. It can't run Half-Life 2 particularly well (that's almost six years old... forget about the "future"), and if I'm asking it to do something demanding, like copying a few dozen gigabytes via USB or remuxing high definition video, it can't really do anything else at the same time; if I ask it to open a web browser even, it'll just sit there like a wally for a minute or more before finding my home page. Using Windows, anyway.


But I stress; it's a decent machine, and I recommend it.

From your last reply, sounds like you would be better off getting a more up to date windows 7 system with a 500GB hdd 4 GB ram and up to date cpu for half the price ...

That being said, anything more than the basic mini would be a waste of cash in your case. Put the money towards an external hdd since your going to need backups, additional storage and to use time machine.

Thanks to everyone for your input, it has been particularly insightful. I would especially like to thank dh2005, your comments really made up my mind.

In the end I decided to keep the 2.26, mostly because the difference between the two machines was negligible, and the price increase was 40% of the cost of the machine itself.

I thought it best to put the money saved towards a windows laptop/desktop which I will buy when necessary.

Thanks again

 

[jjahshik32]

Yea I would cancel and order the 2.53GHz, IMHO those extra 270MHz will help in the CPU department.

 

[belltree]

If you are worried about 'future proof' you should be waiting for the next hardware revision which should be due by June (a mere 2~3 months) at the very latest. This is what I am holding out for.