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The $799 Mac Mini
- Thread starter D4F
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Why does every one wish to upgrade HDD in the Mac Mini, never mind the iMac's.
For what Apple charge to up HDD space its cheaper to purchased a FW800 external at 2TB and boot from that - they all run at 7,200 RPM, my god you can even put a Seagate running at 15,000 if speed is that important, not much of a boost though given they max out at 640G I think.
Best option, purchased mid tier MM and upgrade to i7 chipset, add external HDD and 8G of RAM, if you have cash, wait a few months and invest in SSD once price comes down - Mac Mini's are not too difficult to upgrade.
For what Apple charge to up HDD space its cheaper to purchased a FW800 external at 2TB and boot from that - they all run at 7,200 RPM, my god you can even put a Seagate running at 15,000 if speed is that important, not much of a boost though given they max out at 640G I think.
Best option, purchased mid tier MM and upgrade to i7 chipset, add external HDD and 8G of RAM, if you have cash, wait a few months and invest in SSD once price comes down - Mac Mini's are not too difficult to upgrade.
What are the benchmarks on various Mac Mini CPUs
I would love to see what the processing power of each CPU is to make a more informed decision on which to choose. So far I am leaning towards the i5 at 2.5GHz. Does anyone know the relative processing power of each available CPU for the Mini?
i5 @ 2.4 GHz
i5 @ 2.5 GHz
i7 @ 2.7 GHz
i7 Quad @ 2.0 GHz
I would love to see what the processing power of each CPU is to make a more informed decision on which to choose. So far I am leaning towards the i5 at 2.5GHz. Does anyone know the relative processing power of each available CPU for the Mini?
i5 @ 2.4 GHz
i5 @ 2.5 GHz
i7 @ 2.7 GHz
i7 Quad @ 2.0 GHz
It depends on what programs you run. the i7 @ 2.7 GHz is pretty much a lot quicker then the i5's
I will look for a link to show the turbo boost.
http://www.apple.com/macmini/features.html#processors
it boosts to 3.4GHz I am thinking the i7 2.7 will push 7000 for geek bench the best mini scores now are 4100 or so. geek bench is a good guide as to general speed boost.
Looking at the ifixit guide to replacing the hard drive in the 2010 model, it doesn't appear to be something most people would want to deal with. Most people would probably need to get the necessary tools also.
I don't assume they're making it an option to purchase the cheapest MM and upgrade to an i7 later on down the road? If so that kinda sucks.
Not going to be possible. Besides, you're better off upgrading to an SSD and bumping the RAM to 8 GB (can be done for well under $100, the cost of the upgraded i7 chip set). You'd see much greater performance improvements doing this.
I'll likely end up buying the stock 2.5 Ghz i5 and wait for SSD prices to come down before either swapping out the internal drive, or if I want to avoid that arduous process, hooking up an external SSD drive via Thunderbolt (I'm working under the assumption that there will be accessories available within the next 6 months.)