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Update the Mini fast!

B

Biscuit411

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 29, 2010
119
1
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My old PowerPC G5 finally died and now I have to get a Mini this Sunday. I need it for work later in the week. I was planning on waiting till they got refreshed, but no such luck for me. What's Apple's policy if a refresh comes very soon? Also, I know folks complain about Core2Duo but shouldn't it be much better than my old PowerPC g5 with dual 1.8 ghz that was running 10.4.11?
 
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I also want to boost the RAM in the new Mini to at least 4gb. OWC has a 4gb pair (2 GB each) for $50. Any better options out there?
 
Personally I'd spend the extra to upgrade to 8GB (2x4GB) RAM. May as well max out the RAM now.

The C2D Mini can run Snow Leopard, Mac OS X Lion and will still be useful for quite a long while yet.
 
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I was thinking 8 was probably the way to go. I mainly use the computer for running my ProTools (music recording/audio editing) and just light family stuff like iPhoto, iWeb and the like.

BTW, now that I'll have iLife 11, what should I do for burning family movie DVD's? I used to use iDVD but didn't that go away?

Thanks for the advice.
 
iDVD is still included in iLife '11. If you're happy with that you could stick with it.
 
I am in a similar boat as the OP, I have a 2009 Mini 2.0 Ghz with 4GB and 500GB XT Momentus HDD, but I was looking to get a 2010 with 2.66, Superdrive, and up the ram and hdd to 4GB/500GB.

I am just trying to hang in there to see if they redo them soon, I am looking to see if Apple comes up with a new model with the i5 Dual Core or Quad Core.

I have a 2009 uMB 2.4 with 4gb Ram and 500GB HDD which works for me for anything else but I use the Mini as a media server and really could use a faster CPU for video and audio, so hopefully they will update them sooner than later :rolleyes:
 
Kinda in the same boat as the OP. Using a 1,42 GHz PowerPC. It didn't die, but am planning on buying the upcoming refresh. May think twice if they use sub-13"-MBP specs.

flopticalcube said:
14 days.
Click to expand...

What's your reasoning behind this?
I am hoping the same thing. Based on something AI posted that Apple will be refreshing pretty much everything besides iMac's and MBP's roughly throughout the back-to-school season, there shouldn't be too much time between the different refreshes. I also think they'll want to refresh all Mac's to SB+TB before they release Lion (thoughts?), but it isn't sure that last one will be during WWDC. Problem is though, the Mini might as well be one of the last in line.
 
If you look at Apple's website you will see the details of the 14 days return policy applicable when buying direct from Apple (not through a reseller)
 
Biscuit411 said:
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My old PowerPC G5 finally died and now I have to get a Mini this Sunday. I need it for work later in the week. I was planning on waiting till they got refreshed, but no such luck for me. What's Apple's policy if a refresh comes very soon? Also, I know folks complain about Core2Duo but shouldn't it be much better than my old PowerPC g5 with dual 1.8 ghz that was running 10.4.11?
Click to expand...

The current Mini will still be a lot faster than your G5, heck my 2006 iMac 1.83 Core Duo can keep up with a Dual 1.8 G5 for most things.
 
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Thanks for all the advice. I'm off to the Apple store tonight. Hopefully they can migrate all my old data for me. I'm ordering 8gb of RAM from OWC, so that should help things along. With my luck, this all but guarantees a Mini refresh in 15 more days!
 
Biscuit411 said:
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I also want to boost the RAM in the new Mini to at least 4gb. OWC has a 4gb pair (2 GB each) for $50. Any better options out there?
Click to expand...

Personally, I would wait. I'll link you to the post I just made in a another thread (my first post ever on macrumors: forums!) where I go in-depth.

Although, if you must.....

Do my a favor and think about what you're about to do. Mac mini has 2 slots, each with 1GB. Keep one of those, in case one goes out but trust me, you wont get $5 out of it if you try to sell. Anyway, order 1 4GB, same price $50. Then you'll have 5GB instead of 4GB.

Although, if you're going to spend $50, just spend $100. You're spending another $50, so what...don't get the next video game you planned on buying and get twice as much ram. You'll have about a 1.75x faster computer and that's phenomenal. Ram > all.
 
Rondofan9 said:
Personally, I would wait. I'll link you to the post I just made in a another thread (my first post ever on macrumors: forums!) where I go in-depth.

Although, if you must.....

Do my a favor and think about what you're about to do. Mac mini has 2 slots, each with 1GB. Keep one of those, in case one goes out but trust me, you wont get $5 out of it if you try to sell. Anyway, order 1 4GB, same price $50. Then you'll have 5GB instead of 4GB.

Although, if you're going to spend $50, just spend $100. You're spending another $50, so what...don't get the next video game you planned on buying and get twice as much ram. You'll have about a 1.75x faster computer and that's phenomenal. Ram > all.
Click to expand...
First off, ram is not > all. The most limiting factor in a computer these days is the storage device.

Secondly, since Intel introduced the Core series, ram performance has been boosted by dual channel memory which means 2 of the same size/speed in their respective slots. If I had to choose between 4gb dual channel and 5gb, I'd pick the 4gb dc all day long.
 
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Rondo - Wait for what, the refresh? I work from home doing audio production and I have jobs this week that I have to have a computer for. You said to just spend $50 on 1 4gb stick, but at the end of your post you say if I'm spending $50, I might as well spend $100. So bump to 8gb? That's my plan. I'm heading to the Apple store in four hours, so I'll keep you posted. Adding the RAM is an after-market thing anyway.

BTW, I thought 9's arm was broken for sure. But why keep playing a one-armed guard when up 16 with four minutes left?!? I digress...

Bearxor - Storage isn't really an issue for me. Aside from home movies, I don't require much space. All my audio files are on an external drive.
 
I think you should go for the 8 GB of ram if you have the money, but if you are going to return the mini if it is refreshed within the 14 day return window, then you might want to get 1333MHz DDR3 memory; from what I understand it will down clock and work in a 2010 mini. I say this because you will probably need 1333MHz memory for the 2011 mini, but I am just speculating.
 
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The more I think about a refreshed Mini, the more I think it's right to stick with the current model. My audio gear (Pro Tools) is only tested to run on certain machines with the current Mini being one of them. With my luck the refreshed Mini wouldn't work with Pro Tools then I'd be back to square one!

Perhaps Apple could just give me a bit of a refund...
 
Whatever Mini you get, upgrading the ram and hdd is a must. My 2010 Mini was slower starting apps than my PowerMac because the standard Mini hdd is a steaming pile-O-poo. (in fairness I should mention my old PowerMac has a raid0 setup.) Back to the Mini...once it was cached into ram re-starting the app was brisk, until ram was used up. Also, graphics lag sometimes reared its ugly head. 2GB just isn't enough for many people and definitely not for power users or when there are many users.

Overall I'd say my Mini was slower than my G5 until I upgraded it. The Mini was faster at just crunching if I only had one app open...until I opened other apps then ran out of ram and/or had to access the hdd a lot. I love my Mini right now but I have to say before I upgraded the ram and hdd it was a different story; then it was more like love-hate, lol.

I disagree with users who say the Mini beats any G5 hands down. That has never been my experience. I can only imagine that people who never used an upgraded dual G5 PowerMac really don't know how fast an old system's disk system can be with raid0 compared to the Mini's standard, crappy, notebook hdd. And when the Mini relies so heavily on the hdd when it doesn't have enough ram, upgrading really isn't an option, it is required.
 
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The Mini has been bought and it's getting it's 'Mac to Mac' data transfer as we speak. I had them do the transfer because my old computer wouldn't boot up. They pulled the drive and slapped it into another machine. I had no other machine. Oh well, for $99 I reserve the right to complain if it ain't just right! I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Now it's time to hop over to OWC and get the 8gb RAM upgrade...
 
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Let's hope they update in two weeks. That way I can get a partial refund!
 
Wicked1 said:
I am in a similar boat as the OP, I have a 2009 Mini 2.0 Ghz with 4GB and 500GB XT Momentus HDD, but I was looking to get a 2010 with 2.66, Superdrive, and up the ram and hdd to 4GB/500GB.

I am just trying to hang in there to see if they redo them soon, I am looking to see if Apple comes up with a new model with the i5 Dual Core or Quad Core.

I have a 2009 uMB 2.4 with 4gb Ram and 500GB HDD which works for me for anything else but I use the Mini as a media server and really could use a faster CPU for video and audio, so hopefully they will update them sooner than later :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

the boost from a 2009 2.0ghz mac mini to a 2010 2.66 mac mini is not much. I have owned both of them. I would wait for a 2011 mini. Also if it does not have t-bolt I would not buy it. sonnet tech will have some killer addon's for

t-bolt. a raid0 or raid1 ssd with the fastest speeds more then 640mbs! they will also have add on PCIe case that will allow for a real full sized graphics card.


these are amazing add-ons

http://www.sonnettech.com/news/nab2011/
 
Biscuit411 said:
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Let's hope they update in two weeks. That way I can get a partial refund!
Click to expand...
I hope so for you, but for me too. I really want to buy a Mac mini.

But I'm not gonna spend my money on a 2010 mini now.
 
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