will I notice much of a difference between 2009 and new?

[steve knight]

my early 2009 has a 2ghz core 2 duo and the nvida 9400
I put in 4 gigs of memory and a 500 gig drive. but sometimes it can be a bit slow. But I am wondering if I would see much of an improvement with a new one without spending 900 to 1000. going that high I might as well get a imac. but even 600 is about the limit of what I should spend. then I would sell the wife and I's minis and buy her a new one too. I try to go 3 yeas or so between upgrades but I am not sure if it is worth the money yet.

 

[mdgm]

If you get the base 2011 mini and upgrade it to 4GB RAM or more (I'd suggest upgrading it yourself to 8GB -2x4GB RAM) then you should see a good improvement.

2GB RAM really isn't enough to get a good experience with Mac OS X Lion.

 

[Mak47]

If you go with the basic and put in at least 4GB of RAM you'll likely see a noticeable difference, but it really depends on what your usage is like.

If you're just a web browser/email, occasional movie watcher, then you won't see a big difference. Not because the new machine isn't substantially more powerful, but because your current machine accomplishes those tasks efficiently as it is. Those kinds of tasks only move so quickly.

Where the new machine comes in is in more CPU intensive tasks. Editing images, encoding videos, even working with large images, or media files in apps like iWork or MS Office.

The i5 processor in the base 2011 mini also uses hyper threading, which is better for multitaskers. In particular in Lion. I've noticed that my new mini (quad core) handles my multiple desktops much more smoothly than my old 2010 mini did with the new OS.

If you're just a light user, and you're happy with what you have, then I'd stick with it. If you're noticing things running slowly, then you won't be disappointed with the new model.