Mac mini (1 Viewer)

[Lee Scoggins]

Indeed Apple has dropped memory prices and they also added more standard memory, 512, to the new laptops.

RAM is easy to add in the iMac and Power Mac, not sure on others but I have read the Mini and Powerbooks are easy as well.

 

[Dave Scarpa]

With the mini it's a matter of opening the case. Not terribly hard but I would'nt do it for 512mb of memory. They only want $75 which is pretty close to street prices for 512mb of ram that it's not worth it. 1 MB however cost $325 from Apple and you can score it for avout $160 on the net so for 1MB I would open the case and upgrade. I got 512 installed in my Mini and so far it's fine for doing everything I want to do.

 

[Citizen87645]

Is the Superdrive still inside the case? I got the impression it was an external device but not sure how I got that info.

 

[Chris_HA]

The Superdrive is built in, not external.

 

[Seth--L]

Exactly. They kill you with the RAM. Because it all has to be on one DIMM, upgrading to a GB costs $325.


Speaking of that, can someone point me to a website where I can buy a 1 GB DIMM of ram for the Mac Mini?

 

[ThomasC]

Sure, Seth, but which model do you have? The 1.25GHz or 1.42GHz?

 

[Seth--L]

Thomas,

I'm probably going to get the 1.25GHz, but for reference sake, could you also directly towards RAM for the 1.42GHz.

From my research it looks like RAM for the 1.25 also works with the 1.42 and vice-versa. I keep reading that the going rate for 1GB is $160, but the best I can find is $190.

Thanks.

 

[ThomasC]

I haven't been able to find any under $190 either.

 

[Bob_Chase]

Looks like this guy knows what he's doing
http://www.mightydave.com/index.php?p=20

 

[Sam Posten]

Anyone bought a widescreen LCD NOT made by apple to go with their Mac Mini? I hear Dell has a decent one for about $800....



Sam

 

[Chris_HA]

I have the DELL W1700 LCD TV with DVI-D. While I don't have a Mini (yet), it works perfectly with my wife's G4 tower and with my 15" Powerbook. If memory serves, it runs at 1280x768. Unless the monitor is running some non-standard resolution, it will probably work perfectly.

 

[Seth--L]

Anyone have tips on opening up the Mac mini to put RAM in it? My 1GB RAM arrived today and the computer should come tomorrow; I've read that opening the thing up is a real bitch.

thanks

 

[Craig S]

Sam, how's things with you?

A lot of folks are using the Dell 20" widescreen LCD with the Mac Mini wuth great success. I just ordered one myself.

Before ordering, check out the Deals section (GotApex). There's some spectacular coupons floating around. A lot of us got this monitor for around $600 shipped.

 

[RossH]

Seth:

Upgrading the Mac mini RAM:

http://www.macworld.com/weblogs/edit...side/index.php

There's a whole lot more on this on Google, I searched: "how to open a mac mini putty knife"

Enjoy!

 

[Seth--L]

Opening it up was actually somewhat difficult. I bought the thinnest putty knife Home Depot sold, and that wasn't thin enough. I bought a pallet knife at an art store which I used to wedge the plastic so I could insert the putty knife. After that it opened fine, though, for a few moments it looked like I was going to break the plastic. The RAM did not come out and go in all that easy. Finally, putting the case back on was problematic. For whatever reason the back end was not going down all the way. It took a few tries, using the pallet knife, to get it to finally to go back down.

Apple has clearly made this much more complicated than it needs to be.

 

[Seth--L]

I forgot Mac OS could read/write FAT32 hard drives... spiffy.

 

[Citizen87645]

Reading this review of the Mini, I can't tell if the guy is joking or just totally out to lunch. For example:



Full article:
http://www.divisiontwo.com/articles/MacMini2.html

 

[ThomasC]

It's a joke.

 

[Thomas Newton]