I want a mac mini, but I want the faster one because of the processor; I could care less about the hard drive space. So the question comes down to is if the extra speed is worth 100 bucks. Will this speed be significantly faster or last me longer?
I think you should just take the plunge and get the $599. Up the ram to 512 by yourself or someone reallllllly good with carefully opening it up and this will last you years to come.
Believe me, you will by no means notice ANY difference between the $499 and $599 Mac. You would notice the difference only if you stood there with a stopwatch and counted every milisecond.
Better use that money and upgrade the RAM to 512 or something.
Thanks guys for the numbers. I've decided to go with the faster one though. I'm sure it's not noticible, but in the long run I'm sure those milliseconds I save can add up.... Also, I don't want my mac to hiccup in front of my PC friends and family -- they all dislike the mac platform and my iBook has frozen up in front of them a couple of times already.
Anyway, here is the configuration I ended up with. I would have like to buy a base configuration from macmall and not pay for tax, but I need airport express and from the looks of the casing's hooks and stuff, it looks like it would be a pain to install...
After reading all the posts about how small of a processor increase this is, I think I am going to change my purchase. However, before I do this, I want to tell ya'll what I plan to do with my mac mini.
Use an elGato Wonder USB2 to record television, check e-mail, write docs, chat, video chat, listen to music, watch anime with divx codecs, burn CDs (Maybe DVDs once I buy an external Superdrive), possibly edit the video I capture with the ATI Wonder, have widgets running in the background, sync my palm with, read the bible, occasionally use photoshop, act as a mini file server and browse the web.
Therefore I will have a lot of firewire and USB devices hooked to this thing.
Firewire Stuff:
2 External HD, iSight, Superdrive (all daisy chained off each other, is that safe?)
USB Stuff:
Flash card reader, bluetooth dongle, possible 802.11g dongle, mouse, keyboard, printer, Keyspan IR remote receiver, elGato TV Wonder, palm cradle
So now, please tell me if the extra 170MHz is worth 100 bucks? Or should i just use the money for 3rd party 1GB memory upgrades and update it myself.
So now, please tell me if the extra 170MHz is worth 100 bucks? Or should i just use the money for 3rd party 1GB memory upgrades and update it myself.
Considering that you also get the 80 GB drive the difference is really only 55$. Is 12% more speed actually worth 55$? Absolutely!! Time is money and 55$ is not a lot of money, but 12% will accumulate over time. Also remember you can upgrade RAM later but you are stuck with the processor.
However, if the choice was to be made between the higher clock or going from 256 to 512 MB RAM I would definitely choose the RAM, since I believe it will have a greater impact speedwise. But you seem to be able to afford both the 1.42 GB and the 512 MB, so go for that.
Considering that you also get the 80 GB drive the difference is really only 55$. Is 12% more speed actually worth 55$? Absolutely!! Time is money and 55$ is not a lot of money, but 12% will accumulate over time. Also remember you can upgrade RAM later but you are stuck with the processor.
However, if the choice was to be made between the higher clock or going from 256 to 512 MB RAM I would definitely choose the RAM, since I believe it will have a greater impact speedwise. But you seem to be able to afford both the 1.42 GB and the 512 MB, so go for that.
just my 2c
For Macasaurus, it's effectively $100 difference, since they claimed that they don't care about the HD size in there (esp. if they already have 2 Firewire HDs to connect). I'm not so sure if $100 is worth it, which is why I'm in agreement with Gene Clean.
Provided the ram upgrade isn't that bad, then I'd save it towards a GB ram stick, or the 512 upgrade by Apple. If you're running a lot of programs, you *really* don't want the mini to be swapping virtual memory to a 4200 rpm HD. Extra memory will help alleviate that.
For Macasaurus, it's effectively $100 difference, since they claimed that they don't care about the HD size in there (esp. if they already have 2 Firewire HDs to connect). I'm not so sure if $100 is worth it, which is why I'm in agreement with Gene Clean.
Provided the ram upgrade isn't that bad, then I'd save it towards a GB ram stick, or the 512 upgrade by Apple. If you're running a lot of programs, you *really* don't want the mini to be swapping virtual memory to a 4200 rpm HD. Extra memory will help alleviate that.
Of course the extra RAM is nice and will help, but personally I think going from 1.25 to 1.42 GHz is a better investment than going from 512 MB to 1 GB RAM in this case. speedwise overall it will probably be a wash, but as I said, the memory can be uppgraded later. A 1 GB stick will cost about 200$ the 1.42 with 512 MB will cost 175$ more than the base 1.25
Everyone here says that osx needs 512, but at the apple store i really noticed no differance between 256 and 512, what is the differance in the real world? why would 256 not suffice for things like word prossessing, web surfing, iTunes, iPhoto light work in xcode, learning unix commands and tricks, and maybe some light tinkering with GB?
Everyone here says that osx needs 512, but at the apple store i really noticed no differance between 256 and 512, what is the differance in the real world? why would 256 not suffice for things like word prossessing, web surfing, iTunes, iPhoto light work in xcode, learning unix commands and tricks, and maybe some light tinkering with GB?
My girlfriend just got a new 1.33 GHz iBook with 256 MB (she "switched" from a Windows laptop). After she had been using it for a couple of days the extra 512 MB RAM I ordered arrived. And let me tell you: the speed difference between 256 and 768 MB is dramatic!! Everything feels faster.
Thanks again for all of your input. I will probably end up waiting to see how easy it is to open up a new mac mini from the people who get theirs first. If it is easy, I'll get the base configuration of the 1.42 Ghz and 3rd party 1GB RAM. If it is too difficult, I'll just get the 512 with the 1.42 Ghz machine.
I'll also be running OS X off my 7200RPM firewire drive instead of the mini's hard drive ( I believe this is a better solution, right?)
Everyone here says that osx needs 512, but at the apple store i really noticed no differance between 256 and 512, what is the differance in the real world? why would 256 not suffice for things like word prossessing, web surfing, iTunes, iPhoto light work in xcode, learning unix commands and tricks, and maybe some light tinkering with GB?
OS X and Apple's apps eat up massive amounts of RAM. Safari and iTunes alone can chew threw 256MB of RAM if open at the same time. Having more ram will just make your computer much smoother when multiple programs are open. It's very noticeable in my experience.
My girlfriend just got a new 1.33 GHz iBook with 256 MB (she "switched" from a Windows laptop). After she had been using it for a couple of days the extra 512 MB RAM I ordered arrived. And let me tell you: the speed difference between 256 and 768 MB is dramatic!! Everything feels faster.
I'd assume its even a bigger difference because your comparing it on an iBook. Isn't built-in RAM slower then modules?
Either way, RAM is very important as is the hard drive speed. Of course I'm an acoustic nut too so I'll have to research the 7K 2.5s a bit. And I'd like to actually hear the idle/loud noise off this machine before I go gutting it for a new drive
1.2 vs 1.4
When I was using my Power Mac G4 at home, upgraded with a Giga Design 1.2 GHz chip I'd frequently change between 1.2, 1.33 and 1.4. Of course 1.4 would crash sometimes but overall there wasn't that much difference. Frame-rate was a little faster, encodings ended a little sooner. It may very well "add up" but if your time is that precious you really shouldn't be buying the cheapest Mac on the block right
Front-side bus, memory, hard drive speed, etc are all larger factors then the clock difference this small.
For switchers this is a good starter box. After they got their feet wet, are really loving the Mac experience and want something with more umph there is the single chip Power Mac. Multiple hard drives, PCI slots, AGP cards, FireWire 800 all that good stuff.
I'd assume its even a bigger difference because your comparing it on an iBook. Isn't built-in RAM slower then modules?
Either way, RAM is very important as is the hard drive speed. Of course I'm an acoustic nut too so I'll have to research the 7K 2.5s a bit. And I'd like to actually hear the idle/loud noise off this machine before I go gutting it for a new drive
1.2 vs 1.4
When I was using my Power Mac G4 at home, upgraded with a Giga Design 1.2 GHz chip I'd frequently change between 1.2, 1.33 and 1.4. Of course 1.4 would crash sometimes but overall there wasn't that much difference. Frame-rate was a little faster, encodings ended a little sooner. It may very well "add up" but if your time is that precious you really shouldn't be buying the cheapest Mac on the block right
Front-side bus, memory, hard drive speed, etc are all larger factors then the clock difference this small.
For switchers this is a good starter box. After they got their feet wet, are really loving the Mac experience and want something with more umph there is the single chip Power Mac. Multiple hard drives, PCI slots, AGP cards, FireWire 800 all that good stuff.
Thanks for the advice man. Time is pretty precious to me and I like things to get done fast and well. I guess that is why I'm willing to spend the "big bucks" on this computer. However, I'll literally be broke after this purchase.
Thanks for the advice man. Time is pretty precious to me and I like things to get done fast and well. I guess that is why I'm willing to spend the "big bucks" on this computer. However, I'll literally be broke after this purchase.
If $100 means that much to you (I know it can), then you might want to get the 1.25 GHZ with 512 and let it be. As long as you don't need the extra hard drive space.
You'd be very happy with 1.25GHZ and 512MB of memory. I doubt your joy would be increased much, if at all, with the slightly faster machine.
I find the Mac Mini to be most valuable at the lower configuration, and it is a good machine.
Comments
Better use that money and upgrade the RAM to 512 or something.
Anyway, here is the configuration I ended up with. I would have like to buy a base configuration from macmall and not pay for tax, but I need airport express and from the looks of the casing's hooks and stuff, it looks like it would be a pain to install...
Mac Mini
\tPart Number: Z0B8
\tProduct Name: Mac mini 1.42GHz
\tOptions:
\t 065-5337 512MB DDR333 SDRAM - 1 DIMM
\t 065-5326 80GB Ultra ATA drive
\t 065-5329 Combo Drive
\t 065-5334 AirPort Extreme Card
\t 065-5328 56K v.92 Modem
\t 065-5321 Accessory kit
\t 065-5323 Mac OS X - U.S. English
\tUnit Price: $717.00
\tQuantity: 1
\tNet Price: $717.00
Use an elGato Wonder USB2 to record television, check e-mail, write docs, chat, video chat, listen to music, watch anime with divx codecs, burn CDs (Maybe DVDs once I buy an external Superdrive), possibly edit the video I capture with the ATI Wonder, have widgets running in the background, sync my palm with, read the bible, occasionally use photoshop, act as a mini file server and browse the web.
Therefore I will have a lot of firewire and USB devices hooked to this thing.
Firewire Stuff:
2 External HD, iSight, Superdrive (all daisy chained off each other, is that safe?)
USB Stuff:
Flash card reader, bluetooth dongle, possible 802.11g dongle, mouse, keyboard, printer, Keyspan IR remote receiver, elGato TV Wonder, palm cradle
So now, please tell me if the extra 170MHz is worth 100 bucks? Or should i just use the money for 3rd party 1GB memory upgrades and update it myself.
Originally posted by Macasaurus
So now, please tell me if the extra 170MHz is worth 100 bucks? Or should i just use the money for 3rd party 1GB memory upgrades and update it myself.
Considering that you also get the 80 GB drive the difference is really only 55$. Is 12% more speed actually worth 55$? Absolutely!! Time is money and 55$ is not a lot of money, but 12% will accumulate over time. Also remember you can upgrade RAM later but you are stuck with the processor.
However, if the choice was to be made between the higher clock or going from 256 to 512 MB RAM I would definitely choose the RAM, since I believe it will have a greater impact speedwise. But you seem to be able to afford both the 1.42 GB and the 512 MB, so go for that.
just my 2c
Originally posted by Power Apple
Considering that you also get the 80 GB drive the difference is really only 55$. Is 12% more speed actually worth 55$? Absolutely!! Time is money and 55$ is not a lot of money, but 12% will accumulate over time. Also remember you can upgrade RAM later but you are stuck with the processor.
However, if the choice was to be made between the higher clock or going from 256 to 512 MB RAM I would definitely choose the RAM, since I believe it will have a greater impact speedwise. But you seem to be able to afford both the 1.42 GB and the 512 MB, so go for that.
just my 2c
For Macasaurus, it's effectively $100 difference, since they claimed that they don't care about the HD size in there (esp. if they already have 2 Firewire HDs to connect). I'm not so sure if $100 is worth it, which is why I'm in agreement with Gene Clean.
Provided the ram upgrade isn't that bad, then I'd save it towards a GB ram stick, or the 512 upgrade by Apple. If you're running a lot of programs, you *really* don't want the mini to be swapping virtual memory to a 4200 rpm HD. Extra memory will help alleviate that.
Originally posted by MCQ
For Macasaurus, it's effectively $100 difference, since they claimed that they don't care about the HD size in there (esp. if they already have 2 Firewire HDs to connect). I'm not so sure if $100 is worth it, which is why I'm in agreement with Gene Clean.
Provided the ram upgrade isn't that bad, then I'd save it towards a GB ram stick, or the 512 upgrade by Apple. If you're running a lot of programs, you *really* don't want the mini to be swapping virtual memory to a 4200 rpm HD. Extra memory will help alleviate that.
Of course the extra RAM is nice and will help, but personally I think going from 1.25 to 1.42 GHz is a better investment than going from 512 MB to 1 GB RAM in this case. speedwise overall it will probably be a wash, but as I said, the memory can be uppgraded later. A 1 GB stick will cost about 200$ the 1.42 with 512 MB will cost 175$ more than the base 1.25
I'm getting a Mac mini and putting one in and a GB of RAM. Screw the warranty.
Originally posted by a_greer
Everyone here says that osx needs 512, but at the apple store i really noticed no differance between 256 and 512, what is the differance in the real world? why would 256 not suffice for things like word prossessing, web surfing, iTunes, iPhoto light work in xcode, learning unix commands and tricks, and maybe some light tinkering with GB?
My girlfriend just got a new 1.33 GHz iBook with 256 MB (she "switched" from a Windows laptop). After she had been using it for a couple of days the extra 512 MB RAM I ordered arrived. And let me tell you: the speed difference between 256 and 768 MB is dramatic!! Everything feels faster.
your CDs into iTunes you will need it (at least if
you use the lossless compression)
I'll also be running OS X off my 7200RPM firewire drive instead of the mini's hard drive ( I believe this is a better solution, right?)
Originally posted by a_greer
Everyone here says that osx needs 512, but at the apple store i really noticed no differance between 256 and 512, what is the differance in the real world? why would 256 not suffice for things like word prossessing, web surfing, iTunes, iPhoto light work in xcode, learning unix commands and tricks, and maybe some light tinkering with GB?
OS X and Apple's apps eat up massive amounts of RAM. Safari and iTunes alone can chew threw 256MB of RAM if open at the same time. Having more ram will just make your computer much smoother when multiple programs are open. It's very noticeable in my experience.
Originally posted by Power Apple
My girlfriend just got a new 1.33 GHz iBook with 256 MB (she "switched" from a Windows laptop). After she had been using it for a couple of days the extra 512 MB RAM I ordered arrived. And let me tell you: the speed difference between 256 and 768 MB is dramatic!! Everything feels faster.
I'd assume its even a bigger difference because your comparing it on an iBook. Isn't built-in RAM slower then modules?
Either way, RAM is very important as is the hard drive speed. Of course I'm an acoustic nut too so I'll have to research the 7K 2.5s a bit. And I'd like to actually hear the idle/loud noise off this machine before I go gutting it for a new drive
1.2 vs 1.4
When I was using my Power Mac G4 at home, upgraded with a Giga Design 1.2 GHz chip I'd frequently change between 1.2, 1.33 and 1.4. Of course 1.4 would crash sometimes but overall there wasn't that much difference. Frame-rate was a little faster, encodings ended a little sooner. It may very well "add up" but if your time is that precious you really shouldn't be buying the cheapest Mac on the block right
Front-side bus, memory, hard drive speed, etc are all larger factors then the clock difference this small.
For switchers this is a good starter box. After they got their feet wet, are really loving the Mac experience and want something with more umph there is the single chip Power Mac. Multiple hard drives, PCI slots, AGP cards, FireWire 800 all that good stuff.
Originally posted by IonYz
I'd assume its even a bigger difference because your comparing it on an iBook. Isn't built-in RAM slower then modules?
Either way, RAM is very important as is the hard drive speed. Of course I'm an acoustic nut too so I'll have to research the 7K 2.5s a bit. And I'd like to actually hear the idle/loud noise off this machine before I go gutting it for a new drive
1.2 vs 1.4
When I was using my Power Mac G4 at home, upgraded with a Giga Design 1.2 GHz chip I'd frequently change between 1.2, 1.33 and 1.4. Of course 1.4 would crash sometimes but overall there wasn't that much difference. Frame-rate was a little faster, encodings ended a little sooner. It may very well "add up" but if your time is that precious you really shouldn't be buying the cheapest Mac on the block right
Front-side bus, memory, hard drive speed, etc are all larger factors then the clock difference this small.
For switchers this is a good starter box. After they got their feet wet, are really loving the Mac experience and want something with more umph there is the single chip Power Mac. Multiple hard drives, PCI slots, AGP cards, FireWire 800 all that good stuff.
Thanks for the advice man. Time is pretty precious to me and I like things to get done fast and well. I guess that is why I'm willing to spend the "big bucks" on this computer. However, I'll literally be broke after this purchase.
Originally posted by Macasaurus
Thanks for the advice man. Time is pretty precious to me and I like things to get done fast and well. I guess that is why I'm willing to spend the "big bucks" on this computer. However, I'll literally be broke after this purchase.
If $100 means that much to you (I know it can), then you might want to get the 1.25 GHZ with 512 and let it be. As long as you don't need the extra hard drive space.
You'd be very happy with 1.25GHZ and 512MB of memory. I doubt your joy would be increased much, if at all, with the slightly faster machine.
I find the Mac Mini to be most valuable at the lower configuration, and it is a good machine.