Picking up a new Mac Mini need advice.

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Limp Gawd
Joined
Apr 6, 2011
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In about an hour I will be picking up my new mac mini its the latest model here are the specs.

2.5GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i5
4GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x2GB
500GB Serial ATA Drive
AMD Radeon HD 6630M

I'm also going to pick up a magic trackpad since it seems like the multitouch gestures in OSX are worth playing around with.

I guess I'm wondering if I should add an SSD and get 8gb of ram? From what I've seen on lion on a Core 2 Duo Macbook (not the best system to get a feeling for it I know) lion is very memory intensive. I have ssds in all my other systems, but I've never had a mac with an ssd.
 
I'd definitely get the SSD, most people who have a Macbook Air and a more powerful Macbook Pro/iMac actually say the Air feels faster day-to-day because of the SSD.
 
Yeah, if you've had SSDs in other systems, you know it's about the best single upgrade you can do for a system.

Angry_Birds said:
I'd definitely get the SSD, most people who have a Macbook Air and a more powerful Macbook Pro/iMac actually say the Air feels faster day-to-day because of the SSD.
Click to expand...

This is why I installed my own SSD into my MacBook Pro. (128GB Crucial M4, replaced the optical drive).
 
Thanks I've been been using it for a couple hours I just got boot camp set up I deff think an ssd would make this thing better. I went ahead and ordered 8gbs of ram now I just need to find a cheap ssd. I don't really need this thing to be a power house so I'm not looking for like a samsung 830, or even an intel x-25 I'll probably just get a cheaper sata II OCZ of some kind.
 
Depending on what you do an ssd might be waste of money. If you don't open large programs constantly or reboot often you would hardly see much benefit. I know from experience.
 
Does anyone know where I could get a stata connector that will allow me to have 2 drives in the mac mini? I know they can be hooked up, but it looks like I need a special cable.
 
thanks for the link. I don't really need the whole kit does anyone know where one could purchase just the SATA cable?
 
Buy the 8 GB of RAM from Newegg or Crucial and you'll save a whole bunch of money by not getting it through Apple. I know that on my i7 Macbook Pro, the upgrade to 8GB was listed as $200 on the site and cost me ~$40.
 
Mad_Pyro said:
Buy the 8 GB of RAM from Newegg or Crucial and you'll save a whole bunch of money by not getting it through Apple. I know that on my i7 Macbook Pro, the upgrade to 8GB was listed as $200 on the site and cost me ~$40.
Click to expand...

I would never pay the upgrade prices apple charges for RAM. I got a set of ram for like 36 bucks shipped, no way I'd pay $200 for 8gb of ram.
 
this is likely a better option for many than an SSD:

http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Momen...1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1328025970&sr=1-1
41rrrfxor6L._SL500_AA300_.jpg
 
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I think those hybrid drives are kind of gimmicky. Right now the system is running pretty good, I'm going to hold out to find a good deal on ssd for this thing. The 8gb of ram didn't really seem to add to much to the system.
 
It's not really surprising, W7 and OS X are both very good with memory management. I'm forced to switch between my build and Macbook Air at home to my work desktop and it's pretty annoying.
 
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