MAC Mini real memory upgrade
 

this is a must do. I just put a 1GB chip in mine and it feels like a different machine. Photoshop and Office load up much faster and the machine is just overall better. I could get used to this :)

http://www.macworld.com/weblogs/editors/2005/01/macminiinside/index.php

I have looked at these boxes as a 'family' machine because I like the video editing that comes with it. But I don't like what I am reading in that article....

After memory, MS Office for Mac, a mouse with at LEAST 2 BUTTONS....is this thing going to end up costing me at lot more?

Being a Microsoft engineer....I already stacked against the thing.....

You don't need MS Office for Mac.

NeoOffice does fine. And it's free.

This machine is a new world for me. Its neat. Something different at least. Definitely much, much better with the new memory chip. They can keep the Bluetooth but they really should deliver these things with twice the real memory that they do.

Anyway, Office is no big deal. The mouse isnt either. One of the recommendations I didnt follow when I bought it was to 'just buy the MAC mouse and keyboard'. Well Ive gone back and done that. The new mouse they have is a pretty neat little unit.

The whole idea behind the Mini is to just replace the CPU, not the keyboard, monitor, mouse or printer.

As long as you have USB peripherals already they will work with the Mini. ANY windows keyboard and mouse will work.

Shuie, spend another $70-$100 bucks on an external Firewire 7200 rpm drive. Use the built in migration utility to clone your Mini drive to it and use the external as the main boot/application/scratch drive.

Aside from the RAM upgrade the other thing that will keep a Mini from performing to it's fullest is the hard drive. They use laptop drives in them and the stock drive is either 4500 or 5400 rpm.

I always advocate the Hitachi 7200 rpm drive for laptops, it's killer, really quite and rock solid. But since the Mini is not portable you can get the same benefit from an external firewire drive for a lot less money.

If you plan to do video editing you'll want the extra storage anyway.

Scott

Im pretty sure its a 5400. The extrernal hardrive is the next and probably last upgrade I'll do for it.

yes on all. I dumped my G4 tower for the mini last weekend. I do love it. Go for the Gig and add an external HD that spins at 7200 as I did and get ready to rock. I actually just pulled my HD out of the G4 before I sold it and stuffed it in an external case. Sweet.