[Review2]-Mac Mini-with lots of pics.


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I got my Mac Mini last weekend.

My Specs.

1.42Ghz G4

80gb hdd

256mb 3200 stock ram- upgraded to 1gb corsair 3200.

standard cdrw/dvd reader

I'm not gonna do an extensive review since theres one already one done by another member here:

https://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=280714

and a professional review here from toms guide:

http://www20.tomshardware.com/howto/20050216/index.html

what people really wanna see is pics.. :D

What many people will be asking is the memory- is 256 enough? personally i use 2gb on my desktop windows machine- OSX alone took around 60mb for its "kernal" - the OSX equivalent to windows kernal.

Firefox with 3-4 windows open took around 30mb. I installed Photoshop and that used around 90mb on just the standard interface with no documents loaded. so running any basic program on 256 will not be enough.

I then placed in a 512mb stickp 2700 and that improved the performance by 2-3x, i mean everything loaded much much faster.

then when i got my 1gb stick today- boy was I impressed..!! :o everything just ran dead smooth- i mean i tried to slow the mini as much as i could by loading programs- photshop,firefox, safari, 4xfinder windows, illustrator,word, tomato etc and it all ran smoothly- im soo glad i got the 1gb stick- (?130 from ebuyer.co.uk)

even with all those apps running- i still had 400mb ram free..:yes::

overall i've used the mini for a week- very very stable, it took me alot of time getting use to the "new" interface- i was like "WTF is the option- its right there in windows -wtf is it in osx..!!!":pp

still learning new things as you play around with it.

after using the 1gb memory- i noticed the only thing lagging the whole machine was the hdd.. i'm going to place an external hdd next week (usb and firewire)and try and install panther on there- see if it improves loading of apps.

otherwise this is gonna be a big success from apple..:yes::

i've taken 22pics- inside and out- from the box to the memory slot.

(some pics are blurry-was in a hury in taking the pics:pp )

5.jpg

more below:

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hope u enjoy the pics.:DD

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You didnt lie about lots of pictures did yo:rofl:l: Nice review and good job adding more memor:):) Ive heard macs love their memor:p:p

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yeah 512mb was good - but 1gb hit the sweet spo:yes:s:

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overall i've used the mini for a week- very very stable, it took me alot of time getting use to the "new" interface- i was like "WTF is the option- its right there in windows -wtf is it in osx..!!!" :p

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lol :D

Welcome to the world of Mac OS X and thanks for the pics (Y)

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What sort of graphics card does it have or is it basicly an "on-board" card that is, urmmm, sh*t? lol

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It comes with a Radeon 9200 with 32 MB of onboard memory, forget about gaming much:rofl:l:

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Very good write up (it's hardly a review). It's nice to see someone post how much memory the most used apps use. From what I understand the most bang for your buck can be got by getting the 1.25GHz Mac Mini with 512MB RAM. In benchmarks it only runs 1 second slower, in most processor and memory intensive applications, than on a 1.42GHz Mac mini with 512MB RAM ... if anyone is interested.

Oh and thanks for the pictures. I'd seen some inside shots before but yours really show that the computer can't get much smaller without sacrificing the optical drive.

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One question: What happened to pic number 7 !! lol  :D

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what happend to t3h 7? lol  nice review.

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lol i had a f*ked up number 7 pic- i couldnt be ar$ed to rename all the others down a number.. :p

did you find it easy enough to open the mac up?

got a decent guide on it ?

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i used this pdf guide which i downlaoded from somewhere-i'll upload in a bit and post alink to it. its about 22mb.

since the hd is better replaced anyways

would it be good idea to get a 1.25gHz then iron it to 1.42, then replaced the ram and add an external firewire hardrive ;)

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yeah its a very small difference between the 1.2 and a 1.42- you could go for the 1.2 and then upgrade the mem and boot from an external hdd- like a 7200rpm drive. :yes:

to the guys pm'ing me about where i bough the 1gb module- heres a direct link:

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/in...oduct_uid=66405

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