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Moncrieffe

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 17, 2012
4
0
Whitburn, West Lothian
Hi guys, first post, long time viewer, I'm going to be buying my first mac, it will be the new Mac mini late 2012 model, I've seen one I'm wanting and it's the baseline Mac mini but it has been upgraded to 16gb of ram, I'll be using it for surfing downloading streaming the usual stuff and a couple of pieces of editing, I can get this for £550. What I'm wondering is, is it better to shell out more for the 256ssd and the i7 model? Or will the 16gb and the i5 model be ok?? There's no point in me getting 8gb of ram because its only a few quid cheaper where I can get it from. my budget is around £600

Also, im a long time windows user.
 
Last edited:

limesmoothie

macrumors 6502a
Apr 20, 2009
917
697
Edinburgh, Scotland
Hi guys, first post, long time viewer, I'm going to be buying my first mac, it will be the new Mac mini late 2012 model, I've seen one I'm wanting and it's the baseline Mac mini but it has been upgraded to 16gb of ram, I'll be using it for surfing downloading streaming the usual stuff and a couple of pieces of editing, I can get this for £550. What I'm wondering is, is it better to shell out more for the 256ssd and the i7 model? Or will the 16gb and the i5 model be ok?? There's no point in me getting 8gb of ram because its only a few quid cheaper where I can get it from. my budget is around £600

Also, im a long time windows user.

Depends how much editing you're talking about. I do a bit of photo but that's about it. I stuck with the base model and upgraded to 16GB of RAM myself (£55 for RAM). Thinking about an SSD upgrade in a few months, but not seeing the need so far. The i5 is very speedy, the i7 might be overkill for your needs.

My sympathies on being a long time Windows user - I have Win 7 at work and its fine but I've been a Mac user since University - its much more fun! Had a play with Win 8 in John Lewis earlier - looked OK but most of the machines that had it running were i3 with 4GB RAM or less - speed difference was noticeable for me.
 

Moncrieffe

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 17, 2012
4
0
Whitburn, West Lothian
thanks for your reply, i think the fastest processor ive ever had is an i3 one, and that was a couple of years ago. so i take it this will be a big step up from that. did yours come with the standard 4gb or did you buy it like that and upgrade it your self? if it was upgraded by your self then did you notice a big difference?
 

limesmoothie

macrumors 6502a
Apr 20, 2009
917
697
Edinburgh, Scotland
thanks for your reply, i think the fastest processor ive ever had is an i3 one, and that was a couple of years ago. so i take it this will be a big step up from that. did yours come with the standard 4gb or did you buy it like that and upgrade it your self? if it was upgraded by your self then did you notice a big difference?

I was upgrading from a mid 2009 Macbook Pro with a Core 2 Duo processor, so I really noticed the difference even with the stock 4GB RAM. Yes, I bought the RAM from Crucial and upgraded myself. Amazon also sell the RAM kits. After I installed the 16GB it felt faster still. I am someone who tends to have loads of things running and tens of Safari tabs open, so I felt like it was a worthwhile upgrade for a small price.

Its not a massively difficult job, it depends how confident you feel about stuff like that. Opening up the mini is a doddle, its just getting the RAM out and the new RAM in that is a tiny bit fiddly (as everything is packed in pretty tight), you just have to be careful with the clips that hold it in. Its only a five minute job.
 

motrek

macrumors 68030
Sep 14, 2012
2,613
305
Hi guys, first post, long time viewer, I'm going to be buying my first mac, it will be the new Mac mini late 2012 model, I've seen one I'm wanting and it's the baseline Mac mini but it has been upgraded to 16gb of ram, I'll be using it for surfing downloading streaming the usual stuff and a couple of pieces of editing, I can get this for £550. What I'm wondering is, is it better to shell out more for the 256ssd and the i7 model? Or will the 16gb and the i5 model be ok?? There's no point in me getting 8gb of ram because its only a few quid cheaper where I can get it from. my budget is around £600

Also, im a long time windows user.

Remember that the base model Mini is better than almost any Mac you could have bought 3-4 years ago, and people were getting along fine with those. So unless you specifically need very high end compute power you'll be fine.

(Also the base Mini is going to be faster than almost any MacBook, which millions of people use as their primary computers.)
 

Moncrieffe

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 17, 2012
4
0
Whitburn, West Lothian
Remember that the base model Mini is better than almost any Mac you could have bought 3-4 years ago, and people were getting along fine with those. So unless you specifically need very high end compute power you'll be fine.

(Also the base Mini is going to be faster than almost any MacBook, which millions of people use as their primary computers.)

Thanks for your reply, I've made my mind up and I'm going for the Mac mini i5 16gb of ram
 

noteple

macrumors 68000
Aug 30, 2011
1,505
522
With the iMacs being delayed I'm looking at another mini also.
Great little machine. Enjoy it.
 

Rhinoevans

macrumors 6502
Oct 5, 2012
408
63
Las Vegas, NV
With the iMacs being delayed I'm looking at another mini also.
Great little machine. Enjoy it.

Me too. Was going to get the wife the 27", but now will get the Mac Mini, and the 27" Asus monitor on sale during Black Friday (USA) for $199. Saved some significant cash.
 

motrek

macrumors 68030
Sep 14, 2012
2,613
305
Thanks for your reply, I've made my mind up and I'm going for the Mac mini i5 16gb of ram

Sounds good. Please upgrade the RAM yourself since Apple's upgrade is a complete ripoff and doing it yourself is one of the rare "do it yourself" upgrades that Apple allows you to do without voiding your warranty.
 
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