If you are really that nervous about opening the machine up yourself and upgrading the ram, then don't. I just got my new basic Mini in the mail today and I am extremely impressed with how fast and responsive it is with only 1gb of RAM. I was going to order myself a 1gb or 2gb stick for super cheap and upgrade it this week, but I might wait a little while. For just general purpose computing (internet browsing, mail, chatting, google earth, watching movies) the 1gb or RAM is very responsive. Mind you, the last mac I owned was a dual 1ghz G4 w/ 512mb, running Tiger. But the mini is faster than any PC I've owned, including my newish HP DV2715nr laptop.