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MacDuck

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 18, 2007
69
0
Silver Spring, MD
Hello all,

I have been debating over the past few months to upgrade or get a new Mac Mini, as my current one (MA206LL/A: 1.6 Core Duo/2 GB RAM/80 GB stock hard drive) is getting long in the tooth.

I use my Mini as a kitchen/living room computer, mostly for:

-internet access (especially Hulu)
- some light word processing
-scanning
-iPhoto
-the occasional HandBrake job
- Airtunes hub.

I also have an XP partition for boot camp; the hard drive is filling up fast and is slow, especially with iPhoto.

I have already maxed out the RAM, and was thinking about doing a processor and/or swap hard drive swap. AppleCare is just about up, so I don't mind taking a look inside again.

What would you do, based on what my needs are? I love the new mini, but justifying $500-$700 on an upgrade for the is hard for me right now, even with selling my current Mini.

I would figure on spending $75-$100 on a t7200 and $60-$80 on a new 7200 rpm hard drive. Would the performance be worth it?

Thanks for your help.
 

blehargh

macrumors newbie
Mar 23, 2009
9
0
The way I see it.

Nothing on your list is particularly CPU intensive (except for maybe handbrake) I don't necessarily see the new mini do anything for you right now, but that's just me.

So I would say, save your money. and don't do the processor upgrade. You processor should be able to handle your apps.

Seems like you do need some more HD space tho. I see a couple options

1) really delete what you don't need, if you are a pack rat - free
2) replace the internal HD - $60-80
3) get an external HD - valuable if you don't have a backup yet - $100

my 2 cents. GL
-don
 

MacDuck

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 18, 2007
69
0
Silver Spring, MD
I have an external, an old Porsche design Lacie firewire 400, 250 GB, but full at the moment. Also have a LaCie d2 Quadra Hard Disk - 500 GB, somewhat full, but am backing up 3 computers with it.

Seems like replacing the internal hard drive would be worth it. How about one of those mini stack hard drives...are they worth it to get? Or should I replace the internal....so many decisions.

Thanks for the input.
 
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