My review of the 09 mini

[mmoran27]

I just purchased one for my kids.

Upgrading RAM was easy, just need a putty knife and a small magnetic phillips screwdriver.

It took me about 15 minutes total.

Performance is about the same as the previous generation.

The Superdrive is crap as others have stated, some Optiarc crap. It's noisy as hell (Like an xbox 360 drive).

It only makes noise when you use it though.

The 9400m is a plus.

[WilliamG]

I just purchased one for my kids.

Upgrading RAM was easy, just need a putty knife and a small magnetic phillips screwdriver.

It took me about 15 minutes total.

Performance is about the same as the previous generation.

The Superdrive is crap as others have stated, some Optiarc crap. It's noisy as hell (Like an xbox 360 drive).

It only makes noise when you use it though.

The 9400m is a plus.

LOL. Optiarc crap? It's only Sony. :)

[nuckinfutz]

LOL. Optiarc crap? It's only Sony. :)

Still crap. I like that it's a low profile slot loader but frankly I rarely use my optical drive and I would have rather had another SATA drive bay.

I'm looking forward to buying another mini. The faster graphics will be great. It's a bummer that you can't upgrade the cpu like in the GMA 950 models. I think I may buy a another used mini...yank the optical drive and plug in a MCE Optibay HDD and use it for Snow Leopard server.

The 4GB of RAM is important as well. My guess is if you wanted to you could put in 8GB of RAM but at roughly 600 bucks it's the same cost as the mini itself.

[lamerica80]

I just purchased one for my kids.

Upgrading RAM was easy, just need a putty knife and a small magnetic phillips screwdriver.

It took me about 15 minutes total.

Performance is about the same as the previous generation.

The Superdrive is crap as others have stated, some Optiarc crap. It's noisy as hell (Like an xbox 360 drive).

It only makes noise when you use it though.

The 9400m is a plus.

Wow you really spent a lot of time on that review didnt you? ;)

[flopticalcube]

The 4GB of RAM is important as well. My guess is if you wanted to you could put in 8GB of RAM but at roughly 600 bucks it's the same cost as the mini itself.

Nope. OWC tried and failed. Its capped at 4GB. http://www.123macmini.com/news/story/1155.html

[nuckinfutz]

Nope. OWC tried and failed. Its capped at 4GB. http://www.123macmini.com/news/story/1155.html

Thanks

Sigh....64-bit computing...hobbled the the inadequacies of technology.

[rkdiddy]

Wow you really spent a lot of time on that review didnt you? ;)

Ha! :p

[dubhe]

Reading this thread made me realise I haven't actually used my SuperDrive yet! Maybe I should just rip it out and replace with a 500 GB media drive (once I have installed Snow Leopard).

[mmoran27]

I wanted it to be a mini review.

[lamerica80]

I wanted it to be a mini review.

More like a Ireview Nano. :)

[Wheaty]

Had my Mini since March.

As for the CD drive.. It can be a bit noisy compared to some, but it depends allot on the read speed and the quality of the CD, and what its trying to do..

Stuck a 2nd Hand 1990's CD in to rip to iTunes and apart from the occasional index squeak it was very quit.. but Other CD's & DVD's have made a huge din.

So Occasionally noisy would be my verdict.

But otherwise, I bearly notice any noise coming from my mini other than the occasional "pop" which as yet remains unidentified. (mRoogle other threads for the pop)

I thought the drive was a pioneer? not Sony

[bigbird]

Upgrading RAM was easy, just need a putty knife and a small magnetic phillips screwdriver.
It took me about 15 minutes total.
Performance is about the same as the previous generation.
The Superdrive is crap as others have stated, some Optiarc crap. It's noisy as hell (Like an xbox 360 drive).
It only makes noise when you use it though.
The 9400m is a plus.

Exhaustively comprehensive and thorough review leaving nothing to question.
Thanks.

[geoffreak]

More like a Ireview Nano. :)
No, that would be an iReview Nano. ;)

I don't actually use my Mac Mini's HD very often. I digitized my content so I don't need to use DVDs anymore.

[Saladinos]

I'd love to wait for the next model with even better graphics, but I'm going to the US in August. In the US, the base model Mini is $599 = £360. In the UK, the base model is £499 = $815. That's a 27% saving.

It doesn't look like Apple will update the Mini before August, so I'll have to do with that.

[flopticalcube]

I'd love to wait for the next model with even better graphics,

That would be a long wait considering the last one had the GMA950 for 3 years.

[geoffreak]

It doesn't look like Apple will update the Mini before August, so I'll have to do with that.
We won't be seeing a Mini update until at least January, forget about August.

[spacepower7]

I'd love to wait for the next model with even better graphics, but I'm going to the US in August. In the US, the base model Mini is $599 = £360. In the UK, the base model is £499 = $815. That's a 27% saving.

It doesn't look like Apple will update the Mini before August, so I'll have to do with that.

The 9400 is the top of the line integrated gpu at the moment. It's like the ION that all the netbook/nettop/HTPC are waiting for in the second half of 2009. Nvidia hasn't announced the next upgrade but they are already 1-2 generations ahead of the future Intel integrated graphics. This graphics card will be with us for at least 6 months or years. Dell is currently selling their 10" Miniv for $300 with the Intel 950 which the first Macbooks had in mid 2006.

Buy now, when you come to the states :)

[lamerica80]

People are starving to death in africa and you are worried about a noisy DVD drive while burning illegally downloaded episodes of Weeds for your girlfriend so you can get that OMG THANKYOU!! and rejoice in the fact that this huge gift cost you close to nothing, plus it made you feel like a computer expert AND a master of the universe that can score anything from tv show episodes to mp3s for FREE!

[Rizvi1]

...
Performance is about the same as the previous generation.

....

The 9400m is a plus.

Anymore agreement w/ this? My cousin wants a mac mini and I'm trying to help him figure out if he should get current generation or previous generation. He wouldn't be doing anything "heavy." I've come up w/ the following scenarios:

- for $549 w/ education discount, a new bottom of the line Mac Mini (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo/120GB/1GB memory/120GB hard drive/8x double-layer SuperDrive/NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics (not sure how much better the $799 model is)

- wait for a refurbished 2009 Mac Mini to show up - guessing price is $500?

- go for a previous generation one on craigslist (my guess is that he could get for under $300 from someone who bought late last year and still have a 6 month+ warranty)

- Go for current generation 2009 Mac Mini from someone who bought a few months ago and selling for whatever reason. Est price.. sub $400?

Any thoughts?

I myself bought a 1.83ghz C2d Mac Mini from the previous generation off of craigslist earlier this year and paid $375 for it. The unit I bought had upgraded 2.5gb RAM and an upgraded 200gb 7200 rpm HDD. I wish it had the orig HD though because I don't really need the space and the newer HD makes the unit loud as hell (the seller kept telling me he'd send over the orig HD but still hasn't). The original owner broke the airport/bluetooth card though (which applecare won't cover) so I'm just using ethernet - which isn't a big deal.