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512 or 1GB?

I

iMatt mini

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Mar 1, 2005
316
0
Central New Jersey
Here's what I'd be using my Mac Mini for, mainly.
Web Browsing
Mail
Chatting
School Assignments
iTunes
and maybe Photoshop if I could get my hands on it easily without paying so much.
So is it worth the $175 to upgrade from 512 to 1 GB?
Is it a noticeable difference?
 
Get 1GB if you can afford it. Offset the cost, by selling the 512...Yes, its noticable and you can further improve performance with an external HDD or faster internal...
 
I think the OP was going to order the 1 GB from Apple so they wouldn't be able to sell the 512 MB. That said, if you are not too apprehensive working with hardware I would just order it with 512 MB and upgrade to 1 GB yourself. You can find a quality 1 GB stick for about $100, maybe a little more.

Although it doesn't sound like you'll be doing very intensive stuff if you plan on using Dashboard at all the extra RAM really helps. Besides, since there is only one slot, max'ing out to 1 GB will help future-proof it and you won't have to worry about doing it down the road.

Besides, you should be able to get a decent price for the 512 MB stick. I got my mini with 256 MB and upgraded it but 256 MB sticks don't go for much these days, not that I've even tried to sell it yet - it's somewhere around my house.
 
iMatt mini said:
Here's what I'd be using my Mac Mini for, mainly.
Web Browsing
Mail
Chatting
School Assignments
iTunes
and maybe Photoshop if I could get my hands on it easily without paying so much.
So is it worth the $175 to upgrade from 512 to 1 GB?
Is it a noticeable difference?
Click to expand...

DO NOT upgrade to 1gig total through apple. It is so much cheaper to go third party through sites like crucial.com, tigerdirect.com, newegg.com, datamem.com, etc. You can get a 512 meg chip for probably around 70 or 80 bucks US.
 
I'd prefer to have it done for me. I've never used a Mac before that I own. I've used them a lot but I've never owned one. I'm not about to go and tinker with my first Mac.
And it seems the 1 GB is only one DIMM so in the future I could buy another stick and get 2 GB out of it right? or Even just a 512 and get 1.5 GB. That'd be sweet. And yes, I plan on using the Dashboard like there's no tomorrow.
 
iMatt mini said:
I'd prefer to have it done for me. I've never used a Mac before that I own. I've used them a lot but I've never owned one. I'm not about to go and tinker with my first Mac.
And it seems the 1 GB is only one DIMM so in the future I could buy another stick and get 2 GB out of it right? or Even just a 512 and get 1.5 GB. That'd be sweet. And yes, I plan on using the Dashboard like there's no tomorrow.
Click to expand...

There is only one slot in a mini - 1GB is as high as you can go.
 
really it sounds like all you need is the 512. 1GB is nice, but not necisary, unless you do a lot with photo shop but if you dont even know for sure that you will be using photoshop then 512 would be fine. plus you can always upgrade to 1GB later, and its cheaper to do it on your own.
 
iMatt mini said:
Oh. I assumed it had 2 DIMM's like most Windows based computers. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Most windows computers are 6.5" x 6.5" x 2"? :rolleyes:

Sounds like you should pick up a used G4 Powermac - seems like you have upgradability in mind and you can't do much to the mini...
 
I understand it's small. I guess you're right. :rolleyes:
Yes, I do a lot of work with Photoshop. I use it now on my HP Laptop but I don't know if I'll buy it for the Mac. :p
 
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