Checking pageouts

Don't know about the PC side, but given what you will be using your Mini for I'd suggest 512MB might well be enough.

And as user-upgrades of RAM on a Mini will void your warranty then you will either need to pay for the upgraded chip as a BTO option at the time of purchase, or pay for an authorised tech to install it (OWC come to mind in the US).

1GB is very appealing, but you will need to decide if the extra expense for it is justifiable, and only you can do that.

 

AFAIK, upgrading the RAM on the mac mini will only void your warrenty if you break something inside, as reported here.

Ya, and I would go with 512MB in your situation... it isnt that much cheaper to do it yourself (atleast in Canada), and trust me. You will need the 512. OS X needs more than 256 to run anything more than one app at a time IIRC.

 

i run 256 ram with a 600mhz imac...it runs a lot of stuff at once, just with thousands and thousands of pageouts. still faster than my 1ghz pIII was, though, so i'm not complaining.

will definitely get 512+ when i get a powerbook (soon hopefully)

 

You can't say that you can get a GB stick for $40 more than a 512 without telling us all where...

Doing lots of editing in iPhoto could be a reason to up your RAM. Depending on the quality of the pics you have (meaning the resolution of the pic, not the subjective quality)

Or using any video editing software is another good reason.

 

Given that XP, and the apps that you run on it, are completely different than OS X, the pageout stats on XP will tell you nothing about what you should expect on OS X.

Unless you are going to run Virtual PC, I'd say you'll be fine with 512 MB.

 

I agree with deebster, 512 MB is probably enough for you. Given an unlimited budget, of course get 1 GB, but it's probably not going to benefit you much. Nothing you listed would require massive amounts of RAM unless your images are all very high resolution. Let's say OS X takes up 150 MB of RAM when it boots. That gives you only about 100 MB remaining. But adding another 256 MB doesn't just double the amount of free RAM you have. Now, with 512 MB installed, you have about 3.5x (350 MB) the available amount you had with the stock machine.

 

Ah, that's good news. Thanks for pointing that out.