Mac Mini questions

[Fyrie]

We are looking at buying a Mac Mini in the next day or two and there were couple things I just wanted to ask of someone who knew.

How is video ram different in a Mac than a PC? My PC notebook has a video card with 256 megs of ram while the mini has 32 megs - but for requirements I've looked it, things that ask for 128 meg video in pc only need 32 megs shared ram for a Mac.

Is the Mac wireless keyboard and mouse set any different than one that you can buy from say Logitech? It says on the site we would need to add the Bluetooth to the mini to use the wireless set, but if we got the USB Bluetooth adapter at a later date would we be able to get the Mac kb/mouse?

Thanks for taking the time to help me out with this!

 

[ravenvii]

First question - no there are no difference between VRAM in a PC and a Mac, they're the same graphic cards more or less. But I think what you're seeing is that the PC has SHARED memory. That means the graphics card actually uses the main system memory. With the Mac mini (and all Macs), the memory is not shared - the graphic card has it's own memory to use.

Second, yes you can get a USB Bluetooth dongle and then use any Bluetooth accessories. Personally I would go for the internal Bluetooth anyway - it's ugly to have a USB dongle sticking out of the back, plus it takes up a USB port!

 

[eXan]

We are looking at buying a Mac Mini in the next day or two and there were couple things I just wanted to ask of someone who knew.

How is video ram different in a Mac than a PC? My PC notebook has a video card with 256 megs of ram while the mini has 32 megs - but for requirements I've looked it, things that ask for 128 meg video in pc only need 32 megs shared ram for a Mac.

Is the Mac wireless keyboard and mouse set any different than one that you can buy from say Logitech? It says on the site we would need to add the Bluetooth to the mini to use the wireless set, but if we got the USB Bluetooth adapter at a later date would we be able to get the Mac kb/mouse?

Thanks for taking the time to help me out with this!

yes I guess your PC has shared memory, which is absolutely no good. That means that your 256 MB of SYSTEM RAM is used by both system and video card. Standard mini has 256 MB of system RAM AND 32 MB of video RAM

 

[runninmac]

The 2 previous posters have it with the Video Ram.

You can use the bluetooth dongle but its really ugly looking sticking out IMO. I would go for the internal. Either way you there shouldn't be a difference in proformance in the bluetooth.

 

[Fyrie]

I don't think that my pc card has shared video, it says in the specs that it's on-chip ram. It would make sense if that was the difference but I think that the 256 meg video card cost over half what the whole Mini Mac is going to cost me. It just seemed odd how things that are asking for so much relatively in the PC side, need so much less from a Mac video wise.

The Mini Mac will be for us to use in the main area of our new house for minimal games and just household things. I just want to make sure it can handle the games my boys want to use it for. It's not going to be a big household computer which is why I wasn't big on adding the bluetooth internally - just trying to keep the costs on this system down as much as possible.

It's an odd change to go from PC for years to a Mac and figuring out what things mean and seeing if software will work on it, but it seems this is the best option for what we'll need.

Thanks for the answers!

 

[ravenvii]

Well, then I have to ask: WHAT programs REQUIRES 256 MB of video RAM??? I know of no programs that requires 256 MB

(Before you ask, yes I'm talking about the PC world - I used to be a die-hard PC gamer, built a bleeding-edge PC and all. And I've never seen a game require 256 MB of video RAM. Not even Doom 3 requires 256 MB - it actually requires only 64 MB.)