OWC Offers 16GB RAM Upgrade for New Mac Mini, For $1400

[accessoriesguy]

I paid $500 for my 8GB DDR3 RAM for my MacBook Pro

I went all out, I got the first gen unibody, upgraded the RAM and Hard Drive, Thing is a beast. But then newer and newer things came out

New technology is expensive, but if you wait it always comes down. that is a high starting price however :O

 

[-aggie-]

I paid $500 for my 8GB DDR3 RAM for my MacBook Pro

I went all out, I got the first gen unibody, upgraded the RAM and Hard Drive, Thing is a beast. But then newer and newer things came out

New technology is expensive, but if you wait it always comes down. that is a high starting price however :O

I paid around $70 for the same thing.

Paying $1600 for RAM is crazy, especially when you probably don't even need that much for anything one might do.

 

[accessoriesguy]

yeah its around $70 bucks now, but new technology always comes at a high price, eventually it comes down.

By the time the second generations of the unibody macs were released, they were released at almost half the price tag of what mine had cost me.

I didn't own a computer, so I did not have much of a choice and paid the premium, not knowing that it was an extra premium for the first gen, but it was worth it for the brand new monitor, and lighter design.

The price of the base line 15in pro with only the 7200RPM hard drive upgrade is the price of the current base line 17in pro.

 

[ender21]

I paid around $70 for the same thing.

Paying $1600 for RAM is crazy, especially when you probably don't even need that much for anything one might do.

You'd be surprised. I got a MacPro and replaced it's stock 6GB with OWC 16GB (4x4GB), then supplemented with an additional 4GB stick with the same specs that I had in an old server, + 3x1GB of the stock 1GB sticks to fill out all the banks. Grand total, 23GB. I was working in either Final Cut or DxO Optics Pro doing fairly mundane work (for those apps), come to find out that 21 out of 23GB was in-use!

 

[Macrobiotic]

You'd be surprised. I got a MacPro and replaced it's stock 6GB with OWC 16GB (4x4GB), then supplemented with an additional 4GB stick with the same specs that I had in an old server, + 3x1GB of the stock 1GB sticks to fill out all the banks. Grand total, 23GB. I was working in either Final Cut or DxO Optics Pro doing fairly mundane work (for those apps), come to find out that 21 out of 23GB was in-use!

Another scenario is when running VMWare vSphere 5 with Mac minis as hosts.
(Almost certainly not officially supported, but a great way to run a compact test environment.)

 

[Liquinn]

Who would need 16GB RAM in a Mac Mini? ;x

 

[-LikesMac-]

16GB RAM --- not really for Mac Mini

16GB RAM in a 2 x 8 GB SO-DIMM configuration is better left for the MacBook Pros to combine mobility and high power well. The Mac Mini is ultimately left to be a cheap mac so having this $1400 upgrade in there kind of defeats the point.

A better desktop Mac to upgrade would be the iMac, which could have 32GB of RAM...

 

[gmcalpin]

Who would need 16GB RAM in a Mac Mini? ;x

Servers. This has been answered several times in the thread already…

 

[Rich Gibson]

I just paid $ 22.87 for an iPad2-64GB and my girlfriend loves her Panasonic Lumix GF 1 Camera that we got for $ 38.76 there arriving tomorrow by UPS. I will never pay such expensive retail prices in stores again. Especially when I also sold a 40 inch LED TV to my boss for $ 675 which only cost me $ 62.81 to buy. Here is the website we use to get it all from, CentShack. çom

SPAM alert! Delete his post and ban the op.

Thanks, Rich

 

[dndlnx]

Why not just buy a couple more minis? You know, true multitasking.

Haha....for real.

 

[tenton]

There are actually only about 4 companies in the world that make RAM. OWC, Crucial whatever.. they don't me their own RAM. They buy RAM and put their sticker on it.

Actually, Crucial DOES make their own RAM. Crucial is Micron's brand name for their own memory.

OWC, OTOH, doesn't make the actual chips, no (or the SSD flash, or the controllers, which are Sandforce based, IIRC), but they are fairly open about where they source the parts from.

 

[mdriftmeyer]

Servers. This has been answered several times in the thread already…

Or anyone doing intensive OpenCL work and OpenGL crunching.

 

[zen.state]

Actually, Crucial DOES make their own RAM. Crucial is Micron's brand name for their own memory.

OWC, OTOH, doesn't make the actual chips, no (or the SSD flash, or the controllers, which are Sandforce based, IIRC), but they are fairly open about where they source the parts from.

I never realized that Micron owned Crucial.

 

[Dr Kevorkian94]

can't you just buy an iMac for that price

 

[Climberjet]

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Just bought my first Mac mini, was a PC user. Does the warranty get invalidated if I'd use 8GB (2x4GB)RAM from OWL. Is this a good company to by this from?
Thanks

 

[!¡ V ¡!]

I highly doubt that the masses require 4+GB of ram to begin with. I have 2GB in my iMac and 4GB on my MBP and i could do with 2GB on the MBP, however I got it at a really good price when I did the upgrade. 16GB of ram in a MacMini is overkill and too expensive at this time.

MacMini was designed for simplicity and affordability, and its stock option works well for general purpose. If you need something with more power think about getting an iMac or even a MacPro.

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Just bought my first Mac mini, was a PC user. Does the warranty get invalidated if I'd use 8th ram from OWL. Is this a good company to by this from?
Thanks

3rd party ram is user replaceable and this is from . OWC is reputable as they ram is tested on Mac hardware for reassurance. I just buy the generic ram for notebooks, as long as the pin count, CL rating, etc.. are the same. No point paying the premium, ram is ram if it is from a reputable company.

Or anyone doing intensive OpenCL work and OpenGL crunching.

You are better off purchasing a MacPro for your requirements.

 

[devianter]

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That is your impression of the machines. Frankly I see them as far more capable, especially with this new release. You can reasonably run OpenCL and OpenGL code on the model with the AMD GPU for example.

In fact I'd be willing to say the new Minis are a very cost effective workstation for less demanding work. Without spinning tall tales they are more powerful then any computer I've owned in the past.

So I think your opinion of the Minis is out of place. They are now very capable little boxes.

Frankly, you've just owned ******* computers in the past. I've got a mini and it's good as a living room media center or a "mom" computer. And that's pretty much all.

 

[Mr. Retrofire]

I never realized that Micron owned Crucial.

http://www.crucial.com/company/crucial_and_micron.aspx
and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micron_Technology

 

[Seeker128]

I'll take three Mac Mini's instead. Thanks but.... Nope!

 

[D*I*S_Frontman]

The cool thing about this OWC offer is that the Mini can address the RAM and work fine. Right now it's a bleeding-edge upgrade for a low end system. Like putting a sport-tuned suspension and supercharger on a Prius.

In a year or so RAM costs should plummet after the uber-rich geeky types have paid for the R&D at these current prices. Then perhaps the 2011 Mini will be awesome as small, cheap cluster nodes for Logic or FCP, or as sampler hosts for sound libraries where RAM and data i/o are very important and high-end CPUs/GPUs are less critical. Or, as mentioned previously, as servers.

Of course, we'll probably get new TBolt equipped Mac Pros before then, and if the Minis and iMacs are any indication, the new towers should scream. Then tricking out a Mini, even with lower RAM pricing, might still be a bad idea compared to getting an entry level MP that can hold a LOT more RAM, and cheaper RAM to boot.

 

[neech7]

Just bought 8GB (2x4GB) to put into my MBP. The 4GB (2x2GB) that came with the MBP will go into my Mac Mini. Total cost: $50.

 

[Cheffy Dave]

Anyone using a Mac mini should never need more than 8GB.



And you know this how? Amazing that you can speak for EVERYONE

 

[gullySn0wCat]

Anyone using a Mac mini should never need more than 8GB.



And you know this how? Amazing that you can speak for EVERYONE

I'm pretty sure there aren't many (if any) people out there willing to drop $1400 on an extra 8gb of RAM for a Mac Mini of all things

 

[ikir]

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Only apple would think this was a good price, they hike up prices to see what Mac nerds will pay and unfortunately for us they do pay, which is why you can buy 100gig of PC ram for that price.

It is not Apple price. They are SoDimms of 8GB each, they are expensive for these reasons. Troll.

 

[Ice Dragon]

If you can afford it, go for it. An 8 GB chip for $700 is a bit much for my tastes though.