Suggestions on how to set up my first Mac?

[frank4]

The magic machine is going to be landing on my desk very soon. It's a humble refurb base Mini, current model with Lion, 2GB RAM, 500 GB HD. I'm a long-time user of non-Apple computers.

I was wondering about a few things. Please add any other tips you may have:

1 - Should I partition the HD or is this no longer very useful?

2 - I was thinking about setting up an admin account that would be used by myself only for potentially dangerous things, and set up a "standard" user account I'd use for daily computer activity. And maybe another standard account for friends who drop in. Good idea for security?

3 - I'll initially use the base 2 GB RAM as I expect it's enough for websurfing and a few iLife apps, but I'll eventually swap in 8 GB non-Apple RAM. How critical is the quality of the third party RAM these days? Can I use just about any chips bought in a big computer parts store? I hate the idea of random system crashes and glitches caused by bad RAM. I might get OWC's RAM or similar hopefully excellent chips even though I'm not in the USA and delivery is a bit of a hassle.

 

[Jethryn Freyman]

2GB RAM

When you get some spare cash, I'd bump that up to 4GB. Much better than 2GB, and 8GB is most probably overkill for a Mini.

1 - Should I partition the HD or is this no longer very useful?

No point.

2 - I was thinking about setting up an admin account that would be used by myself only for potentially dangerous things, and set up a "standard" user account I'd use for daily computer activity.

They say it's a good idea, but I don't bother myself (though I'm brilliant about security... so I can do things things, lol...

And maybe another standard account for friends who drop in. Good idea for security?

Yep that's what I have.

3 - I'll initially use the base 2 GB RAM as I expect it's enough for websurfing and a few iLife apps, but I'll eventually swap in 8 GB non-Apple RAM.

Check out an eBay store called "tubabug", they've got great prices on second-hand memory. I've bought form there many times, can't remember the brands, I think one pair of sticks was Samsung, and another was original Apple stuff.