Hi there,
I am finally going to buy my first mac!!
I am going to get the mac mini, but I need your help..
Should I get the 1,25-ghz with a 80GB hd and 512mb sdram..
or the 1,42 with a 80gb version, with 256mb sdram?
What is more important if you don't plan to play any games, more sdram or a higher proccesor?
I want mac os x to run as smooth as possible and I want to be able to play dvd's..
Is 1,42 mutch better than 1,25.. Does it make any difference?
Thanks in advance!
Go for more ram - hands down.
seph's right about the ram. but, you should always get the best you can afford. if you can afford the extra cash, get the 1.42 with 1gb.
In my opinion, the processor upgrade will not make much of a performance difference.
The Mac Mini's performance is greatly limited by its 4200rpm notebook hard drive.
So the best speed booster for that machine would be an external hard drive (firewire probably) that spins at 7200rpm.
As far as the choices you have are concerned, go for the memory upgrade.
I am extremely content with my 1.25 mini. But definitely more RAM. You can feel it when Dashboard with a few widgets, Safari with a few tabs open, Sherlock and a few other programs are running. And Spotlight makes you feel the lack of RAM, too.
If you have to choose between faster processor or more RAM, go with the more RAM.
Thanks, a external hd is a little bit to expensive, so I guess I will go for the 1,25ghz + 80gb hd + 512mb ram
I just found this:
One surprise in our testing appeared when we tested the hard-drive access speed by duplicating 500MB of data. The 1.25GHz Mac mini beat the faster 1.42GHz model by 10 seconds. Upon further investigation, we found that the 1.25GHz model actually contains a 5,400RPM drive, despite Apple’s claim that it contains a 4,200RPM drive. The 1.42GHz model, does contain the slower 4,200RPM drive.
http://www.macworld.com/2005/01/reviews/ma...eview/index.php
is this true? :slant:
yes it was true in their case but it is not like that for everyone. HD RPM in minis is a bit of a mistery and Apple isn`t telling us what is going on. Some people get 4200s, some 5400s.
My suggestion would be to go with the 1.42 cause you will always be able to upgrade RAM but not the CPU (the best situation would be 1.42 AND 512 mb of RAM but NOT from Apple. Try Crucial for Mac compatible 3rd party RAM upgrades)
I have a 1.42 ghz 80 Gb HD and 512 ram and it runs super fast in comparison to my 2.4 ghz Pentium 4 PC.
I suggest though you go with the 1.2 ghz and more ram, cause it is possible to overclock the minis CPU
to even 1.52 ghz but its unstable, however it will work fine at 1.42. However I think the best thing to do
would be just to save your money a little longer and get the 1.42 ghz with 512 ram that way you get both.
Think about it 
Good luck,
Hobbes.
Definately use your money towards RAM, tiger and most apps will run fine on slower processors as long as theres enough RAM. It seems RAM is more crucial in macs than it is in PCs for some reason, but follow Unbe's advice, get crucial or other similar RAM (try newegg, they have good prices), and max out the RAM if you can. To do this though you'll have to open your mini, so if youre uncomferatble with that, just buy it BTO.
Also consider getting airport and bluetooth built in, as bluetooth is dam near impossible to add on after you bought it (you can use a dongle though).
I don't want to crack my mini open.. So I guess I will take hobbes advice and save some money to get a 1,42ghz with 512mb ram.
If i were you id use that money to get the lower end model but get as much ram as you can, you'll feel more a difference with the ram than with a slight clock speed improvement.
Agreed - you will not feel the processor difference, im sure. That is a mere ~200Mhz more, is it really that crucial?
Get as much ram as you can get - and you shouldnt be afraid to open the mini, apple makes replacing/adding ram a bliss.
@ Mu - Apple sells a AirPort/BT add-on card for the mini so it`s not exactly "nearly impossible" to add it on later
@ Seph - mini is not a bliss to open. The plastic buckles that hold the mini together are somewhat fragile and have broken more than once when people tried to open their mini (which voided their warranty). Although it`s not rocket science either 
You guys made me change my mind again.
I am goin to get the 1,25Ghz one with 40gb since I probably don't need that mutch memory as on my PC, which is overloaded with tons of program to let it look like a mac 
with 512mb ram (1gb is too expensive, to bad it isn't €100 anymore) and a 4x super drive, that must be really cool..
You are wrong there.
OSX is more RAM hungry than Windows simply because it uses a different (better) cashing algoritam and RAM plays a bigger role in OSX than in Windows.
I meant that I won't need a 80gb hard disc because I don't need to instal as many programs as on my windows..
I wasn't talking about running all these programs in the ram..
....I probably don't need that mutch memory as on my PC....
Memory is RAM, HD space is something else :slant:
And dont underestimate the free HDD space - that has a big impact on your computer speed; always have as much free disk space as possible (no need to go Terabyte nuts though )
Memory is RAM, HD space is something else :slant:
You were right, sorry
And dont underestimate the free HDD space
They say the 40gb hd is faster, so
I really don't need that mutch *space*, and If I will, I can allways buy a faster firewire hd.
I heard on The Screensavers that you can open a Mini without voiding the warranty. Is that true? I'd get the faster one, and then change the HDD out for a faster bigger one. Then, add RAM at the same time.
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