09-30-2011, 07:51 AM
Fellow members, I'm typing this on my newly-installed Mac Mini!
I have gone five years without getting a new computer, so this is a big deal for me.
I got it from the online Apple Store, refurb, ordered it about a week ago, when it appeared. A 2010 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, minimally equipped 320 GB HD, 2 GB Ram for $469.
I had planned, for a long time, to save up and get an 11" refurb Macbook Air. And waited for the newest Sandy Bridge-chip-equipped, backlit-keyboard, Lion OS MacBook Air, but here's what tipped me toward a compact 2010 desktop Mac instead:
I've been using my 2006 15" MacBook Pro, connected to a display, external keyboard, mouse, etc., as my default desktop computer, for about 3 years now. Over time, with more and more peripherals plugged into it (every single port, no joke) it felt increasingly chained-down. I had to liberate it. I had to replace a fan on it, it's showing age. I wanted to make it portable again, and make my desk cleaner.
The bargain price of the Mini gave me enough wiggle room get on the OWC page (warning: shameless sponsor plug) and order 8 GB of RAM, and a 500 GB Seagate Momentus XT DIY kit. All of which arrived within days of my Mac purchase. $467 for the Mac+ $60 to max out the RAM + $125 to upgrade the HD and put the original HD in an enclosure, and I'm a happy customer.
Holy Cow! I'm delighted. For those that have flipped over the newer Mac Minis, to see that black disc on the bottom, turned counter-clockwise to pop open, the easy-access is a welcome improvement over previous Minis. The utterly simple RAM installation gave me a false sense of breezy confidence about the HD upgrade, too. ...as it turns out, I was wrong, it's more challenging than I anticipated. But still worth doing.
I didn't even know about these hybrid drives until a few weeks ago. A friend recommended I check it out. So I read a bunch of stuff on the web, some threads here, watched a few YouTube videos comparing boot times and app-loading times, saw favorable comments and positive reviews, it looked like a respectable performance boost for a good value.
Maybe my 5 years of running older computers made me easy to impress, but man, this feels very responsive. I've never had 8 GBs of Ram in anything. Or 500 GBs of internal storage. (my MacBook Pro has a 125 GB HD) so, for my money, the 2010 Mac Mini isn't the most powerful computer, but with these additions, it feels really fast, and easy to like. A dramatic improvement over my previous setup!
The included tools DIY tools and instruction video made an otherwise painstaking process go very smoothly. (OWC, nice work on that video!)
I have gone five years without getting a new computer, so this is a big deal for me.
I got it from the online Apple Store, refurb, ordered it about a week ago, when it appeared. A 2010 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, minimally equipped 320 GB HD, 2 GB Ram for $469.
I had planned, for a long time, to save up and get an 11" refurb Macbook Air. And waited for the newest Sandy Bridge-chip-equipped, backlit-keyboard, Lion OS MacBook Air, but here's what tipped me toward a compact 2010 desktop Mac instead:
I've been using my 2006 15" MacBook Pro, connected to a display, external keyboard, mouse, etc., as my default desktop computer, for about 3 years now. Over time, with more and more peripherals plugged into it (every single port, no joke) it felt increasingly chained-down. I had to liberate it. I had to replace a fan on it, it's showing age. I wanted to make it portable again, and make my desk cleaner.
The bargain price of the Mini gave me enough wiggle room get on the OWC page (warning: shameless sponsor plug) and order 8 GB of RAM, and a 500 GB Seagate Momentus XT DIY kit. All of which arrived within days of my Mac purchase. $467 for the Mac+ $60 to max out the RAM + $125 to upgrade the HD and put the original HD in an enclosure, and I'm a happy customer.
Holy Cow! I'm delighted. For those that have flipped over the newer Mac Minis, to see that black disc on the bottom, turned counter-clockwise to pop open, the easy-access is a welcome improvement over previous Minis. The utterly simple RAM installation gave me a false sense of breezy confidence about the HD upgrade, too. ...as it turns out, I was wrong, it's more challenging than I anticipated. But still worth doing.
I didn't even know about these hybrid drives until a few weeks ago. A friend recommended I check it out. So I read a bunch of stuff on the web, some threads here, watched a few YouTube videos comparing boot times and app-loading times, saw favorable comments and positive reviews, it looked like a respectable performance boost for a good value.
Maybe my 5 years of running older computers made me easy to impress, but man, this feels very responsive. I've never had 8 GBs of Ram in anything. Or 500 GBs of internal storage. (my MacBook Pro has a 125 GB HD) so, for my money, the 2010 Mac Mini isn't the most powerful computer, but with these additions, it feels really fast, and easy to like. A dramatic improvement over my previous setup!
The included tools DIY tools and instruction video made an otherwise painstaking process go very smoothly. (OWC, nice work on that video!)
mile: