Mac Mini Thumbs Up, Ram Pricey, Thumbs Down

[Upcountry]

Hi fellow mac-fantics or mac-curious,

I was delighted today to see Apple's new Mac mini announcement. I've been following the rumors, and crossing my fingers.

Just as expected, though, Apple had maintained its pricey strategy.

First of all, the first gen is only a G4, not G5.

At least is starts with 256 (probably minimal), and only a 40 gig drive.

For $599 you get an 80 gig and slightly faster processor. OK. For another $100 you get a SuperDrive for recording DVD's. So now we're actually talking $700 US for what I would call a barely baseline machine.

I went to their website store and experimented with upping the RAM to a gig. Now were' talking almost $1200 US! (1 gig DDR333 SDRAM costs over $400).

Has anyone had a good experience buying RAM chips at Pantip or elsewhere for a good price? I miss the US where I could easily order RAM online - maybe the small size of a RAM package would make that work better than buying it locally. Of course, it remains to be seen whether the Mac mini can be opened by a user without voiding the warranty.

[Upcountry]

Additional note:

The mini comes with one slot, apparently.

Opening up the box is surely more like opening a laptop than a Mac desktop - warrarnty/access problems.

The price for the DDR 333 RAM on the Mac store is more than DDR 400 RAM for the G5. Either this is an error, or it will have to come down.

When you add it up, though, it's still a better deal than a 12" G4 eBook if you don't want to invest mega-bahts in a desktop Mac.

[Merlin]

my brother told me that the new cheap macs don't even come with a keyboard or mouse, never mind a monitor!!!

Once these are added in, they're no cheaper at all...

Is this right???

[Firefoxx]

That's right. CPU only, with the normal Panther OS and the normal Mac software package. Nothing else.

I knew that Macs were overpriced... but considering that 512MB of DDR 400 PC ram is less than $100... You would probably want to get 512MB or 1GB, if there's only one slot.

A few observations:

There is indeed only one memory slot (look at http://www.apple.com/macmini/design.html), so I guess you'll have to replace the old 256MB stick with whatever you're aiming for. Maximum 1GB.

The superdrive DVD writer only writes at 4x. Not in tune with the current DVD-writers out there which write at 16x.

The internals are really cramped. I hope there's no heat problem.

Graphics card is the ATI 9200, so don't expect great 3d.

Strange that they didn't add a modern firewire800 port, only an old firewire400 port. A faster port would make expanding a lot less painful.

I think it's only for the casual user... the specs don't add up to much, and there is little expandability. It's a great way to get into the Mac world without breaking the bank.

Edited January 12, 2005 by Firefoxx

[Upcountry]

After a bit more research, including the Apple forums, it's clear that the mini is a tease.

I use my Mac for audio recording and FCP, etc. I guess I'll have to get a budget G5. That's what Apples wants me to do, obviously.

The drive may be only 5400 rpm as well. The notion of upping RAM and hard drive later is not practical. Mini's are not designed to be opened by the user. The small drive size does not come larger than 80 at this time.

Maybe next year this sort of thing will be a good option, but it seems to be really first generation right now.

[Firefoxx]

Well, at least it comes with Firewire ports, which means that you can add some external firewire 3.5" 7200rpm HDDs, or even a 16x DVD writer. Of course, neither will work as fast as an internal drive.

It was mentioned in other thread ("is that Mac that good" thread) that the HDD was a 2.5" form factor drive, hence the small capacity and 5400rpm speed. It's pretty logical, considering the size of the case.

[bkk_mike]

It's fairly obvious it's not intended for heavy users (except maybe as an additional computer).

But - for checking email, doing homework, watching DVDs, it looks ideal as child / student PC, or for home users that really just want web and email access. And it will run the occasional stuff like making VCDs / DVDs from your home movies. (might be a bit slow, but if it's once a year, who cares)...

Personally I think it's aimed students and people who don't want a normal computer in the living room. - a Mini-mac with a big LCD tv with a DVI input, and an infra-red keyboard and mouse, you're looking at a virtually invisible computer.

[Thaddeus]

Does anyone have any idea how much the Mini or the new G5 iMac are selling for at the Apple dealers in Pantip?

[rickvan]

Does anyone have any idea how much the Mini or the new G5 iMac are selling for at the Apple dealers in Pantip?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The G5 imac 1.8 Gz 17" 70.000 20" 91.000 all 2 with Superdrive + Tax

[Thaddeus]

Thank you