1gb Mac mini upgrade review by me!!

phuviano · Oct 23rd, 2005, 03:39 AM

Well, today I purchased a 1gb stick of ram for my mac mini. I had 512mb of ram before. I must say that it was pretty easy to take apart that mac mini. At first it takes some time, but you get the drift, once you get one side off. Anyways I won't go into detail on how to do this because there is already a thread with that info, or you can google it, like how I did.

Anyways, back to my review. First thing I did before I bought my 1gb stick. I wanted to see if I was using up all my ram. I download Menu Meter which is freeware. I was indeed using up all my ram. So off I went to canadacomputers. I bought a 1gb of the Corsair Value Ram. It has the Samsung Modules on it.

So I turn on my mini after installing it. Works great, no problems at all. Shows up in system profiler as 1gb. So that's a good thing. I didn't really notice any improvements at first, but as I began to use and load more apps. I notice it doesn't really lag as much as it did before.

Right now as I am typing this, I'm currently using 675mb RAM, and 349mb Ram free. Everything runs much smoother than before with this upgrade. I've read some comments on ehmac, where one user claims "it flys now". That's a little extreme. It doesn't really fly. The mac mini performs the same whether you have one app open, or 5 apps open. Its a great upgrade, and for those who think they may need it, I say go for it.

Its probably not going to fix all your problems if you use a lot of intensive apps. Remember its a mac mini, and not a power mac G5. The hard drive still is slow, but it runs optimally for my needs.

I still think that my old PC was faster with just 512mb ram, but windows sucks so that's another story, and plus I had a faster processor than the 1.42ghz in my mini.

Anyways if your thinking of upgrading your mini to 1gb, download Menu Meters first, and check the amount of ram usage before you upgrade. If you are not maxing out your ram, then there simply is no need to upgrade you ram. If you find your mac mini not performing to your standards and its not the ram. Go and get yourself an imac G5 or a Powermac G5.

The mac mini is not for everyone, but it does a decent job.

Macaholic · Oct 23rd, 2005, 03:57 AM

Nice report, there

I have 512MB in my Mini and have been mulling the bump up to a gig. How much was the RAM?

phuviano · Oct 23rd, 2005, 04:09 AM

Well to be honest. I think it was very expensive upgrade, but still cheaper than apple charges. The ram was $158 before taxes, and after taxes it was around $180 and change. I could have bought cheaper ram, but I was not sure if the cheaper ram was compatible with the mac mini. There are only several Dimms that are compatible with the mini, so I didn't want to risk it and buy a paperweight.

I knew that the Corsair Value Ram was compatible, because I read another thread where another member used this same stick of Ram.

Oh I almost forgot. If you don't have a putty knife to take your mini a part. Head to canadian tire and buy the 10.2cm putty knife. It fits perfectly, and is not too big, but not too small either.

The ram seem to stick in its slot pretty tight. Unlike ram I've pulled out of a PC. The mini ram was hard to pull out in my opinion. Well not hard to pull out, but hard to be gentle and use enough strength.

Ottawaman · Oct 23rd, 2005, 10:58 AM

I also did this "upgrade". I agree that the mini does not fly, but it does chug along at a nice steady pace.
I think I paid $159 (tax in) for my gig of ram.
I am considering a new HD, something in the 7200 rpm range.
I think that the mini would benefit from this upgrade, combined with the ram upgrade.
Too bad about the video card.
Still, I'm very pleased with the mini.

Macaholic · Oct 23rd, 2005, 11:21 AM

Well, the cheapest US RAM I could find costs about CAN$159.00 with shipping before taxes:
http://www.ramseeker.com/scripts/sor...6&sortSize=1gb So those prices seems good to me. And CanadaRAM is $190.00 before shipping + taxes:
http://www.canadaram.com/macram.html

Ottawaman · Oct 23rd, 2005, 11:26 AM

This was a few months ago. I could be wrong about the taxes.
I still saved plenty compared to what Apple wanted, so it's all good, as "they" say.

macsackbut · Oct 23rd, 2005, 12:32 PM

Re: the "fly" comment, I think it's relative. I can tell you that compared to the 256-stick that came with my mini, 1Gb sure made it "fly" in comparison

Ottawaman · Oct 23rd, 2005, 12:40 PM

Agreed.

Howard2k · Oct 23rd, 2005, 12:45 PM

I have 512MB.

Right now - according to Activity Monitor I have:

Wired - 77MB
Active - 264MB
Inactive - 78MB

Total used - 419.

Free - 93MB

Currently running iTunes, a bunch of Safari tabs and Mail. A couple of other apps still "open" but not active. QT, Preview, TextEdit etc. When I open iPhoto or OpenOffice it starts to chug.

1GB upgrade is certainly on my list

audiodan · Oct 23rd, 2005, 01:14 PM

This is almost off topic, but I have to ask. I want to upgrade my mini to 1GB and my PC only has 256MB. If I buy the 1GB stick, could I put the 512MB stick (that I pulled out) into my PC? Thanks