How little memory is too little?

[Parasitic]

All right, so the Apple store has the 1.83GHz CD Mac Mini with 512MB for $479. I bit. It's going to come with Leopard. I've never used that little memory before...is that going to be a problem?

 

[Oil]

With Leopard, yes. If you don't mind opening the Mini and adding more ram then upgrade to at least 1.5gb

 

[TheStu]

Or hell, get a 2GB kit, it is cheap as all get out.

Leopard will run just fine on 1GB (trust me, its what I use) but given the cost of a 2GB kit, why not get it?

 

[Tyranicus]

Leopard runs fine on 1GB. I ran it on 1GB for a few months. However, when I upgraded to 2GB, my MacBook Pro got noticeably snappier.

 

[Parasitic]

Originally posted by: OSx86
With Leopard, yes. If you don't mind opening the Mini and adding more ram then upgrade to at least 1.5gb

It's not too bad, right? Looks like just getting two putty knives.

By the way the Core Duo is the same as a Core 2 Duo, clock for clock, aside from power consumption, isn't it?

Never mind, it's showing maybe a 10% difference and 32 vs. 64-bit. Oh wells, it's going to be only for very simple purposes, so no worries.

 

[Parasitic]

Ok, the information I'm getting off the internet is conflicting - does the Mini use SODIMM or regular-sized DIMM's? Some pictures show full-size DIMM's but Crucial website pulls up DDR2-667 SODIMM's.

 

[aphex]

Originally posted by: Parasitic
Ok, the information I'm getting off the internet is conflicting - does the Mini use SODIMM or regular-sized DIMM's? Some pictures show full-size DIMM's but Crucial website pulls up DDR2-667 SODIMM's.

The intel Mini uses SODIMM (notebook ram) while the older G4 used desktop ram.

 

[aphex]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820134555

 

[randomlinh]

max out the mini's ram and call it a day

 

[bearxor]

OS X is very good about RAM. We have quite a few G3 iMac's that are 333mhz that we run 10.4 on here with 256MB of RAM. We've thrown 10.5 on some 1.25ghz G4's with 512MB and it's run fine for normal useage.

Is this a web/email/office machine? If so, you'll probably be fine with 512MB of RAM. Startup time may be a little slow but once it's up it won't be that bad.

Having said that, RAM is awfully cheap these days...

Do you have another Mac? Like a new iMac or MacBook/MacBook Pro? If so, maybe you might consider maxing out your everyday work machine and then giving that RAM to the Mini. Like if you have a MacBook with 1GB of RAM, order 2 or 4 for it (depending on your MacBook revision) and then give the Mini the 2 512's from your MacBook.

Whatever you do, keep in mind that the Mini will come with 2x256, so plan accordingly.

 

[Injury]

Originally posted by: randomlinh
max out the mini's ram and call it a day

:thumbsup:

When I had my mini the big mistake I made is thinking it'd be hunky-dorey on 1GB RAM.

OSX itself is fine on that amount, but if you want to see the potential of a mac then there is no reason to hold it back.

The question isn't whether it's enough for the mac... it certainly is... the question is what you plan on doing with it once you have it.