[studentmacgeek]

Hi all, I'm new to the forums, a pretty experienced mac user.

Just thought that I'd comment on apple's new website design, which seems to need a bit of refining, some of the lines do not meet on the Leopard preview section, and the homepage does not fit on the display of a MacBook with out scrolling, also the .Mac login link is broken.

If you havn't payed a visit to the Apple website, go give it a look NOW!

Leopard looks really great, but I must confess that I made the stupid mistake of buying a core Solo 1.5GHz mini. I have only 512MB of ram, and am currently using it as a media server for Apple TV and bonjour.
I would like to make it my full time desktop computer, so I was wondering, would it be more beneficial to upgrade the processor to a Core2 or bump up the RAM to 1GB+ ?

Thanks

[peeb]

Without a doubt, more ram will help you. Open Activity Monitor and look at Page Outs after the machine has been running a while with some apps open. Post that number. The higher the number, the more you need more ram, but honestly, Tiger needs more than 512.

[dowNNshift]

Welcome to the boards!

I agree, the site does need some refining ...but overall I think it looks great (considering its the first major visual change in years).

Naw you didn't make a mistake -- you got an easily customizable machine there. The best part is that you'll not have wasted money upgrading from a perfectly good processor (like the Dual Core Yonahs 1.66 and 1.83).

I'd recommend familarizing yourself with the internals of your mini, a great place is iFixit. Doing a processor swap on an Intel mini requires you to take it completely apart. But, on the upside, you'd have to take it mostly apart just to upgrade the memory SO-DIMMs too.. Since RAM for the mini has really come down in price, I would recommend maxing it out at 2 GB.

Keep in mind that if you're going to upgrade the processor, stay within the thermo design -- meaning, don't shoehorn a small-block V8 into an engine bay designed for a 4-banger. The thermo spec for the mini is 28 to 34W, so staying within the spec I would recommend buying a Yonah 1.83 Core Duo or a Merom 2.0 Core 2 Duo from NewEgg.

Before you do anything, install the latest firmware and look up in the Apple Knowledge Base how to reset the SMC (System Management Controller) for your model of the Mini.

Again, welcome and good luck!

[mduell]

I'd definately upgrade the RAM (Tiger really needs 1GB to be reasonable) to 2GB. It's a cheap ($90), if not easy, upgrade.

There's no sense in putting in a Core Duo (Yonah) chip; the Core 2 Duo (Merom) chips are $5-10 cheaper at every clockrate. The best buys are the T5500 (1.66Ghz/2MB) chip ($206) or the T7200 (2.0Ghz/4MB) chip ($300). The former is fast enough for most things you'd want to do with a laptop hard drive, but the latter isn't a bad idea if your workflow is CPU bound.

[studentmacgeek]

Thanks guys,

I think I'll max out the RAM, and at the moment, my budget won't really stretch to doing a processor upgrade on-top of the ram.
I think I'll be pretty confident upgrading the RAM, I once upgraded the optical drive of a MacBook, so I'm used to taking apart computers, no-matter how shiny they are
Thanks.

[mavherzog]

I, too, own a core solo mini that I purchased for my kids. However, I have always maxed out the RAM in my mini's from the get go (so it has 2GB of ram). I DO plan on getting a 2.0Ghz C2D for it before Leopard gets installed.

[cherry su]

Web 2.0 FTW!

A 7200RPM hard drive also makes a difference, according to some user reports.

[imitchellg5]

A faster HD would be nice as well. But RAM would be most important.