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roders · Jul 5, 2008, 08:51 AM

I'm wondering wether to make the jump from a 1.66 Core Duo to a 2.0 Core2Duo. I can get the C2D 2.0 MM as a refurb with £80 of the standard price (with full one year warranty).
My 1.66 CD MM has an upgraded 7200rpm 100GB HD and 2GB of ram, and is the second version of the 1.66C2D that was available (with combo drive) not sure there's enough in ti performance wise to make the jump. My internal upgraded HD is fairly full, BUT I do have an external drive with a bit of space still free. The main thing that seems to slow my Mini down is disk speed/access (even with the upgraded HD) and occasional GUI features, but all in it's very good considering the CPU speed. I know the C2D has twice the level 2 Cache and SSE3, but not sure this is really worth it (maybe when snow Leopard pounces?), especially if/(when?) the MacMini gets revved soon.

Cold Warrior · Jul 5, 2008, 09:03 AM

What do you use it for now?

imitchellg5 · Jul 5, 2008, 10:15 AM

You'd probably notice a small speed bump just in everyday stuff, even more with multitasking, as long as the 2.0 GHz has the same upgrades that the 1.66 GHz has.

Simon · Jul 5, 2008, 10:21 AM

The way I see it you have two options: Get a 2.0 GHz C2D refurb or stick with what you have and upgrade parts of it. Your CD mini is limited to 2 GB RAM which could be a show-stopper. OTOH even the latest mini is limited to 3 GB so depending on what you do the mini is the wrong Mac anyway. If you decide to stick with your old mini you could get a faster disk: 320 GB 7200 rpm or 500 GB 5400 rpm (this will be faster than any other 2.5" disk you can buy, but it comes at a cost). You can also upgrade the CPU. Just make sure it's a socket M C2D and not socket P (for example the T7600 at 2.33 GHz).

The cost of the new CPU and HDD will be a lot compared to the refurb that comes with a full warranty. OTOH depending on what CPU and HDD you buy, performance will be better than what even a brand new mini (2 GHz C2D, 120 GB HDD) offers right now.

But, as Cold Warrior already pointed out, what you should buy really depends a lot on what you plan to do with your Mac.