[Mike Pither]

Originally posted by discotronic:
Most cheap low-end PC's have a motherboard that costs about $25. Most likely less for a company like HP or Dell. You won't find firewire or Gigabit Ethernet on those.

My girlfriends Compaq/HP has 6 usb ports and 1 firewire and it's over a year old.

[discotronic]

Originally posted by Mike Pither:
My girlfriends Compaq/HP has 6 usb ports and 1 firewire and it's over a year old.

Your point? I know of a few people who have a PC that is a year or more old that have a couple firewire ports.

[pat++]

Originally posted by WizOSX:
Do we know yet, for sure, which processor is in the 1.25 and 1.42 ghz models? Are they using the 7448 yet?

Yes for sure. Mac mini has 512k L2 cache. 7448 has 1mb. So Mac mini is using 7447...

[pliny]

Originally posted by waffffffle:
So everyone says 2.5", but no one has shown a picture of the drive. I still find it hard to believe that Apple is charging so little for the larger drive in comparison with how they are pricing a similar hard drive upgrade in the iBook.

Me too; but MacWorld says that the mini drive is a standard 2.5" 4200 rpm notebook drive.

[waffffffle]

Originally posted by pliny:
Me too; but MacWorld says that the mini drive is a standard 2.5" 4200 rpm notebook drive.

But they didn't state their source other than "a few Apple officials." I can't tell you how many times I've been given incorrect information by the Apple shirts on the show flow. A lot of the people there to talk about the machines aren't even Apple employees. I've met plenty who work for resellers. Many who are Apple employees aren't even technical enough to answer your questions. I'll believe it when I see the drive myself.

[alfredo]

black clip in the front corner? Is that an empty slot? sure looks like a clip for memory. If it is, the memory would cover what looks like a speaker.

[macaddict0001]

Originally posted by alfredo:
black clip in the front corner? Is that an empty slot? sure looks like a clip for memory. If it is, the memory would cover what looks like a speaker.

That would be the clip holding the i gig stick in place.

[tooki]

Originally posted by waffffffle:
But they didn't state their source other than "a few Apple officials." I can't tell you how many times I've been given incorrect information by the Apple shirts on the show flow. A lot of the people there to talk about the machines aren't even Apple employees. I've met plenty who work for resellers. Many who are Apple employees aren't even technical enough to answer your questions. I'll believe it when I see the drive myself.

Every single source so far has confirmed it's a 2.5" drive, never mind that it's plainly visible from the photos: if a 3.5" drive were in there, it would be clearly visible in the photos, since it would have to be flush against one of the sides -- but it's not.

tooki

[alfredo]

Originally posted by macaddict0001:
That would be the clip holding the i gig stick in place.

I zoomed in on the picture, now it appears that they are part of the speaker assembly (or whatever that oval object is.

[Eug Wanker]

Yes, it's a 2.5" laptop drive. It's only 4200 rpm, but at least it has 8 MB cache (at least in the 80 GB 1.42 GHz model - and probably in the 40 GB too).

It is not the 7448. It is the 7447A. Too bad too, since the 7448 would be cooler and faster at the same clock speed.

[macaddict0001]

Originally posted by alfredo:
I zoomed in on the picture, now it appears that they are part of the speaker assembly (or whatever that oval object is.

It would seem that you are right.

[Simon]

Originally posted by macaddict0001:
It would seem that you are right.

Yes, because there is just one memory slot and that's where the 256 MB DIMM is installed.

[alfredo]

Originally posted by Simon:
Yes, because there is just one memory slot and that's where the 256 MB DIMM is installed.

I guess it would be best to upgrade to at least 512 at purchase.

[Eug Wanker]

Video: How to take apart a Mac mini.

It looks pretty easy.

[ashtoash]

It's 100% confirmed 2.5 inch laptop harddrive. 4800 rpms. Anyone who was at macworld could easily have looked at the system profiler ;-) (Which I DID)

Originally posted by :dragonflypro::
yeah, you may be right.

The Mm weighs 2.9lbs, so a 3.5 is not out of the question.

T

[Dog Like Nature]

Originally posted by ashtoash:
4800 rpms.

Are you sure?

[ichad]

Will this 1GB chip be ok in my new Mac mini?

DDR PC2700 � CL=2.5 � UNBUFFERED � NON-ECC � DDR333 � 2.5V � 128Meg x 64_

whats the benefit of this more expensive chip?
DDR PC2700 � CL=2.5 � REGISTERED � ECC � DDR333 � 2.5V � 128Meg x 72_

cheers,

[Simon]

From http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=300572

Mac mini: Memory Specifications and Upgrades

Mac mini computers have a single memory slot. This slot accepts a standard PC2700 or PC3200 184-pin DIMM with the following specifications:

� PC2700 or PC3200 Synchronous DRAM (SDRAM)
� 2.5 volt
� 8-byte
� non-parity
� 64-bit wide
� 184-pin module
� maximum of 16 memory devices on the DIMM
� unbuffered�do not use registered or buffered SDRAM
� maximum height of 50 mm

Using PC3200 memory does not provide additional speed benefits. Although the Mac mini supports PC3200 DIMMs, the PC3200 RAM will operate at PC2700 (333 MHz) speeds.

The Mac mini has a 256 MB base memory configuration, which can be expanded up to a maximum of 1 GB. The Mac mini can be configured to order (CTO) with 512 MB or 1 GB of SDRAM. Additional memory should be installed by an Apple Authorized Service Provider.

[Eug Wanker]

Originally posted by ashtoash:
It's 100% confirmed 2.5 inch laptop harddrive. 4800 rpms. Anyone who was at macworld could easily have looked at the system profiler ;-) (Which I DID)

4200 rpm, 2.5", 8 MB cache. But I already said that of course.

[dpc]

Does anyone know of a good source/best price for a 1GB stick of RAM for the mini? I'm thinking of upgrading the mini myself.

Thanks.

[Krusty]

Originally posted by dpc:
Does anyone know of a good source/best price for a 1GB stick of RAM for the mini? I'm thinking of upgrading the mini myself.

Thanks.

I can't say this for absolute fact, but every spec of the Mac Mini ram looks as though it is exactly the same as the ram in an eMac. If that is, in fact, the case .. you can get a gigabyte stick for as low as $165. I got one for my eMac last May for $189.00 (from a reputable vendor I'd heard of before).

[edit]
ramseeker shows a starting price of $166 ($172 w/shipping)
http://www.ramseeker.com/scripts/sor...&shipping=true

[WizOSX]

Originally posted by doc

of a good source/best price for a 1GB stick of RAM for the mini?

Crucial was selling them for $227 today. That's a very good price from one of the most reliable places.

[akuma-x]

Originally posted by dpc:
Does anyone know of a good source/best price for a 1GB stick of RAM for the mini? I'm thinking of upgrading the mini myself.

Thanks.

www.newegg.com

[jebjeb]

I have been wondering about the drive speed and how much that is going to affect performance. The tests here are very interesting
http://www.barefeats.com/mini01.html

Rather than installing a faster internal harddrive, I wonder if it would be quicker to have the boot OS on an external firewire 400 HDD. I have a 120GB and a 250GB LaCie harddrives.

Come to think of it, I can test myself. Only last week did I do a CarbonCopyClone of my internal drive to one of the externals. What tests (and with what tools) should I do to compare the internal 30GB, 3 year old drive (I assume its a 4200RPM unit) to the FW400 250GB 7200 8MB buffer hdd?

I guess i could do a time to boot comparision but whatelse? Better still, can anyone point me in the direction of a similar test that has already been done?

I am happy at least as looking at the above barefeats article, I have been doing a rough compare between the Cube 500 (I am making a rough guess this would be very similar in speed to my 550 tibook with 512 MB RAM - actually the Cube 500 is probably faster than my TiBook as it has more RAM and the desktop speed increases [?]) to the 1.42 Mac mini.

A 2 to 4 times improvement is unreal for me!! However, would the Mac mini be quicker still if I booted it off the external FW400 Harddrive?

[iPoder]

Originally posted by jebjeb:
I have been wondering about the drive speed and how much that is going to affect performance. The tests here are very interesting
http://www.barefeats.com/mini01.html

Mac Mini G4 1.4 GHz beats iMac G5 1.6 GHz on CPU test. Interesting!

If you can live with Radeon 9200 GPU and upgrade it with 7200 rpm hard drive and 1G RAM, Mini sounds like a good system to me.

[Leonard]

Originally posted by ichad:
Will this 1GB chip be ok in my new Mac mini?

DDR PC2700 � CL=2.5 � UNBUFFERED � NON-ECC � DDR333 � 2.5V � 128Meg x 64_

whats the benefit of this more expensive chip?
DDR PC2700 � CL=2.5 � REGISTERED � ECC � DDR333 � 2.5V � 128Meg x 72_

cheers,

You want the first one and NOT the second one. The second one is more expensive because it is ECC. It has Error Correcting Code to make sure the data is not correct. Only servers and high-end personal computers use ECC RAM.

[Xaositect]

Info on expansions available:

1. Memory. Unit uses (1) PC 2700 DIMM. No Onboard RAM. You can plug a PC3200 DIMM in, but it will be run at PC 2700 speeds.

2. Drive is 2.5" 4200-rpm. Yes, you can install a 5400-rpm drive for better performance.

3. If you do not have Bluetooth or Airport installed, any ASP can order the kit to install it. The kit for ASPs include both options only. Airport Extreme card is a normal card. Antenna(s) is(are) only installed if you CTO with a card or order the whole ASP kit. This means if you order only Bluetooth, you have to get the whole kit to add Airport (or vice-versa).

4. The modem is on a separate card. I expect to see replacements with other functionality from odd vendors eventually. These will, obviously, remove the modem (USB connection).

5. The Bluetooth and Airport card go into a riser card that plugs into what Apple calls a "mezzanine" slot. If like the slot in the original iMac, there may be expansions for it. How to get ports out will be interesting to see.

6. Internal speaker for system sounds. I wouldn't use it for iTunes (and I'm not an audiophile).

7. Apple recommends all installations be performed by an Apple or an ASP. They will not void your warranty for doing it yourself, but they will not cover any damage you do during your own upgrades (whether or not it's your fault is at their discretion).


All info gained from Mac Mini Service Manual (Downloadable .pdf for ASPs and ADC Select or Premium members).

[robby818]

How much does the bluetooth/airport card kit cost?

[dwood]

for the record the power supply for it is similar in size to the airport base station power supply, just a little bit bigger, and has the shiny shell like the mini does.