Mac Mini Questions

[Jimathy]

I've just got new 26" Panasonic LCD TV and have been thinking of trading my iMac for a Mac Mini as I don't feel the need for 2 screens in my living room, before I break out the plastic there's a couple of things I really ought to know the answers to.

1. Are both sticks of RAM upgradable? I remember hearing something about 1 of the sticks of RAM being fixed so it wasn't upgradable. Is this still the case? I'd rather buy one with 2x512mb sticks now and upgrade to 2x1gb sticks later rather than pay Apples crazy RAM prices.

2. Would (in your view) the new TV be suitable as a monitor for basic surfing, email usage and viewing photo's of the family album? I plan on using a DVI to HDMI lead rather than the TV's VGA input.

3. How painful is it to upgrade the hard drive later on?

Cheers lads.

 

[bigredshark]

I believe they are, either way it shouldn't matter as you could just put in a 2GB stick and it'll recognise that as the maximum memory. Upgrading RAM (as i'm sure you know already) isn't a fun job.

I couldn't say to be honest about the screen, my macbook pro connects to my 32" samsung pretty well with VGA but doesn't look so hot with DVI-HDMI (to be fair I've spent no time trying to fix this, just used VGA instead as it was easier). My mac mini is connected to a 23" cinema display and it looks lovely...

Umm, I would say if you're prepared to upgrade the RAM then the extra steps in upgrading the hard drive aren't too scary...but it isn't for idiots and apple clearly didn't design the box to be upgradable...

other than that, I'd say do it, i partly use mine as a media center and it's great with frontrow. Also it's really quiet! I'm sitting here with my mini and macbook pro on, no music or anything and my typing is easily drowning out the noise made by both of them...