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NickK

NickK

NickK

Caporegime
Joined
13 Jan 2003
Posts
25,136
8GB for my mac mini :D

It's getting a pounding doing astronomy photography (think stacks of images being processed) so I decided it was about time to move up from 4GB.

The SSD option may have helped, but I want to be able to slow the system down so I can profile the slow portions of code. That way users will have a faster experience. I already have an SSD in my MBP.

Twiddles thumbs for the post..
 
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Well, lots of RAM is quite 'crucial' and I got mine for £87 just before prices went back up again. The 7% off code of CRUPROMO7 (valid till March '11) might be of a little help to anyone else ordering.
 
£87 for 2x4GB? :o

I paid that for 2x2GB at the beginning of the year. I found an SSD transformed my MBP, but still lacking somewhat so was going to look at 8GB again, but I've now bought a Sandybridge setup for my PC + an IDE HD for the MBP so I can put the SSD in my PC :D
 
Worst "I have money and spent it on upgrades for my Mac" thread :p

*Jealous mode engaged*
 
MikeHiow said:
£87 for 2x4GB? :o

I paid that for 2x2GB at the beginning of the year. I found an SSD transformed my MBP, but still lacking somewhat so was going to look at 8GB again, but I've now bought a Sandybridge setup for my PC + an IDE HD for the MBP so I can put the SSD in my PC :D
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Yep. I posted about it in another forum asking whether it was a good price since I don't usually check these things much and they were all like 'OMG BUY BUY BUY!!'... so I did!

They sold out really quickly, then came back in stock another £20 more, now they've gone down a bit again I think.
 
Well the installation has been delayed until I get to the hardware shop for a grouting/palette knife :D

Will let you know how I get on tonight :D
 
NickK said:
Well the installation has been delayed until I get to the hardware shop for a grouting/palette knife :D

Will let you know how I get on tonight :D
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lol who's not been reading the instructions! ;)

When I upgraded my HDD, Dad reassured me we had a putter knife, only for it to be covered in crap, ended up using a flexible knife around the edges, its not that hard to get in and flick. You'll need something else to catch the side while you try to flick out the other, I kept losing one side while opening the other!
 
Well after re-opening the case and reattaching the bluetooth arial it's now running with 8GB.

Activity monitor looks odd when all the memory being used is about 1am position on boot up lol. Also bootup seems instantaneous for some reason but that could be because the mini doesn't have as much crap on it as the MBP and the system doesn't page out anything.

So currently.. free memory 6.82GB :D
 
Somnambulist said:
Well, lots of RAM is quite 'crucial' and I got mine for £87 just before prices went back up again. The 7% off code of CRUPROMO7 (valid till March '11) might be of a little help to anyone else ordering.
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Is that genuine Apple RAM and not just ordinary PC RAM as there is a difference?
 
Yeah you just need to make sure you get the right RAM for the machine. If you go where I got mine (i.e. direct from the manufacturer) they have a checklisty thing where you choose the type of Mac and which model so it takes you to the appropriate memory.

In my case it was Mac Mini > mid 2010 model
 
NickK said:
8GB for my mac mini :D

It's getting a pounding doing astronomy photography (think stacks of images being processed) so I decided it was about time to move up from 4GB.

The SSD option may have helped, but I want to be able to slow the system down so I can profile the slow portions of code. That way users will have a faster experience. I already have an SSD in my MBP.

Twiddles thumbs for the post..
Click to expand...

Hi, tell me about what you are doing with astronomy photography please? I am interested in this, having been involved in amateur astronomy for 30 years. Start a new thread in "Life" perhaps?

Steve
 
I'm new to astronomy but not to this sort of app. I have just a little Vixen A80Mf with the idea of getting a VC200L sometime in 2011 with a CCD for imaging (my work contract ends April hence going for the cheaper option initially).

I'm writing two things:
* a deep space object imaging package -this I hope to sell for a modest amount.
* underpinning is an ASCOM-eqsue opensource framework for OSX called AOSX so application developers can write on top of AOSX and equipment manufacturers only need to write a simple AOSX plugin.

So think of starting a target DSO by creating a new project and then organising a imaging sequence (with all your historic imaging available). If it's one it knows then simply place the scope down and let the star mapper locate the sky position, allow it to align and then let the system goto and track whist performing the imaging sequence. It currently knows of 211 million stars.

Post imaging (or even during the imaging if your machine is powerful enough) the app will allow you to do image processing on the stack of imaging.
It's been designed with images of 150MByte in size and to run on a single machine (laptop) or to have a two machine system (one to control the equipment and the other in a warmer location via network todo the processing).
Although the big CCDs will only push out 22MB images, the idea is to ensure it's fast and so it will work on a laptop in the middle of a field.

The framework is underway and I have the basic components in place - I'm just writing the camera support for MS lifecam. The same system can be used for a starlight xpress CCD with just the change of AOSX plugin without needing to change the application.
 
AmTechFox said:
No difference? RAM is RAM whatever machine.
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Yes and No. Apple hardware can be notoriously picky about what RAM it likes and dislikes. Example, most of the RAM supplied to consumers is High Density. Apple hardware in general does not like High Density RAM and it is not unknown for it not to work at all in some Apple machines.
 
Just installed Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit into Parallels 6.. seems speedy with 4GB assigned to the VM (although the mini's graphics performance means aero is a tad slow). Stupid windows activation rather than OSX, means I've been trying to decide if I should have installed in on my old XP machine (XP4400, 2GB and a directx9.0 vid card) ... or the mini :D
 
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