New Intel Mac mini: Is 1G Ram Enough?

Hello everyone.
I intend to get my dad and my sis (upgrade from her old iMac G3) each a new Intel Mac mini Core Solo.
I understand that the new Intel Mac mini shares the ram memory between the processor and the "in-built" graphics... also understand from an Apple KB docu that it is best to pair the same ram to maximise efficiency or something...
My dad will be mainly in iPhoto, organising his digital photos, burning CDs and touching up a bit here and there; And both of them will be using mainly to surf, email, chat, maybe a bit of word processing etc - I would say "light to moderate work"
So is 1Gb of Ram enough for the processor and the graphics? I would probably try to max out as big a hard disk for them... and a 19" monitor...
Thanks and cheers

If he can afford it, I would recommend putting 2-1G modules in there. OS X loves RAM and will call for even more running apps under Rosetta.
How To Determine Your Memory Needs >>
-Bmer
Mac Owners Support Group
Join Us @ MacOSG.com
 An Apple User Group 
ITMS: MacOSG Podcast >>
Disclaimer required by Apple Discussions Terms of Use: MacOSG - a non-profit Apple User Group - may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my recommendation or link.

Similar Messages

Need Advice: New Intel Mac Mini Still In The Box

Hi!
Okay.. I know... I have several posts going here as I have several issues I am trying to solve rather simultaneously. Thanks for being patient with me.
I have my old 1.25 Ghz PowerPC Mac Mini running 10.4.11 and all was well and happy. Then Security Update 2007-009 happened and all went to ....well... you know and, yes, it was bad! Went to Apple, got it running of sorts as they re-installed the OS, but they used an old version of OS X. (10.4.7. Can you believe that?) This caused other problems. It continues to have all sorts of difficulties, as I have had to get applications to re-recognize that the computer is back up to 10.4.11. Currently, I am struggling with trying to get iTunes to access it's music folders on the external hard drives. Realized that I hadn't even gotten around to figuring out whether or not some of my other applications work, like some of the games and third party, etc.
The thing is I got a new Intel Mac Mini for Christmas and it's still in the box because as I suspected I need to get my old mac perfect again before I can even think about migrating stuff over to the new Mac. But.. here's the thing... it's starting to look pretty much like 2008 will come and go before I can get the old Mac ready enough to take the new Mac out of the box. This really is rather silly!
Now... I can't get the old Mac to see the music and it made me think. I have all of my iTunes music and iPhoto backed up on an external hard drive (I used Apple's "Back-up" software to do it) and in addition to this two complete copies of the iTunes music and iPhoto photos albums on two separate external hard drives. Should I just forget using migration assistant? Can I get my music and my photo albums into the new mac directly from the external hard drives?
Or...can I use "back up" to restore the music and photos into the new Mac?
I am starting to think that the best way to get my new Mac running is not risk it by attaching it to my old Mac. What do you think?
Thank you so much for any advice or experiences you can give. -Charlotte

I know that I am vacillating back and forth as to what to do. Thanks so much for being patient with me. All of your advice is really appreciated and I am at least closing in on deciding on my strategy. Probably will follow your first response advice, especially considering that some of the third party apps may not have updates to handle Leopard quite yet. Anyway... it's a good strategy since everything is on the externals anyway.
You can say that fine.
Ha ha ha.... yes, I've been messing around with computers since my parents bought our first Apple computer back in 1979. Just like you, I've never had a serious problem with any of the computers and we've had them all, running all sorts of things from the Original Apple and Apple IIc (which my parents still have and it still runs!) to the Commodore and all the Windows permeations and then on to the Macs running Jaguar, Panther and Tiger, probably because we've always been careful with the machines and what we install in them and how we update them. I have always kept my computers on UPS' and un-plug them when storms brew outside. As it is I am still using my eight year old Windows 98 computer, (for games mostly) and it still runs quicker than most peoples windows pcs and it's only a 740 Megahertz.
I haven't had to re-install anything, especially on this lovely little Mac Mini until now and wouldn't have in this situation, had I known more. I had taken the little Mac Mini in for a Procare "Tune-Up," only four days before the big up-date disaster. Not sure what they did to my mac in the tune-up but the guy gave me back the machine assuring me that the computer was perfect with no problems in answer to my asking "were they sure?" Even after the Genius Bar techs at the Apple Store re-installed the OS to fix the big problems it seems that no one ever thought to run verify disk. Had the Genius Bar techs at the time of the tune-up done this, or at least told me to do this, the last security update would not have wrecked so much havoc. It was only after I got the machine back from Apple that second time that I found that the directory had been corrupted when I ran disk verify. Actually it is amazing that I have had this little Mac Mini for so long and so not have had any problems on it that I would be able to go so long without having to know this really pretty important aspect of keeping one's mac in good running shape. I had been running maintenance scripts and permissions verify and repair and thought that was all there was to it. Silly! You know... that really is a testimony of how nice these little machines are.
Anyway... experience is a good teacher and I have learned so much it's actually been great! This stuff is pretty interesting.
Now... on to Leopard!
Thanks so much and you have a great New Year! -Charlotte

New Intel Mac Mini Start-up Problems

I've recently purchased a new Intel Mac Mini (my first Mac after switching from a PC). Several times (probably once a day), the mac mini won't start-up.
I've noticed it happens after I've used iPhoto or iDVD. The mini becomes busy and performance seems to slow. After the software has finished its task, I can exit the application fine and shut down the mini.
When I then go to boot the mini, the little blue light comes up, but nothing else happens. It's almost as though it's in sleep mode (which it isn't). I've tried different ways to wake it using the keyboard, mouse and start button, but nothing.
The Mac Mini will only start-up again if it is unplugged from the mains and left for several minutes.
Has anyone else had this problem? Is there something I'm doing wrong that my lack of Mac knowledge may not be aware of?
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks

I have been frustrated by the same issue. My (admittedly non-professional) diagnosis is that the problem is related to heat build up. I am able to boot normally only after forcing a hard shut down and waiting for "a while" (5 minutes is not enough, 30 minutes does the trick). Thus my hypothesis that an appropriate cooling down period is needed.
Any similar thoughts? I'm calling Apple today...

Using External Boot Drive with New Intel Mac Mini

I have a 1st Gen MacMini and use an external 7200 RPM Lacie drive as the system boot drive along with all the applications.
If I were to purchase a new Intel Mac Mini, is it possible to use the current external drive as the system drive or is there some conversion steps that would be necessary ?
Thank you.

You can use the hardware, but will have to repartition and reinstall the OS from the disk shipped with the new Mac Mini.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303220
If you create a disk image of the Lacie on your Mini, you can later use setup assistant to restore users and applications from that image.

2.0 Ghz processor in a new Intel Mac Mini

I have seen several people buying the Intel T2500 processor online and installing it in their Intel Mac Mini. I am seriously considering doing this myself. Other than voiding the warranty, is there any other things I need to worry about?

The MacMini processor can be upgraded howerver like you said this voids your warrenty. I don't have the link on my (lost it actually) that one guy upgraded his Mini with photos and a small movie.
The guy stated the machine worked great and the fan on the Mni was able to take the heat from the faster CPU.
But this is not for the light at heart, it is easy to break something when trying to pop the Mini open and/or when you are moving the compoints around to get to the CPU (This is no differnt than if you wanted to upgrade the RAM or Hard drive.).
I hope this helps. Myself is planning to wait until the processors come down in price lowers (when my warrenty expires). Then I am bumping the CPU up.
-Locutus

What 32inch plus tv to buy in the UK to use with new intel Mac mini

As the title - What 32inch plus tv to buy in the UK to use with 1.83 intel Mac mini. It does not have to have freeview as I will be using tubestick. I do want to use the hdmi connection. Who's got a great setup, with no issues - model numbers appreciated £1200 ish budget

So everything is working normal except for screen saver? Hmm. That's odd. Perhaps your settings are such that shortly after the screen saver kicks in the mini is also set to go to sleep. That would cause the screen to lose sync and give the "no signal" message. Check your Energy Saver against the Screen Saver settings and adjust the sleep interval if need be.
FYI, running a screen saver on an LCD TV is not a good idea long term. An LCD uses a lamp as a backlight, and the lamp has a finite lifetime. Consuming it's limited hours of life by running a screen saver all the time (like overnight, everynight) will shorten considerably the service life of your TV.

Can the new Intel Mac Mini really run Win XP?

I have had my Mac Mini for almost two years now and i love it, i love it because i switched from Windows, but now i kind of miss Windows so i was going to buy a Windows PC but then i read somewhere that the new 1.66GHz Intel Core Duo Mac Mini can run Windows XP, so i have few questions if that is true...
1. How well will Win XP run on the new 1.66 GHz Mini with 1 Gig of RAM?
2. Which version of XP do i need to buy and where is the best place to buy it?
3. I know this might be a dumb question since Windows Vista is not out yet but do you think i will be able to use Vista as well?
Vista requires 512 of RAM for the basics and 1 Gig of RAM for max performance.
That's all i have for now, thanks in advance.
Any help and advice would be greatly appreciated!
Mac Mini 1.42 GHz G4 Mac OS X (10.3.9) It's small...?

1) If ou run it with Boot Camp (i.e. in a dual-boot environment, rather than through virtualization), it will run as well as on a PC with 1 GB of RAM, a 1.66 Ghz Core Duo processor and GMA 950 integrated graphics (quite well, but unsuitable for recent 3D games).
2) You need a standalone (non-OEM) version of Windows XP Home or Pro with SP2 included, any retail version of Windows XP should do. There are also workarounds that allow you to install other versions of Windows (like Windows XP Media Center).
3) The Mini should be able to run Vista (some people have already installed Beta versions of Vista on Intel Minis) but how well, I don't know.
BTW Boot Camp is actually Beta software, and its license ends in February 2007 (or earlier if Leopard is released before then).
If you need more information, you can also ask in the Boot Camp forum.

Setup Multi-users on new Intel Mac Mini

Hello all
I am an XP PC user investigating whether to purchase a new Intel based Dual core Mac Mini.
Can someone help with the following questions please.
1) I have a family using our current XP based PC and each has their own user login.
Can I setup multiple users on the Mac Mini so they would each have their own login ?
2) I would like my wife to have her own email account as well as me.
Can this also be setup on the new Mac Mini ?
Thanks in advance.
James

Hi Jamesatalveston,
To clear things up a little for you:
1) Yes you can setup individual logins - as many as you need in fact. Each seperate account has its own "directory" on the hard drive which is safe and secure to stop any prying eyes. You can also customize it just like you would Windows XP however there are tons of extra features to hand. You can set parental controls with the click of a button and you can even prevent the kids / teens from messing up the configurations by restricting what they can access through their user areas.
2) OS X Boasts Mail which is Apples tidier equivelant to Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express if you like. It can handle multiple accounts with different service providers just so long as you have the POP and SMTP addresses for your providers email server, and your email address and password to hand.
If you only have one email account between the two of you and you feel that you can work well with it, then you can effectively direct emails to one another by creating "Smart Mailboxes" which split any incoming emails to that one address, into criteria organised folders i.e. one with emails related to you, one with emails related to your wife.
Hope that I may have been of extra help
-Pos

Finance on a new Intel Mac mini

Hi,
My mac min has just died and i was wondering if i should get the new Intel 1, after just claiming on insurance for my powerbook it seems abit dodgy to claim again, how old in the UK do you have to be to take out finance, as a 15 year old, i havnt done bad with my apple products lol, as you can see below :-P
Let me know
thanks
Danny

Presuming you're a student I would suppose you can get something. I would consult the Apple UK educational store for any offers that they may have.

Do new Intel Mac minis support all Tiger Core technologies?

Do they support: core audio, core video, core image, etc
Thank you!

so, when the iLife '06 webpages say all this cool stuff you can do if your system supports core image/audio/video (for example, audio and video effects in iMovie), the Mac mini Intel can do these things?

New Intel Mac Mini - wireless mouse v slow

Hi all
I've just bought my first MAC, a nice core duo intel mini. Having used PCs for years it came as a nice suprise to boot up and configure everything in next to no time.
However.....
I'm using a apple wireless keyboard and mouse. The keyboard seems to be fine, but the mouse is very very slow and jerks around a lot. If I switch to a (dare I say it) Microsoft wireless USB mouse, it works fine, no speed loss at all.
I guess it's something to do with the bluetooth and airport clashing? Or maybe I just have a duff wireless mouse?
Any mac gurus who can help me out?
TIA
Tim

I'm using this in my living room, and when I'm on the couch about 10 feet away it's a lot like having an extremely dirty non-optical mouse in that, as you move the cursor, it's constantly getting "stuck" and doesn't move as far as you expect, in a random sort of way. In addition, the cursor's movement is a little behind the mouse's movement.
If I put the mouse next to the computer, the problem goes away.
This in addition to the Airport signal problems indicates that it's an RF problem - poor antenna, shielding due to the enclosure, interference due to the new circuitry - something like that. I'm using the new mini in the same location as the old one, and I'm using the mouse in the same location. The new one has problems and the old one doesn't.

Thinking about switching to Intel Mac Mini... questions for the cognoscenti

Greetings:
I've been checking out the new Intel Mac Minis and I was thinking of purchasing one to replace my AV computer (PC) in the living room, which the GF currently uses. She's a typical user: watches video files/DVDs, uses iTunes excessively , sends web email and surfs the Net.
I've fairly decided on an Intel Core Duo Mini. Since I know the basics about Mac, I had a few questions:
1. What's an appropriate amount of RAM for a non-power user? Would 1 GB be more than enough or overkill? I'm used to running 1GB in a Windows machine. Plus, I'm also used to popping in memory when I needed to upgrade, and I see that's not really an option on the Mini.
2. How would I integrate it into a Windows network? Would the Mini be able to share files with a Windows machine and vice versa?
3. Regarding network integration: how easily would the Mini integrate into an existing Linksys 802.11g home network?
Lastly, this isn't really an (easily) answerable question, but how easy do you think it would be for an average computer user to get up and running on a Mac after having used Windows machines all their life?
Thanks, I look forward to your responses.
-Craig
Homebuilt Windows XP Pro 2GB PC 3500 RAM, 500GB SATA RAID (2x250), ATI AIW 9700 Pro, Athlon XP3200

Hello, I can only really answer Q's 1 & 3 as I've only owned a mini for the past 24 hours.
I purchased the Single Core after taking advice of the Apple Store staff in Manchester, they were quite helpful. I only really produce music (have used Ableton, Acid Pro etc on PC for quite a while), surf the web, do my banking etc so was advised that the Single Core with 512mb would be sufficent. I work for an ISP and have 10 years plus knowledge of Windows but I was prepared to listen and learn having never used a mac before. From my own experience, I'm used to having to use a pc with minimum spec ie min 1.2GHz processor, 1gb ram in order to produce music without any pops or clicks (latency), though sound cards also play a part. I've also had to keep internet activity well away from any PC that I produce music on in that respect. Anyhow, I'm going off on a tangent here but I was playing around with garageband last night and I've never known music production to run so smoothy on 512mb RAM, never known it before so was extremely impressed and certain I made the right purchase opting for Solo Core. You may not actually NEED the full 1gb though this depends what you're doing. To answer your other question, my mac slotted straight into my home nertwork without making any additional configuration.
i.e how long does it take to get used to a mac, I've found there is a learning curve but it's not THAT difficult, it's just the odd thing such as no right click of the mouse that takes some getting used to.

Intel Mac mini: upgrading questions...

Hi, I'm going to buy the new intel mac mini but I'm a little afraid for the graphic card inside the tiny machine...
What about music recording? (GarageBand, Logic Express...)
What about games? (Doom3, The Sims...) It's better than the nVidia 5200 that was inside the first gen of iMacG5?
What about video editing? It's the Mac mini fast enaugh to perform simple video operations or I need a more powerful computer? Maybe the new iMac?... Please help me!

I can't tell you about games, though if you scan through these Discussion threads in the next week or so I'd bet you'll find plenty of references to game playing on the new mini as people buy them and try them out. At the present moment, having only been announced a couple of days ago, there aren't many of the systems in actual use yet, so there's not much information to go on.
But it has to be said that it has always been a mistake to assume the physical size of the system reflects anything of it's capabilities. The PPC mini that has just been discontinued and which was slower and more limited than the new system appears to be was perfectly capable of running such things as Garageband, and doing complex video editing projects, so there's absolutely no reason to assume the new mini won't be more capable. The fact that it has an integrated graphics processor that shares RAM with the CPU has got a whole lot of people in a tizzy, but despite the comments some are making about it, they don't have any first-hand knowledge (as yet) and thus have no clue how well or badly it performs.
I'd urge you to find one of these systems in a local Apple store or retailer and play with it for a bit - I would expect you to be pleasantly surprised, even shocked, at how well it behaves. If you can't get access to one, watch these Discussions and read what actual owners and users begin to report, not what 'experts' are thinking.

Intel Mac mini: Power LED Brightness

Hi,
I've discovered a quirky little 'feature' with my new Intel Mac mini. The brightness of the power LED varies with the time of day - late at night the LED is dimmer that first thing in the morning.
I've verified this by changing the clock time manually and sure enough as soon as I click save the brightness changes.
This didn't happen with my previous PowerPC mini. Anyone else noticed this with the new Intel minis?
Thanks,
Nina
Mac Mini Intel Core Duo 1.66GHz Mac OS X (10.4.5)

Thanks
I noticed it when the PowerPC and Intel minis were side by side one evening and my initial thought was that maybe it's just a duff LED. This morning it was back to full brightness and now tonight, it's dim again. So yeah, I just guessed that is was related to the time.
Nice article btw, highly amusing
Mac OS X (10.4.5)

Best app for QT on Intel Mac Mini kiosk?

Hi all:
I've sent variations of this message off to various folks and fora pertaining to Flash, Director, Livestage, etc., so I thought I'd ask here as well.
I'm working on a very high profile exhibit here in NYC, which is opening to the public on Sept. 11th (draw your own conclusions). It involves a number of standard definition (not HD) video-based kiosks.
These are running on bottom of the line off-the-shelf single-core Intel Mac Minis w/ 512MB RAM. No, we cannot change the platform. We have to make it work with what we have.
We built our prototype in Director. Unfortunately, using QT in Director projects on Intel-based Macs is a non-starter, because Director executables are not Universal Binary yet.
The app is very simple -- a black background that just waits to trigger the video on a mouse click and returns to the black background when the movie is done playing.
The key thing is we need to display the highest possible image quality. We had hoped to use H.264. We've also tried 3IVX and Motion JPEG B, all of which play beautifully in the QT Player but stutter noticeably once in Director. This turns out to be a known problem, and a Universal Binary version of Director isn't due until next year.
I've also tried making a QuickTime Media Link (QTL) file that allows us to "quit when done" so that we can use BuddyAPI to open the program with the QT Player and then drop back to the Director app when done.
That works great, except for the fact that as of OSX 10.3, you can't hide the menu of an app when switching to another app, which looks terrible. Arrgh.
Flash's Player v9 (which is Universal Binary) only runs in a Browser, not as a standalone. So unless there's a browser that will run fullscreen with no chrome, that's out for the foreseeable future as well.
So now I'm thinking about building the whole thing as a self-contained QT movie in Livestage.
Livestage only runs in Rosetta, so I don't know if the QT file I build run natively in the QT player, so that I can use h.264 or 3IVX or whatever without it stuttering. I'd be perfectly happy w/ 3IVX, by the way...
Any help or direction appreciated. We have to have this up and running on site by next Monday, the 14th.
best,
FBC

Right -- well, I'm not concerned with editing the video (I use FCP, too).
I completely understand the role of bitrate in making videos look good, and for the record, I've gotten decent looking videos from Motion JPEG B at the Medium (default) quality settings...
But that's not my question here. The problem is playing back any QT codec as an asset in a larger application (eg, Flash, Director, Livestage) running specifically on the Intel Mac Minis. At the root of the problem is lack of universal binary projectors.
At the moment, the best option I have so far is using SAFT to put Safari into Kiosk mode (no title bar, etc.) and using that to play back a Flash SWF file (which give me the needed interactivity) as the default home page.
We're also going to try to roll our own Cocoa app as a wrapper for a 3ivx file. That will almost certainly look better than even a very high bandwidth FLV/SWF.
Any other ideas appreciated...

New Intel Mac mini: Is 1G Ram Enough?

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for