Recommended specs for Mac OS X

Hi
As I am considering to buy my first Mac ever (a Mac Mini), I would like to know, what specs are recommended with the Mac OS X?
With Windows Vista you need at least 1 GB of RAM and it's best with 2 or 4 GB. What is the case with OS X?
Thanks
Zappel

Generally, any currently shipping Mac will exceed the minimum requirements for running the current version of OS X. Having said that, RAM is pretty cheap these days so if you buy a new Mini you might as well get it maxed out to 4 GB from the get-go, since it's not so easy to upgrade RAM in the Minis as with many other Mac models.

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Hello all,
I've posted this question a few times in the past and am still a bit unsure of what specs i should go with. With the student/teacher discount coming to an end soon, I thought I'd give it one more go. I am also curious how the new mac pro might affect my decision. I will not be needing a 12 core, but did this new product affect the specs for the lower models?
I am looking for a computer that will help me run my small business and keep my art portfolio organized. I'm willing to spend around $3000 and am also willing to use another source to buy less expensive parts to install myself.
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"My advice would be to buy the standard configuration 2.66GHz Quad Core (i.e. 3 x 1GB RAM, 640GB hard drive) from the Apple store, with the exception of the graphics card which you can buy as a CTO option for $200.00. It is well worth the upgrade from the GT120 - I know, because I upgraded myself last November after using a GT120 for 4 months.
With regard to the memory, if you can afford it now, buy 4 x 4GB from OWC now. If not, I would suggest that you buy 2 x 4GB now, and then add another 2 x 4GB in the future. 16GB of RAM is a much better option than 8GB for your requirements. You can sell the 3 x 1GB RAM to OWC in "part exchange", and there would be little difference in price for 2 x 4GB to the CTO option of 4 x 2GB.
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/Mac-Pro-Memory#1066-memory
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That advice looks pretty sound to me. What I would add is for internal drives you need one for storing your working files (better not to have those on your system drive but not really a big deal). And one for backup with Time Machine. What I also have is a separate external drive to clone my system so I have 2 backups.
And I have a partition on one of the internal drives that is used ONLY as a Photoshop scratch disk. This is by far the fastest solution unless you want to create a raid system. Never have your scratch disk on the same drive as your system drive, not even as a partition. You only need around 500 MB for this and it's best if that partition is dedicated only as a scratch disk.
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Other than that your biggest concern is ram. Get as much as you can afford because that will determine your speed more than anything else.
I was working on a 4 year old iMac, which is a pretty good machine, but the limited 3 gb ram was causing problems because I have Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign open all the time along with Mail, Chrome and a couple of others. When I got a Mac pro last year to replace it I got 8 gb of ram and the speed has been incredible.
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Edit: Forgot to mention that you shouldn't buy the hard drives or ram from Apple, they are way too expensive, get the minimum you can from Apple then get new stuff, OWC is a good source.
Message was edited by: Kevin Horn

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Message was edited by: bilbo_baggins

Recommended specs for Mac OS X

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