[Macworld]

Post your comments for Revisiting the Mac mini media center here

[tfrogh]

I have no desire to EVER upgrade the guts of a Mini again. Ughhh what a nightmare. RAM is tough, HD is a nightmare. It was worth it to me to pay Apple for the 4GB upgrade and their 320GB drive. I just wish they offered a 7200rpm drive option. Every bit of it is covered under warranty.
My old PowerMac 8500 left me with bleeding knuckles. The Mini left me cross-eyed.
tom

[Chris Breen]

I didn't find it to be all that much of a nightmare. Nightmare is iPod mini, domed iMac, original iBook. This is a little challenging but with patience and the right tools, just about anyone can do it.

[wdunn]

Isn't the stock HD 5400RPM? Still wish they had a 7200 option...

[Chris Breen]

wdunn said:

Isn't the stock HD 5400RPM?

You're correct. I transposed the numbers. Fixed. Thanks!

[wiggums]

I Don't think they even make 4500 rpm drives anymore. Mine came with a 5400 rpm. About thirty minutes is all it took for me to uprade the ram and harddrive.

[backtomacintosh]

Does an external HDD 'defeat the purpose' of a mini?
What's the point of a small, quiet inexpensive machine if you need an external HDD to get the storage capacity and performance that you desire?
Why this machine doesn't come with a 320gb HDD and 2 gbs of RAM standard is a complete mystery to me.

[wdunn]

Did you upgrade with a 7200rpm or 5400rpm HD? Do the notebook 7200rpm HD even work/work well in the Mini?

[Chris Breen]

backtomacintosh said:

Does an external HDD 'defeat the purpose' of a mini?

It depends on what you consider that purpose to be. One of the joys of these little suckers is that they're versatile. If I were setting it up for my child and running the basic stuff on it, then yes, its default configuration would be just fine. With more RAM but using the stock drive it could be a perfectly fine device for streaming the bulk of your media. If the purpose of the thing is a media server where you also store a lot of your media, that external hard drive is a necessity.

[papafrank]

Once you have it apart, a 7200 rpm drive is worth the extra effort. With current rebates, the Hitachi Travelstar 7k320 is a very good deal.

[eflaten]

any TV tuners recomended? I live in Norway and there is aerial digital transmission sending mpeg4. Here is one but how can it be connected and waht can be done with it. Thnks for any help :)

[eflaten]

sorry Forgot to pastein the URL for the tuner.
bakkenettet.moobi.com/index.php/Portal/section/1/gid/409/pid/437398/bid/101/action/1

[alexandrek]

upgrading a mac mini isn't hard. opening the case is the tricky part, IMHO. (the only mac i've never opened is the white/alu iMac…).
chris, you've talked about the hardware improvements of the 2009 mac mini, but these don't make it any more "family-friendly"! any tips on the interface/software side? i'm using plex…

[backtomacintosh]

CB wrote: "It depends on what you consider that purpose to be....."


Seems to me the purpose is a small form factor computer. You pay 'more' for 'less' spec wise compared to a traditional desktop pc.

So if you loose the small form factor, why are you paying more for 'less'?