Forums | MacLife

My Mac Mini Arrived today ($599 model) I immediately upgraded the Hard Drive myself to 320GB 7200RPM 16MB cache drive from Seagate. I should have a 4GB RAM upgrade arrive tomorrow.  We will see, I have not been able to use it yet as I have been waiting for it to install/transfer....

personified8 wrote:

how easy is it to upgrade this time as opposed to originallY?

also grats!

This Mini is similar to the original to upgrade/take apart, they could have made it so much easier for the consumer to upgrade (I am an Apple trained tech) but they decided to go the extra step to make it more difficult, I think to discourage people from upgrading it themselves. They probably feel that if they sell a computer for so cheap (in Apple terms) that they can make a bit of extra money charging for custom configs and much too expensive upgrades.

macrule413 wrote:

personified8 wrote:

how easy is it to upgrade this time as opposed to originallY?

also grats!

This Mini is similar to the original to upgrade/take apart, they could have made it so much easier for the consumer to upgrade (I am an Apple trained tech) but they decided to go the extra step to make it more difficult, I think to discourage people from upgrading it themselves. They probably feel that if they sell a computer for so cheap (in Apple terms) that they can make a bit of extra money charging for custom configs and much too expensive upgrades.

It sux Apple sux like this. Very discouraging really.

I'm definitely going to wait on this update. At least until SL. Then maybe but maybe not even. I mean the mini - SL is in.

ScifiterX wrote:

That said, I'm not a trained tech myself but I maxed out the ram on two so far no problem (sis's G4 1.25 & my C2D 1.83) and am quite willing to upgrade the drives in both units. Then again the Power Macintosh 4400/200 brain was also a royal PITA SOB to open up.

In the 2009 Mini, you have to remove the central drive assembly to get the the ram which is placed completely underneath it (lying flat and stacked like the PowerBook G4 Aluminum, etc.).  To upgrade the hard drive you need to remove the entire drive assembly, the optical drive, SATA reiser card, airport/bluetooth cables and antennas (3) and 4 screws holding in the hard drive. They could have made it easier but they decided to make it harder instead.

Kool-Aid Guzzler wrote:

macrule413 wrote:

ScifiterX wrote:

That said, I'm not a trained tech myself but I maxed out the ram on two so far no problem (sis's G4 1.25 & my C2D 1.83) and am quite willing to upgrade the drives in both units. Then again the Power Macintosh 4400/200 brain was also a royal PITA SOB to open up.

In the 2009 Mini, you have to remove the central drive assembly to get the the ram which is placed completely underneath it (lying flat and stacked like the PowerBook G4 Aluminum, etc.).  To upgrade the hard drive you need to remove the entire drive assembly, the optical drive, SATA reiser card, airport/bluetooth cables and antennas (3) and 4 screws holding in the hard drive. They could have made it easier but they decided to make it harder instead.

So you expect Apple to make it easy for people to upgrade and tinker with their hardware??



You don't know Apple very well.

Actual yes, with the super easy RAM and Hard Drive upgrades in their MacBooks, I would have at-least thought they would have made it just as "easy" not harder. Its obvious they want to make as much money with the Mini by charging their high upgrade prices when you buy a new one. Apple has really failed in the affordable PC market, where they could easily beat out many other makers by just making it easy to upgrade (external Ram upgrade slot etc.) Really why would you sell a computer with just 1GB ram these days? They know you need more even for the most basic needs, and they expect EVERY customer to upgrade/custom order. At the base $599 Apple is making a good profit with their 1GB Ram/120GB Hard drive config since these must cost them just DOLLARS each.

macrule413 wrote:

In the 2009 Mini, you have to remove the central drive assembly to get the the ram which is placed completely underneath it (lying flat and stacked like the PowerBook G4 Aluminum, etc.).  To upgrade the hard drive you need to remove the entire drive assembly, the optical drive, SATA reiser card, airport/bluetooth cables and antennas (3) and 4 screws holding in the hard drive. They could have made it easier but they decided to make it harder instead.

Reminds me of the nightmare I had upgrading the RAM and HD in my original BondiBlue iMac 233 over 10 years ago. THAT was a bastard of a machine to take apart and reassemble.

avkills wrote:

I had to replace the hard drive in my Mom's iMac G5.  It was easy unless you have a serious tool handicap.  I've taken my Blue & White G3 completely apart before; and modified the case so I could put a bigger hard drive into the corner at one point.

The current towers are easy as pie to add stuff in.



-mark

It's weird how Apple expect to be able to charge more for something that people value.  What are they thinking??

macrule413 wrote:

ScifiterX wrote:

That said, I'm not a trained tech myself but I maxed out the ram on two so far no problem (sis's G4 1.25 & my C2D 1.83) and am quite willing to upgrade the drives in both units. Then again the Power Macintosh 4400/200 brain was also a royal PITA SOB to open up.

In the 2009 Mini, you have to remove the central drive assembly to get the the ram which is placed completely underneath it (lying flat and stacked like the PowerBook G4 Aluminum, etc.).  To upgrade the hard drive you need to remove the entire drive assembly, the optical drive, SATA reiser card, airport/bluetooth cables and antennas (3) and 4 screws holding in the hard drive. They could have made it easier but they decided to make it harder instead.

Which means it is set up the same way as any other Intel Mini. You will note above that I stated I have an Intel Mini and I have worked on it (and more importantly I am comfortable doing so again).