Hi Greg (et al.), On 04/08/2011, at 11:56 AM, Gregg Dinse wrote:
> I am planning to get one of the new mac minis. It comes with 2-GB of RAM, in > the form of a pair of 1-GB chips. Are both of these user-replaceable and > easy to access in the new minis? I believe so. > Is there any disadvantage or loss of performance if the two memory chips are > not identical? No, I don't believe there is any disadvantage or loss of performance. > If not, I might just replace one with a 4-GB chip. Otherwise, I guess I > could just replace both. 2 x 2GB is probably cheaper but in the long run 1 extra 4GB will obviously be better. > If the mini is used mainly as a media player, do I gain anything by upgrading > the 2-GB of RAM? If not, then maybe I will just stick with 2-GB for a while. Try it with 2GB and see ... Usually the more memory the better BUT if you are only running one app (I think unlikely really ;-) then you may be ok. > Do these minis work just fine in a headless configuration? Headless configuration is not very good as a media player ;-) if you mean media server then it should be ok headless. > I assume I can access it wirelessly from my Mac Pro. Sure. > As a media center, do I just need the power cord, an HDMI cable to the HDTV, > and an Apple remote? Yes, but I think a wireless keyboard and mouse or trackpad would be very useful (especially when you are not using it as a media center ;-) > I think I have an old style Apple remote (from my 2009 MacBook Pro) around > here somewhere. Is that all I need to control the mini for playing videos? Yes, see above. If you are only interested in playing videos (and have another Mac permanently in the household) why not just get an AppleTV or similar? > I think I heard that Front Row (which I have never used) is no longer > included (in Lion). Can I simply use the Snow Leopard version? Yes, no longer included but there are instructions on how to install SL version on Lion. Of course, there is no guarantee that will keep working or work 100% (e.g. starting up with remote). There are commercial and open source alternatives. Hope that helps. Cheers, Ashley. _______________________________________________ MacOSX-talk mailing list MacOSX-talk@omnigroup.com http://www.omnigroup.com/mailman/listinfo/macosx-talk
