Tuesday, February 14, 2006
Mini Me
A month after Apple announced its Intel iMacs, I bought a new Mac. A refurbished Mac Mini, to be exact.
I didn't intentionally take step backward just as the rest of the Mac world stepped forward. But it was a question of timing and budget. I needed a new machine now, but didn't have much cash. And I already had a perfectly good Sony monitor, Apple keyboard, and Logitech mouse. Sure, an Intel or G5 imac would be a big bump in horsepower, but the Mini actually provides a sizeable jump for me: my old iBook has a G3 processor at 600 megahertz, 384 MB of RAM, and a 14 gigabyte hard drive. The Mini has a G4 at 1.42 megahertz, 500 MB of RAM, and an 80 gig disk. (I have a one-gig memory chip waiting to go into it, once I'm confident everything's working.)
Setup of the Mini was a breeze, using the Setup Assistant. I took the preliminary step of duping the iBook's disk onto an external firewire drive, and doing the migration from that disk. (Thanks for the advice, Kirk.) I learned, among other things, that I had 23,929 email messages in my various folders.
Next for the iBook (when work slows down) comes a complete reconditioning. I'm going to replace the HD with a larger disk, add RAM, and put in a new battery. I might even try to run Tiger on it. It might seem strange to do all those things after I've taken the machine out of production. It is. But the ol' 'book will get plenty of use in the coming months. It may even get a working vacation in France.
I didn't intentionally take step backward just as the rest of the Mac world stepped forward. But it was a question of timing and budget. I needed a new machine now, but didn't have much cash. And I already had a perfectly good Sony monitor, Apple keyboard, and Logitech mouse. Sure, an Intel or G5 imac would be a big bump in horsepower, but the Mini actually provides a sizeable jump for me: my old iBook has a G3 processor at 600 megahertz, 384 MB of RAM, and a 14 gigabyte hard drive. The Mini has a G4 at 1.42 megahertz, 500 MB of RAM, and an 80 gig disk. (I have a one-gig memory chip waiting to go into it, once I'm confident everything's working.)
Setup of the Mini was a breeze, using the Setup Assistant. I took the preliminary step of duping the iBook's disk onto an external firewire drive, and doing the migration from that disk. (Thanks for the advice, Kirk.) I learned, among other things, that I had 23,929 email messages in my various folders.
Next for the iBook (when work slows down) comes a complete reconditioning. I'm going to replace the HD with a larger disk, add RAM, and put in a new battery. I might even try to run Tiger on it. It might seem strange to do all those things after I've taken the machine out of production. It is. But the ol' 'book will get plenty of use in the coming months. It may even get a working vacation in France.
