I finally broke down and ordered a one-gigabyte RAM module for my Mac mini. Half a gig may have been fine for running Panther, but under Tiger, especially with a few Dashboard widgets in the background, by poor little baby coughed and wheezed, trying to keep up.
Popping off the case to get at the innards was probably more bothersome than it should have been, and since the Mac mini only has one slot, I now have a 512 MB module that I might be able to get $30 for on eBay.
A few months ago I blogged about how to open up the Mac mini with a putty knife. However, when presented with the reality of shoving sharp metal up inside my shiny baby’s backside, I balked. A Google search revealed a removal method that used strands of network cable; I tried this method and failed (my guess is because I used RJ-11 instead of RJ-45 cable).
Therefore, it was back to the putty knife method. Apple recommends that one uses a 38 mm putty knife. I only had access to a 50 mm one. This one seemed to do the trick, though, albeit with a little fingernail prying.
So, is my lilliputian Mac any zippier with the memory boost? Damn straight it is. Ever since I installed Tiger, switching between open applications was downright lethargic, and surfing with Safari was excruciatingly sluggish. Now the little guy is faster than he ever was.
It ran slow doing what sorts of applications? I’m thinking of getting a Mac mini.