Woohoo! 2GB RAM in my Mac for less than half the amount that Apple would have charged me (does anybody want to buy 2x256MB 667MHz DDR2 SODIMMs that have been used for just one month?).

Ordinarily, I’d say that upgrading the RAM in a PC is no big deal, but Mac Minis don’t have any screws to open the case; and unlike many notebook PCs, it not a case of popping open a small panel either.

Thankfully the instructional videos at the OtherWorldComputing Tech Center include a hardware upgrade tutorial for the Intel Mac Mini which showed exactly how to do it (thanks guys – if you sold memory in the UK I would have bought it from you).

So, armed with a Stanley DynaGrip 50mm filling knife that I picked from B&Q on the way home and an old plastic visitors pass (from Microsoft of all places!), I gained access to the inside of my Mac and swapped out the standard 256MB SODIMMs for two new 1GB modules from(which arrived in 24 hours with free shipping by Royal Mail Special Delivery – and there was 5% off the day I bought them, so they only came to £178.59 including VAT).

The operation wasn’t without it’s hiccups. First of all, I didn’t quite insert one of the memory modules correctly so when I booted the Mac it only saw 1GB of RAM. Then, when I reopened the computer to investigate, the knife slipped and I made a small scratch on the outside of the case (annoying, but too late to do anything about it now). I refitted the RAM, but dropped one of the screws inside the unit and the airport antenna came off whilst I was trying to locate the missing screw… that was a bit of a heart-stopper but it was easily reattached (once I worked out where to fix it). Finally, I forgot to reattach the small cable at the front of the motherboard so the fan ran continuously until I opened the Mac up for a third time and reattached the missing connector. Notwithstanding all of these errors, everything is working now and the extra memory should make everything a lot faster.

A few weeks back, I bought a Mac Mini. Because I wanted it shipped immediately (and because the upgrade prices sounded a bit steep), I stuck with the standard 80GB hard disk and 512MB of RAM and now I’m finding performance to be a little sluggish – I suspect that’s due to a lack of memory.

When I ordered the Mac, the cost of specifying 2x1GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM SODIMMs instead of 2x256MB was £210.01. Likewise, to take the SATA hard disk from 80GB to 120GB would cost £89.99. Those are (very) high prices for standard PC components but nothing compared to the quote I just had from the Apple Store for 2GB of RAM (with “free” installation) – over £420! Mac:Upgrades can do a similar deal (but not while I wait) for around £325 but when I look at the memory prices using the Crucial Memory Advisor Tool to I get two options that will work for me, each at a much lower price:

1. I could drop one of my 256MB SODIMMS and replace it with a 1GB module, giving me a total of 1.25GB for just £98.69.
2. Alternatively, I could take out all of the existing memory and add a 2GB kit (2x1GB of matched memory) for £186.81.

…so, I guess there will be bits of MacIntel all over my desk in a few days time…

Crucial recommend the matched pair option for reasons of performance (Apple say it allows memory interleaving), and if I’m going to open up my Mac (which looks to be a delicate operation) then I’d rather only do it once – that means option 2, which is only a few pounds less than the original upgrade would have been (although I will have 512MB of spare memory afterwards).

In all, for the sake of my warranty (and sanity), it looks as if the best option would have been to specify extra RAM at the time of purchase, but I guess if I do wreck the machine in the process of upgrading, the cost of replacing it is not much more than Apple would charge me for 2GB of RAM!

Rumour has it that the new Intel Core 2 Duo processors are socket compatible with my Core Duo (and quad core chips should be available by the end of the year) so a return to the operating table for a processor upgrade is a distinct possibility for the future.

Last week I wrote about the arrival of my new Mac Mini, along with claims that “[my] digital life starts here”. Thankfully, unlike a chunk of my computing resource, my physical life doesn’t rely on Apple Support.

I was experiencing problems maintaining a steady Ethernet connection, initially whilst downloading OS X updates from Apple and then whilst copying data from a Windows XP PC. After a random time the connection would drop, with receive errors shown in the OS X Network Utility. The only way to break this cycle was to restart the computer after which time the network was once again available.

I spent almost two hours on the phone to Apple support staff, who were generally helpful, but seemed to be relying on scripted support sequences and an internal knowledge base. It seemed that all Apple really wanted to do was rule out the Apple hardware and point the blame on something else on the network. Sure enough, I couldn’t replicate the problem on a direct crossover cable (100Mbps full duplex), or via a 10Mbps half duplex hub, 100Mbps full duplex switch – just via a 100Mbps half duplex hub but crucially, the other devices on the network were all able to communicate with each other via the same hub with no errors at all. Only the Mac had a problem.

I finally snapped and said I wanted to return my shiny aluminium paperweight when the support analyst suggested I checked the firewall settings on the PC from where I was trying to copy data (I pointed out that if there was a firewall issue then no data at all would be copied – not several hundred megabytes before crashing and in any case the problem existed downloading updates from Apple’s website too).

After being advised to take my Mac to a hardware specialist 30 miles away (to see if there were any problems communicating with another Mac), I decided to rebuild it from the operating system install disks. The 14 Mac updates that took so long to install before (now 13 as one was a permanent BIOS update) were applied with just one error. It seemed that the problem was with the operating system as installed in the factory (presumably not a DVD installation, but performed using disk duplication software). Unfortunately, although it seems to take a lot longer before crashing now, the problem is still there when I connect via the hub, so I’ve added a switch just for the Mac (everything else is as it was before).

One thing I should say is that the guys who responded to my call for help on the Apple discussion forums were really helpful (I guess switching from Windows to OS X is something which Mac users would like to encourage).

So, now I’m up and running and my digital life can start. Just as well, because my new Fujitsu-Siemens S20-1W monitor turned up yesterday – 20.1″ of widescreen vision, at a resolution of 1680×1050, in a brushed aluminium case (no plastic here) and almost £200 less expensive than the Apple equivalent (I got it from Dabs.com for £365).