Comments on: Gear Deal: ‘Hackintosh Ready’ Dell Mini 9 Close-out Sale!

By: Michael Anderson

Michael Anderson — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 19:21:36 +0000

Very good point rwaldo – another article looks at overall pricing trends:

“Windows notebook ASP was $520, or $569 when removing all those nasty, margin-sucking netbooks”

These things are making it harder for consumers to differentiate – for general use most folks want a bigger screen than 9-10″, I know I do! But I absolutely love my Lenovo s10 for what it does!

By: rwaldo

rwaldo — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 19:02:10 +0000

CNet News has this “Starting July 26 (this coming Sunday), Wal-Mart will begin selling a $298 Compaq Presario notebook (CQ60-419WM) with the following specifications: a 15.6-inch display, 3GB of memory, a 160GB hard-disk drive, a CD-DVD drive, and Windows Vista pre-loaded. The laptop will use a 2.10 GHz AMD Sempron SI-42 processor and Nvidia GeForce 8200M graphics.”
That is a considerably better device than the mini at practically the same price. Unless someone MUST have SMALL, the $199 + $75 + $18 price of the mini is not a good deal at all.

By: Carly Z

Carly Z — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 16:31:28 +0000

If you buy a 3rd party SSD, check out this: http://www.mydellmini.com/forum/mac-os-x-guides/6452-how-load-os-x-directly-onto-runcore-mac.html

Looks pretty simple!

By: Jessica Fritsche

Jessica Fritsche — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 16:05:00 +0000

That stinks, Drew…and is not my experience with the Mini 9 at all! I have the Dell stock SSD, not a RunCore, and I can do everything but edit video on mine. I use Photoshop, Flash, watch videos, do tons of writing…it is my go-to machine 95% of the time!

By: Drew Guttadore

Drew Guttadore — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 16:01:14 +0000

Hmm.. Ready to throw my Mini 9 into the fire! My Runcore 64g SSD died on me this week on an international trip! Mini 9 ok for doing light stuff, but carrying a Mac Air now..

By: Michael Anderson

Michael Anderson — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 15:00:08 +0000

Another thing that deserves mention – this comes with Ubuntu Linux, if you want to install OS X you will need to buy a copy from someplace like NewEgg or Amazon.

By: Jessica Fritsche

Jessica Fritsche — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 14:55:12 +0000

Yeah, I would definitely recommend either the 16GB from Dell or an aftermarket SSD from Runcore if you are interested in Hackintoshing a Mini 9. 4GB is obviously out, and 8GB will be too small to truly fit the OS+programs comfortably (though it CAN be done! It’s just a hassle).

My 2GB upgrade was just a 2GB stick I ordered from NewEgg for about $18…totally worth the money to go from 512MB (which was the stock RAM when I ordered) to 2GB! The great thing about the Mini 9 is that it is very easily upgraded–all components such as RAM, SSD drive, Wifi card, etc. are accessible by unscrewing the bottom panel. I wish they’d kept that going with the Mini 10/10v. The RAM is apparently soldered in to the Mini 10! Ugh.

By: Michael Anderson

Michael Anderson — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 14:37:53 +0000

So with the SSD updates I added you are getting to ~$275. Also, note that Jessica did her article with a 2GB RAM upgrade (not available through Dell) and a 32GB SSD (also no longer available through Dell). Anyone who has run OS X on 1GB will tell you … hit your favorite memory retailer to get the added 1GB stick!