“The new Apple Mac mini is one terrific entry-level consumer Mac and we have a base 1.25GHz model that came with 256MB RAM and a 4200RPM 40GB hard drive for $499,” Bill Fox reports for Macs Only! “According to our previous tests, the base 256MB of RAM is perfectly adequate for usual computer use that most price-concious consumers would engage in. It is not necessary to have more RAM unless one is working with large images, large sets of images or large files where lots of disk swapping happens. But what about the hard drive?”
“The Mac mini is significantly faster with the 7200RPM Hitachi 60GB drive (model 7K60). It will make many operations snappier, more so than by adding additional RAM for most people. However, the cost of the 60GB Hitachi drive with shipping is nearly $200 so we can’t really recommend it to the price-conscious consumer, the Mac mini’s target market,” Fox reports.
Full article with benchmark results here.