[antar05]

Like probably quite a few people, I was absolutely shocked and appalled when Dell up-and-discontinued the Mini 9, as I'd been planning to get one for the express purpose of making it into a hackint0sh.

I'm a physics grad student and my primary reason for wanting the hackint0sh netbook (besides wanting a cool toy) is to take to conferences and use for presentations via Keynote. I'd also be doing pretty standard useage stuff, like VLC, Skype and Hulu. Eventually, I'm planning on buying an overpowered Linux workstation and using the Mini as a thin client for it, managing simulations from afar. Battery life is key for me.

So my question is this: based on what I plan on using this thing for,* would I be better off with a refurbed Mini 9 (of which dell.com still sells a few) or the 10v, which, as I understand it, is essentially a Mini 9 with a better keyboard and crappier monitor resolution?

Thanks in advance.

*I realize that, except for Keynote, I could do all of this perfectly well with the XP Minis, but a large part of this IS that I want a shiny mac toy.

[reflex]

A Mini 10v with the optional, big battery will have the best battery life.

[antar05]

Yeah, I really liked that you could upgrade that, and, were I to get the 10v, I definitely would.

[dante]

I don't have a mini9, but a couple of buddies at work do.

I went with the mini10v for a few reasons.

1) bigger keyboard. I've got big hands.
2) 2.5" HDD. Easy after-market upgrade to something like the OCZ Vertex SSD.
3) bigger screen. (although w/ lower resolution, it's also "smaller") When you put it beside a mini 9 displaying the same thing, it just seems bigger to me.

There are other benefits. According to zrtom, the I/O performance if the 10v is /much/ better than the 9. (9 sec boot w/SSD vs 45 sec on the mini 9).

I've debated ordering a mini10 HD screen, and installing it, which would solve the screen problems.

Hulu seems fine to me, but I haven't watched a ton of stuff. Do keep in mind that no atom based machine is going to be stellar decoding 1080p content. nVidia's new SOC (Tegra) appears to do quite well (GPU decode) Video: Tegra-based Mobinnova élan running Windows CE rocks our world

[antar05]

The I/O stuff is VERY good to know. How much do 32GB SSD drives run these days? I just saw that I can buy a 2GB mem stick from Newegg for $21 (question: would I need or want it?)

I don't plan on doing much HD streaming (just don't have the bandwidth for that), so that's not a concern.

[psyopper]

Newegg is having a sale on the OCZ Vertex 30 Gig for about $120 and free shipping after MIR right now...

Semi-Annual Sale! $37.99 Sandisk 4GB MP3 Player [RFB], $449.99 3GB RAM Laptop…

[antar05]

Here's what I'm thinking about the hard drive: 16 GB is going to be large enough to house OSX and any applications I need (will probably be leaving off Xcode on this one). I have a 120GB external HD which I can use when I don't care about it draining battery, and when I DO care about power consumption, it sounds like I'd be a lot better off just getting a 16GB SD card for ~$30:

Newegg.com - Kingston 16GB Secure Digital High-Capacity (SDHC) Flash Card Model SD4/16GBET - Flash Memory

Another question: I read in the original 10v post by anguish that the wireless 802.11g/n card had some issues. I don't think I'll be needing wireless-n any time soon, so is there any reason I SHOULDN'T just get the standard 802.11g card and save myself the $25?

If not, then I'll probably be purchasing the following 10v configuration:
Obsidian Black
1yr ltd warranty (mail-in)
16GB SSD
56 WHr battery
1397 (802.11g) wireless card
no bluetooth

coming out to $360 right now (probably would wait for a sale), then get a $30 16GB SD card from Newegg.

So the only upgrade question is whether it's worth it to drop the additional $21 on the 2GB RAM stick.

[mfruit]

Originally Posted by dante

There are other benefits. According to zrtom, the I/O performance if the 10v is /much/ better than the 9. (9 sec boot w/SSD vs 45 sec on the mini 9).

That's an interesting tidbit.

I didn't see that message by zrtom. He was able to startup from cold boot to desktop in 9 seconds? That's really impressive. Which SSD was this? The OCZ Vertex?

[dante]

Originally Posted by antar05

Here's what I'm thinking about the hard drive: 16 GB is going to be large enough to house OSX and any applications I need (will probably be leaving off Xcode on this one). I have a 120GB external HD which I can use when I don't care about it draining battery, and when I DO care about power consumption, it sounds like I'd be a lot better off just getting a 16GB SD card for ~$30:

SD cards stick out about half way (0.75") from the side of the mini10v. I wouldn't want one sticking out all the time -- I'd be scared it would break because of some random ding. That's just me, though. I do have SD cards for cameras. They work great.

Originally Posted by antar05

Another question: I read in the original 10v post by anguish that the wireless 802.11g/n card had some issues. I don't think I'll be needing wireless-n any time soon, so is there any reason I SHOULDN'T just get the standard 802.11g card and save myself the $25?

If not, then I'll probably be purchasing the following 10v configuration:
Obsidian Black
1yr ltd warranty (mail-in)
16GB SSD
56 WHr battery
1397 (802.11g) wireless card
no bluetooth

I have the G card. No problems here. G is 100 megabit. N is 1000 megabit. You may notice the difference doing stuff on your internal network. 100Mbit is faster than most cable/dsl services. if you plan on doing stuff where you remote into other machines/file servers at home, go for the N. It'll make a difference. If you just want to surf the web, G is probably fine. I think anguish really had no problems, or no difficult ones anyway. I had none - the G card worked out of the box.

[dante]

Originally Posted by mfruit

That's an interesting tidbit.

I didn't see that message by zrtom. He was able to startup from cold boot to desktop in 9 seconds? That's really impressive. Which SSD was this? The OCZ Vertex?

Looks like a reboot. Here's the post:

http://www.mydellmini.com/forum/dell...html#post72201

OCZ Vertex. /me covets

And I didn't look at the image, which says 36 seconds, w/ 9 seconds in post, and 9 in shutdown.. so by math maybe a 20 second cold boot? That's still pretty quick.

I failed to grok. Apologies.