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posted by LaminatorX on Monday October 20 2014, @07:30AM   Printer-friendly
from the ought-to-be-enough-for-anybody dept.

In a recent engadget article, Jon Fingas points out the following:

If you're planning to snag the new Mac mini and load it up with aftermarket memory, you may want to reconsider your strategy. Macminicolo owner Brian Stucki (among others) has discovered that the RAM in Apple's latest tiny desktop isn't upgradable, much as you'd expect with the company's laptops and the 21-inch iMac.

 
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  • (Score: 2) by Tork on Monday October 20 2014, @05:35PM

    by Tork (3914) on Monday October 20 2014, @05:35PM (#107890)
    Soldering the RAM in lowers its power requirements by nearly 20%.
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  • (Score: 2) by Hairyfeet on Monday October 20 2014, @09:27PM

    by Hairyfeet (75) <{bassbeast1968} {at} {gmail.com}> on Monday October 20 2014, @09:27PM (#107983) Journal

    How exactly does that work? DRAM still requires X amount of power to keep the cells alive and you can't tell me balls of that crappy new green solder can carry power better than a copper on copper slot connection. But let us say that you are 100% correct...does that 20% in savings REALLY justify making something landfill fodder? Memory cells DO go bad, they are a hell of a lot more likely to fail than any other part short of the disk drives and its not like modern OSes can handle having bad RAM cells so is it REALLY worth the trade off, when we are talking about something running off the mains no less?

    Of course lets cut through the bullshit, ok? YOU know this isn't why its being done, just as I know that isn't why its being done, its being done so they can charge $300 for RAM that the user could buy for $80 anywhere else. Just more corporate douchebaggery from a company that told their users they are too damned stupid to hold a cell phone correctly and refused to admit that they were getting pwned by malware because MacDefender was a trojan and not a virus so that don't count...yeah bullshit, just more douchebaggery and the sad part is the users will take it and probably praise Apple for that righteous assfucking they just got!

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  • (Score: 2) by Tork on Monday October 20 2014, @10:15PM

    by Tork (3914) on Monday October 20 2014, @10:15PM (#107999)

    Of course lets cut through the bullshit, ok? YOU know this isn't why its being done, just as I know that isn't why its being done, its being done so they can charge $300 for RAM that the user could buy for $80 anywhere else.

    I doubt it. The memory has to be installed back at the factory in China. That costs them a lot more than having me just purchase the simms and put it in myself. It also creates an inventory situation since they can't just keep every permutation of systems at their stores, instead the people that walk in have to make their selection and wait five days for it to ship.

    I think the real reason is they felt having the laptop thinner and made of a uni-body was likely to earn them more sales. The $200 premium isn't near as nice as it was pre-Retina days.

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  • (Score: 2) by Hairyfeet on Tuesday October 21 2014, @12:18AM

    by Hairyfeet (75) <{bassbeast1968} {at} {gmail.com}> on Tuesday October 21 2014, @12:18AM (#108032) Journal

    What cost? Working conditions and pay are sooo bad over there that Foxconn had to install a net to catch the workers trying to commit suicide, no way in hell they are paying them enough to not make fat bank on that $300 RAM, no way. When you consider that Cook made sure Apple got insanely low prices by buying their parts over a year in advance? if that "$300" RAM cost them even $40 I'd be amazed, figure in at most another $20 to have some sweatshop worker install it and you are talking $240 pure profit per unit!

    And what laptop? we are talking about Mac mini, you know, the desktop unit? You can't tell me that soldering the RAM into a unit drawing off the mains was done for ANY reason other than price gouging, and just one more bit of proof that Cook is more like Balmer than Jobs, a stuffed suit that is gonna nickel and dime the customers until he sours the branding.

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  • (Score: 2) by Tork on Tuesday October 21 2014, @12:34AM

    by Tork (3914) on Tuesday October 21 2014, @12:34AM (#108036)

    What cost?

    You mean besides having to take it off the line, solder the RAM in, and ship it individually to somebody's house? Even at the pay-rate you're assuming that's still way more expensive than installing it in-store or having the customer do it. There's also the inventory issue I mentioned that you must have accidentally skipped over.

    Working conditions and pay are sooo bad over there that Foxconn had to install a net to catch the workers trying to commit suicide...

    You are not well informed.

    ...to not make fat bank on that $300 RAM.

    Two hundred.

    And what laptop?

    You asked: How is it "justifiable" for a laptop?

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  • (Score: 2) by urza9814 on Tuesday October 21 2014, @12:57PM

    by urza9814 (3954) on Tuesday October 21 2014, @12:57PM (#108202) Journal

    You mean besides having to take it off the line, solder the RAM in, and ship it individually to somebody's house? Even at the pay-rate you're assuming that's still way more expensive than installing it in-store or having the customer do it. There's also the inventory issue I mentioned that you must have accidentally skipped over.

    ...so if they don't solder the RAM directly to the board...nobody ever has to install it or something?

    They've gotta install the RAM at the factory anyway. Whether it's a fixed amount of four different options, it's still the same basic process. Might now take a couple seconds extra per laptop, from somebody making a couple bucks a day, but it saves a minute or two per laptop from somebody making ten or twenty bucks an hour if they were really having them customized at the Apple stores...

    But in fact if you look at the sales page for the mac mini...they have four options. These options have differences in RAM -- but also in CPU, battery, display, and storage. They're not giving people more options, they're giving them *fewer*. They have *less* to keep in inventory and less to assemble. You can't throw 8GB of RAM in with the 2.5GHz processor anymore. If you want 8GB of RAM, you're forced to buy the 2.6GHz CPU.

  • (Score: 2) by Hairyfeet on Wednesday October 22 2014, @01:19AM

    by Hairyfeet (75) <{bassbeast1968} {at} {gmail.com}> on Wednesday October 22 2014, @01:19AM (#108491) Journal

    Dude where the fuck have YOU been? Would you like a link to the suicide nets, complete with pics? Ask and ye shall receive [dailytech.com]. And regular RAM installs itself...by magic? And are you really gonna honestly try to sell us on them actually taking each individual board and hand soldering in the RAM, a process that is practically designed for automated lines?

    If you wanna kiss the Apple booty and try to explain away their douchebag behavior you really need to bring better arguments, yours don't even hold up to the most trivial of examination, sorry. BTW if you wanna pay the Apple premium because you like OSX or the designs or just because? Then please, enjoy them in good health, I wish you nothing but happiness with your purchase. We are all individuals and have our own tastes and I would never try to tell someone they couldn't enjoy different things than I, that's what makes us individuals after all.

    But please don't try to justify corporate douchebaggery just because you like the brand, you end up jumping through logic hoops the size of Texas and posting illogical shit that don't pass muster like what you posted. I'm not the only one that noticed either, look at the other post, he caught the same problems in your argument. As I said your argument MIGHT hold water if we were talking about the Air, where the battery is a sliver and every mw counts...we are on the mains dude, none of that argument works here. Just accept that Apple are being dicks and move on, just as I had to accept Balmer was a pathetic CEO and Win 8 was deep fried ass, just because you liked previous products does NOT provide an indicator of future performance and behavior, mmkay?

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  • (Score: 2) by Tork on Wednesday October 22 2014, @01:54AM

    by Tork (3914) on Wednesday October 22 2014, @01:54AM (#108499)

    Would you like a link to the suicide nets, complete with pics? Ask and ye shall receive.

    When being accused of being mis-informed, consider checking the date on the materials you offer as rebuttal.

    And are you really gonna honestly try to sell us on them actually taking each individual board and hand soldering in the RAM, a process that is practically designed for automated lines?

    Yep. I mentioned other stuff you ignored, too.

    I'm not the only one that noticed either, look at the other post, he caught the same problems in your argument.

    Not really, he didn't read my post very carefully. His observations about the fewer configurations of the Mini actually supported my point, he didn't catch that while writing it.

    If you wanna kiss the Apple booty...

    I'm sorry my experience purchasing Apple laptops is in direct conflict with your agenda. It's a pity though because you're going to walk away from this thread with a swiss-cheese memory of what we talked about, including overlooking that I had actually criticized this approach in the first post I made. Hopefully one day you'll forgive me for not reading your sermon in its entirety.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 22 2014, @11:55PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 22 2014, @11:55PM (#108957)
    "Working conditions and pay are sooo bad over there that Foxconn had to install a net to catch the workers trying to commit suicide"

    If you had actually been interested in the truth of the matter you would have looked a little deeper than what fit your preconceived notions and found that the suicide rate in Foxconn factories is LOWER than the overall suicide rate in China and LOWER than the rate in the US.

    Article is from 2010, but it gets the point across.

    http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-and-dell-investigating-the-foxconn-working-conditions-2010-5 [businessinsider.com]

    "After 9 suicides in 5 months, and reports of brutal working conditions, Apple and Dell say they are investigating the working conditions at Foxconn, the Chinese manufacturer that builds iPads, iPhones and other gadgets.

    But while it's obviously a tragedy that any one person, let alone 9, ever commits suicide, let's be clear about one thing: the suicide rate at Foxconn is not particularly high. In fact, at 5.4 suicides per 100,000 people (400,000 people work at Foxconn), the Foxconn suicide rate is lower than it is in all 50 U.S. states.

    In Wyoming, where the population is 512,757, and there are no sweatshops, 22.6 people per 100,000 commit suicide, according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

    In California, the rate is 9.2 – New York, 6.9.


    If conditions are so bad, why are so few people offing themselves?

    Let us know how that Crow tastes. I know you won't read this, but other people will.