Dell's Mini 10 comes with any amount of RAM you want, so long as it's 1GB

The case of the Mini 10 just gets curiouser and curiouser. The company finally acknowledged the red-lidded QVC stepchild on its site just last week, but before that quietly mentioned an interesting bit of information on its official blog: the 1GB of memory figure that seemed like just a start is actually the end, too. The RAM in the first batch (or possibly batches) of Mini 10 models will be non-upgradable, and while we don't know why a company that built itself on allowing people to customize computers would prevent them from upgrading their netbooks, we are sure this won't be a popular move. Additionally, the first Mini 10s will all be running XP, though Ubuntu will be coming, as well as an optional 720P display and even a TV tuner. That all sounds fantastic, but after waiting through all this is anyone going to wait longer still for a proper-spec'd machine?

[Thanks, Eric]

[SNP Posted Feb 23rd 2009 11:16AM]

I'll be voting with my wallet of not buying it from Dell for this stupid move, and if there is another netbook come out with 720 and upgradable ram (hoping a new A1) before Dell can get their act together, it'll get my money.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 23rd 2009 11:37AM]

I can't find a mini-10 service manual on the Dell support web site, but I've looked over the service manual for the Mini-12. If the 10 is like that, it doesn't use a standard Memory Module, it uses memory that's integrated into the CPU daughterboard.

[usman Posted Feb 23rd 2009 12:01PM]

Airmon,

This is precisely the reason I gave up on Mini 12 (and now Mini 10) and went with Samsung. The CPU-plus-RAM card means that I can't replace/upgrade just the RAM, I have to buy a whole new daughter card (most likely from Dell only).

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 23rd 2009 11:36AM]

I too will be waiting - I was ready to buy an NC10 - until I read everything about the Mini10 and saw the photos.

1 unrelated question - to the best of my knowledge, no current PC with HDMI output sends audio over HDMI - is this correct? My assumption is that the HDMI output on the Mini10 is going to be video only, and that I will still need to use the mini jack for audio - kind of defeats the whole purpose of HDMI - but nonetheless is better than just the standard VGA out on the rest of the netbooks out there.

[WolfDV Posted Feb 23rd 2009 5:33PM]

err...wrong, my dell xps 1530, and new 1340 both send 5.1 audio just fine over the HDMI, as one would expect

[El Duderino Posted Feb 23rd 2009 12:15PM]

It sucks balls but if they're running XP or Ubuntu, 1 GB is alright for most people. Especially on a netbook. I would be more worried about the Atom being a bottleneck than RAM. Having the ability to upgrade is always welcomed but it's not particularly devastating that these machines don't have that option because of the nature of this kind of notebook. I know that with a 10-inch screen and Atom running the machine, I wouldn't expect to do much anyway.

[UnixSystemsEngineer Posted Feb 23rd 2009 12:28PM]

It's a stupid move, sure, but I think the bottleneck on these systems is the proc, not the RAM. 2GB+ will be more useful once the dual-core chips are out.

[Collman Posted Feb 23rd 2009 2:45PM]

When are those comming by the way?

[g2ok Posted Feb 23rd 2009 12:32PM]

Dell Mini 10 is a massive FAIL.

soldering in RAM is dumb, not even Apple does that

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 23rd 2009 12:39PM]

gma500 = fail.

[PEZ Posted Feb 23rd 2009 1:17PM]

with 1Gb I dont see how they are going to run 720p and a tv tuner.. especially with thatllousy first gen atom in there, and no GOOD deciated graphics CPU

[Collman Posted Feb 23rd 2009 2:45PM]

What do you mean? Poulsbo is supposed to handle 720p just fine.
Also, PEZ? Pezapesta?

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 23rd 2009 1:15PM]

Wasn't this ford's motto with the model-T? "any color you want, as long as it's black"

[t22a80 Posted Feb 23rd 2009 1:14PM]

I was given a Mini 12 for xmas and it came with Vista. It sounds like the mini 12 has the same chipset/ ram as this 10" model. There is no possible way to upgrade the ram. As mentioned before you can see in the dissected pics that its just one board with the processor and ram all in one. Dell no longer sells the computer with Vista because its a toilet and can't run Vista for crap. I called Dell and asked them to load XP on it for me because they like me must have realized Vista sucks on a netbook. No dice, they won't do anything to help me out. I'm very disappointed with Dell customer service and might not ever buy another one.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 23rd 2009 1:31PM]

I will give you $100 for that Mini 12 Vista "Toilet".....

[Collman Posted Feb 23rd 2009 2:43PM]

wtf? You cant load XP in it on your own? what are you doing here?

[t22a80 Posted Feb 23rd 2009 3:20PM]

Thanks Brian but no. I'll try and load ubuntu before I sell it and see how that works first.

Macdelaney.....

I would load XP on it myself except for 2 things.

1. I don't have a copy of XP to load and don't want to pay the 100 bucks to buy it. Especially since Dell should have never loaded Vista on it in the first place. I'd be up to almost 700 bucks for a "mini" computer. I would rather have the XPS 13 for 799!!!

and

2. The computer doesn't have a disc drive so if I had XP I'd have to get one of those to load it.

I just want dell to stand behind the products they sell. They assured the person who bought me this that it would run Vista fine and that isn't true. If it was they would still sell it with Vista as an option.

[d889 Posted Feb 23rd 2009 2:17PM]

meh who knows, maybe its actually very easy to pop the memory out and add more.....

[milkham Posted Feb 23rd 2009 8:55PM]

The new version of the MSI Wind is also maxed out at 1 gig, this has to be a microsoft windows xp thing

[FILA Posted Feb 23rd 2009 8:59PM]

why would you wanan do any less, lol

[nicksilvestri Posted Feb 23rd 2009 11:53PM]

i'm kinda surprised no apple fanboys have jumped on the fact that dell totally copied the trackpad for the mini 10.
thats kinda the reason i like it though, because i'm already used to my macbook's trackpad

[murray Posted Feb 24th 2009 12:43AM]

Tim, what do you think you would want to do on a netbook with more than a gig of RAM? I do 90% of my home computing on a machine with half a gig. I only go to my desktop workstation for photo editing or gaming. 1 gig should be more than enough for a netbook. If it's not, you bought the wrong computer.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 24th 2009 4:41AM]

"...but after waiting through all this is anyone going to wait longer still for a proper-spec'd machine?"


Yes, I am. I won't buy until they offer all the other options they say they will, and should've offered to begin with.

[pika2000 Posted Feb 24th 2009 5:37AM]

Although a clean Windows 7 install runs fairly well on my Mini 9 with 1GB RAM, at least I can upgrade it to 2GB when I want it. I think this is a fluke. Maybe Dell was rushing to release a 10" mini, and was stuck with some early Poulsbo spec hardware they got from Intel's bargain bin, and they have to sell/get rid of them somehow. Mini 9 + Windows 7 FTW!

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 24th 2009 12:19PM]

Seems like 2GB and 720p will come later fhis year. Until then, I'd better stick by my cheap, cute and shiny Acer Aspire One.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 24th 2009 2:54PM]

Mini 10's are available for pre-order on AAFES (Military online PX). Starting price $399.00 in 1.6 and 1.3ghz configurations. As stated only comes in 1gb configs. Estimated ship date is 21 Mar 09.