30 replies to this topic 2 votes

[kevpan815]

Reason: My 2 year old Mac Mini has only 2 GB's of Ram on it (that is all they put on it back in 2010) so I plan to use both the $250 Apple Gift Card (that I am getting for trading in an IPad 3rd Gen for an IPad Mini) plus my BMO Harris Bank Chicago Black Hawks Master Card to buy a Brand Nee Late 2012 Mac Mini ( which comes with 4 GB's of Ram!

[InsaneNutter]

You could just upgrade the ram? however i'm sure you will enjoy the new faster Mini.

Also 4gb of ram is not really a lot these days, would not you be better going with 8gb so its future proofed?

[+Elliott]

You should get a Fusion Drive in your new one. That'll give you a larger performance boost than those extra 2GB of RAM.

[Brian M]

You could upgrade your current mini to 8GB of RAM for about $40-50.

[Tyler R.]

Get a SSD and more ram. That'll do the trick!

[kevpan815]

Thanks everyone for their suggestions, but I am in the Apple Developer Program and this Mid Year 2010 Mac Mini may very well NOT run on the next version of Mac OSX 10.9 or 11.0, and technically it's NOT my software that is slowing it down, it's a combination of all the Security Updates available for ML + Microsoft Office 2011 + Xcode (even though I am NOT currently Developing any Apps for the App Store, Xcode is still needed to certify my IOS Devices for Beta Updates). I will also note that my 3 Year Apple Care Extended Warrenty Expires next year. The latest version of XCode is usually required to Beta Test IOS Operating Systems and right now XCode 4.6 Developer Preview requires either Lion 10.7.5 and/or ML 10.8.2. We are usually required to have Up to Date Hardware for ADP.

[kevpan815]

Also something else to keep in mind is that Back in 2010 all the Mac Mini's came with was an Intel Core 2 Duo Processor. These 2012 Models come with either a 2.5 GHz Intel I5 Dual Core Processor or a 2.3 GHz Intel I7 Quad Core Processor! Just FYI.

[jasondefaoite]

Tyler R., on 04 November 2012 - 17:27, said:

Get a SSD and more ram. That'll do the trick!

This!

I was using a first gen Intel mac mini up until last year. Was a Core Duo CPU with 2GB RAM. It was still fast due to the WD Cavier Black drive in there, running on SL.

I got the 2011 Mini, 4GB with Core i5 CPU running Lion and it was slower than my older machine running SL.

The stock HDD in the mini is slow as #$@ Swapped in the WD Black to the 2011 and saw a big difference in the speed.

Adding an SSD should see an even bigger improvement.

[kevpan815]

I don't really know how to swap out Hardware on a Mac. I will also note that I don't use my Mac for very much other than Web Browsing and E-mail. The only Game that I play on it is Star Trek D-A-C. I find it fun to play Survival Mode in that game, by the way, and zap those Romulan Ships with Phasers, but that's a little off topic for this post. Standard Hardware should do the trick.

[threetonesun]

This thread is ridiculous.

The Mini is a Macbook in a different shape, I'm sitting here on a Core 2 Duo that runs ML just fine. It is, in fact, faster and less crash prone than SL.

More memory will help, sure, as will an SSD. If you want something faster, though, I don't blame you.

[kevpan815]

Take a look at how many updates are available for 10.8.2 for one thing NOT to mention something that I was running that you most likely don't have access to (Apple Xcode 4.6 Developer Preview with my Apple IOS 6.1.0 Beta from http://developer.apple.com/).

[Shadrack]

Elliott, on 04 November 2012 - 16:11, said:

You should get a Fusion Drive in your new one. That'll give you a larger performance boost than those extra 2GB of RAM.

I agree that the faster drives will probably provide a bigger boost. But I also think that the OP should weigh upgrading his RAM and storage to an SSD against getting a whole new Mac Mini.

For me, I want at least 4-5 years out of a computer and will upgrade parts along the way (if I can). But the new Mac Mini also has USB 3.0 so it might be worth the upgrade now.

[kevpan815]

Decided to keep my current Mac Mini as was mentioned in the Other Post, sorry about my Aggressive Behavior in the other Post, I should have just ignored all of the comments that I didn't like, I just hope that Apple keeps supporting Mountain Lion for XCode after the next Operating System comes out as I am required to Provision my IOS Devices with The IOS Developer Portal using Xcode in order to participate in the Apple IOS Beta's on the Apple IOS Developer Website. I am a litte concerned that I made the wrong decision to keep my current Mac Mini and Upgrade my Ram and Hard Drive to an SSD. As for purchasing the RAM on Apple.com instead of Newegg.com, I had a $250 U.S.A. Dollar Apple Gift Card (that is only good on Store.Apple.Com) and did NOT allow me to use it for buying Lower Priced ITunes Gift Cards, and did NOT allow me to buy Lower Priced Apple Store Gift Cards, so I decided to use it for buying the Ram from Store.Apple.com. The SSD I may very well buy from Newegg.com, but please stop questioning my decision on how I used my Apple Store Gift Card. It was good on only one Website which is Store.Apple.Com.

[kevpan815]

You guys recently gave he-double-hockey-stick for NOT buying my RAM from Newegg.com. Well I just wanted to reply back to let you guys know that Newegg.com does NOT sell my type of RAM at least NOT in 8 GB's, NOT to mention the fact that it was for the Wrong Intel Processor, in fact my 2.4 GHZ Core 2 Duo Processor is NOT even listed in Newegg.com's Memory Finder, and when I looked up 2.66 GHZ the largest Ram Size that they are selling is 4 GB's, NOT 8 GB's like i ordered from Apple.com. Just FYI. Just in case you guys don't believe me, look it up, Select Desktop, Select Apple, Select Mac Mini, look for 2.4 GHZ Core 2 Duo Processor, Error, NOT There, Select 2.66 GHZ Core 2 Duo, Largest Size 4 GB, NO 8 GB's for my type of RAM!

P.S. As for all of the RAM pictured on Newegg's RAM Home Page, Error, Wrong type of RAM for my 2010 Apple Mac Mini, my Mac uses 1066 MHZ DDR3 SO-DRAM! Just FYI!

Whoops, meant to say DIMMS, NOT DRAM.

[cybertimber2008]

It's there. I found it.