Quick question before upgrading 2009 Mini to SL

I would absolutely upgrade the RAM to 4GB LION needs a minimum of 4GB to really stretch its legs.

That Mac Mini is a decent machine i own one. Once i upgraded to 4gb ram Snow Leopards performance was greatly improved. I highly suggest adding 4 gb ram. Ram is very cheap these days.

BlackMangoTree said:

That Mac Mini is a decent machine i own one. Once i upgraded to 4gb ram Snow Leopards performance was greatly improved. I highly suggest adding 4 gb ram. Ram is very cheap these days.

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I agree and while Snow Leopard runs okay with just 2GB of RAM, it too really can stretch its legs with 4GB of RAM.

I think today all machines should have a minimum of 4GB of RAM. In my new Mini I am running 8GB.

I disagree with anyone that tells you put in 4gb ram. if you are going to open the machine put in 8gb .

https://www.superbiiz.com/detail.ph...le=Hynix-DDR3-1066-SODIMM-4GB-Notebook-Memory

60 bucks for 8gb

http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-CT2KI...5YWI/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1313508822&sr=8-2

50 bucks for 8gb

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231294


52 bucks for 8gb


take advantage of historically low prices of 8gb kits. if you buy this you are done with ram. if you buy the 4gb kit for 30 or 35 and switch to lion you will feel the need for more ram lion uses more. this means cracking the mini open a second time and having the left over sticks twice. the 2gb to 4gb leaves you a pair of ones. the 4gb to 8gb leaves you a pair of twos. most likely when running lion you can get to 4.5 or 5.2 gb ram used. with snow you won't get to over 4gb often.


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226021


!!! 35 dollars after rebate 8gb ram !!!

philipma1957 said:

I disagree with anyone that tells you put in 4gb ram. if you are going to open the machine put in 8gb .


take advantage of historically low prices of 8gb kits. if you buy this you are done with ram. if you buy the 4gb kit for 30 or 35 and switch to lion you will feel the need for more ram lion uses more. this means cracking the mini open a second time and having the left over sticks twice. the 2gb to 4gb leaves you a pair of ones. the 4gb to 8gb leaves you a pair of twos. most likely when running lion you can get to 4.5 or 5.2 gb ram used. with snow you won't get to over 4gb often.

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I agree, but that wasn't his question, he wasn't asking our opinion about what is the better buy or what we recommend. Nonetheless I agree with you if you are going to spend the money go all out and get 8GB, which is exactly what I did.

If you are going to open the machine put in 8gb.

OTACORB said:

I agree, but that wasn't his question, he wasn't asking our opinion about what is the better buy or what we recommend. Nonetheless I agree with you if you are going to spend the money go all out and get 8GB, which is exactly what I did.

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That was his question

"I'm not planning on rushing ahead with an upgrade to Lion, but if I did, would it be best to upgrade the RAM to 4Gb or so?"

Read "Or So" as "Another amount" or "more"

We can argue semantics about options include 4 GB or 8 GB (Even 16 GB if you are rich) You can ague about 6 and 12 GB upgrades too but most people install matched pairs.

I have the same model as you 2009 C2D 2.0 Ghz with 2GB Ram and 320GB HDD stock. I went to SL from 10.5 and the first thing I did was 4GB ram, what a difference, and when I did it the ram was $80 now it is like $35

The install will do it all, just back it up just before you migrate just in case, but with the 4 I did , I had not had one issue.

Good Luck you will like the performance

Vermifuge said:

That was his question

"I'm not planning on rushing ahead with an upgrade to Lion, but if I did, would it be best to upgrade the RAM to 4Gb or so?"

Read "Or So" as "Another amount" or "more"

We can argue semantics about options include 4 GB or 8 GB (Even 16 GB if you are rich) You can ague about 6 and 12 GB upgrades too but most people install matched pairs.

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Thank you you for covering my back. Some people on this site attack my postings and resent that I give links to good prices. I don't understand why.

To OTACORB I am not referring to you as attacking my posts but many people do. The op asked a good question. I have opened about 100 2009 minis and put ram in them. They are pretty easy to do but every time you open the machine you can break it. He mentions going to lion down the road. I have tested a 2009 and 5 different 2011 machines with lion. Pulling 4 to 5 gb of ram is easy to do with lion. Same programs seem to pull 3 to 4 gb of ram with snow on a 2009 machine.

So I just gave him advice from the heart as to what I would do in his position if I owned that machine. BTW I owned and used that exact model for 12 to 14 months it runs well with 4gb of ram with snow. If he never mentioned Lion I would not tell him to go for 8gb of ram.
To be fully honest Most likely he can get away with 6gb of ram, but this idea makes a lot of people feel wary. I know that 2009 machine running snow with 6gb of ram were good. I have not tested 2009 machines with lion and 6gb of ram. Mostly because the prices for 8gb or really low cost right now.

wmmf said:

Hey, everyone, thanks for all the advice, especially for the links to good deals! So from what I gather, upping the Mini to 4 gig should be fine for SL, but if I'm remotely thinking about upgrading to Lion within the next year (which is very possible), then I should perhaps go all the way up to 8 gig now, both because of current low prices of matched RAM sets and because it means just opening the machine once. Is that right? And even though the full 8 gig won't be put to use under regular conditions, having it will help with the "just above 4 gig" use that Lion can demand. If I understand this right, then thanks a lot for helping me see further down the road. ,,,



Thanks again for the help, even better than I anticipated!

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Thanks for positive post. You have the correct understanding.

I no longer own the 2.0 2009, but the 2.66 2009 that I do have runs well in lion. I do have it with 8gb ram and on occasion it gets to 4.6 or 4.8 gb of ram in use. In fact I like my 2009 because I have 2 hdds and one runs lion the other runs snow.



This is a link to the mods on the 2009

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1178755/

Just a quickie to dispel any fears that you might have about Lion on that machine - I have the exact same mini (2.0GHz early 2009) with 8GB of RAM, and it is smooth sailing with Lion. No bottlenecks at all