2009 Mac mini with OS X Mavericks

deyorew · Oct 22, 2013

Okay, so based on announcement today, this is the oldest Mac Mini (2009) that is supported with the latest OS.
I happen to have this Mac Mini.

Before I download, I thought I would hear others comments on whether or not it slows it down or speeds it up...

Anyone see improvements?

Would rather not hypothetical, but real updaters posting...

Tilpots · Oct 22, 2013

I'm curious, too. Mines a late 2009 MM with the 9400m and 8GB ram. Hoping it's an improvement over the current OS. Snow leopard was great. Lion hasn't been as stable...

scottsjack · Oct 22, 2013

deyorew said:
Okay, so based on announcement today, this is the oldest Mac Mini (2009) that is supported with the latest OS.
I happen to have this Mac Mini.

Before I download, I thought I would hear others comments on whether or not it slows it down or speeds it up...

Anyone see improvements?

Would rather not hypothetical, but real updaters posting...

Won't know until I get home tonight. I've got a soon to be retired late 2009 2.66GHz with 8GB RAM and a 7200 RPM HD. Not much can be done to the poor old thing other than a SATA 2 SSD.

mdgm · Oct 22, 2013

I plan to install Mavericks on both my 2009 Mac Minis. If it is too slow (and maybe if not) I will have SATA II (3Gbps) SSDs put in them.

Acronyc · Oct 22, 2013

Just installed it on my early 2009 mini with a 64GB SSD (5GB of RAM and the 9400) and it's running great so far. No slowdowns as of yet and for some reason I have 3GB more space than I did in ML. Hoping to run this machine for a few more years yet.

mdgm · Oct 22, 2013

Installed it on both my 09 Minis and it is working great on them. The compressed memory feature is working well. Will still have a think about whether or not to get a SSD.

jbarley · Oct 22, 2013

Is it just my installation, or has anyone else noticed that the Time Machine icon is no longer 'animated'?
On the plus side, Mavericks did fix the Repair Permissions issue created by the Last iTunes update.

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Acronyc said:
Just installed it on my early 2009 mini with a 64GB SSD (5GB of RAM and the 9400) and it's running great so far. No slowdowns as of yet and for some reason I have 3GB more space than I did in ML. Hoping to run this machine for a few more years yet.

My mini has 16GB and Mavericks is creating a 2GB 'SleepImage' file instead of the full 16 that ML used to.
So the extra 3GB of yours may just be the difference between 5GB previous and 2GB now.
Easy to check, from the Finder top menu select 'Go->Go to Folder' and enter '/var/vm/'
then use 'Get Info' to check the SleepImage size.

hudson1 · Oct 23, 2013

jbarley said:
Is it just my installation, or has anyone else noticed that the Time Machine icon is no longer 'animated'?
On the plus side, Mavericks did fix the Repair Permissions issue created by the Last iTunes update.

Same for me on the Time Machine icon.

Tilpots · Oct 23, 2013

Any of you all use EyeTV? Wondering if Mavericks has any impact on performance...

Ehpehp · Oct 23, 2013

Slow

My 09 macmini has 4gb of RAM and spinning hard drive. My system is sluggish, unlike MBA with Mavericks.

deyorew · Oct 23, 2013

So I did the update on my 2009 Mac Mini. I have 4GB RAM and stock everything else.

I noticed substantial improvements speed wise with Mavericks.

iTunes opens and closes much faster than previous OS (Mountain Lion). Not as fast as Leopard was when I first purchased the machine but then again I have so many more features now.

If you are running one of the Lions, definitely upgrade to Mavericks, it will be snappier. It did take me a while to download though. Close to 3 hours on hard line. When it kept saying "about a minute" left, it would sometimes say that for 10 minutes...lol

Also in iPhoto, it seems blazing fast to scroll through photos which was very very choppy before. Same for my extensive iTunes music....blazingly fast to scroll through 1000's of albums. Very choppy before Mavericks.

mdgm · Oct 23, 2013

Ehpehp said:
My 09 macmini has 4gb of RAM and spinning hard drive. My system is sluggish, unlike MBA with Mavericks.

On one of my 09 machines I found it to be a bit sluggish but I think that was because the hard drive was too full. How full is your hard drive and was it very full when you installed Mavericks?

Ehpehp · Oct 24, 2013

mdgm said:
On one of my 09 machines I found it to be a bit sluggish but I think that was because the hard drive was too full. How full is your hard drive and was it very full when you installed Mavericks?

I stopped some start up apps and it's better. Disk space should be fine: >20gb free.

mcnallym · Oct 24, 2013

Tilpots said:
Any of you all use EyeTV? Wondering if Mavericks has any impact on performance...

I am just waiting on Elgato to confirm that the are fully working before upgrading. The rest of the software on my mini works ok, but use the mini 2009 with Elgato and iTunes 24/7 so waiting for the testing to be completed. Is supposed to work fine so far but want to make sure works first.

mdgm · Oct 24, 2013

My initial testing suggests EyeTV works fine for me on Mavericks but YMMV.

MTI · Oct 24, 2013

Early 2009 with 4GB seems to be working fine. If it's faster, it's not perceivable.

And · Oct 24, 2013

Early 2009 mini with 4GB.

Things are a little sluggish for me, more slowdowns than I am used to but I am hoping that perhaps updates to programs and mavericks will iron out issues in due course. I can cope until the new minis come out, or if a i get reckless and buy a pro.

palmharbor · Oct 24, 2013

Paralles 7 Not functional on 10.9

Got this email:
URGENT SERVICE NOTIFICATION FOR PARALLELS DESKTOP 7 FOR MAC USERS:
If you intend to upgrade to Mac OS X Mavericks (10.9), please note that Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac will not support OS X Mavericks (10.9). You will not be able to launch your Windows virtual machine or directly use your files through Parallels Desktop 7.

Before you install OS X Mavericks: Be sure to upgrade to Parallels Desktop 9 for Mac, our latest version, fully optimized and enhanced for OS X Mavericks.

And · Oct 26, 2013

And said:
Early 2009 mini with 4GB.

Things are a little sluggish for me, more slowdowns than I am used to but I am hoping that perhaps updates to programs and mavericks will iron out issues in due course. I can cope until the new minis come out, or if a i get reckless and buy a pro.

OK, an update, just so record is straight. I think perhaps some of the slowdowns I experienced were due to background downloads. Mavericks has now been ticking over quite nicely now, though no speed increases for me (the snappiness others have reported), however I am not noticing slowdowns like I did after installing. Overall, I think memory is handled better, I'm noticing lower usages for some programs. To be honest though, Mavericks offers no functional advantages for me, in fact I'm hard pressed to notice any differences. Equally it now doesn't appear to be a backward step, so at least I am up to date. It will be easy to wait out until mini updates arrive now (or I get jittery and pointlessly buy a pro).

Max(IT) · Oct 26, 2013

Late 09 Mac mini, with 4 Gb and maverick installed today.
Free ram is increased a little bit from Mountain Lion and the system seems to be snappier (for an old machine).
I'm going to check it better in the next few days.

toothpehs · Nov 14, 2013

Dota 2 on mavericks with 8gb ram and ssd?

Hi!
Sorry to hijack this thread, but I think it's sorta relevant.
With the updated OpenGL on mavericks, anyone tried gaming yet? Specifically dota 2?
I'm on the fence on upgrading it to 8gb ram and a ssd, my current setup is a late 2009 mini, 2.26ghz, 2gb ram, 160gb, and it's getting realllllyyyyy slow on ML, even for basic internet surfing

But if someone has these upgraded specs and mavericks, and found that the 9400m can't support dota 2, please lemme know! So then I'll know it's time to let her go and get something quicker (haswell mini when it's out!)

FYI graphics on medium to low, mostly low, is fine, so long I can play it haha.
Preferably using the OSX client, don't really like windows. Though I know with bootcamp and windows 7 it might run better. Lemme know your settings too!
Thanks!

kappaknight · Nov 14, 2013

I have two 2009 mini's and both have been upgraded to Mavericks.

The one with 2GB of RAM is running great. It's running at normal speed with limited amount of memory.

The other one with 4GB of RAM has experienced significant slow down. Things aren't as responsive and programs take awhile to load up. It could be that the system itself is dying, I'm not really sure how to test it just yet... I've tested the hard drive and it says it's fine.

Not sure if it's Mavericks related or just a coincidence.

EdwardC · Nov 14, 2013

I have a 2009 with 2GB of RAM and on Snow Leopard I could have mail, iTunes and Safari open and have around 400MB of free RAM, after Mavericks was installed it used all of the RAM and seemed a little sluggish. I went out and bought a 2012 Mini and 16GB of RAM for it and Mavericks will use around 10GB with Mail, iTunes, iMessage, Pages, Maps and Safari open. I took the 4GB of RAM and installed it in the old Mini but have not tried it out yet.

toothpehs · Nov 14, 2013

Spotlight indexing causing the slowdowns?

For those experiencing slowdowns, can it be spotlight?
http://blogs.computerworld.com/mac-os-x/23025/how-improve-mac-performance-os-x-mavericks-edition

Max(IT) · Nov 15, 2013

toothpehs said:
Hi!
Sorry to hijack this thread, but I think it's sorta relevant.
With the updated OpenGL on mavericks, anyone tried gaming yet? Specifically dota 2?
I'm on the fence on upgrading it to 8gb ram and a ssd, my current setup is a late 2009 mini, 2.26ghz, 2gb ram, 160gb, and it's getting realllllyyyyy slow on ML, even for basic internet surfing
But if someone has these upgraded specs and mavericks, and found that the 9400m can't support dota 2, please lemme know! So then I'll know it's time to let her go and get something quicker (haswell mini when it's out!)

FYI graphics on medium to low, mostly low, is fine, so long I can play it haha.
Preferably using the OSX client, don't really like windows. Though I know with bootcamp and windows 7 it might run better. Lemme know your settings too!
Thanks!

I don't know about that specific game, but the simple fact of considering a 2009 Mini a game machine is quite strange.
It wasn't a game machine 4 years ago, surely things aren't improved since then

I'm happy with my Mini and not planning to change it any soon, but I use it just for web browsing, iTunes and office automation (iWork).
Mavericks and 4 Gb of ram are just fine.

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EdwardC said:
I have a 2009 with 2GB of RAM and on Snow Leopard I could have mail, iTunes and Safari open and have around 400MB of free RAM, after Mavericks was installed it used all of the RAM and seemed a little sluggish. I went out and bought a 2012 Mini and 16GB of RAM for it and Mavericks will use around 10GB with Mail, iTunes, iMessage, Pages, Maps and Safari open. I took the 4GB of RAM and installed it in the old Mini but have not tried it out yet.

Mmmh .... 2 Gb are a little tight for any intensive use, but on my wife's MacBook Air with 2 Gb Mavericks runs just fine with Mail, Safari and iTunes ....
Your Mac Mine should be faster than her MBA.

2009 Mac mini with OS X Mavericks

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