2011 Mac Mini Server Using 16gb PC3-12800 DDR3-1600 Ram?

earthman7 · Dec 4, 2012

Hi All... Was looking to boost ram in my 2011 Mac Mini Server from 8 to 16gb.

While the speed of ram that is generally specified for this model is PC3-10600 DDR3 1333 MHz, I spoke to a rep from Crucial, who said that he was surprised to find that PC3-12800 DDR3-1600 ram was listed as being OK for the 2011 Mac Mini Server. (CRT 2K1GB64BS1 Crucial 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 204-pin SODIMM Memory)

So I ordered the PC3-12800 DDR3-1600, installed it, and it appears to be working just fine.

Ran Geekbench, but only 32 bit, and speeds got a bit better (from 8950 for 8gb to 9013-9031 for 16gb). I didn't do the Cinebench for the 8gb setup, but for the 16gb setup, it came out to 4.44 for the CPU, and 11.54 for the Open GL.

My question is, are there any drawbacks or benefits to using this ram over the PC3-10600 1333? Would it help or hurt my speed to use it? If there's some reason to not use the 1600, I do have another 2012 mini I'm setting up for a colleague, that I could this ram in.

Thanks in advance for your help on this!

philipma1957 · Dec 4, 2012

does not matter much. as long as it runs it is good. That is the short story. the longer story is not important but maybe some one will chime in.

kobyh15 · Dec 4, 2012

It probably works fine but it's not running at 1600 MHz. It is being down-clocked to 1333. You'd be hard pressed to notice a difference between the 2 though. Someone can chime in if I'm wrong.

philipma1957 · Dec 4, 2012

kobyh15 said:
It probably works fine but it's not running at 1600 MHz. It is being down-clocked to 1333. You'd be hard pressed to notice a difference between the 2 though. Someone can chime in if I'm wrong.

some does run at 1600 some does not.

kingston plug n play will run at 1600 in a 2011 mac mini. I think a corsair will also run at 1600 in a 2011 mac mini. most others do not. I have a 2011 mac mini with kingston plug n play and last year a lot of us tested this and posted results. the 1600 is a bit better then 1333 . If you run windows bootcamp it is also better.

Mr. Retrofire · Dec 4, 2012

earthman7 said:
...My question is, are there any drawbacks or benefits to using this ram over the PC3-10600 1333?

The integrated GPU is a bit faster with this RAM, and the 1600 MHz RAM needs a bit more power, which is not important in desktop computers.

kobyh15 · Dec 4, 2012

philipma1957 said:
some does run at 1600 some does not.

kingston plug n play will run at 1600 in a 2011 mac mini. I think a corsair will also run at 1600 in a 2011 mac mini. most others do not. I have a 2011 mac mini with kingston plug n play and last year a lot of us tested this and posted results. the 1600 is a bit better then 1333 . If you run windows bootcamp it is also better.

I see! Thanks for the heads-up!

earthman7 · Dec 5, 2012

philipma1957 said:
some does run at 1600 some does not.

kingston plug n play will run at 1600 in a 2011 mac mini. I think a corsair will also run at 1600 in a 2011 mac mini. most others do not. I have a 2011 mac mini with kingston plug n play and last year a lot of us tested this and posted results. the 1600 is a bit better then 1333. If you run windows bootcamp it is also better.

Thanks for the responses. Interesting... so how would I know if the Crucial runs at 1600? Is that just by looking at the about this computer and memory tab? If so, that says that the computer contains 2 memory slots, each of which accepts a 1600 MHz DDR3 memory module.

So I've been reading through any old posts on this I could find, attempting to get fully informed on this issue. I ran the memory test, Rember, and it said it was running 100% OK. So is that indicative that it's running at 1600?

philipma1957 · Dec 5, 2012

earthman7 said:
Thanks for the responses. Interesting... so how would I know if the Crucial runs at 1600? Is that just by looking at the about this computer and memory tab? If so, that says that the computer contains 2 memory slots, each of which accepts a 1600 MHz DDR3 memory module.

So I've been reading through any old posts on this I could find, attempting to get fully informed on this issue. I ran the memory test, Rember, and it said it was running 100% OK. So is that indicative that it's running at 1600?

it is a bit more complicated. the best way is to download memtest86+

http://www.memtest.org/

burn a cd and boot directly into it

you get a blue screen . this test was from a quad 2012 mini with 16gb crucial ram

it reads half what you run at. my crucial reads at 798 which is 1596. this tests runs all the ram rember runs around 13 gb out of 16gb. remeber ram test is based on memtest.

I think geekbench also shows the real speed. I will run a test. here is a piece of a geek bench on a core 2 2012 mini with 8gb 1600 ram.

if you were to run the same mini with 2x 4g sticks of 1333 ram the geekbench scores would change. this tests will show differences but in real world 8gb of 1333 ram or 8gb of 1600 ram in a 2012 mac mini would be very hard to know a speed difference.

calvol · Dec 5, 2012

Interesting about Kingston RAM running at 1600Mhz. There's another thread where someone claims to have 1833 MHz Kingston RAM running on a 2011. I stayed with Crucial 1.35v 1333, and seems to run fine.

BTW, I have a 2011 i5 2.5 16GB Mini with the Radeon 6630M and it's Cinebench GL is 23.75. Shows what a good GPU it is compared to the HD3000. It even beat the 2012 2.6 Mini/HD4000 I returned that had a GL score of 23.25. However, my Cinebench CPU score is only about 2.6.

earthman7 · Dec 5, 2012

philipma1957 said:
it is a bit more complicated. the best way is to download memtest86+

http://www.memtest.org/

burn a cd and boot directly into it

Well I've spent a few hours trying to figure all this out, including just how to make a bootable usb stick or cd from the memtest86 that I downloaded. I've come up empty handed though! Is there an easy way to do this? (My technical experience with all this is obviously a bit insufficient!)

Your geekbench scores are so wildly different than mine. I see you have a different year, different processor and 1/2 the ram. Does it make sense that your memory scores are so much higher than mine, considering that I have twice the ram? (Or are all the differences related to the fact that I used the 32 bit geekbench?)

PaulKemp · Dec 6, 2012

In regards to the boot issues, i remember I did this from my windows partition. But thats not necessary i think, look at rEFIt, it will let you boot from a usb stick I THINK ´.

Look into it before trying.

You get about 500 higher score than me with my mini I7 2.0 GHz, but mine just got 4 gb ram at the moment.

philipma1957 · Dec 6, 2012

earthman7 said:
Well I've spent a few hours trying to figure all this out, including just how to make a bootable usb stick or cd from the memtest86 that I downloaded. I've come up empty handed though! Is there an easy way to do this? (My technical experience with all this is obviously a bit insufficient!)

Your geekbench scores are so wildly different than mine. I see you have a different year, different processor and 1/2 the ram. Does it make sense that your memory scores are so much higher than mine, considering that I have twice the ram? (Or are all the differences related to the fact that I used the 32 bit geekbench?)

32 bit makes a big difference. Downloading and burning the cd was really hard. but if you have done it it will show up like this.

the mt410 is it. I have a macbookair cd player and all I need do is pick the mt410 as a boot option. it then boots into the blue screen.

earthman7 · Dec 7, 2012

philipma1957 said:
32 bit makes a big difference. Downloading and burning the cd was really hard. but if you have done it it will show up like this.

the mt410 is it. I have a macbookair cd player and all I need do is pick the mt410 as a boot option. it then boots into the blue screen.

Yeah, "hard" is what I found too. I'll try again when I get some time before I have to choose whether to install this ram in my 2011 or in my friend's 2012. You'd think it would be a piece of cake to create a bootable disc from a disc image... I know I've done that several times in the past!

Thanks and a great night to you!

Edde1 · Dec 7, 2012

philipma1957 said:
32 bit makes a big difference. Downloading and burning the cd was really hard. but if you have done it it will show up like this.

the mt410 is it. I have a macbookair cd player and all I need do is pick the mt410 as a boot option. it then boots into the blue screen.

How do you get that temp and cpu info on the top of screen?

philipma1957 · Dec 7, 2012

Edde1 said:
How do you get that temp and cpu info on the top of screen?

istat

Edde1 · Dec 7, 2012

philipma1957 said:
istat

Thanks

philipma1957 · Dec 7, 2012

you are welcome i am sticking with version 3 as i paid for it. i may go to version 4 soon

NoJamSteele · Dec 29, 2014

CAS Latency

So I'm pondering buying this for my mid-2011 Mac mini Server 2Ghz quad core i7 and although I am aware of the compatibility and the fact that my system should dumb it down to 1333mhz.... This module has a cas latency of 11 and their 1333mhz module has a cas latency of 9.... Is this something I should concern myself with and buy the more expensive 1333mhz module or just stick with the 1600mhz one? I've read that if my system knocks down a 1600mhz module to 1333mhz that it will bump up the cas latency a point making this 1333mhz with a cas latency of 10 instead of 1600@9.... Any info would be great as I plan on making my purchase this evening if possible.

nollimac · Dec 30, 2014

NoJamSteele said:
So I'm pondering buying this for my mid-2011 Mac mini Server 2Ghz quad core i7 and although I am aware of the compatibility and the fact that my system should dumb it down to 1333mhz.... This module has a cas latency of 11 and their 1333mhz module has a cas latency of 9.... Is this something I should concern myself with and buy the more expensive 1333mhz module or just stick with the 1600mhz one? I've read that if my system knocks down a 1600mhz module to 1333mhz that it will bump up the cas latency a point making this 1333mhz with a cas latency of 10 instead of 1600@9.... Any info would be great as I plan on making my purchase this evening if possible.

If it were I, I would stay with the 1600mhz and if I were to purchase, I would go for the overclocked 1833mhz...yes, the 2011 Mini can handle just fine...Apple didn't introduce down-clocking until 2012 Mini.

I actually wanted to buy a 2011 Mini for the ability to run the over-clocked 1833mhz RAM; however, all on Ebay at the time prices was the same for used 2011 Mini as the base 2012 Mini. I ended up with an open-box 2012 Mini i5 for $425 Best Buy...couldn't refuse.

Omega Mac · Jan 8, 2015

nollimac said:
If it were I, I would stay with the 1600mhz and if I were to purchase, I would go for the overclocked 1833mhz...yes, the 2011 Mini can handle just fine...Apple didn't introduce down-clocking until 2012 Mini.

I actually wanted to buy a 2011 Mini for the ability to run the over-clocked 1833mhz RAM; however, all on Ebay at the time prices was the same for used 2011 Mini as the base 2012 Mini. I ended up with an open-box 2012 Mini i5 for $425 Best Buy...couldn't refuse.

This is really interesting to me, so you say Apple introduced down clocking to the 2012 mac mini line up. Have two 2012 mac mini servers.

I have two modules of 1600MHz 8GB sticks. When both in place down clocking to 1333Mhz but used singly they run at 1600Mhz. This occurs in both machines.

Here is my thread for further reference, So is this then a software or bios issue that can be reconfigured?

2011 Mac Mini Server Using 16gb PC3-12800 DDR3-1600 Ram?

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