How to supercharge Mini?

[ranny2]

Hi guys!

I have finally decided to purchase a 2.3GHz Mac Mini as my first Mac computer!
I was just wondering what upgrades I personally could do to make this machine as fast as humanly possible. I'm thinking fastest SSDs, fast RAM etc.

Please, I would love to know how to turn this already powerful Mini into something special. Please note, I am not loaded, so nothing outrageously pricey!

[simsaladimbamba]

RAM and HDD/SSD is the only upgrade you can do, unless you have a fab.
You can upgrade your RAM up o 16GB RAM for 600 USD and for 2,500 USD you could get two 1TB SSDs.

[ranny2]

Tad pricey! Haha.
I was thinking:
8GB Crucial RAM
128GB Crucial SSD for boot and applications drive
750GB Western Digital Scorpio Black drive (installed using iFixit's kit) as a second drive in the Mini.

Thoughts?

[kelau09]

Originally Posted by ranny2

Tad pricey! Haha.
I was thinking:
8GB Crucial RAM
128GB Crucial SSD for boot and applications drive
750GB Western Digital Scorpio Black drive (installed using iFixit's kit) as a second drive in the Mini.

Thoughts?

That's not as fast as humanly possible.

[ranny2]

Originally Posted by kelau09

That's not as fast as humanly possible.

Yea I know. I kind of got a bit over excited. Sorry, I should probably delete this post...

[Wicked1]

Originally Posted by ranny2

Tad pricey! Haha.
I was thinking:
8GB Crucial RAM
128GB Crucial SSD for boot and applications drive
750GB Western Digital Scorpio Black drive (installed using iFixit's kit) as a second drive in the Mini.

Thoughts?

I have a Base 2011 i5 2.3 Mini went to 8GB Ram Crucial $52.00
Intel 320 120GB SSD $175.00

Machine screams and basically these two upgrades are about as fast as you can get the mini to go, with RAM and SSD upgrades. I chose the Intel not for speed but reliability, some others go for slightly fast Crucial or other branded SSD's.

I chose not to go above 8GB ram as I will not really use it, now I am just looking for a really good external DVD drive for the times when I need to rip a CD or DVD, otherwise I am totally diskless in my house.

[shortcut3d]

See the 2011 Mac Mini Server in my signature. It's about the best benchmarking machine you can build. LOL

http://browse.geekbench.ca/geekbench2/view/488313

I'm not sure if the Kingston Hyper X 1866MHz will work in the 2.3GHz model. I have only tested it in the i7 dual and quad core models.

[kelau09]

Originally Posted by ranny2

Yea I know. I kind of got a bit over excited. Sorry, I should probably delete this post...

i was just pulling your leg, please don't mind me, be carry on.

[deafgoose]

That's pretty much it.

The most cost effective way to make the mini fast is 8GB ram and SATA3 SSD.

[ranny2]

Thanks very much! I think 8GB is a deffinate, and hopefully an SSD or fast 7200RPM HDD soon after!

[deafgoose]

Originally Posted by ranny2

Thanks very much! I think 8GB is a deffinate, and hopefully an SSD or fast 7200RPM HDD soon after!

The words "fast" and "7200rpm" should not be in the same sentence. lol

Hold out for the SSD.

[penguy]

Originally Posted by shortcut3d

See the 2011 Mac Mini Server in my signature. It's about the best benchmarking machine you can build. LOL

http://browse.geekbench.ca/geekbench2/view/488313

I'm not sure if the Kingston Hyper X 1866MHz will work in the 2.3GHz model. I have only tested it in the i7 dual and quad core models.

did I read that score correctly? did it really increase by 3000?

[philipma1957]

Originally Posted by shortcut3d

See the 2011 Mac Mini Server in my signature. It's about the best benchmarking machine you can build. LOL

http://browse.geekbench.ca/geekbench2/view/488313

I'm not sure if the Kingston Hyper X 1866MHz will work in the 2.3GHz model. I have only tested it in the i7 dual and quad core models.

when you ran this with geek bench you used the hyper kingston ram and the ocz ssd. can you run the test with the 750gb hdd?

I can get 9300 with 1333 8gb gb ram on 64bit geekbench tests using the 750gb hdd. so if you have a second osx on the 750gb.

I would love to see if the boost is at 11200. I know that in most cases the ssd does not boost geekbench much. a 2500 point boost with the fast ram is pretty cool. I am getting a new samsung 830 next week I am thinking about putting in the kingston ram. maybe the 1600 not the 1866. if I test the server with the 1600 and the same 750gb hdd it would be cool to see if it goes to 10000 or 10500 or even 11000.



okay just ordered a 64gb samsung 830 ssd and a pair of kingston 1600 4gb sticks.


the goal is to speed a mini up for low cost. I will try this with my server.



http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005T3GQNI 136



http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004Y4XAAK 76


total of 212

[thekev]

Originally Posted by shortcut3d

See the 2011 Mac Mini Server in my signature. It's about the best benchmarking machine you can build. LOL

http://browse.geekbench.ca/geekbench2/view/488313

I'm not sure if the Kingston Hyper X 1866MHz will work in the 2.3GHz model. I have only tested it in the i7 dual and quad core models.

Damn you. You're making me want to buy one now I will probably end up waiting to see if they announce a new mac pro before the end of the year though. The mini would be extremely tempting if it allowed for more ram.

[deafgoose]

Can I run faster ram (1600-1866mhz) in my base model mini?

I would love to increase performance from a simple ram swap.

[shortcut3d]

Please note the 64-bit Geekbench score in the link was using Windows 7 64-bit. FWIW, that beat my 2011 15" MacBook Pro in my signature under OSX 10.7.2. I will try a benchmark with a FW800 540RPM stock Apple drive on OSX 10.7.2.

2011 15" Macbook Pro 2.3GHz i7 quad core, 16GB 1333MHz, 480GB OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 6G, OSX 10.7
http://browse.geekbench.ca/geekbench2/view/488315

2011 Mac Mini Server 2.0GHz i7 quad core, 8GB 1866MHz, 240GB OCZ Vertex 3 MAX IOPs, 750GB WD Scorpio Black
http://browse.geekbench.ca/geekbench2/view/488313

[shortcut3d]

2011 Mac Mini Server 2.0GHz i7 quad core, 8GB 1866MHz, 240GB OCZ Vertex 3 MAX IOPs, 750GB WD Scorpio Black running OSX 10.7.1 Lion on FW800 Apple OEM Toshiba 5400RPM 500GB:
http://browse.geekbench.ca/geekbench2/view/504241

This is a pretty big decline from Windows 7 64-bit on the Vertex 3 MAX IOPS SSD. Not sure if all the decline is OSX or FW. Unfortunately, I'm not going to tear down the Mac Mini or partition the SSD to get OSX on there. Obviously, my workhorse is the 2010 iMac: http://browse.geekbench.ca/geekbench2/view/489832

Notice how the 2011 Mac Mini score is only 1000 points less than a 2010 27" 2.93GHz iMac with 32GB RAM, 240GB OWC Mercury Extreme Pro, 1TB WD Caviar Black. Considering that iMac is a BEAST with 4x the memory!

[deafgoose]

Hey shortcut! The specs of your computers are incredible.

I just spec'ed out a mac mini server with the same hardware you use and I am blown away by the cost.

You are a sick, sick man.

[shortcut3d]

Originally Posted by deafgoose

Hey shortcut! The specs of your computers are incredible.

I just spec'ed out a mac mini server with the same hardware you use and I am blown away by the cost.

You are a sick, sick man.

The 2011 MacBook Pro kinda made my stomach turn when I added up the cost.

I could have waited longer for 480GB SSDs and 8GB modules to drop in price.