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brettuk

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 19, 2009
32
0
Hi Folks,

I own a 2011 Mac mini which I've upgraded to 8GB of RAM and is a ESXi host.

I've recently bought a second hand 2010 Mac mini to use as a dedicated media centre.

My question is this: I'd like to upgrade the RAM in both, so can I buy 16 GB RAM for the 2011 Mac mini, and move my 8GB to the 2010 Mac mini? The only difference I can tell is that the 2010 uses slightly slower memory, but shouldn't the 2011 memory work fine at the slower speed?

Thanks
 

philipma1957

macrumors 603
Apr 13, 2010
6,361
248
Howell, New Jersey
the 2010 mac mini is very picky about ram. I have tried to use 1333 4gb sticks in more then one 2010 mac mini. My record is around 0 for 6 with two 4gb sticks of 1333 ram. This does not mean I am correct but if you have the 2010 on hand and you have the 2011 on hand turn them off and put the 8 gb in the 2010. then turn the 2010 on run it for a while see what happens. the cost is $0.

Most likely you won't be able to boot and you will get beeps. But as the other poster said in theory it can work. My 0 for 6 record is just that 0 for 6. Maybe you can get it to be 1 for 7.
 

brettuk

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 19, 2009
32
0
the 2010 mac mini is very picky about ram. I have tried to use 1333 4gb sticks in more then one 2010 mac mini. My record is around 0 for 6 with two 4gb sticks of 1333 ram. This does not mean I am correct but if you have the 2010 on hand and you have the 2011 on hand turn them off and put the 8 gb in the 2010. then turn the 2010 on run it for a while see what happens. the cost is $0.

Most likely you won't be able to boot and you will get beeps. But as the other poster said in theory it can work. My 0 for 6 record is just that 0 for 6. Maybe you can get it to be 1 for 7.

I just tried it for a few minutes, and it seems to work fine! The 2010 boots fine with the 2011 ram, and shows 8GB in the about screen :) I've swapped it back, but now I know, so I can buy new ram for the 2011 :)
 

MJL

macrumors 6502a
Jun 25, 2011
845
1
I just tried it for a few minutes, and it seems to work fine! The 2010 boots fine with the 2011 ram, and shows 8GB in the about screen :) I've swapped it back, but now I know, so I can buy new ram for the 2011 :)

did you run a memtest? you might find that it does not pass the latter - which was the case when I tried it with genuine Apple memory from the 2011 in the 2010. Just because it wants to boot does not mean that it will be working without flaws.
 

Ccrew

macrumors 68020
Feb 28, 2011
2,035
3
did you run a memtest? you might find that it does not pass the latter - which was the case when I tried it with genuine Apple memory from the 2011 in the 2010. Just because it wants to boot does not mean that it will be working without flaws.

I had an identical experience. Thought it was fine but I'd get random kernel panics every couple of days. Finally gave up and replaced the memory with what the spec actually called for and never happened again. .
 

nikolajlr

macrumors member
May 11, 2011
31
0
Denmark
You are luckier that me then :) My 2010 MBP 13 wouldn't accept my 1333 MHz DDR3 I had on hand (no booting). The same RAM is fine in this 2011 iMac.
 
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