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2010 mac mini to replace 2007 imac, upgrade advice

elf69

elf69

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jun 2, 2016
2,333
489
Cornwall UK
I have been offered a 2010 mac mini.

It is much newer than my ageing but still going imac.
I have upgraded the imac to the T9300 and 6GB ram.
It just getting old and I'd like run high sierra etc.

Any way I said I interested in the mini.

I have a sata2 SSD in the imac I can fit to the mini but im sure the mini is sata3.
I have 8GB of ram from my failed macbook which will work in the mini.

as for optical, i'd like take it out and fit an HDD.
Is it sata also or IDE? online just says super drive.

These are the machines:

mini: https://everymac.com/systems/apple/...core-2-duo-2.66-mid-2010-specs.html#macspecs1

imac: https://everymac.com/systems/apple/imac/specs/imac-core-2-duo-2.0-20-inch-aluminum-specs.html
 
I would definitely go for the upgrade. Although the Mac mini does not have dedicated graphics the GeForce 320M 256mb integrated graphics are a considerable improvement to those on the 2007 20" iMac. The SSD should be absolutely fine. As for the fitting an HDD in the Superdrive bay you will need SATA Hard Drive enclosure available from iFixit linked below along with a detailed tutorial of how to carry out the mod and all iFixit tutorials relating to the mid 2010 Mac mini
https://www.ifixit.com/Store/Mac/12-7-mm-SATA-Optical-Bay-SATA-Hard-Drive-Enclosure/IF107-081-1
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Installing+Mac+Mini+Mid+2010+Dual+Drive/8958
https://www.ifixit.com/Device/Mac_Mini_Mid_2010
 
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I don't think the mini will be SATA III, but an SSD will still help it along quite a bit.

Yes, you can remove the optical drive and replace it with an SSD. See these instructions:
http://guides.crucial.com/Guide/Mac+Mini+Mid+2010+SSD+Dual+Drive+Installation/597

As for performance, it should be a modest improvement, though we're not talking about earth-shattering performance here. I had the 2.4GHz 2010 mini, and it could just barely play HD video in full screen. If you're coming from a 2007 iMac, you shouldn't be disappointed, just don't expect too much.
 
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I had a 2.66GHz white macbook unibody.

from what I see spec wise it is one of these in a tiny box?

If so then yes they were a great machine, no power house but if ok to wait a few seconds it did the job!
my 2007 imac is getting bit slow so this should be a slight upgrade.

I have a 20" cinema screen to connect to it with an adaptor (which I have from another mac)

I been looking at tear downs and upgrade videos.
I bought drive bay adaptors (for the above imac and for my 2010 macbook and 2012 macbook pro) from ebay for cheap.
I will order another sata one then.
 
You don't want a 2010 Mini -- still too old.

Get at least a 2012 Mini -- it has USB3, makes upgrading to an SSD much easier.
RAM is also user-upgradeable.

Even if you get the lowest-equipped 2012 Mini possible (4gb RAM with 1tb HDD?), all you need to do to have a thoroughly-modern Mac is to:
- plug in a USB3 SSD
- add ONE 8gb DIMM.

It will then become a very fast and quite-capable Mac.
 
Last edited:
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true but I cannot afford one.
this 2010 is less than £100!

And it all works.
Just found out it already has 8GB ram so it already looks good.

Yes the 2012 or new would be ideal but "beggars can't be choosers"
I'm on low wage and high bills, so I'll take what can afford for now :)

Still better than my 2007 imac.
if 2010 mini too old then my 2007 imac is ancient, lol

Appreciate all your wisdom @Fishrrman and I do heed all your advice.
I know if you have replied to a post then the answer is there.
 
Fishrrman said:
You don't want a 2010 Mini -- still too old.

Get at least a 2012 Mini -- it has USB3, makes upgrading to an SSD much easier.
RAM is also user-upgradeable.

Even if you get the lowest-equipped 2012 Mini possible (4gb RAM with 1tb HDD?), all you need to do to have a thoroughly-modern Mac is to:
- plug in a USB3 SSD
- add ONE 8gb DIMM.

It will then become a very fast and quite-capable Mac.
Click to expand...
If it performs well it is not too old. I have a mid 2011 21.5" iMac as my daily driver and even though it is seven years there is no way it is too old.
 
elf69 said:
true but I cannot afford one.
this 2010 is less than £100!

And it all works.
Just found out it already has 8GB ram so it already looks good.

Yes the 2012 or new would be ideal but "beggars can't be choosers"
I'm on low wage and high bills, so I'll take what can afford for now :)

Still better than my 2007 imac.
if 2010 mini too old then my 2007 imac is ancient, lol

Appreciate all your wisdom @Fishrrman and I do heed all your advice.
I know if you have replied to a post then the answer is there.
Click to expand...

The 2010 Mac Mini, just like the 13" 2010 MacBook Pros, take 16gbs of ram. And it was worth it. Fit it with a SSD and you should be fine.
 
The mini unit is coming with 8GB ram and 500GB HDD.

I have a 240GB SSD (sata2) and a 250GB HDD (will go in optical bay)
These two drives are currently in my 2007 imac, with the ssd as primary and my hold folder moved to the HDD.

I have a spare 64GB SSD which I will put in the imac and put one my spare 250 or 500 drives in optical adaptor with home folder on it and sell it on. Locally £150-200 these are sold for.
 
one 240GB SSD and one 250GB HDD.
both reside in my imac at present and will transplant to the mini.

But as it only has one HDD in it I need open it up to see if it still has the hardware for 2nd HDD if not then need purchase it.
I have located the hardware online so not an issue if missing.

It is running maverick at moment on a 500GB HDD.
 
Well finally just fired it up after pulling the second monitor off my imac.

Turns out it still has dual 500GB HDDs!
And a flat CMOS/PRAM battery.

Gonna pull it apart to fit my SSD anyway so will swap out the CMOS/PRAM then.

Same time will change the heat paste for artic silver too while its in bits.

Marvel of engineering!
my father in law and friend (both 60+ years old) cant believe a computer is that small.
 
Be very careful installing the SSD. In 2010 they had temp sensors on the hdd attached to the motherboard. Very fragile. I accidentally broke a wire. Put it all back together and the fan ran at full speed. Had to track down a replacement sensor and wires. Check out ifixit for instructions.
 
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thanks, yeah read guides 7 times so far lol.

Even now can hear fans so thinking of buying new sensors just to be sure.

It not super loud but fair bit louder than my 2007 imac
 
PROBLEM:

Tried to install High Sierra from USB stick. Error damaged or corrupt installer.

Tried internet recovery on lan cable, fine formatted the drive then clicked to install lion as that what came with.
"an error occurred while preparing the installation. Try running the application again."

4 attempts same error.

Right now my mac mini is useless :(
 
Could be target disk or Ram being bad. Is the target disk already implanted or still in an external housing? Did you reset PRAM/NVRam and SMC and ran the Apple Hardware Test?
 
On the 2010 Mac mini Server model - would Internet Recovery attempt to install Lion Server? (that may be how it originally shipped). I suspect that you can't use Internet Recovery to download Server, and that might explain the Internet Recovery failure.

There's a lot of choices for what system to install, all the way from OS X 10.6.3 (if you can find the original mini restore DVD), all the way to High Sierra, of course. I would probably try something in between, like Mavericks or Yosemite, just to get your mini up and running.
 
As far as I know the mid-2010 Mac mini is only SATA 1, but swapping the HDD for even the most basic SSD will give it quite a boost in speed. I'm running 10.9.5 on mine with 16GB of RAM and it's fast enough for daily tasks - it's still my main computer today, eight years later.

edit: as DeltaMac pointed out, the mid-2010 Mac mini is actually SATA 2.
 
Last edited:
Yvan256 said:
As far as I know the mid-2010 Mac mini is only SATA 1, but swapping the HDD for even the most basic SSD will give it quite a boost in speed. I'm running 10.9.5 on mine with 16GB of RAM and it's fast enough for daily tasks - it's still my main computer today, eight years later.
Click to expand...
Nope. The Mid 2010 mini is, in fact, SATA 2 (3.0 Gbps)
 
Neodym said:
Could be target disk or Ram being bad. Is the target disk already implanted or still in an external housing? Did you reset PRAM/NVRam and SMC and ran the Apple Hardware Test?
Click to expand...
Target disk is internal and has never been external.

There is 2x 500GB in my mini. it was running mavericks when I got it.

Yes internet recovery did try install lion but unknown if server edition.

Yes plan on fitting a 240GB ssd soon, see post #13.

I did get it running again after finding my old 10.7 usb installer.
now have upgrade to el cap, then high sierra as neither my el cap or high sierra usb sticks seem to work now :(

But decided not to bother upgrading as gonna swap the drives from my imac so kinda a waste of time.
 
elf69 said:
may I ask why?

i ran HS on a 2010 macbook (2.4GHz 8GB ram and 240GB SSD) quite well.
Click to expand...

OK, if you were satisfied with the speed, than go on, don't follow my advice.

I tried HS on an 2012 Macbook (Pro) with Core i5-3210M and found it sluggish (especially the opening of window animations, the whole drag and drop etc.).

The computer had 128 GB SSD and 8 GB RAM. However El Capitan did work fine on it.
 
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