2012 Mac mini with Big Sur and OpenCore Legacy Patcher

[CooperBox]

I realise that this Mac Mini forum is now being flooded by posts pertaining to the M4 - rightly so as it appears a great product.
However my question relates to a 2012 model which some time ago I upgraded with an SSD and 8GB Ram memory, and which is still performing wonderfully with Mac OS 10.15 and a currently supported web browser.
Can anyone here please advise on the same year/spec Mac Mini if they have installed Big Sur with OpenCore Legacy Patcher. If so how does it perform? Ditto for OS Sequoia with OCLPatcher.

 

[MBAir2010]

I realise that this Mac Mini forum is now being flooded by posts pertaining to the M4 - rightly so as it appears a great product.
However my question relates to a 2012 model which some time ago I upgraded with an SSD and 8GB Ram memory, and which is still performing wonderfully with Mac OS 10.15 and a currently supported web browser.
Can anyone here please advise on the same year/spec Mac Mini if they have installed Big Sur with OpenCore Legacy Patcher. If so how does it perform? Ditto for OS Sequoia with OCLPatcher.

OCLP was iffy on my same Mac mini model using Monterey as that crashed in 2022 twice.
if Big Sur works great in sure Monterey will work the same on yours tho.
I used only mountain lion only last summer for several months and that worked great!
which was documented as a post last year here

Sadly, My Mac mini gave out last august as the graphic card went after re-thermal pasting the board or having a bad reaction to a older web browser or something as I can't get a image after rebooting and other trouble shooting last year.

I hoped this helped!

 

[CooperBox]

Ok, many thanks for your comments! 👍
I think I'll try Big Sur then Sequoia with the OCLPatcher and report back here in due course.
Cheers!

 

[fricotin]

Ok, many thanks for your comments! 👍
I think I'll try Big Sur then Sequoia with the OCLPatcher and report back here in due course.
Cheers!

Please do, I'm on the same boat. I am not too savvy and I don't want to screw up mi mini until the M5 or...6

 

[avz]

Monterey seems to perform better than Big Sur overall but it has some little bugs like the apps(that are not already in the Dock) don't seem to stay in the Dock even when you select an option Keep in Dock. I don't use OCLP as I use my MBP as a desktop and therefore don't really need Bluetooth and WiFi functionality.

Edit: The apps not staying in Dock issue went away and is working as expected.

 

[eRondeau]

Three years ago I bought a Late-2012 Mac Mini super cheap (mostly for the keyboard & trackpad TBH). It was a “minimum spec” system with 2GB RAM and a smallish HDD. It struggled with everything. I’ve since upgraded it to 16GB RAM and a 500GB SSD running MacOS Sequoia via OCLP. While it won’t set any speed records it’s entirely usable for everyday tasks. It’s been totally stable since OCLP 2.x.x. It’s my backup/sync device for my iPhone and iPads. It runs 24/7 and only restarts for MacOS updates; it’s rock solid reliable. As long as you’ve got an SSD installed jump right up to Sequoia, you’ll be fine with 8GB RAM. It’s amazing that a 12+ year-old “base model” computer can still be usable in 2025. Macs rock!

PS — I’d avoid Big Sur as it no longer receives security updates. Monterey hasn’t been updated since July. If you’re worried about Sequoia over-taxing your system Ventura is a good compromise. I’ve got a “base” Mid-2011 MacBook Air running Ventura via OCLP quite happily.

 

[mr.steevo]

My 2012 (i5 2.5GHz 16GB 256 SSD) Mini is running macOS 14 Sonoma. It’s my daily computer at home and have no issues other than sometimes it won’t wake from sleep. That requires a reboot and typically happens less than once a month.

 

[abeagler]

I had no trouble running Monterey via OCLP on a 2012 Mini i5 with 16GB of RAM and an SSD, was stable for about a year of use. It didn't go so well when I tried Sequoia, though - I'd been using the Mini as a server for Apple TV home sharing and the TV app crashed on opening under Sequoia. So, if there are specific features or use cases that you need I'd check into those before upgrading.

Overall it was cool to extend the life of the machine for so long, but once the M4 came out I upgraded to that.

 

[CooperBox]

Many thanks to all that have replied so far. 👍

 

[MBAir2010]

Many thanks to all that have replied so far. 👍

did you jump to OCLP yet?

 

[CooperBox]

did you jump to OCLP yet?

No not yet as overtaken by other priorities. I should be able to complete and report back within a week or two (hopefully with a Sonoma install).

 

[OldGreyGuy]

My 2012 (i5 2.5GHz 16GB 256 SSD) Mini is running macOS 14 Sonoma. It’s my daily computer at home and have no issues other than sometimes it won’t wake from sleep. That requires a reboot and typically happens less than once a month.

Thanks for the information, I have an older 2012 i7 16GB 1TB SSD running Catalina that I picked up second hand ages ago. I have a second 1 TB SSD in it which I was using as a last chance backup of my iCloud but I have been reluctant to try updating.

Today I took the chance to update an old 27” iMac using OCLP 2.3.1 and was surprised how easy it was. Planning to look at upgrading the 2012 Mini to Sonoma or Sequoia sometime in the next week.

Thanks for giving a positive review of your update. 👍