Anyone still rocking a mid 2011 Mac mini?

[philipma1957]

I am on one right now. The biggest downside is no usb 3 jacks.
I use ssd fusion drive 2.25 tb
16 gb ram
and an external set of 3tb drives.

It is good for a lot of stuff. I sold off my 2012 quads as I had no need for the cpu processing power.
I have a stock 2012 low grade mini
I have a stock 2014 low grade mini

And apple pretty much lost me as a customer due to their 2014 editions of the mini.
I used to buy 25 to 50 minis a year from 2007 to 2013 upgrade them and sell them. Once the 2014 came out that was done.

 

[profets]

Still have a 2011 Mac mini running (sits in a basement closet, along with other equipment).

It was my first Mac, and got me hooked. It has a few SSDs inside it and is primarily a Plex & media server. Pretty crazy to think that I've had it for over 5 years.

 

[MysticCow]

I am on one right now. The biggest downside is no usb 3 jacks.
I use ssd fusion drive 2.25 tb
16 gb ram
and an external set of 3tb drives.

It is good for a lot of stuff. I sold off my 2012 quads as I had no need for the cpu processing power.
I have a stock 2012 low grade mini
I have a stock 2014 low grade mini

And apple pretty much lost me as a customer due to their 2014 editions of the mini.
I used to buy 25 to 50 minis a year from 2007 to 2013 upgrade them and sell them. Once the 2014 came out that was done.

You mean you don't like how everything is glued together and you're not allowed to break the glue to do something like upgrade your RAM? HOW DARE YOU???????

(seriously, all this "solder everything on" crap needs to go)

 

[nkawal]

My 2011 i5 is loaded with 16gb ram and a Samsung Pro 512gb SSD. AMD graphics still kicking strong

 

[Nospig]

Still rocking mine, i5, 8GB, 256GB SSD. Just about good enough for XCode (although XCode 8 runs slower). Bit slow as a Unity project build slave. Looks like I'll be rocking this one for a while or going Hackintosh.

 

[phulton]

Well since the mini did not get an update this year (again), I'm once again looking at the 2011-2012 minis for their ability to be upgraded. Or unless the refurb minis take a bigger price cut than last time ($589 for the 2.6 i5, 8gb and 1TB Fusion).

My only reservation now about the older models, is that they don't support all of MacOS's newer features. I have an iPhone so at the very least I'd like to be able to use handoff, which the 2011 doesn't support OOB.

 

[jpietrzak8]

My only reservation now about the older models, is that they don't support all of MacOS's newer features. I have an iPhone so at the very least I'd like to be able to use handoff, which the 2011 doesn't support OOB.

Yup. Welcome to your new Apple ecosystem, where in order to use all the latest Apple features, you need to be up to date with all the latest Apple gear. Got an Apple computer or device that is a few years old now? Throw that old thing in the trash and buy the latest model!

I guess this is the way to make boatloads of money. So long as you can convince everyone to stay on the constant upgrade treadmill...

 

[phulton]

Yup. Welcome to your new Apple ecosystem, where in order to use all the latest Apple features, you need to be up to date with all the latest Apple gear. Got an Apple computer or device that is a few years old now? Throw that old thing in the trash and buy the latest model!

I guess this is the way to make boatloads of money. So long as you can convince everyone to stay on the constant upgrade treadmill...

Which really makes a hackintosh very appealing since all that is needed for handoff to work is the wireless card with PCIe adapter from an iMac.

I could do a hackintosh for around the price of a fully loaded 2011 mini and it would have much better specs.

This is pretty frustrating lol

 

[frank4]

Still have a 2011 base Mini here (bought as a refurb October 2011), runs fine on the original 500GB HD. The only slowdown I notice compared to back in 2011 is the startup time for programs is longer (MacOS software bloat?). Speed is OK after programs get started. Still happy with it, I don't even feel I need to update the HD to SSD.

I have delayed updating to latest MacOS (Sierra) but I'll probably do that soon. I want to make sure Sierra runs OK on a 2011 Mini and does not make it feel "slow",

 

[keeper]

My Mid 2011 is still going as an Security IP camera rig and media server,
Added one of these and a USB 3 hub for greater drive connectivity.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/KANEX-Thun...?ie=UTF8&qid=1478091076&sr=8-3&keywords=kanex

 

[jzuena]

I'm still rockin' an early 2009 Mac Mini, which I reckon will serve my needs for another year or two, maybe more. I would consider replacing the HDD if it failed (it still has the 120 GB original) and keeping it longer. However I would not bother with spending money on more significant upgrades on a machine that is no longer supported by Apple. Nor would I consider replacing it with a used Mac Mini and then spending money on upgrades. Better to spend on a new Mac Mini specced to suit my needs, thus getting up to date hardware and OS, along with support for a longer period ahead….. but that's just my point of view.

Right there with you, except I replaced the optical drive with a 480GB SSD which I use as my boot drive. The 120GB internal drive became a Bootcamp drive with Windows 7. It has been running with 8GB RAM since the firmware update that unofficially allowed it.

Since the early 2009 isn't on the Sierra upgrade list, I am finally looking to replace this almost 8 year old machine. Once Apple comes out with an update to the mini or iMac I'll be ready.

 

[BigRed1]

I'm also currently rocking the 2009, upgraded with a 1tb hybrid drive and 8gb ram. I mainly use it to record in Logic Pro 9 and basic web stuff. It's fine, but I'm worried that it's going to go at any point. I can't decide whether it's worth it to buy a 512gb ssd to speed things up (saving it for a later upgrade to a not-yet-bought computer) or not.

The quad 2012 models still look good to me, but they're insanely priced for a used computer. It's frustrating.

 

[phulton]

I'm also currently rocking the 2009, upgraded with a 1tb hybrid drive and 8gb ram. I mainly use it to record in Logic Pro 9 and basic web stuff. It's fine, but I'm worried that it's going to go at any point. I can't decide whether it's worth it to buy a 512gb ssd to speed things up (saving it for a later upgrade to a not-yet-bought computer) or not.

The quad 2012 models still look good to me, but they're insanely priced for a used computer. It's frustrating.

Yea the 2012 quads would be great but on eBay they're still 600+ typically which is insane for a 4 year old computer.

I think I'm gonna just try a hackintosh at this point. I have an unused htpc that just needs a new CPU and a few other cheaper bits, I can get up and running for <$300.

 

[borgusio]

Well since the mini did not get an update this year (again), I'm once again looking at the 2011-2012 minis for their ability to be upgraded. Or unless the refurb minis take a bigger price cut than last time ($589 for the 2.6 i5, 8gb and 1TB Fusion).

My only reservation now about the older models, is that they don't support all of MacOS's newer features. I have an iPhone so at the very least I'd like to be able to use handoff, which the 2011 doesn't support OOB.

Mini 2011, i7 2.7, 16 gig ram, 1TB fusion drive.

This thing is still a beast. No need for usb 3 as you have thunderbolt.
Handoff is supported.

I was on hackintosh once, and I would never ever go back again.
My two cents

 

[xb2003]

Just bought a 2011 Mac mini (base model) yesterday for $100. I thought I got a pretty decent deal. Dropped 16GB of RAM in it as well as a Samsung Evo I had laying around. I've been looking for an older MacBook to keep rack mounted in my audio rack for recording and music playback purposes, but I couldn't hardly pass this up for $100! (Plus the cost of the RAM.. I wasn't going to try and deal with 2GB and 16GB is only a few more dollars than 8)

 

[phulton]

Just bought a 2011 Mac mini (base model) yesterday for $100. I thought I got a pretty decent deal. Dropped 16GB of RAM in it as well as a Samsung Evo I had laying around. I've been looking for an older MacBook to keep rack mounted in my audio rack for recording and music playback purposes, but I couldn't hardly pass this up for $100! (Plus the cost of the RAM.. I wasn't going to try and deal with 2GB and 16GB is only a few more dollars than 8)

$100 is a great price, tbh but that is a really uncommon price for a 2011 Mac mini.

I'm a bit envious though, congrats.

 

[duervo]

I'm still using my 2011 mini. Got it new in Jan, 2012. I got the i7 model with the dGPU, 8GB RAM, and 500GB HDD.

Just the RAM and CPU are still original. I replaced the 500GB in it earlier this year. Put a 500GB Samsung 850 EVO, and a 1TB HGST Travelstar 7K1000 drive in it. Set them up in a 1.5TB fusion drive. I replaced the thermal paste when I did the drives since it was over 4 years old at the time.

I'll be doing RAM next. Not because I need it.

My mini is now just there to serve DRM protected iTunes videos to the home network, facilitate encrypted backups of my iOS devices, and some iOS development. The last item is probably the only reason I still have it around, TBH, since the other two reasons can easily be handled elsewhere in the home.

But, who knows what the future holds? 5 years from now I just might have all Apple in the home, no Apple at all, or still a mix like now.

 

[Cory5412]

I'm still using my 2011 mac mini. I have the base model with the i5 CPU, HD3000 graphics, and it started with 2GB of RAM and a 500GB hard disk.

Over the years, I've always run the latest OS on it, I have 8GB of RAM in it and I have a 240GB SSD in it.

I have yet to run 10.12 on it, but with 10.11, it's a good system. I keep several Safari tabs open, Outlook/Word/Excel/OneNote 2016 are open almost all the time, and I do some video editing sometime in FCP6.

I haven't done Lightroom on this system, but Aperture and Photos have been fine when I tried them. The system I've spent most time in Lightroom on over the years has been an older Core2Duo Windows laptop, so I have no trouble believing it would work well.

If you haven't already bought one, or just generally food for thought: I wouldn't personally bother with any of the Radeon-equipped Mac minis. Since ~2009 or so I haven't seen any good evidence on either the PC or Mac side of things that discrete GPUs with only 256MB of memory make a meaningful difference in game performance, and I don't think it will make a meaningful OpenCL contribution. The 256M Radeon might play certain older or lower performance games better (I'm thinking in particular of World of Warcraft) than the HD3000 or HD4000, but it won't let you really step up to a higher tier of gaming.

Depending on what your budget is -- if you can pull together enough money to buy one of the higher end versions of the 2014 Mac mini, that'll probably last longer overall, but if you need slightly more CPU horsepower in general, the 2012 Ivy Bridge Mac mini with the quad-core CPU has a quad and some more expansion options, including dual SATA disks, USB 3.0, ThunderBolt 2, and up to 16 gigs of RAM.

If you were going to get most of that anyway and can spring for a 2014 mini pre-configured that way, it shouldn't be a bad system. The real trouble is that the 2014 Mac minis are all on Haswell chips. No word yet on whether there will be a real 2016 or 2017 Mac mini with Skylake CPUs.