Apple Mac Mini 2,1 A1176

[The Samurai]

Hi everyone

Looking to pick up a really cheap Mac Mini A1176 and looking to add an SSD and 8gb ram.

Will be using as a media server, emails, surfing and word processing.

Can it handle it?

 

[marioman38]

Biggest issue will be the newest OS it can run is 10.7.5

Second. You can not use more than 3GB RAM (it will report 4GB but only 3GB actually used), hardware restriction on all the Macs of that era.

Third software for 10.7.5 has been discontinued for a while. Firefox ESR version 45.9.0 is the newest Web Browser you can run, and its from April 2017, chrome and safari discontinued support even earlier.

I have 3 iMacs from late 2006, same era, same limitations. I surf the web on them okay, and use iMovie HD 6 to upgrade old VHS and 8mm home movies to disk images with iDVD. I think the life you will get out of it is limited. Oldest i would go now days it the 2011 because thats when they switched from the Core2Duo to the i5. Keeping in mind even the 2011 mini can't run the newest OS.

In summary it could work, but there are limitations to be aware of. Not sure what the newest version of Kodi or VLC are for 10.7.5 but you'll want to check that too.

 

[EmlynDewar]

It's passed the stage where they aren't pleasant for web surfing.
I've binned my old one now, ran better with Windows than OSX but they are just way too long in the tooth.

Buy a newer model or regret the purchase, I'd say.

 

[Fishrrman]

If you're looking for a used Mini, don't consider any except late-2012 (and after).
Everything else is just "too far back" these days...