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Mac mini 2007 still usable ?

Zanaty

Zanaty

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 8, 2020
26
5
Egypt
Hey guys,
I encountered an offer on a local site for a Mac mini 2007 model and I’m tempted to buy it now.
I’ll only use it for web browsing and for uploading YouTube videos and as a file storage.
Can this model handle my uses or will it be a stretch ?
The seller doesn’t list the specs just the model number which showed it’s a 2,1 model with the core duo processor.
 
Zanaty said:
Hey guys,
I encountered an offer on a local site for a Mac mini 2007 model and I’m tempted to buy it now.
I’ll only use it for web browsing and for uploading YouTube videos and as a file storage.
Can this model handle my uses or will it be a stretch ?
The seller doesn’t list the specs just the model number which showed it’s a 2,1 model with the core duo processor.
Click to expand...
A computer that old can't run any current software and will struggle to play high resolution Youtube videos. It should be nearly free at this point.
 
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chrfr said:
A computer that old can't run any current software and will struggle to play high resolution Youtube videos. It should be nearly free at this point.
Click to expand...
Oh, what if you knew that it costs equivalent to 800 usd 😂
 
I assume that the OP was not serious with the $800 comment, because that would be beyond ridiculous. Personally, I wouldn't take one if it were free. It just wouldn't be worth the effort. The oldest Mini that I would consider would be the 2012 models - preferably the quad-core 2.3ghz or 2.6ghz. But the base 2.5ghz model is still usable and you can upgrade the RAM easily.
 
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chrfr said:
That's what a brand new Mini costs here in the US.
Click to expand...
Sadly I know but the currency differences is ridiculous over here.
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Boyd01 said:
I assume that the OP was not serious with the $800 comment, because that would be beyond ridiculous. Personally, I wouldn't take one if it were free. It just wouldn't be worth the effort. The oldest Mini that I would consider would be the 2012 models - preferably the quad-core 2.3ghz or 2.6ghz. But the base 2.5ghz model is still usable and you can upgrade the RAM easily.
Click to expand...
I’m dead serious sadly, the wages over here in Egypt is roughly the same as the us but 1 dollar is equivalent to 17 pounds here so the new Mac mini would cost me near 15-20 thousand pounds.
 
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You don't want a Mini that's 13 years old.
The oldest Mini you should look for is a 2012 (with USB3).
DO NOT buy a 2014 Mini unless it has 8gb of RAM or more (RAM is NOT upgradeable on these).

Where in the world are you?
 
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Boyd01 said:
That's a difficult situation, sorry. Nevertheless, I don't think a 2007 mini is very useful today. Can't you find something newer?
Click to expand...
Yeah I scrapped the idea and now looking for a 2012 version, thank you.
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Fishrrman said:
You don't want a Mini that's 13 years old.
The oldest Mini you should look for is a 2012 (with USB3).
DO NOT buy a 2014 Mini unless it has 8gb of RAM or more (RAM is NOT upgradeable on these).

Where in the world are you?
Click to expand...
Yeah now looking for a 2012 version, I’m from Egypt.
 
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I've got a mid 2011 (5,1) that I run headless to serve up any local content for an Apple TV - iTunes, Plex, transcoding, that sort of thing. It stopped getting OS X upgrades as of High Sierra and the HDD in it makes it frustratingly slow if I get it to switch tasks and swap out what is in RAM; restarting it takes a surprising amount of it. The media it serves is sitting on a NAS so for my use it is ideal and it keeps soldiering on. If you can get one with an SSD it will be a massive improvement, the rest of it for your use-case is likely fine.

If you do get it then is there a safe current internet browser to run on whatever version of OS X will run on it?
 
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There's a long thread here about software/operating systems for a 2011 Mini, much of it would also be relevant to other old models:

forums.macrumors.com

Advice Please: What To Do With Mac Mini mid2011???

Hey guys, Sorry to be making a new thread, but I know MacRumors is the community which has the most experts on Macs on the internet. I searched the forums and I couldn't find a previous thread related to my severe problem. My biggest fear has come true: Apple will stop giving security updates...
forums.macrumors.com forums.macrumors.com
 
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TheHareBear said:
I've got a mid 2011 (5,1) that I run headless to serve up any local content for an Apple TV - iTunes, Plex, transcoding, that sort of thing. It stopped getting OS X upgrades as of High Sierra and the HDD in it makes it frustratingly slow if I get it to switch tasks and swap out what is in RAM; restarting it takes a surprising amount of it. The media it serves is sitting on a NAS so for my use it is ideal and it keeps soldiering on. If you can get one with an SSD it will be a massive improvement, the rest of it for your use-case is likely fine.

If you do get it then is there a safe current internet browser to run on whatever version of OS X will run on it?
Click to expand...
Thank you for your input, if I can get a 2011 version I think I’ll use Firefox with it or even safari as the websites I visit are not demanding at all.
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Boyd01 said:
There's a long thread here about software/operating systems for a 2011 Mini, much of it would also be relevant to other old models:

forums.macrumors.com

Advice Please: What To Do With Mac Mini mid2011???

Hey guys, Sorry to be making a new thread, but I know MacRumors is the community which has the most experts on Macs on the internet. I searched the forums and I couldn't find a previous thread related to my severe problem. My biggest fear has come true: Apple will stop giving security updates...
forums.macrumors.com forums.macrumors.com
Click to expand...
Thank you very much, will check it out certainly.
 
Again, don't get anything earlier than the 2012, which has USB3.

2011 Mini has only USB2 ... slow.
 
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2007 mini works great as an iTunes server. You can run Libre Office on it, and if you use
OS 10.5.11 on it, you can still run System 1-9 software on it thru Rosetta emulation mode.
There's lots of good pre-OSX software out there.
I keep mine far away from the internet.
 
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Zanaty said:
Hey guys,
I encountered an offer on a local site for a Mac mini 2007 model and I’m tempted to buy it now.
I’ll only use it for web browsing and for uploading YouTube videos and as a file storage.
Can this model handle my uses or will it be a stretch ?
The seller doesn’t list the specs just the model number which showed it’s a 2,1 model with the core duo processor.
Click to expand...
About a year ago I picked up a 2014 Mini (used) on eBay: 2.6 GHz, 8GB memory, 1 TB 5400 RPM HDD. Paid about $250. Used it to replace my Late 2009 Mini, which was pretty much near the end of being useful (optical drive took a dump in 2018, but, hey, 9 years ain't bad!).

I still have the 2009. Thinking about setting it up again--maybe to run Diablo II and some 32 bit Steam games, but I've gotten spoiled on HDMI video and 64 bit software.

I suppose I MIGHT consider accepting a 2007 Mini as a freebie, but I wouldn't PAY for one. Odds are it's not going to last very long, the memory won't be very big, and the optical drive probably doesn't work. Internal HDD is a REAL pain to swap on any Mini, and I'd be surprised if it's got more than 80 GB.

So, no. I wouldn't get it. But I've got a working 2009, and if it doesn't do the old stuff, I've got a 2004 iMac that still works (but the optical drive... not so much). If it doesn't go back far enough into the Wayback Machine, I can dust off one of my fruit flavor iMac G3s (at least one has a working CD drive, and both can run my Zip drives...). And if they can't cut it, there's always my trusty ][GS and its HUGE 240 GB hard drive and mighty AppleWorks ][GS.
 
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It depends on your needs and what you want to spend - keep doing your research. I have five Mac minis, one 2005 G4 PPC, one early 2009, two late 2009s and one 2012 - my daily machine. The G4 is for older software/nostalgia and OS9 classic - my first Mac mini, 15 years old. The early 2009 is a file server and runs Mojave through patcher. One Late 2009 has El Capitan, Mountain Lion and Snow Leopard on it with the software I installed at the time. The second serves as a movie and music server running Mojave hooked up to a 4K television. The 2012 has two hardrives, one with Sierra and one with Mojave - just transitioned from Sierra over to Mojave, I had no use for High Sierra and no use for Catalina. I'm not familar with the Intel single core machines, they weren't around for too long. I can recommend the 2009 Intel dual core through 2012 Intel core i5 Mac minis - about $100 US for the 2009 and $280 US for the 2012.
 
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