MacMini 2010 - upgrade or forget it?

[Giuanniello]

I got a 2010 4.1 MacMini with 4GB RAM and spinning disk, I only use it as a lossless music server to stream music via USB to a DAC and then to a stereo system, software being used an old version of Audirvana and OS is HighSierra.

Point being is that whilst music runs smoothly all of a sudden there are dropouts, every there and then music drops and it doesn't matter which player is being used.

Before I upgrade the spinning disk to an SSD I'd like to read from your experience cause I read about audio dropouts here and there, particularly, does it make sense to upgrade RAM and disk to this machine for its purpose which is only to play music?


Grazie

 

[Che Castro]

ssd's are so cheap now I would just get one , you can get a 250gb ssd for $50

I would also upgrade the ram if your going to keep using this 2010 mini

 

[Honza1]

I am not sure the dropouts are caused by either memory or HDD. But if you want to keep it longer - and HDD is original - make sure you backup it now and buy new SSD. 10+ years is serious age for HDD and it is possible its source of your issues. SSD will help to make everything faster and is surely cheap today.
You may not need more memory for this purpose. But this mini is so old, that you may find someone who has memory to give for free. I have two same age minis retired in the basement with memory sticks and if someone nearby would needed it, I would merrily donate the memory to him. But it is not practical to ship it.

 

[mdgm]

SSD is a good upgrade for this machine. RAM upgrade would be nice too.

Obviously if you could pickup second hand a 2012 (or even a 2011) it would be a significant upgrade over the 2010, especially if you get the quad-core. The 2012 prices are still much higher than I'd like as the 2014 didn't have a quad-core option so isn't as desirable.

 

[California]

2010's are great -- yours is the only unibody mac mini with the dvd player, correct? ... Just get an SSD plus at least 8 gb's of ram, though yours will take 16gbs of ram. They work FINE. Just do not break any connectors to fans or hd's when you remove. Follow all instructions.

 

[Giuanniello]

Hello,

I also have an i5 2014 one to whom I already swapped the spinning disk with an SSD but broke the small (small is an euphemism) connector which gives light to the front led and enables the IR receiver (and dunno what else) so it won't allow the use of the remote and, by the way, being a very slow i5 CPU (1.4Ghz if not wrong) it is not that faster at all, anzi... it was given to me by a friend so I can't complain.

Yesterday I tried to play music through iTunes and there were no glitches at all, an mp3 file might be in the 5-6MB range whilst a FLAC is easily 20-30MB, maybe processing power at this point but, yeah, an SSD can be reutilised somewhere else just in case so I will go for it.

Will then see if worth to upgrade RAM (after surgery gone successful), this is the only computer I own which still carries an optical disk which might come handy to rip music or movies out of ads/dvds.

thank you all and have a nice Sunday


Giovanni

 

[Erehy Dobon]

This isn't worth pouring more money into this old computer. Just recycle the Mac mini 2010.

I got rid of mine in 2019 because it stuttered during playback of high-bitrate H.264 and HEVC (H.265) videos. A $60 Raspberry Pi 4 was a capable replacement for that old Mac.

One can buy a no-name external USB slimline optical drive for $16 on Amazon. These are commodity components.

 

[Giuanniello]

I can unfortunately recycle two x 8GB pc1333 RAM modules off my dead MBPo late 2011 (the infamous video board series) but my guess is that a C2Duo can't handle the lossless playback, I have to try and check system activity to find out CPU and RAM consumption.

By the way I have a Pi3something in a drawer but too much hassle to put it all together, I need over 250GB to store music so I have to add some kind of storage and it means more cables with extra power required bla bla bla or put the music on the NAS and stream it to the Pi but the idea is to make things easier not more complicated that's why the Mini came handy.

Oh well, it's a 10+ years old machine...

Grazie

 

[chevman]

I have a 2009 Mac Mini (2Ghz C2D) with 4GB RAM that I upgraded with a SSD about 5 years ago.

Run 10.11.6 El Cap on it and use it everyday as my main desktop computer for personal use.

Still works fine and can play FLAC files no problem, including higher res ones (eg 24bit, 48khz).

 

[janitor3]

Running a 2010 Mac mini with 8GB ram and a 500GB SSD, OS is High Sierra. It's my main desktop, not having any problems with it. Does what I need it to do.

 

[Giuanniello]

Fine, I will get a cheap 500GB SSD and try and give it new breed to play lossless music.

Grazie e buona pasqua everybody

 

[K two]

Fine, I will get a cheap 500GB SSD and try and give it new breed to play lossless music.

Grazie e buona pasqua everybody

The SSD and 16GB of RAM will allow High Sierra and Mojave or Catalina to be very useful on the Mini4,1. Also, Big Sur.