Mixing ram

[thomstarboy]

Would it be a bad idea to take a Mini with base 4gb, replace one of the 1x2gb ram chips with a 1x8gb (say from Crucial) and leave the 1x2gb in the other slot?

I'm not sure if I need 16gb, and I thought this way I can make the most of the ram that comes with the unit and wait to add in another 1x8gb later if I need it/when ram gets even cheaper.

Would it be a bad idea to mix ram like this?

 

[theRAMman]

This has been discussed before and it should be fine, but the RAM will run slightly slower. If its any help you probably wont need any more than the 4Gb supplied with the Mini, unless your planning on doing lots of photo/video editing

 

[nikolajlr]

It should work, but using RAM sticks of different sizes will result in that they work in single channel mode. Which leaves them with half the bandwidth of the dual channel mode you get when using two sticks of the same size/type.

So it really depends on what you are doing with your Mini. For "normal" use it will probably be perfectly fine (unless you hit the occasional compatibility issue - in that case just pull out the 2 GB module. 8 GB is plenty for most people).

 

[dazey]

I have done this exact thing. I have 10GB ram in my 2.3 mini, an 8GB crucial stick and one of the original 2GB sticks. No problems at all.

 

[dasx]

Computer will work, if that's what you ask!

 

[Micky Do]

I have done this exact thing. I have 10GB ram in my 2.3 mini, an 8GB crucial stick and one of the original 2GB sticks. No problems at all.

Similar here: I asked the shop to install 4GB in my early 2009 base model Mini, which was getting slow on the original 1GB. It would not have been enough to run Mountain Lion. They simply added 4GB along side the existing 1GB. It works fine.