I have a 2010 mac mini that I have upgraded with 16gb ram and a 500gb ssd and also installed High Sierra. I haven't used it in a few years as I was only using it for some app dev testing at the time. I did like it a lot and it met my needs at the time very well. I thought after the upgrade it would be a lot snappier but it is not. I do miss macos so I don't want to go back to windows. I don't run media servers or anything like that, I use it for office work which includes multiple browser sessions open oftentimes with 20 +tabs open in addition to word, excel, and perhaps youtube or a light weight photo editor. I also run dual monitors (not 4k) to help with multi tasking. Is there a mac mini that anyone has experience with that may meet my needs? Or should I go MacBook/MacBook pro? THX
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- Thread starter SlavKO
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The current Mac Mini is approaching 4 years old with no replacement in sight.
If you want "a modern Mac", you had best look to the iMacs or to the MacBook/MacBook Pro line.
If you want "a modern Mac", you had best look to the iMacs or to the MacBook/MacBook Pro line.
General "snappiness" in the OS and applications is massively improved by switching from an HDD to an SSD. The 2010 doesn't have USB 3 or Thunderbolt, so you're going to have to do an internal install.
Anyway, that is true for "lightweight" use like you mention. If you are waiting a long time for heavy processing, like converting video or something like that, then nothing can really be done other than getting a new computer with a faster CPU and more cores like a 2012 Mac Mini with quad core i7, or a completely different type of computer altogether.
The 2010 Mini only has Sata 2 internal ports too, so an SSD would be hamstrung by a relative lack of bandwidth - at least 33% less than the 2011 or 2012 model. It's still worth upgrading if you're on a budget but perhaps there's not a need to get the best performing SSD out there as any performance benefits would be degraded.
Total performance of the system will be poor though and without Thunderbolt Ports or USB3 the system is already limited. Any 2014 model would outperform it.
Total performance of the system will be poor though and without Thunderbolt Ports or USB3 the system is already limited. Any 2014 model would outperform it.