Speed up 2008 Mac Mini

[adamtj11]

Okay so just picked up a 3 year old Mac Mini for $90 , great value but it only has 1gb of Ram which means Lion is currently a no go. Would like to get 2 or 3 gb in there and maybe even a new Hard Drive. Does anyone know exactly what type of Ram i'll need to install and how much i should be paying? I've installed Ram in a Mac Mini before with the putty knives so i know how to do it. Cheers

 

[philipma1957]

okay it is important that it is a 2008 a core2duo not a core duo i will post links

an install video

http://eshop.macsales.com/installvideos/mac_mini_06-08_mem_hd_opt/


now if it has 1gb of ram it could be a pair of .5gb sticks or one 1gb stick.

If you have 1 1gb stick you just need a 2gb stick

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/5300DDR2S2GB/



it is DDR2 PC2-5300 2Gb the price above of 32 us dollars is meh you should find it for less.

If your machine has a pair of .5gb sticks buy 2 2gb sticks and dump both .5gb sticks. your model will use about 3.1 to 3.3 Gb of the 4Gb. So a pair of 2Gb sticks is a tiny bit quicker then a 1gb and a 2gb. Money wise buying a pair 2gb sticks only makes sense if your machine has .5gb sticks. buying 1 2gb stick makes sense if your machine has a single 1gb stick in it.


one more thing since the machine is open drop a hdd in it. scorpio blacks are pretty good.

here are amazon uk links:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Western-Dig...3EKQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1310132765&sr=8-1


this is a nice hdd


http://www.amazon.co.uk/Western-Dig...E4PQ/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1310132765&sr=8-5

better


http://www.amazon.co.uk/WD-Scorpio-...J5OG/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1310132765&sr=8-4

best


http://www.amazon.co.uk/Crucial-200...QRTG/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1310132927&sr=8-2 this ram is good

 

[adamtj11]

okay it is important that it is a 2008 a core2duo not a core duo i will post links

an install video

http://eshop.macsales.com/installvideos/mac_mini_06-08_mem_hd_opt/


now if it has 1gb of ram it could be a pair of .5gb sticks or one 1gb stick.

If you have 1 1gb stick you just need a 2gb stick

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/5300DDR2S2GB/



it is DDR2 PC2-5300 2Gb the price above of 32 us dollars is meh you should find it for less.

If your machine has a pair of .5gb sticks buy 2 2gb sticks and dump both .5gb sticks. your model will use about 3.1 to 3.3 Gb of the 4Gb. So a pair of 2Gb sticks is a tiny bit quicker then a 1gb and a 2gb. Money wise buying a pair 2gb sticks only makes sense if your machine has .5gb sticks. buying 1 2gb stick makes sense if your machine has a single 1gb stick in it.


one more thing since the machine is open drop a hdd in it. scorpio blacks are pretty good.

here are amazon uk links:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Western-Dig...3EKQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1310132765&sr=8-1


this is a nice hdd


http://www.amazon.co.uk/Western-Dig...E4PQ/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1310132765&sr=8-5

better


http://www.amazon.co.uk/WD-Scorpio-...J5OG/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1310132765&sr=8-4

best


http://www.amazon.co.uk/Crucial-200...QRTG/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1310132927&sr=8-2 this ram is good

Really appreciate the detailed response, The Scorpio HD and the Ram for 50 Pounds is a seriously good deal, might have to go for that, Don't wanna spend too much on it as it's only really a bit of a fun project to see if I can get this Mac Mini running fast enough for Lion and for some more powerful work thats better on the bigger monitor than my Macbook Pro! 320GB HD and 4GB of ram surely will have this little Machine running fine right?

 

[Nikolai-D]

surely ssd

Hi Adam,

imho ssd will make it fly.
Check this out:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1184012/

Enjoy!
Nikolai

 

[adamtj11]

Thanks i've ordered some ram for now which will give 3 gb of ram, gonna look in to the hard drive now, think SSD is too expensive though for a secondary computer , just a fast hard drive with a lot of space will do nicely!

 

[Nikolai-D]

ssd

Thanks i've ordered some ram for now which will give 3 gb of ram, gonna look in to the hard drive now, think SSD is too expensive though for a secondary computer , just a fast hard drive with a lot of space will do nicely!

Thats exactly what i tought u were going to say. Enjoy!

 

[japtor]

Thanks i've ordered some ram for now which will give 3 gb of ram, gonna look in to the hard drive now, think SSD is too expensive though for a secondary computer , just a fast hard drive with a lot of space will do nicely!

Well if it's a secondary computer do you need a lot of space? You can a 64GB SSD for less than £100! (Hell some under 80-90 too but the Samsung seems most solid as far as reliability and performance vs price)

 

[adamtj11]

Upgraded the Ram there about an hour ago, Much much faster now, Lion GM installed and ran fine ! When I build the courage to open it up again i'll go for a SSD!

 

[philipma1957]

use it for a while. once you see what it can do you can decide if a quick big 7200 rpm drive works or a small very fast ssd. samsung 64gb or intel 80gb are good.