What to do with a 2009 Mac mini?

[Zeke D]

Hey, all, work was disposing of a 2009 Mac mini: 2.0Ghz, 4gb RAM, 120gb HDD. I rescued it, brought it home to be cleaned up. I tossed a 120gb SSD in it. The RAM I had was too fast, so I’m stuck with the 4gb. I installed Sierra via @dosdude1 installer, but the BT/WiFi module isn’t supported. It’s not a huge deal, since I have a few airport expresses lying around. I guess I could manually add the kexts, but I’m a total n00b, so a detailed how-to link would be nice.

I’ve got a pair of classic Mac Pros for arting, and a 2018 MacBook as my daily driver. So, any suggestions on what to with this thing? I do have a Luna Display Adapter that I’m not using...

 

[dosdude1]

Hey, all, work was disposing of a 2009 Mac mini: 2.0Ghz, 4gb RAM, 120gb HDD. I rescued it, brought it home to be cleaned up. I tossed a 120gb SSD in it. The RAM I had was too fast, so I’m stuck with the 4gb. I installed Sierra via @dosdude1 installer, but the BT/WiFi module isn’t supported. It’s not a huge deal, since I have a few airport expresses lying around. I guess I could manually add the kexts, but I’m a total n00b, so a detailed how-to link would be nice.

I’ve got a pair of classic Mac Pros for arting, and a 2018 MacBook as my daily driver. So, any suggestions on what to with this thing? I do have a Luna Display Adapter that I’m not using...

Just FYI: The WiFi issue has been resolved, and the fix is included in High Sierra, Mojave, and now Catalina Patcher applications. I'd advise using one of them instead.

 

[Zeke D]

Just FYI: The WiFi issue has been resolved, and the fix is included in High Sierra, Mojave, and now Catalina Patcher applications. I'd advise using one of them instead.

Excellent! I run Sierra on my cMP for software compatibility, but don’t intend to run that software on the mini. I might just switch over to HS. Any downsides to running HS on this?

 

[dosdude1]

Excellent! I run Sierra on my cMP for software compatibility, but don’t intend to run that software on the mini. I might just switch over to HS. Any downsides to running HS on this?

None at all, should run just fine.

 

[wardie]

None at all, should run just fine.

I’ve got HS on both a 2009 mini and a 2009 iMac both run really well still.

 

[a2jack]

09 mini macs make great Kodi boxes for your TV. a2.

 

[Zeke D]

09 mini macs make great Kodi boxes for your TV. a2.

I was thinking about a plex server, but those 4TB 2.5” drives run really hot...

 

[Giuanniello]

Edited:

never mind, I have a 2.1 Mini with upgraded Core 2 Duo CPU and 3 (???) GB RAM with I though I could update to some more recent OS but so far it seems I am locked on Tiger or whatever it is