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2012 Mini: How much RAM for Yosemite?
- Thread starter ZipZilla
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Thanks for responding. I'll keep it at least 3 years.
I use it for general everyday computing needs. Email, internet, Spotify, creating YouTube videos, spreadsheets, etc. Nothing too heavy. I never do gaming.
8GB would cover you nicely. Try to budget for a ssd; that will make your whole system feel so much faster.
Edit: You could probably get away with 4GB, but I'd go 8GB if at all possible.
Edit #2: If you stay with 4GB, definitely get a ssd, that way if you end up swapping due to lack of ram, it won't be as noticeable.
I pretty much use mine for internet, email, Pages, Numbers and iTunes radio and 4GB is more than enough for my needs.
16gb of RAM costs a LOT more than $50 lately.
My suggestion (and my opinion only):
Buy -one- 8gb RAM module, which will give you 10gb.
Cost-effective, should handle most tasks that Yosemite throws at it, and I doubt you'll notice any "speed difference" because the modules are "UN-matched" (as distinguished from using two RAM modules of equal size).
That's what I did a couple of months ago with my own 2012 Mini, and it's running fine.
Actually, I'm only experimenting with Yosemite at the moment -- running on an ancient 2.5" IDE drive mounted in a firewire 400 enclosure!
But with a couple of tweaks, it runs surprisingly well -- compared to Mavericks, which was a dog no matter what I tried to improve its performance.
My tweaks:
- turned off compressed memory via terminal
- turned off VM completely via terminal
- disabled sleep image
I've got a big enough "installed memory cushion" so that I shouldn't bump up against the "hard limits" that are present without any VM at all. Runs pretty good!
My suggestion (and my opinion only):
Buy -one- 8gb RAM module, which will give you 10gb.
Cost-effective, should handle most tasks that Yosemite throws at it, and I doubt you'll notice any "speed difference" because the modules are "UN-matched" (as distinguished from using two RAM modules of equal size).
That's what I did a couple of months ago with my own 2012 Mini, and it's running fine.
Actually, I'm only experimenting with Yosemite at the moment -- running on an ancient 2.5" IDE drive mounted in a firewire 400 enclosure!
But with a couple of tweaks, it runs surprisingly well -- compared to Mavericks, which was a dog no matter what I tried to improve its performance.
My tweaks:
- turned off compressed memory via terminal
- turned off VM completely via terminal
- disabled sleep image
I've got a big enough "installed memory cushion" so that I shouldn't bump up against the "hard limits" that are present without any VM at all. Runs pretty good!
The 16GB kit for the 2012 Mini is $165 from Crucial. I want to buy good RAM with a good reputation.
Yes, when you get get the extra 8Gb for about $50 more than what 8GB costs, it's worth the cost.
I saw the Amazon deal, but it isn't the same part number as Crucial and if you read some of the bad reviews for it, it didn't work some people.
I have purchased that same ram 4 times now. It works perfect. The part numbers are different because crucial changes them for vendors.
In that case, I will be placing my order. Thank you for the valuable feedback. I love a deal.
Keep an eye on it. Some Macbook Air folks with 4GB and SSD standard are complaining and referred to Mavericks as way quicker than Yosemite on MBA hardware. I have loaded all my 2012 minis to the max with corsair kit and SSDs from amazon.
Installed 16 GB from 8 GB on a 2011 Mini, and saw no use for it in Activity Monitor, and that was a wasted upgrade for me. Even a 4 GB amount was OK in my book. 8 GB is enough. SSD on the other hand is way better upgrade...PERIOD Don't let those that say 16 GB and forget about it replies sway you into wasting your money for nothing
I've had my i& Mini for almost two months now and still have the stock 4GB in it and running Mavericks. For the most part, it runs fine but when I use iFlicks and it starts to import to iTunes, the computer runs slower then molasses and I can literally click on the iTunes icon 100 times before it will switch to iTunes from iFlicks. I pretty much just leave it alone now while it is busy but while it's importing, the computer is useless.
I plan on getting more RAM soon and I'm not even thinking of running Yosemite any time soon.