All the old Mac Minis please stand up!

[tubular]

Which Mac Mini are you running and what duty is it performing? Do share!

2010 Mac mini, with an SSD, holds my music collection -- fed by iTunes into a pair of HomePods.

Summer-2014 quad-core Mac mini maxi, which I lucked into buying right before Apple demolished the Mac mini line-up, is my general driver. Planning on finally upgrading to the *new* Mac mini maxi in January.

 

[Ace2617]

Mines a 2012 2.5 dual core, 8 GB of RAM and a 256 GB Samsung SSD. I'd love to get one of the new minis but before I do, I'm going to upgrade my current mini to its max 16 GB of RAM and use it like that for a while.

 

[Partron22]

My late 2005 Mini (10.5.8) still serves as a music server in the basement (iTunes 10.4.11).
I also use an old version Libre Office on it to take notes.
Sometimes I'll put it in OS 9 emulation mode and play a round of Spaceward Ho!
I use the internal drive for backup, and a 1TB external Firewire for boot, Apps etc.

 

[IscariotJ]

Mid 2011 Server with 2.0 quad, is attached to my Drobo, which houses my iTunes library, and feeds all the ATV’s in the house. It’s also my development host. Still original. Not bad for a seven year old machine.

 

[Razzerman]

Early 2009 mac mini - upgraded ram and hard drive; runs lovely, and keeps the wife happy-ish

 

[MacNeal]

Still using my Mac mini (mid-2010) 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 8 GB RAM, 500 GB original HD, running High Sierra 10.13.6. This was the final mini with the built-in Superdrive, which started acting flakey (the Superdrive, that is) just after a year's time. I use a Dell HD monitor, a Macally BT wireless mouse, and a Microsoft Natural ergonomic keyboard.

I've been limping along with my beloved but increasingly sluggish mini, hoping against hope that Apple wasn't abandoning the mini line. I plan to get a new 2018 mini just as soon as I can figure out the right configuration for me. I dread the thought of setting up a new mini, which will likely require new connector hubs and may not work with some of my peripherals.

I finally registered here so that I could participate in the forums, which seem to be some of the best around. I look nothing like my avatar, BTW.

 

[Martyimac]

I just replaced my 2011 mini with 8GB ram, 256SSD with a new 2018 mac mostly because wanted to be able to stay current with the most up to date OS. It was working just fine up till replacement, considering selling it.

 

[serega]

2012 i7 Quad 2.3, 16 GB, 1TB SSD.Used for Logic, Native Instruments. Runs good.

 

[mmomega]

The new Mac Mini is a fine piece of machine. Played with the new i5 version at the Apple Store and Final Cut Pro runs really smoothly and quickly on it. FCPX also loads faster on the Mac Mini compared to the high end iMac, most likely due to SSD in the Mini vs. Fusion drive in the iMac.

Anyway, just wanted to see how many ole faithful Mac Mini's are still performing duty out in the wild. Please stand up!

I have a 2010 Mac Mini with 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo and 2GB ram that I bought brand new and to this day still running like a little champ. In 2014, she was running slow, so I gave her a boost in energy by replacing the 2GB of ram with 8GB of ram. And then in 2018 I replaced the 320GB HDD with 500GB of SSD to give it a new life, and on top of that running High Sierra. I wouldn't try doing any video work on it, and it stutters when running 1080p YouTube video in full screen on the 1440p monitor, but everyday tasks like checking email, web browsing, editing documents, and playing music are still snappy.

If anyone knows how I can get it to run smoothly playing 1080p YouTube videos in full screen please do tell.

Which Mac Mini are you running and what duty is it performing? Do share!

I think it will only do 50or 59Hz, over mini display port to DisplayPort to the monitor to even get anything at 1440.
Think....

I would try, tearing it down fully, can-airing every single piece dust bunny carcas that decided your mini was it's new home and maybe redo thermal paste....it really is only a couple screws and some paste. But ,guarantee a d complete through fan cleaning will get better temps if it isn't already somewhat clean.

 

[tedson]

My Mid 2011 mini is still going strong and plan to keep running it as a headless server even after I buy a new 2018 Mini. I'm just waiting for the supply of 2018 Mini's to increase so the online Apple Authorized stores start offering them for a discount. I also wanted to let all the early buyers test theirs to see if any unforeseen issues might arise that would give me pause. I can wait a few months to save a little money.

 

[msh]

2009 mini - upgraded with 500gB ssd and 8gB ram. Using as a music/video server only for JRiver hosted on WIN7 boot camp partition.

2012 mini - 2 core CPU; 500gB ssd 16gB ram. JRiver client in main A/V system for audio and video. WIN7 boot camp.

These machines work very well for their dedicated uses but would certainly be no substitute for my main machine a cMacPro tower. I don’t think I will ever get a new mini, though, because of the soldered in flash drive. When that drive fails the whole machine is gone including all that expensive ram.

 

[ccprstuff]

2009 mini - upgraded with 500gB ssd and 8gB ram. Using as a music/video server only for JRiver hosted on WIN7 boot camp partition.

I don’t think I will ever get a new mini, though, because of the soldered in flash drive. When that drive fails the whole machine is gone including all that expensive ram.

[doublepost=1542070459][/doublepost]Wouldn't be a total loss with a hard drive failure. There's always the external drive option to keep the machine from being completely "gone" if the hard drive fails. Most likely, by the time the warranty expires, with or without AppleCare, the price of externals will be much cheaper than they are now.

 

[tpivette89]

2009 mini - upgraded with 500gB ssd and 8gB ram. Using as a music/video server only for JRiver hosted on WIN7 boot camp partition.

2012 mini - 2 core CPU; 500gB ssd 16gB ram. JRiver client in main A/V system for audio and video. WIN7 boot camp.

These machines work very well for their dedicated uses but would certainly be no substitute for my main machine a cMacPro tower. I don’t think I will ever get a new mini, though, because of the soldered in flash drive. When that drive fails the whole machine is gone including all that expensive ram.

RAM is upgradeable, and thus, removable if the machine "dies".

You can always boot from an external drive, so in the rare instance the soldered SSD does expire, there's always that option.

 

[msh]

RAM is upgradeable, and thus, removable if the machine "dies".

You can always boot from an external drive, so in the rare instance the soldered SSD does expire, there's always that option.

As I understand it, with the 2018 mini if that flash drive fails you won’t be able to boot from an external drive because of the T2 chip; will have to replace entire logic board. As for the ram, that may be obsolete by the time the flash drive fails, say in year 4, unless of course you replace the logic board - a very expensive repair I would imagine since it contains the soldered in cpu and flash drive.

 

[ktcifone]

Im going to use my 2012 till it dies. Still migrating off to the new one. bought the low i7 for a steal in 2014 after the mess of that model and ripped everything out i could replace but its showing its age.

lots of options now just wish they made USBc cables longer than 6 feet.

 

[Scrapula]

I have 2 Mac Minis. I bought an iMac in 2012 and copied over my old Mac Mini data. I don’t remember the year. It must be 2009 or a bit older. Then I have a Mac Mini even older that is still running. I bought it because I was running a Power Mac, but needed something new with an Intel chip. The Mini had just come out. It is still running just fine. I am going to transfer everything off of it onto my new Mini when it comes in. I was late to order, so it may be another 2 weeks.

 

[ccprstuff]

As I understand it, with the 2018 mini if that flash drive fails you won’t be able to boot from an external drive because of the T2 chip; will have to replace entire logic board. As for the ram, that may be obsolete by the time the flash drive fails, say in year 4, unless of course you replace the logic board - a very expensive repair I would imagine since it contains the soldered in cpu and flash drive.

Good to know. I'll add this on my GROWING list of stuff to find out more about before deciding whether to take the plunge to get a new mini.

 

[shinji]

2012 Mini i7, 16 gb RAM, one stock 1 TB HDD and one Samsung SSD. I currently use it for everything, though if I do buy the 2018, I'm not sure what I'll end up repurposing this for.

As I understand it, with the 2018 mini if that flash drive fails you won’t be able to boot from an external drive because of the T2 chip

Do you have a source for that? As best I know, Macs with T2 chips have an app called Startup Security Utility, and you can change the setting to allow booting from external media https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208330

It's just that the default setting is to not allow it.

 

[msh]

I read about it on iFixit in the mac mini teardown comments section. It has something to do with the T2 chip being able to load the bridge OS which apparently requires a working flash drive and which can't be loaded if it is damaged. That startup utility apparently won't work if the flash drive is damaged. I don't have any other confirmation but I would certainly verify that before I bought a new mini.

https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Mac+mini+Late+2018+Teardown/115210

 

[MBAir2010]

stand up? mine is laying down 2012 since im here. usb hates usb things

 

[fuchsdh]

For a while I was using a 2011 DC with 16GB of RAM and a 120GB SSD as my work machine. It was actually faster in a lot of day-to-day tasks than my old 2008 Mac Pro (save for render times) and I also used it with Back to my Mac (RIP) as a connection to the local network when I worked remotely.

Not sure what the future holds for it—I might make it my music server at some point (right now everything's piped through storage on my Mac Pro.)

 

[shinji]

I read about it on iFixit in the mac mini teardown comments section. It has something to do with the T2 chip being able to load the bridge OS which apparently resides on the flash drive and which can't be loaded if it is damaged. That startup utility apparently won't work if the flash drive is damaged. I don't have any other confirmation but I would certainly verify that before I bought a new mini.

https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Mac+mini+Late+2018+Teardown/115210

You use that utility to set the startup options ahead of time. It's not what you actually use to boot the computer.

I found this though, which says you can boot from an external drive, but it can't be formatted as HFS+ volume with Filevault. It has to be formatted as APFS: help-my-clone-wont-boot

 

[msh]

You use that utility to set the startup options ahead of time. It's not what you actually use to boot the computer.

I found this though, which says you can boot from an external drive, but it can't be formatted as HFS+ volume with Filevault. It has to be formatted as APFS: help-my-clone-wont-boot

I don’t know how all these elements work to boot up the mini. I have no experience with T2 and don’t own any devices with it.

I see you have started another thread about people having trouble booting the mini possibly involving the t2 chip and bridge os and the ssd. Maybe that will shed some light on the issue I raised about a failing ssd not being able to be booted from an external drive. In any event, I sure wouldn’t buy one of these minis without answers to these questions.

[note: I corrected my quoted post to read that the bridge OS doesn’t reside on the flash drive.]

 

[Yvan256]

Still using a mid-2010 Mac Mini with a 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo. A few years ago, I upgraded the RAM to 16GB RAM, replaced the stock HDD with a basic 128GB Kingston SSD and removed the optical drive to install a 750GB WD Black in its place. The OS and applications are on the SSD, my files are on the 750GB.

Still running 10.9.5 because the later versions have hard-to-read fonts on non-retina monitors and I'm still using my ViewSonic VP171s.

For 1080p YouTube videos, I have had better luck with Chrome 67 than Safari 9.1.3. With Safari, YouTube doesn't even give you the 480p option which is what I usually pick when watching videos in theatre mode.

 

[Tigerman82]

I still have the old Early-2009 Mac Mini (which I gave to my mother) to which I installed 8 gigs of RAM and a Crucial SSD. Unfortunately around the time El Capitan came, it turned extremely sluggish. Even something as simple as opening the App Store takes ages. I'm currently looking to upgrade my Mid-2010 iMac to the i5 Mac Mini but have been a bit worried about the longevity as I tend to not upgrade my desktops until at least eight years have passed. Fortunately it seems that the current Mac Mini is a powerful little machine and not something that will be slow in five years although that GPU bottleneck gives me doubts.

BTW, unlike the Early-2009 Mac Mini which hasn't been responsive for years, my Mid-2010 iMac is still fast in basic tasks (8 gigs of RAM, Samsung SSD). However, it has slowed down a bit and the wireless connectivity is not up-to-date by no means. Moreover, the 21.5" 1080p screen is getting hard to live with as I do tend to multitask.