Am hesitant to upgrade from snow leopard but since I use my mini for banking stuff, and no more updates for SL, is the latest OS X working ok on the older hardware? I don't plan on upgrading the mini since mine is the last year with built in DVD drive. Still contemplating removing the drive to put another SSD in it but for now it works for what I need. Upgrade or suck it up on SL?
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Mac Mini 2010 and latest OS X
- Thread starter bearcatrp
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IMO the latest 10.10.4 seems to have worked out most of the bugs, and it is safe to update now. Particularly for someone like you still on Snow Leopard that is not being supported any longer.
I'd wait for that SSD, unless you're ok with a performance decrease. On Snow Leopard you should be fine with a secure and up-to-date browser like Firefox.
Moving to 10.8.5 might be an acceptable "compromise" for an older Mini.
It should still run fairly well without the "lags" that many (who are still using platter-based HDDs) who have upgraded to Mavericks and Yosemite complain about.
Don't get "hung up" about the lack of an internal CD/DVD on newer Minis. You can buy a USB external CD/DVD drive for around $25, and it will work just as well as the internal.
If you are willing to hold out a while longer, I sense the "next generation" Mini will be a nice "upward jump" ahead of the current product lineup. But I wouldn't expect to see one until end of this year or first quarter next year at the earliest...
It should still run fairly well without the "lags" that many (who are still using platter-based HDDs) who have upgraded to Mavericks and Yosemite complain about.
Don't get "hung up" about the lack of an internal CD/DVD on newer Minis. You can buy a USB external CD/DVD drive for around $25, and it will work just as well as the internal.
If you are willing to hold out a while longer, I sense the "next generation" Mini will be a nice "upward jump" ahead of the current product lineup. But I wouldn't expect to see one until end of this year or first quarter next year at the earliest...
Wife has a 2010 mini running 10.10.4 on a 7500 rpm external drive.
2.4 gHz, 8gB Ram.
Start up is slow (1.5min or so?), but once running, everything is pretty smooth.
A significant fraction of that startup time is waiting for login items to initialize.
2.4 gHz, 8gB Ram.
Start up is slow (1.5min or so?), but once running, everything is pretty smooth.
A significant fraction of that startup time is waiting for login items to initialize.
My mum has an Early-2009 Mac Mini that I got her and I've always updated it to the latest OS X. From what I've seen, 10.10.4 runs smooth in the Mac Mini (with Crucial M4 SSD and 8Gb RAM).
Thanks for the replies. Hard drive now I replaced with a 750 GB regular hard drive but much faster one. Kind of figured on the slow start ups with older hardware. Used to have 2 mac pro's and the 1st 24 inch imac apple came out with. Was a mac head but got out of macs in general when I started building my own dual processor xeon systems. Anyways, thanks again. Time to back up 1st in case I don't like the upgrade.