Mac mini 2010 beach balls or slow

[nizmoz]

Our Mac mini has always been this way since new. It has the DVD drive and c2d. I have upgraded it trying to resolve the issue but it is still there. It now has 8gb of ram, 128gb SSD m4. Though it is two versions of the OS behind and considering upgrading it to mountain lion too see if that helps. The OS has been installed fresh multiple times. It is okay after a fresh reboot, but after the day is up is starts to slow. If you go more than one day or so it is really slow. We have to restart it every day.

I am sick of the issues it has given us. Any one have any other ideas on how to solve this? Would the OS upgrade be worth it?

 

[fa8362]

Our Mac mini has always been this way since new.

Why didn't you return it when it was new?

 

[nizmoz]

Why didn't you return it when it was new?

Because we figured an upgrade would fix it since it was a base model. Either way need help on solving the problem.

 

[Omnius]

I have a 2007 base model Mac Mini that isn't slow since I upgraded it. If a new computer is slow, return it asap. download iStat from iSlayer and show us some of the diagnostics that it's displaying. A screenshot when its fast and snappy and another when it slows down. There may be a heat issue or other mechanical issue we'll see right away OR we may find out what is slowing down specifically.

 

[DrakkenWar]

Agreed with others here.

Being the owner of the 2011 mini in my sig, it has been snappy since the day I brought it home. Even with the baseline 4 gigs of ram that it came with. Now being the owner of a 2007 1.83 c2d that I am typing on now, this little beasts feels damn near as fast at my 2011! I have been amazed with the stock 80gig hd and 2.5 gigs of ram this little beast really flies! And all for 80 buck off a local yard sale site. If you unbox a computer and it is slow/glitchy/not playing nice? That is what the return policies are for. Sadly in your case, it sounds like that is most likely no longer an option. Best of luck tracking down the gremlins.

 

[nizmoz]

Well I reinstalled the os and upgraded it to ml. It's running fine right now so let's see how it does. A fully clean install.

 

[monkeybagel]

I have a 2010 Mac mini and it can also at times seem slow. I attribute it to the Toshiba HDD that is installed from the OEM. It gets rather poor transfer rates, and in Windows 7 scores a 5.4 WEI rating, which is not very good. It negotiates at 1.5Gb/sec instead of 3.0. I don't know if it is even coming close to hitting the 1.5 or not (probably now)

I think the drive is for sure the bottleneck in mine. I did install Mountain Lion and 8GB of Crucial memory and it runs pretty good now (slow compared to the SSD MacBook Pr0, but is very usable).

 

[thekev]

I have a 2010 Mac mini and it can also at times seem slow. I attribute it to the Toshiba HDD that is installed from the OEM. It gets rather poor transfer rates, and in Windows 7 scores a 5.4 WEI rating, which is not very good. It negotiates at 1.5Gb/sec instead of 3.0. I don't know if it is even coming close to hitting the 1.5 or not (probably now)

I think the drive is for sure the bottleneck in mine. I did install Mountain Lion and 8GB of Crucial memory and it runs pretty good now (slow compared to the SSD MacBook Pr0, but is very usable).

1.5Gb/s is close enough to 150MB/s. It won't saturate that fully. Even at 100-120, you wouldn't experience a slow machine. HDDs can be the thing if loading is an issue. If everything is loaded, you have free ram, and you're experiencing beach balls frequently, that is not a drive thing. Something is wrong.

 

[monkeybagel]

1.5Gb/s is close enough to 150MB/s. It won't saturate that fully. Even at 100-120, you wouldn't experience a slow machine. HDDs can be the thing if loading is an issue. If everything is loaded, you have free ram, and you're experiencing beach balls frequently, that is not a drive thing. Something is wrong.

Processor intensive tasks are generally quick. Installing software, or copying files seem to be what takes time. Loading complex web site where they are cached and displayed seem to take longer.

 

[monkeybagel]

Here is the most recent test of the TOSHIBA MK3255GSXF. This seems to me to be somewhat slower than the typical 2.5" drive. It makes no sound, so it could not be tuned aggressively to keep acoustics to a minimum. With that said, I have unable to find a controller that will read or change the AAM setting on the drive.

Right now it is 100% stock with a clean install of 10.8.1 from a DVD and 2GB of RAM. It is running fairly well right now, but I have few apps on it. Zero beach balls or hangs so far.

 

[nizmoz]

Here is the most recent test of the TOSHIBA MK3255GSXF. This seems to me to be somewhat slower than the typical 2.5" drive. It makes no sound, so it could not be tuned aggressively to keep acoustics to a minimum. With that said, I have unable to find a controller that will read or change the AAM setting on the drive.

Right now it is 100% stock with a clean install of 10.8.1 from a DVD and 2GB of RAM. It is running fairly well right now, but I have few apps on it. Zero beach balls or hangs so far.

Actually that is faster than some I have seen.