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Mac mini ram upgrade advice.

Geordie bry

Geordie bry

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 14, 2010
48
1
Hi everyone just got my first mac. It a Mac mini I7 2.3ghz 4gb ram. Is it ok to upgrade just one of the ram modules for now. Gonna buy 8gb crucial which will give me a total of 10gb. Or should you only upgrade in matched pairs.
Thanks Bryan.
 
Geordie bry said:
Hi everyone just got my first mac. It a Mac mini I7 2.3ghz 4gb ram. Is it ok to upgrade just one of the ram modules for now. Gonna buy 8gb crucial which will give me a total of 10gb. Or should you only upgrade in matched pairs.
Thanks Bryan.
Click to expand...

I don't think matched pair is necessary, but always recommended..
 
I upgraded just one ram module and now have 10 GB just like you're thinking about doing.
I had/have no problems at all. It works perfectly. I am very pleased and happy with the upgrade.
 
Geordie bry said:
Hi everyone just got my first mac. It a Mac mini I7 2.3ghz 4gb ram. Is it ok to upgrade just one of the ram modules for now. Gonna buy 8gb crucial which will give me a total of 10gb. Or should you only upgrade in matched pairs.
Thanks Bryan.
Click to expand...

You can update asymmetrically. However, RAM is cheap and getting matching pairs will give you better performance
 
The extra 2GB will deliver more speed than matching pair because of the extra headroom. When needed, the symmetrical 2GB of each module will run as dual channel pair as well. Always buy one 8GB instead of 2 fours when on a budget.
 
rndman said:
Could you please elaborate what you meant?
TIA.
Click to expand...

I think he compares a 2x4GB and 2GB+8GB setup.
first one is running in dual channel, while second is not (completely). Still 10GB in total in the second should perform better than 8GB total.

Still, I personally would just max it out with 2x8GB and be done with it (for ever).
At least here in Austria RAM is very cheap - you can get 2x8GB for around 75€
 
Wuiffi said:
I think he compares a 2x4GB and 2GB+8GB setup.
first one is running in dual channel, while second is not (completely). Still 10GB in total in the second should perform better than 8GB total.

Still, I personally would just max it out with 2x8GB and be done with it (for ever).
At least here in Austria RAM is very cheap - you can get 2x8GB for around 75€
Click to expand...

Here in the uk it's £120 for 2x8gb
 
rndman said:
Could you please elaborate what you meant?
TIA.
Click to expand...

My new mini 2.3GHz right out of the box showed Physical Memory at 4GB and Memory Used at something like 3.85GB on the Activity Monitor. A few megs of swap was used.

With 16GB of Crucial RAM installed it has been encrypting a 2TB Time Machine backup overnight. Activity Monitor now shows 16GB of Physical Memory and 7.07GB Used with no swap.

If I open Aperture the Used Memory goes to 10.65GB. The mini has headroom.
 
Geordie bry said:
I've ordered from crucial used the match on their website.
Click to expand...

This seems pretty darn good for the price. Not sure of the performance/reliability..

I guess there was a mistake at B&H, when it was for pre-order it showed 8GB and price $38.xx
Now it shows 4GB.. (Look at the URL, it still says 8gb.html)
 
Last edited:
8 gb turned up today from crucial,fitted in 5 minutes.Well pleased it transforms mini.
 
Mac mini ram upgrade advice.

Not to high jack. But do macs require any "special" ram? I know it's just laptop ram in there, but nothing is special about it, right? The only reason I ask is cause newegg has a mac section in the ram and that threw me for a loop. Any 1600 ddr3 sodimm sticks should be good, correct?
 
noremacyug said:
Not to high jack. But do macs require any "special" ram? I know it's just laptop ram in there, but nothing is special about it, right? The only reason I ask is cause newegg has a mac section in the ram and that threw me for a loop. Any 1600 ddr3 sodimm sticks should be good, correct?
Click to expand...

Should be. I bought some generic ddr3 for my 2009 mini and it's running just fine.
 
Thanks. That's what I figured, but the combo of being new to the apple world and newegg having a mac section for ram made me second guess.
 
noremacyug said:
Thanks. That's what I figured, but the combo of being new to the apple world and newegg having a mac section for ram made me second guess.
Click to expand...

Understood. Good luck - extra ram makes a HUGE difference, especially under Mavericks (on my machine anyway).
 
I have bought 2 x 8GB Patriot RAM as its the cheapest I could find in the UK. Should be here any day so I'll feed back.
 
rndman said:
This seems pretty darn good for the price. Not sure of the performance/reliability..
Click to expand...

I guess there was a mistake at B&H, when it was for pre-order it showed 8GB and price $38.xx
Now it shows 4GB.. (Look at the URL, it still says 8gb.html)
 
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