My Experience - Mac Mini (Mid 2011)

[treekram]

Do you have a link to hand? Does it depend on the GPU in the Mac mini? I use the TB port for a 2560x1440 U2711, and HDMI for a 1920x1200 U2412. But didn't think I can run two 2711's off the i7 mini.

I don't know about running 2 monitors at 2560x1440, but for getting 2560x1440 from HDMI,
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...-support-2560x1440-through-hdmi-port.1407732/

You need to read through the entire thread as some posts will just repeat the official party line on the HDMI limits. But post #15 is where the OP states that it works. There appears to be caveats in terms of refresh rate.

Another one:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/mac-mini-2560-1440-resolution-over-hdmi.1765861/

 

[opeter]

And you need to have a HDMI 1.4x cable ...

 

[BigMcGuire]

Thank you all for the help. I did the surgery today. Took me about 20 minutes --- the size of the Samsung SSD was a little bigger than the Toshiba 500GB USB drive --- so it didn't quite fit back as nicely as I would have liked... but everything worked when I turned it on.

Just to confirm - I tried enabling TRIM on the external USB 3.0 enclosure but TRIM never showed in the System Information screen for the USB drive. This prompted me to do the surgery this morning - first time I've ever taken apart a Mac - you can really tell a lot of thought went into the design of these things... they are beautiful inside and out.

There is a noticeable speed difference - especially on boot. Thank you again for all your help!

Now to save up for 8GB of RAM!

 

[Spectrum]

There is a noticeable speed difference - especially on boot. Thank you again for all your help!

Now to save up for 8GB of RAM!

Congrats - well done! A couple of things:

1. Be sure to make sure your new installed SSD is selected as your Startup Disk - go to system prefs.
In the past I've found that after I've installed a new drive I've needed to highlight the drive for bootup.

2. I may have some DDR3RL RAM kicking about that is not being used. Not sure how easy it would be to send to you though - depending on where you are based.

 

[BigMcGuire]

2. I may have some DDR3RL RAM kicking about that is not being used. Not sure how easy it would be to send to you though - depending on where you are based.

I'm in California. I'd love to take 8gb off your hands if you're willing to part with it. Let me know how much and I'll cover shipping too.

 

[dogslobber]

I was debating trying to install the 256GB SSD internally or just get a $40 Firewire 800 enclosure + cable. But if I can skip those steps, installing it internally looks a lot easier.

Booting from a FireWire SSD is quite a good experience. It might not have the throughput of an internal SSD but that's probably not an issue for most. As it's not a spinner then there's no seek penalty so you get just as effective experience as an internal SSD albeit slower but still fast enough you don't really notice.

 

[gsmornot]

Thank you all for the help. I did the surgery today. Took me about 20 minutes --- the size of the Samsung SSD was a little bigger than the Toshiba 500GB USB drive --- so it didn't quite fit back as nicely as I would have liked... but everything worked when I turned it on.

Just to confirm - I tried enabling TRIM on the external USB 3.0 enclosure but TRIM never showed in the System Information screen for the USB drive. This prompted me to do the surgery this morning - first time I've ever taken apart a Mac - you can really tell a lot of thought went into the design of these things... they are beautiful inside and out.

There is a noticeable speed difference - especially on boot. Thank you again for all your help!

Now to save up for 8GB of RAM!

Good job. I kept my internal 500GB drive and added a 250GB SSD to build a DIY Fusion setup. Used the OWC data doubler. I also added 16GB of RAM. The only issue I have with my 2011 is a couple times a day the screen will turn black then return after a few seconds. Never have figured out what it is. Ha.

 

[brangates]

I am still using a mid 2011 Mac Mini, I paid like 499 brand new, came with 2GB ram, 500GB HD and a i5. I upgraded to 8GB of ram and replaced the internal HD with a 120GB SSD from OWC like 3 years ago and it still seems faster than my dads 2014 mini with the 500 GB HD and 4GB of ram. I was thinking of upgrading to the newer mini myself and having apple upgrade the HD to an SSD, since it is no longer an easy change. The bottom does not come off the 2014 model like it did with the 2011 model. This makes the ram inaccessible, pretty sure its soldered on anyway now, but even worse makes it nearly impossible to get to the hard drive. So, I just decided to wait and see what Apple does with their desktop line. Would love to see a new mini, or something similar, but not holding my breath. I may have to plan on an iMac for my next machine. Its funny I have had around 5 different iPads like 4 iPhones during the time that this mac mini has been kicking. This mac is a beast lol.

 

[vasim]

Still the same question as always. Will we get the 10.14 version of macOS?

 

[ziggy29]

Still the same question as always. Will we get the 10.14 version of macOS?

No one knows yet. My best guess (worth what you paid for it) is that 10.14 will kill all remaining support for Core 2 Duo based Macs, meaning the few that are still supported will no longer be -- and only the Core i3/i5/i7 line will remain supported. if that happens, the 2011 Mini would still be supported; the 2010s would not.

 

[gsmornot]

Still the same question as always. Will we get the 10.14 version of macOS?

2011 is end of life so it will not be included in the update. There are ways to keep it going posted around here but generally is has marked obsolete.
https://www.macrumors.com/2017/12/04/2011-mac-mini-obsolete/

 

[redheeler]

Still the same question as always. Will we get the 10.14 version of macOS?

2011 is end of life so it will not be included in the update. There are ways to keep it going posted around here but generally is has marked obsolete.
https://www.macrumors.com/2017/12/04/2011-mac-mini-obsolete/

Apple dropping hardware support doesn't guarantee they will also drop software support, those have long been figured separately.

Though there is a slim chance the 2011 will be dropped for no other reason than age (with MacOS Sierra the cutoff period was Macs released before September 2009, or 7 years, aside from the Late 2009 Mac mini which is basically the same model released in Early 2009 but with faster processors), we've seen nothing to suggest that 10.14 will even have different system requirements from 10.13. Before MacOS Sierra, Apple maintained the same system requirements for four releases (10.8 Mountain Lion, 10.9 Mavericks, 10.10 Yosemite, 10.11 El Capitan), and the current system requirements have been maintained for only two (10.12 Sierra, 10.13 High Sierra).

Furthermore, even if the 2011 Mac mini is dropped due to age, there will likely be community workarounds to install the latest version of MacOS on it. Those with Early 2009 or Late 2009 Mac minis should be aware that their Mac mini is capable of running High Sierra, despite Apple not supporting or allowing native installations on that hardware.

 

[vasim]

Apple dropping hardware support doesn't guarantee they will also drop software support, those have long been figured separately.

Though there is a slim chance the 2011 will be dropped for no other reason than age (with MacOS Sierra the cutoff period was Macs released before September 2009, or 7 years, aside from the Late 2009 Mac mini which is basically the same model released in Early 2009 but with faster processors), we've seen nothing to suggest that 10.14 will even have different system requirements from 10.13. Before MacOS Sierra, Apple maintained the same system requirements for four releases (10.8 Mountain Lion, 10.9 Mavericks, 10.10 Yosemite, 10.11 El Capitan), and the current system requirements have been maintained for only two (10.12 Sierra, 10.13 High Sierra).

Furthermore, even if the 2011 Mac mini is dropped due to age, there will likely be community workarounds to install the latest version of MacOS on it. Those with Early 2009 or Late 2009 Mac minis should be aware that their Mac mini is capable of running High Sierra, despite Apple not supporting or allowing native installations on that hardware.

Installing unsupported sw to obsolete hardware is similar to hackintosh.

 

[haralds]

My Mac Mini mid 2011 is used as a headless server. It's a 5,2 with Intel i5 and 8GB of RAM. I upgraded to dual drive and am running a 512GB Crucial and 1TB Samsung in those slots. I have the Kanex USB3/eSata adapter which does give decent USB 3 speed. It connects via hub to a stack of 5 external storage drives - 5TB - 8TB each - for quiet TimeMachine storage for the systems throughout the house. That is also my iTunes/Plex server.
I just reverted to Sierra, since it was the last with a full Apple Server. Very happy with the results.
I also have a couple of large RAID5 housing using Firewire 800, but the mini performance with those is underwhelming for some reason. I get much higher throughput hooking these to my Mac Pro 5,1. Desktop is 20MB/sec, Mini id 2MB/sec with Chronosync. Weird. The RAIDs are for long term archival backup and not that critical as far as performance is concerned.

 

[SoCalReviews]

My Mac Mini mid 2011 is used as a headless server. It's a 5,2 with Intel i5 and 8GB of RAM. I upgraded to dual drive and am running a 512GB Crucial and 1TB Samsung in those slots. I have the Kanex USB3/eSata adapter which does give decent USB 3 speed. It connects via hub to a stack of 5 external storage drives - 5TB - 8TB each - for quiet TimeMachine storage for the systems throughout the house. That is also my iTunes/Plex server.
I just reverted to Sierra, since it was the last with a full Apple Server. Very happy with the results.
I also have a couple of large RAID5 housing using Firewire 800, but the mini performance with those is underwhelming for some reason. I get much higher throughput hooking these to my Mac Pro 5,1. Desktop is 20MB/sec, Mini id 2MB/sec with Chronosync. Weird. The RAIDs are for long term archival backup and not that critical as far as performance is concerned.

I just updated my dual core 2011 i5 Mac Mini (16GB RAM) with the latest security update for High Sierra. It doesn't run as well as my quad core 2012 i7 Mac Mini but it still runs pretty good even with HS and all the updates.

 

[haralds]

I was using HighSierra and APFS. But Sierra does not handle APFS well and cannot boot from it. I really like the full Server app interface with a nice dashboard.