Newbie gratefully needs some recommendations!

[Jimrobo]

not that the warranty matters that much now as I just upgraded the ram to 8Gb today so technically its invalid anyway I'm guessing.

The ram upgrade seem to make an instant improvement to performance.......unless I am just convincing myself? I have a few apps open at once.. itunes/spotify, vuze and sometimes plex as well as airserver/airfoil and remote buddy running in the background and it has been running fairly slow. All of a sudden its flying!

 

[philipma1957]

not that the warranty matters that much now as I just upgraded the ram to 8Gb today so technically its invalid anyway I'm guessing.

The ram upgrade seem to make an instant improvement to performance.......unless I am just convincing myself? I have a few apps open at once.. itunes/spotify, vuze and sometimes plex as well as airserver/airfoil and remote buddy running in the background and it has been running fairly slow. All of a sudden its flying!

NO THE WARRANTY REMAINS IN EFFECT!

ram is a user part on a 2011 mac mini. you are covered for all but the new ram. Hold on to the old ram in case the machine breaks you can put the old ram back in and bring it to apple for a repair.

 

[Jimrobo]

NO THE WARRANTY REMAINS IN EFFECT!

ram is a user part on a 2011 mac mini. you are covered for all but the new ram. Hold on to the old ram in case the machine breaks you can put the old ram back in and bring it to apple for a repair.

ah didn't know that! Thanks for letting me know!

I kept the old ram but I wasn't sure if the OS kept some sort of hardware log and it was something they'd check.

 

[lostedge]

NO THE WARRANTY REMAINS IN EFFECT!

ram is a user part on a 2011 mac mini. you are covered for all but the new ram. Hold on to the old ram in case the machine breaks you can put the old ram back in and bring it to apple for a repair.

And you probably would not need to put the factory RAM back in if you did need something else in the Mini repaired.

In my case, 8GB of RAM that I installed were defective and caused a problem with the hard drive (after you powered on, it would shut down immediately after the apple/white startup screen). I still had the factory HDD in my mini at the time and they fixed the problem for me at the Genius even though they determined the problem was likely caused by the 3rd party RAM.

They said if I were to upgrade the hard drive, the same logic will apply...they'll cover the remaining mac mini components, just not anything 3rd party the user installs.

 

[Jimrobo]

Good to know I am still covered! I just expected to lose the whole warranty the second I opened up the bottom knowing apple. Saying that...I did replace my battery in my iphone once and took it to the genius who still replaced the phone for me. I was completely open about it but he said ok, only you and I know so lets just forget about it and not tell anyone else about the battery!

I actually can't believe how much of a difference upgrading the ram has had. It is like a completely different computer speed wise. Programs open up twice as fast. I am even thinking of adding an SSD in there.

 

[lostedge]

I am even thinking of adding an SSD in there.

Just did the same thing myself! This is my first Mac, and my first time opening up any computer, so I am a complete novice.

If it goes well, the SSD upgrade should only take you 30-40 minutes there are some really useful threads on this site as well as a few youtube's of the process.

 

[Jimrobo]

Just did the same thing myself! This is my first Mac, and my first time opening up any computer, so I am a complete novice.

If it goes well, the SSD upgrade should only take you 30-40 minutes there are some really useful threads on this site as well as a few youtube's of the process.

I've never done it before either but I have installed a new cooling system on my pc which was a nightmare of a job.

I couldn't believe how easy the ram upgrade was! I'd like to put the ssd in but I am guessing a 2nd larger harddrive would probably more sensible. I have already half filled the mac mini hard drive with films!