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Poll: Have you ever upgraded the RAM in your Mini, after purchase?

Have you ever upgraded the RAM in your Mini, after purchase?

  • Yep, I upgraded the RAM on a Mini (yourself or had it done)

    Votes: 105 92.9%

  • Nope, I'm running bone stock RAM on my Mini just as it was delivered by Apple

    Votes: 8 7.1%
  • Total voters
    113
ActionableMango

ActionableMango

macrumors G3
Original poster
Sep 21, 2010
9,613
6,909
I'm just curious what percentage of people do this and what percentage don't.

If you've only had a 2014 model (soldered RAM), and you would have upgraded RAM post-purchase if you could have, vote whichever way makes sense for you.

Personally, I've upgraded the ram in my G4 and Core Duo Minis, but I'm finding that the base RAM on my Core i5 to be sufficient. Voted "yes" because I've done two upgrades.
 
Last edited:
Gav2k

Gav2k

macrumors G3
Jul 24, 2009
9,216
1,608
My first mini was the 2005 model with 256mb of ram which I upped to a massive 1gb! Since then every mini I've owned I've upgraded. I stopped in 2011 with the corei5 dgpu model.
 
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Fishrrman

Fishrrman

macrumors Penryn
Feb 20, 2009
29,279
13,377
I have a late 2012 Mini.
I installed a single 8gb DIMM in the top slot (when upside-down and opened), left the other 2gb DIMM "in place".
The Mini now runs happily with 10gb installed.
 
Tinmania

Tinmania

macrumors 68040
Aug 8, 2011
3,528
1,016
Aridzona
Fishrrman said:
I have a late 2012 Mini.
I installed a single 8gb DIMM in the top slot (when upside-down and opened), left the other 2gb DIMM "in place".
The Mini now runs happily with 10gb installed.
Click to expand...
I did the same thing last January, thinking if it started to seem sluggish I would ad another 8GB. But memory has not been an issue.

I should note I also added a SSD at the same time, moving the HD to the secondary location (decided not to go Fusion).



Mike
 
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hallux

hallux

macrumors 68040
Apr 25, 2012
3,443
1,005
I picked up a 2012 refurb in 2014, I might have had the RAM and data doubler (well, the iFixit version) before I had the Mini. The only reason I booted it before stripping it to install the SSD was so I could register Pages, Numbers and Keynote to my Apple ID.

In short, mine practically had a RAM upgrade before I even booted it...
 
Wando64

Wando64

macrumors 68020
Jul 11, 2013
2,342
3,119
As long as you don't buy it from Apple, RAM is so cheap that there is simply no reason to have any less than the maximum allowed.
 
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Micky Do

Micky Do

macrumors 68020
Aug 31, 2012
2,217
3,163
a South Pacific island
Yes, both my 2005 original and early 2009 Mac Minis…… but I don't regard the ability to upgrade as sacrosanct.

Both were base models that came with 0.25 and 1 GB RAM respectively. The upgrade was required to run hardware in the case of the 2005, and to run Mountain Lion in the case of the 2009 (which was becoming slow anyway). Back then RAM was relatively expensive, so only the minimum required was installed initially. The ability to upgrade was necessary as the RAM requirements of hardware and software was increasing quite fast..

Nowadays, with RAM cheaper (even from Apple), getting more than the basic required from the outset makes sense. I doubt that the RAM requirement is going increase much as it did. The desirable amount of RAM will be more dependent on what you are going to do with a Mac (thus apps, and how you use them) than the basic requirements of OS X or any hardware.
 
Last edited:
ActionableMango

ActionableMango

macrumors G3
Original poster
Sep 21, 2010
9,613
6,909
Wow, 94.7% (at the time I write this) is a complete blowout.

When I started this poll, I thought that people who upgrade their MM memory would be in the minority. In part because the Mac Mini is not the easiest computer to do upgrades on, and in part because I assumed the Mac Mini is for a lot of switchers and more basic users. (On the other hand, I admit people who frequent a Mac Mini forum are not going to be basic users.) I thought, maybe 50/50 at best.

So it's interesting to see that an overwhelming majority of people here have upgraded their memory. It really makes the soldered memory unfortunate. :(
 
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oneMadRssn

oneMadRssn

macrumors 603
Sep 8, 2011
6,089
14,195
ActionableMango said:
Wow, 94.7% (at the time I write this) is a complete blowout.

When I started this poll, I thought that people who upgrade their MM memory would be in the minority. In part because the Mac Mini is not the easiest computer to do upgrades on, and in part because I assumed the Mac Mini is for a lot of switchers and more basic users. (On the other hand, I admit people who frequent a Mac Mini forum are not going to be basic users.) I thought, maybe 50/50 at best.

So it's interesting to see that an overwhelming majority of people here have upgraded their memory. It really makes the soldered memory unfortunate. :(
Click to expand...

To be fair, this poll isn't at all representative of people. This poll is representative of people that have been to to the Mac Mini section of MacRumors.com within the past week or so, and which regularly click on threads they are not otherwise searching for. This means the poll is only representative of a special subset of enthusiasts. So, it's not surprising the percent is so high.
 
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itsOver9000

itsOver9000

macrumors 6502
Mar 29, 2013
374
329
B.F., KS
Yes, upgraded the memory in my 2012 mini last year to 16GB just because the price finally went down to a reasonable level. I think I paid $70 or $75 instead of $140+ it was selling at for the longest time. I just checked and it looks like memory is even cheaper now - about $60 for 16GB. No reason not to at that price!
 
Tinmania

Tinmania

macrumors 68040
Aug 8, 2011
3,528
1,016
Aridzona
oneMadRssn said:
To be fair, this poll isn't at all representative of people. This poll is representative of people that have been to to the Mac Mini section of MacRumors.com within the past week or so, and which regularly click on threads they are not otherwise searching for. This means the poll is only representative of a special subset of enthusiasts. So, it's not surprising the percent is so high.
Click to expand...
While true it is isn't representative of all people, I wouldn't say it is only representative of people who have been to the mac mini forum.

I, for example, very rarely visit that (this) forum. I browse this site's forums by looking at "New Posts" which gives me anything new, from any of the forums. That is how I came across this thread (and most others I read). Maybe I am the only one who does this, but I find it faster to just scan "New Posts" than to meander around in specific forums. The downside I am sometimes sucked into threads I should have avoided :) (not talking about this one).



Mike
 
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LiveM

LiveM

macrumors 65816
Oct 30, 2015
1,268
614
I was given a 2012 Mini by mistake when I went in to get the 2014 model. Best thing that could have happened, as I saved hundreds and got a far better machine. I soon discovered how bad Apple's HDDs are and promptly got a SSD and 16GB RAM.
 
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throAU

throAU

macrumors G3
Feb 13, 2012
9,273
7,438
Perth, Western Australia
Nope, but i have been inside it to replace the hard drive. Unfortunately mine is 2007 spec and maxes out at 3 gigs which is really not worth much vs. the 2 GB in it.
 
Meister

Meister

Suspended
Oct 10, 2013
5,456
4,310
Yes. I upgraded from 4gb to 10gb and recently 16gb. (i5 2012) Because ram prices dropped so low that I couldn't resist.
 
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