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

[Toltepeceno]

Yes, I agree. I think if I were to upgrade, it would be from 2012 dual core to a 2012 quad core.

Good idea, I think with an ssd and maxed out memory it would last quite some time (depends on your needs). I have the dual core and it's all I need for at least a few more years. The heaviest thing I do is video conversions and it's plenty fast, a whole new ballgame with ssd installed.

 

[bokkow]

When I still had a 2012 Mini i7 2.6GHz I did the upgrade, just because it was possible, not really because I needed more than 4GB. Another reason was that back then, RAM was dirt cheap (RAM prices fluctuated a lot) and I wanted to maximize this top of the line Mini, which I finished with a RAID0 of Samsung 840 Pro's.

It was a fun machine and more than capable enough for my needs but the hobby-tinkering-part was missing after the upgrades, so I sold it, actually for more than it had cost me. Would I upgrade a older gen Mac Mini's memory again regardless of its purpose? Most probably yes, mostly depending on RAM prices.

 

[Baby Mac]

Forget paying the Apple premium for RAM. Do it yourself easy on a mid-2010.

 

[tubular]

I've got a 2010 in which I've upgraded the memory, swapped out the hard drive, and my project for the weekend is to swap in an SSD. I've also got a 2012 I ordered -- very luckily for me -- in fall 2014, a month before Apple blew the Mac Mini's brains out in an act of cold-blooded product murder.

 

[OllyW]

I've had three Mac minis and have upgraded the RAM on them all.

I maxed out my current 2012 i7 quad core to 16GB on the day it arrived.

 

[MultiFinder17]

Put 4GB then 8GB in my 2009 back when I had it, and now I have 16GB in my 2012 that I use as a little home server

 

[Accord3]

I upgraded the RAM from 4GB to 8GB on my MBP late 2011 soon after purchase and from 4GB to 16GB on my Mac Mini late 2012 straight away, both RAM upgrades from Crucial.
I recently swapped the internal HDD in my MBP to a 250GB Samsung 850 EVO,
All upgrades were ridiculously simple to do.

 

[scotttnz]

I upgraded both the 2012 Minis I have owned to 16GB the week I got them. The real question is would I have paid Apples ridiculous price to get 16GB BTO if upgrading them myself was not an option (like with the 2014 model)?

For the first one..... no, most likely not, and as a result I would have never tried OSX and become a Mac user. It was to be my main desktop, 4GB was not enough, and Apples upgrade price likely would have put me off the whole experiment.

The second one, I'm not so sure. It's just used for streaming to my TV, so 4GB is enough. I just happened to have 16GB so I popped it in. But not being able to upgrade would limit the Macs future usability should I want to re-purpose it, so reducing it's longer term value to me.

I'm not so much opposed to soldered RAM (although I'd definately prefer it not to be soldered), just the silly price that Apple charges to get a decent amount. If the BTO 16GB option was somewhat similar to the cost of buying 3rd party RAM i'd be fine with doing that. Heck, even if it was 50% more i'd pay it, but when I bought my first Mac it was 4 times the cost of doing it myself. Not cool! Other than RAM I paid for it to be fully maxed out. 2.6i7, fusion drive etc, Apples RAM price would have put it over the top.

Now that Apple has me hooked, I will likely continue to use Macs, but if their current lineup was what was available when I looked at buying my first Mac, I probably would have stuck with Windows. A big part of that is lack of upgradability. It's also the main reason my primary desktop is now an old 2009 Mac pro, and there is nothing in the current lineup that I want to replace it with.

 

[Toltepeceno]

Wow, I agree with everything you said here.

Ridiculous price to upgrade? Check. Apple (or foxconn) already has to solder in ram so the huge difference in price is for parts only.

If not for the upgradability at a decent price on what I have I probably would have passed also.

I like osx's ui and would like to keep with it, but as you said there is nothing in the current lineup that would draw me in if I did not have one already.

Sust surprised at how much your post states exactly how I see it. Not sure what the future will bring but hopefully it won't be another round of even less for even more.

I upgraded both the 2012 Minis I have owned to 16GB the week I got them. The real question is would I have paid Apples ridiculous price to get 16GB BTO if upgrading them myself was not an option (like with the 2014 model)?

For the first one..... no, most likely not, and as a result I would have never tried OSX and become a Mac user. It was to be my main desktop, 4GB was not enough, and Apples upgrade price likely would have put me off the whole experiment.

The second one, I'm not so sure. It's just used for streaming to my TV, so 4GB is enough. I just happened to have 16GB so I popped it in. But not being able to upgrade would limit the Macs future usability should I want to re-purpose it, so reducing it's longer term value to me.

I'm not so much opposed to soldered RAM (although I'd definately prefer it not to be soldered), just the silly price that Apple charges to get a decent amount. If the BTO 16GB option was somewhat similar to the cost of buying 3rd party RAM i'd be fine with doing that. Heck, even if it was 50% more i'd pay it, but when I bought my first Mac it was 4 times the cost of doing it myself. Not cool! Other than RAM I paid for it to be fully maxed out. 2.6i7, fusion drive etc, Apples RAM price would have put it over the top.

Now that Apple has me hooked, I will likely continue to use Macs, but if their current lineup was what was available when I looked at buying my first Mac, I probably would have stuck with Windows. A big part of that is lack of upgradability. It's also the main reason my primary desktop is now an old 2009 Mac pro, and there is nothing in the current lineup that I want to replace it with.

 

[Miat]

Bought a refurb 2012 quad Mini about 2.5 years ago, with stock 4GB RAM. Upgraded immediately to 16GB, and never regretted it.

I do a fair bit of video processing, which chews up RAM. If you are not doing anything RAM heavy then 8GB should be enough (and it really should be the default minimum, on all models of Macs – hint, hint, Apple).

Still haven't upgraded to an SSD. Just hanging on until the 1TB versions come down a little more in price. Nearly there.

 

[Toltepeceno]

Bought a refurb 2012 quad Mini about 2.5 years ago, with stock 4GB RAM. Upgraded immediately to 16GB, and never regretted it.

I do a fair bit of video processing, which chews up RAM. If you are not doing anything RAM heavy then 8GB should be enough (and it really should be the default minimum, on all models of Macs – hint, hint, Apple).

Still haven't upgraded to an SSD. Just hanging on until the 1TB versions come down a little more in price. Nearly there.

You will be amazed at the difference this will make.

 

[Miat]

You will be amazed at the difference this will make.

Getting hard to keep holding out. I also have a 2012 Air with SSD, and going back to the Mini after a couple of hours on the Air can be a rude reminder.

Not much longer to wait though, and every week I delay it the price drops a bit more.

 

[Toltepeceno]

Getting hard to keep holding out. I also have a 2012 Air with SSD, and going back to the Mini after a couple of hours on the Air can be a rude reminder.

Not much longer to wait though, and every week I delay it the price drops a bit more.

Ah, then you already know the difference so I can see how that would be hard indeed. Good luck and yes the prices keep dropping.