Question for those with 2.6/2.8 and 8 gb/16gb

[silentthunder77]

Hey everyone,

I've scoured the forums looking for information and have enjoyed reading many of your reviews and overall happiness with your Mac Mini. However, it's time for me to upgrade my computer and I'm having difficulty with deciding which machine to choose.

First of all, I'm a student, and I like having many windows/tabs/applications running. Gaming needs are minimal, although I do enjoy occasionally running Starcraft 2 and Heroes of the Storm. I use Spotify,YNAB for budgeting, Safari, Word/office, and email simultaneously frequently. I use Photos/iMovie/Garageband very infrequently. Any general insight into things you've noticed from your computers would be very appreciated. Specifically, I'm deciding on whether I should order the 2.6 ghz with 1 tb fusion drive and upgrade to 16 gb ram, or if i should choose just choose the stock 2.8 ghz, and leave the ram at 8 gb. Or, perhaps if you have noticed that this machine would be underpowered, that would be helpful to know as well.

Any and all insight is greatly appreciated!
Tom

 

[KeepCalmPeople]

I just ordered a 2.6 i5/8GB/256GB based on reading through the comments on these forums.
The sense I get is that going SSD instead of HDD or even Fusion for storage will make a much bigger difference than a 16GB upgrade, for all but the most demanding users processing huge files, or running more than one Virtual Machine.

 

[yjchua95]

Hey everyone,

I've scoured the forums looking for information and have enjoyed reading many of your reviews and overall happiness with your Mac Mini. However, it's time for me to upgrade my computer and I'm having difficulty with deciding which machine to choose.

First of all, I'm a student, and I like having many windows/tabs/applications running. Gaming needs are minimal, although I do enjoy occasionally running Starcraft 2 and Heroes of the Storm. I use Spotify,YNAB for budgeting, Safari, Word/office, and email simultaneously frequently. I use Photos/iMovie/Garageband very infrequently. Any general insight into things you've noticed from your computers would be very appreciated. Specifically, I'm deciding on whether I should order the 2.6 ghz with 1 tb fusion drive and upgrade to 16 gb ram, or if i should choose just choose the stock 2.8 ghz, and leave the ram at 8 gb. Or, perhaps if you have noticed that this machine would be underpowered, that would be helpful to know as well.

Any and all insight is greatly appreciated!
Tom

Processor upgrades are the least worthy among the dual-core systems offered by Apple, as the 3GHz i7 will only beat the 2.6GHz i5 by 5% at best.

So just stick back to the 2.6GHz i5, 16GB RAM and 1TB FD/256GB SSD option. Personally, I'm leaning towards the 256GB SSD.

 

[silentthunder77]

Processor upgrades are the least worthy among the dual-core systems offered by Apple, as the 3GHz i7 will only beat the 2.6GHz i5 by 5% at best.

So just stick back to the 2.6GHz i5, 16GB RAM and 1TB FD/256GB SSD option. Personally, I'm leaning towards the 256GB SSD.

Thank you very much for this recommendation. I think I'll order the 2.6, 16gb, and 1 TB FD. Maybe in a couple years I'll be able to swap out the FD for a SSD. I think I could live with 512 gb, but 256 might be cutting it a little short?

 

[yjchua95]

Thank you very much for this recommendation. I think I'll order the 2.6, 16gb, and 1 TB FD. Maybe in a couple years I'll be able to swap out the FD for a SSD. I think I could live with 512 gb, but 256 might be cutting it a little short?

The only way you can swap it out is by buying a PCIe SSD pulled out from another Mac off eBay. Nobody makes these SSDs, and most probably never will.

 

[silentthunder77]

The only way you can swap it out is by buying a PCIe SSD pulled out from another Mac off eBay. Nobody makes these SSDs, and most probably never will.

Oh crap, good to know. Thanks for the help to a bit of a hardware novice. The only thing I've done is upgraded RAM and swapped out the old HD on a MBP to to a SSD.

 

[mauka]

My configuration is 2.8GHz CPU, 16GB RAM, and 1TB FD. My thinking was there was no way to upgrade the RAM, but there might be options for storage.

Quite happy with my Mini, and the FD "feels" like a full a SSD to me. Uploading a 1GB file to my network took my 2010 i7 iMac with regular HD 2-3minutes, with the Mini it's less than a minute.

Others know more - but I thought one option would be to replace the spinning hard drive part of the fusion drive with a 1TB SSD, not sure this would work, but if it did - that would kick!

 

[yjchua95]

My configuration is 2.8GHz CPU, 16GB RAM, and 1TB FD. My thinking was there was no way to upgrade the RAM, but there might be options for storage.

Quite happy with my Mini, and the FD "feels" like a full a SSD to me. Uploading a 1GB file to my network took my 2010 i7 iMac with regular HD 2-3minutes, with the Mini it's less than a minute.

Others know more - but I thought one option would be to replace the spinning hard drive part of the fusion drive with a 1TB SSD, not sure this would work, but if it did - that would kick!

It would. Just replace the spinning drive with any 2.5" SATA SSD and there you go.

 

[ixxx69]

I'm deciding on whether I should order the 2.6 ghz with 1 tb fusion drive and upgrade to 16 gb ram, or if i should choose just choose the stock 2.8 ghz, and leave the ram at 8 gb.

For your stated usage, 2.6GHz/8GB/256SSD. I'd save the money for the next system upgrade. By the time you "need" 16GB of RAM or a faster CPU, you'll want a new computer to go with it.

8GB is still a HUGE amount of RAM for the average user.

 

[silentthunder77]

For your stated usage, 2.6GHz/8GB/256SSD. I'd save the money for the next system upgrade. By the time you "need" 16GB of RAM or a faster CPU, you'll want a new computer to go with it.

8GB is still a HUGE amount of RAM for the average user.

Thanks very much for this information. I talked about it with another friend and I think this is the best bet! Thanks a lot for helping me making this decision! Ordered and will be here next week!

 

[BeatCrazy]

For your stated usage, 2.6GHz/8GB/256SSD. I'd save the money for the next system upgrade. By the time you "need" 16GB of RAM or a faster CPU, you'll want a new computer to go with it.

8GB is still a HUGE amount of RAM for the average user.

This.

I don't run any VMs, but I have never come close to filling up 8GB of RAM. If in 3 years I find myself pushing the limits of 8GB (for what? I have a Mac Pro for video editing), I'll be tempted by the 2018 Mac mini, or whatever.