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macunix23

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 10, 2023
1
1
I had an old mac mini mid 2010 lying around, and I decided to restore it to life, after I realized that a RAM-upgrade to 16 GB could in fact improve its performance considerably.

The new specifications after RAM-upgrade are: 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 16 GB RAM, 1066MHz frontside bus, 320GB hard drive.

Additionally, I have an external drive with 250 GB which I can dual boot from, running Ubuntu 22.04. The 320 GB internal drive still runs on macOS High Sierra 10.13, which is no longer supported. Therefore it makes a big difference to be able to run Ubuntu 22.04 and upgrade the OS as needed.

This mac mini runs surprisingly well, especially after the RAM-upgrade. I think I am likely to use it often to perform text editing, regular web surfing, or small data analysis projects with Python/Anaconda3. Despite the fact that this machine still does not have a 1st generation Intel microprocessor, the Core 2 duo does ok for such needs, and the biggest drawback of such an old machine is the GPU; an NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics processor with 256MB of DDR3 SDRAM. Which means the machine is considerably more outdated in terms of graphics. I had sort of come to terms with the fact that this cannot be upgraded. But I was wondering: in theory, it should be possible to use the FireWire 800 port with an adapter to connect to a Thunderbolt port in an external GPU. I guess the cost of this would normally far exceed the rewards. But I was just curious. If I somehow got my hands on a bargain GPU, would it be possible to make this work?
 
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MBAir2010

macrumors 604
May 30, 2018
6,975
6,354
there
im using my Mac mini 2012 as a streaming device for sports and movies while sitting on my screen outdoor room.
they are great little computers!
the 2010-2011 ones had a weaker graphic card than the 2012 but great at the time.
and using OCLP you can install Monterey or even Ventura on that today, or next week!

enjoy the mini!
 

theMarble

macrumors 65816
Sep 27, 2020
1,019
1,496
Earth, Sol System, Alpha Quadrant
FireWire, both 400 and 800 cannot carry a PCIe signal, therefore making an external GPU impossible to connect. The only way you could possibly do is take out the AirPort card, run a Mini PCIe to PCIe adapter outside of the computer and hook up an external GPU that way. However, I'm not 100% on whether the AirPort card is Mini-PCIe, or even removable.

ExpressCard has been done on this forum before, but no Mac mini has it.
 
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Amethyst1

macrumors G3
Oct 28, 2015
9,782
12,181
But I was wondering: in theory, it should be possible to use the FireWire 800 port with an adapter to connect to a Thunderbolt port in an external GPU.
No. The adapter will not allow connecting a Thunderbolt device to a Mac that only has FireWire.
 

mateo14

macrumors member
Oct 19, 2019
71
42
I had an old mac mini mid 2010 lying around, and I decided to restore it to life, after I realized that a RAM-upgrade to 16 GB could in fact improve its performance considerably.

The new specifications after RAM-upgrade are: 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 16 GB RAM, 1066MHz frontside bus, 320GB hard drive.

I think that you should consider replacing the old hard drive with an SSD.
 

mectojic

macrumors 65816
Dec 27, 2020
1,321
2,509
Sydney, Australia
I have a Mac Mini 2010 as my home server, with 16GB Ram too. SSD for the boot drive, 2TB second drive. This seems to work quite elegantly.
However, for pure performance with today's web standards, a Core 2 Duo does struggle on occasion. The 2011/2012 i5/i7s would be much faster, I'd expect.
 

NewbiePPC

macrumors member
Mar 21, 2021
61
38
I use mine for server dutys for long time but since I got a 2012, I put Batocera Linux in there and used for retro games and Kodi media center, rock solid so far.
 
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