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why is the new mini so slow D:

Vermifuge said:
If a 512+ SSD was reasonable affordable i would replace the internal drive. for now this will have to do. I assume thats why i did not notice this behavior in my 2010 server. the drives hold always be ready.
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That's why I went for a Seagate Momentus XT in my i7, cheap and pretty quick. For $100 it's a cheap fast way of improving the system's performance without the SSD costs. Though I do understand you're not going to get SSD speeds but it's a massive improvement over the stock drives Apple supplies.
 
The 2011 13" MacBook Pro is essentially the same computer as the baseline Mini--but with 4GB of RAM.

I found that after upgrading to Lion in my 13" it was really laggy--and I have 8GB of RAM installed. I reset my PRAM and repaired disk permissions in disk utility and ever since it's been flying.

I do notice that Safari still seems a little quirky, from what I've been reading it has something to do with Java needing an update for Lion, but I think it just needs to be worked on a little more.

Upgrade your RAM and you will see a boost in performance, but do the PRAM & permissions as well. I also saw a speed increase after doing permissions repair on my new Mini Server as well.

Others have pointed out that the 5400 RPM HDD leaves a bit to be desired in the speed department as well, and they're right. It really seems that the baseline Mini was designed with the lowest cost possible in mind, assuming that the buyer would be either a very light user or be making upgrades on their own.
 
5400 HDD are just fine for media centres. I have zero issues playing anything from my Mac Mini and nothing is slow. Heck i even use a Mac Mini for audio production using software like Logic, Reason and Abelton live, i have no issues either other than slower start ups compared to my Mac with a SSD. Performance is nothing worth worrying about. SSD my opinion are over hyped.
 
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okay, i finally got my RAM in the mail... btw this screenshot is immediately after boot with chrome and itunes running.

gcqaC.png


8GB of RAM makes all the difference, really. i'm actually really shocked at how much faster and how much more responsive this is compared to when it was at 2GB. now this really feels faster than my MBP... :D

oEraf.png


(p.s. notice the size of the GPU!)
 
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haruspex said:
okay, i finally got my RAM in the mail...

8GB of RAM makes all the difference, really. i'm actually really shocked at how much faster and how much more responsive this is compared to when it was at 2GB. now this really feels faster than my MBP... :D

(p.s. notice the size of the GPU!)
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Glad we can put this to rest. I also hope we can all agree that Apple should have never released this base mini with 2 GB of ram. Yes it "works" but 2 GB just isn't enough. Dare I say even with desecrate graphics, Lion just dose not preform at 2 GB like it does with 8 GB or even just 4 GB.
 
Vermifuge said:
Glad we can put this to rest. I also hope we can all agree that Apple should have never released this base mini with 2 GB of ram. Yes it "works" but 2 GB just isn't enough. Dare I say even with desecrate graphics, Lion just dose not preform at 2 GB like it does with 8 GB or even just 4 GB.
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When you look at the marginal price difference between 2GB and 4GB of RAM, it's a travesty. At retail prices, 4GB is about 33% more expensive (£18 v 24 in the UK). No reason it should have shipped with 2GB, it's artificially holding the system back.
 
So I got the baseline Mac Mini and I must admit that it really did lag A LOT with just having 2 programs open at the same time. I just slapped 8 gb of memory in there and the difference is amazing. Honestly, I think that anyone who is having issues with slow should definitely try more memory.
 
YanniDepp said:
Both my Lion-running Macs have 8GB RAM. I highly recommend it.

The amount of RAM we have these days is insane. Just three years ago I had a MacBook with 2GB RAM and it ran really fast. Now my 2GB Mac is pretty slow and my 1GB iMac G3 is frustratingly slow.

Has software really become so bloated, or were these machines slow all along, we've just gotten used to how fast 8GB machines are?
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Software is becoming quicker slower than hardware improvements is getting faster. (some obscure software/hardware law)

I can remember the days that I was running a server and it had 50+ students in class on it. Server configuration? SCO Unix, 486DX2, 16 Mb RAM and 2 x 300 Mb SCSI HDD. When originally Windows NT came out people were horrified (yes horrified) to discover that you needed 32 Mb of RAM to run it properly. (OS/2 ran nicely with 8 - 12 Mb). MS Office (Word, Excel and Powerpoint) took up the whole of 10 Mb.
 
For basic 1080p playback with a couple simple apps running, itunes, safari, boxee or hulu - Should I upgrade from the 2.5 4GB config to 8GB?

I currently don't see any lag but let's just say it's not as fast as I would like .. I'm pretty sure it's the 5400rpm drives fault but I would still like opinions.

From my PC experience I would say that the ram upgrade is a waste... but Lion is a new animal to me.
 
I don't think your RAM is holding you back. Check in Activity Monitor and see what your figures are for Free and Inactive memory. Also, look and see if you have any page outs and if your Swap used figure is not 0.

If you've run out of RAM and you're using Swap, then a RAM upgrade would help a bit. I think you're probably right on the speed of the drive though. It's high time Apple started using 7200RPM drives as standard on machines like the Mac Mini and even the MBP, in the same way the base Mini spec should be 4GB of RAM.
 
fat jez said:
I don't think your RAM is holding you back. Check in Activity Monitor and see what your figures are for Free and Inactive memory. Also, look and see if you have any page outs and if your Swap used figure is not 0.

If you've run out of RAM and you're using Swap, then a RAM upgrade would help a bit. I think you're probably right on the speed of the drive though. It's high time Apple started using 7200RPM drives as standard on machines like the Mac Mini and even the MBP, in the same way the base Mini spec should be 4GB of RAM.
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Thank you.
 
I should have said, Inactive memory is RAM that was being used by an app that has been exited that the system has earmarked in case the app is restarted (it will launch quicker). However, if needed for something else, it will be made available for use (i.e. it's effectively also free RAM).
 
Fastcast said:
The 2gb of ram is the killer! Our 2.3 is running fantastic now with 8gb. Much improved over the continuous spinning beach ball, 2gb set up.

Apple should be flogged for sending the 2.3 out with 2gb :rolleyes: .... IMO
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This told me what i needed to know. I bought a 2.3 last week and I've been getting a good amount of beachball spinning going on with only a few applications open. If i have Turntable.fm running and a tab for Google Plus and maybe 2-3 other tabs for cnn, espn, whatever... beachball time. I've been getting very frustrated with it. I think its time to go to crucial and get 8gb ram. Where did you get your 8gb ram?
 
tobarefeet said:
This told me what i needed to know. I bought a 2.3 last week and I've been getting a good amount of beachball spinning going on with only a few applications open. If i have Turntable.fm running and a tab for Google Plus and maybe 2-3 other tabs for cnn, espn, whatever... beachball time. I've been getting very frustrated with it. I think its time to go to crucial and get 8gb ram. Where did you get your 8gb ram?
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For over 10 years i have been using micron / Crucial memory. They may not have the fastest performance memory but all memory is guaranteed for life. They have a great warranty and will even price adjust if the price comes down in the first 90 days i think.
 
tobarefeet said:
This told me what i needed to know. I bought a 2.3 last week and I've been getting a good amount of beachball spinning going on with only a few applications open. If i have Turntable.fm running and a tab for Google Plus and maybe 2-3 other tabs for cnn, espn, whatever... beachball time. I've been getting very frustrated with it. I think its time to go to crucial and get 8gb ram. Where did you get your 8gb ram?
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This is what I bought and it's working great and tested fine with Rember.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231342

With that said, I've also bought OWC & Crucial ram in the past and both have worked flawlessly also.

The difference between 2gb and 8gb is amazing.....The upgrade is essential for ones sanity! :)
 
I'd agree with fa8362. Just because 7200 is faster than 5400 doesn't mean it's always going to be better.

Look at the reviews on some of the latest hardware. The new Western Digital Scorpio Blue is a 1TB notebook HDD that runs at 5400RPM. It's a faster (read: better) HDD than the 7200RPM 500GB WD Scorpio Black or the 640GB Seagate Momentus.

It's like GHz for CPUs. Don't always believe that the larger number = better performance. Look for the details.
 
I ordered this: Corsair 8 GB DDR3 Laptop Memory Kit CMSO8GX3M2A1333C9
from Amazon on monday for $49. I got it Wednesday, opened a window in Apple.com that had visual instructions on changing the RAM on my new 2.3 mac mini, in 5 minutes the RAM was changed..... and all I can say it what a change in the Mac mini. The bump up from 2g RAM to 8g RAM is just unbelievable. Worth every penny. I ran a RAM test using rember and everything tested perfect.
Huge thumbs up.
 
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