#MAC MINI RAM UPGRADE 2014 EXTERNAL MAC#
That said, Other World Computing has discovered that you can use “mismatched” memory in the Mac mini and some other Intel-based Macs where Apple specifies that upgrades should only be done with matched pairs. Once inside you can replace the RAM or hard drive – and be careful not to lose those tiny little black screws!Īnd that’s where the next strike against the Mac mini comes in: There’s only one bank of memory sockets, so to upgrade RAM according to Apple’s specification, you have to remove 256 MB modules that came with the computer. The solution is to carefully insert putty knives between the white case bottom and its aluminum surround, loosening the tabs that lock it in place. In fact, looking at it, you’d think there’s no way to get inside to add RAM or replace the hard drive. The second strike is the case itself, which is not designed for easy access. Still, notebook drives are generally designed for low power consumption, not high performance, so this is one strike against the Mac mini. At least with the Intel transition, Apple specified 5400 rpm drives, not the older, slower, cheaper 4200 rpm drives used in PowerBooks and iBooks of the past.
Not that it’s a bad little machine: It has a decent amount of power, tolerable graphics, plenty of ports, and supports up to 2 GB of RAM.īecause of its size, there is simply no way to put a 3.5″ hard drive inside the Mac mini, so Apple had to use smaller, lower capacity, more costly, generally quieter, and usually slower 2.5″ notebook hard drives instead. That’s also a big part of the reason the Core Solo Mac mini is considered a Second Class Mac. The secret to getting the Mac mini so small was using notebook components. As with other first-generation Intel Macs, the price was $100 higher than the model it replaced. When it was introduced on February 28, 2006, the Core Solo Mac mini was the smallest desktop computer on the market – and the second-least expensive Macintosh Apple had ever built.
#MAC MINI RAM UPGRADE 2014 EXTERNAL FULL#
For the most part, they’re not really bad – simply designs that didn’t meet their full potential. Second Class Macs are Apple’s somewhat compromised hardware designs.