Mac Mini late 2014 cannot upgrade RAM

You might take a look at how your mini is utilizing the Ram it has while in operation.

This support document might help shed some light:

View memory usage in Activity Monitor on Mac - Apple Support

It seems we're all in agreement regarding the limitations of that year model Mac mini. It's unfortunate that little can be done about it aside from replacing the computer.

So sorry, my friend.

Hello, Iarcorp.

Sorry to know that you're feeling disappointed with the purchase you made.

I think had you done a bit more research before buying you would have discovered the shortcomings of that particular Mac mini. There are plenty of users out here who are more than happy with the model.

If you plan to upgrade to another Mac or switch back to a pc, I'm sure you may sell your 2018 Mac mini for better than the $100 recycling price offered by Apple (?) through a service like eBay or OfferUp or some such.

I do believe the 2018 Mac mini is upgradeable regarding both the the internal disk drive and the RAM. Perhaps I'm wrong, but the online site for Mac mini RAM upgrades at OWC | Macsales seems to indicate that possibility for the late-2018 model Mac mini. Which year model do you have? You can find that info by clicking Apple menu > About This Mac.

If you have specific questions about you Mac or future considerations you've come to the right place.

edit - my mistake. I confused the time frame that you purchased the mini (2018) with the model that you did state in your question as being 2014. I assume that you are correct regarding the potential to upgrade.

2018 Mac Mini - only memory is upgrade-able (can go up to 64Gb), but not the internal storage.. However, external storage is go-around option.

2014 Mac Mini - memory is NOT upgrade-able (can only be configured to 16Gb Max) . Internal storage is "possible" for upgrade (PCI-e and SATA interface)

2012 Mac Mini - memory is user accessible for upgrade (can go up to 16Gb) and internal storage (can support 2 SATA) is possible for upgrade.

With all the tasks for me on the computer, I would consider pre-2018 Mac Mini is really for use of light office work, and not for gaming stuffs ~ especially the 5400 rpm HDD basic configuration, is the the bottleneck.

Yeah, I realized which year mini the OP was disappointed in after I wrote most of the above.

Still, I think a little more research might have avoided this. I understand the affordability of the Mac mini, but I don't think it ever would be on my list of machines for gaming.

As @Iahcorp stated that machine model had been around for four years before it was purchased, so any shortcomings would have been well known if the questions had been asked.

Apple let the 2014 mini languish without updates for way too long but an 8GB 2014 mini is still a capable machine. Its Achilles Heel is the rotational hard drive which Apple continues to ship as a default drive even today. Adding an inexpensive SSD external drive as the boot drive is a tremendous speed bump. Granted the 2014 and even the 2018 mini isn't a game machine (other than perhaps Apple Arcade style games) but for getting work done it is as good as any consumer level notebook Apple makes.

Agree. 👍🏽

dwb wrote:

...Apple continues to ship as a default drive even today....

Just a reminder, 2018 MacMinis are SSD only now.