Mac mini (Late 2014) slow on Monterey with external drives

Chris_0607 wrote:

Ive try launching it on an external lacie 4tb disk , and then an 256GB USB key but it's still way too slow

I'm guessing that when you say you have 512 GB of storage, you're referring to a 500 GB, 5400 rpm mechanical hard drive, rather than to 512 GB of flash storage.

Things might run faster if you started up off an external USB 3.0 SSD – rather than a slow mechanical hard drive (the LaCie 4 TB drive) or a USB flash drive (they typically use cheap, low-end flash memory and are both slower, and less durable, than a good SSD). Unfortunately SSDs are expensive right now ("thanks", AI companies!), and that's not the only problem.

Your Mac mini had only 4 GB of RAM. That RAM is soldered in and there is no way to add more. Had you bought one of the variants with 8 GB or 16 GB of RAM, you might be in a better position to run Monterey quickly.

You need to retire that Mac Mini. It is severely crippled by the 4GB of memory which cannot be upgraded. Technically Monterey can boot with 4GB of RAM, but it won't be very fast or efficient especially when the internal HD is also a slow drive when swap/virtual memory is used (macOS loves to accumulate virtual memory instead of releasing older RAM contents).

In addition, your internal drive is a slow spinning 5400rpm Hard Drive which is over 10 years old. Even when new it was considered very slow. The EtreCheck report shows the HD speed test of 88MB/s which is extremely good for such an old slow drive.....that HD is still running at the same speed as the day it was made. Of course there is always a possibility that the HD could be worn out even with those speeds.

If you use an external USB3 SSD (not a USB stick or SD Card as they are extremely slow & very unreliable), then the system will be as fast as it can possibly be with just 4GB of total RAM. With the prices of SSDs being extremely expensive due to the AI craze, you would be much better off retiring that Mac Mini.

You can try installing Linux Mint on it (assuming the internal HD is still healthy). Linux can be a bit easier on the limited resources of this Mini, but you won't be able to use MS Office unless you have a subscription & utilize its web browser interface. Linux Mint does include the free open source office suite LibreOffice which can be a great option for more basic needs (to be as compatible as possible with MS Office you need to be careful with how you format your documents & the fonts used to minimize compatibility issues).

Linux is a great way to extend the useful life of older computers, but it does require the user to learn a new OS. Linux is not for everyone though, so make sure to first create & test a bootable macOS USB installer (just in case Internet Recovery Mode has issues later on) so you can restore the system to running macOS.

If you want to check the health of the internal HD, then run DriveDx and post the complete text report here using the "Additional Text" icon which looks like a piece of paper on the forum editing toolbar. I will be happy to look at the health report for the internal HD to give you may assessment. At least you will know whether the internal HD is even worth using even with Linux Mint.

BTW, the current versions of the MS Office apps are no longer compatible with macOS Monterey although any existing older standalone MS Office installation will continue to work. However, MS is known to turn off their software activation servers so it may be impossible to reinstall older versions of MS Office even if you have their installers.

Have you tried its performance with no external drives attached?

Is the internal drive a mechanical or a solid-state drive (SSD)? Disk Utility, in your Utilities folder will tell us that. However the 512 GB capacity suggests an SSD. Booting for a USB3 key can only move data at a max of 400MB/sec. IF the LaCie is a mechcnal crive, its max speed are under 200MB/sec. A healthy factory SSD should to over 2000MB/sec. That make speed tesing from those externals pretty meaningless.

The model should not be slow if SSD equipped. How full is the SSD? Too full can really drage down performance.

4GB RAM may be struggling with Monterey,

The #1 causes of slow performance are useless aftermarket utilities. Anti-virus, so-called "cleaning/optimizing" apps, and client-side VPNs (ones NOT issued to you by an employer) are wreaking havoc on Mac performance, hurting more than helping or protecting. Theu only help the developers' bank accounts.

We are other end users who can only rely on what you report here to suggest a cause or fix However, we can be more hepful if you post a system config report. Fortunately, there is a safe, secure way to show up that.

If you want a data-driven evaluation in this setting where we can neither see nor touch your computer, please post an EtreCheck report. We can quickly and within the limitations of these forums help you determine what issues are at play without our playing a protracted game of "20 Questions" with you that could go on for days. 

EtreCheck Pro is available here:https://etrecheck.com/en/welcome.html

The free version will do nicely for this purpose, although the app is worthy of our financial support.

We can see hard data about drive performance, software issues and interferences, and RAM usage. Etrecheck is the development of a long-serving and trusted ASC contributor. It is a reporting app, expressly for displaying information in these forums to help us help you remotely. It will not reveal any personal or secure information.

Please see this excellent user tip on how to post long text reports like EtreCheck's into a forum response:

How to use the Add Text Feature When Post… - Apple Community

NOTE: Please post the entire report unedited. There are subtle hints there that may seem trivial to a new EtreCheck user, but can speak volumes to those of us who have evaluated thousands of them.

Chris_0607 wrote:

Yes I meant 500 GB sorry, it's an HDD, doing the etrechek report rn

thanks for all your answers !!!

No problem.

To make that Mac mini faster, you need to run it from a USB 3.0 SSD or replace the slow internal HDD with a 2.5" SATA SSD.

USB-A 2.0 external HDD's are slower than the 2014 Mac mini's 5400rpm internal drive.

Plus USB Flash Drives are less reliable and much slower than internal or external drives.

The only external drive that would be faster, is a more expensive external USB 3.0 SSD.

The other option, is to replace the 2014 Mac mini's internal HDD with a 2.5" SATA SSD.

The Mini you purchased was the slowest Mac Apple offered at the time of sale: i5 CPU, 4 GB RAM and a 5400 rpm hard drive.

I agree wholeheartedly with HWTech in that there's little you can do to speed up the Mac. Apple considers that model to be Vintage.

You'd be best served by getting a new basic Mac Mini M4 with a 10 Core CPU, 16 GB of RAM and a 1 TB SSD.

According to Geekbench the new M4's CPU is 4 to 8 times faster than than the Intel i5.

You should be able to use your current monitor but you might need to get an upgraded HDMI cable for it. Give it a try with the current cable first. Also the current mouse and keyboard can be used.

den.thed wrote:

The other option, is to replace the 2014 Mac mini's internal HDD with a 2.5" SATA SSD.

Methinks it has a factory SSD. OP reports the storage size as 512GB, an SSD option in 2014. Hopefully we get an Etrecheck report.

Good point Allan.

It would seem that something is a-miss with the OP's reported spec's.

The 2014 Mac mini 1.4GHz model only offered a 500GB 5400rpm hard drive and a 1T Fusion Drive option.

Mac mini (Late 2014) - Technical Specifications - Apple Support

Please copy the report as post in your reply as shown:

and after clicking on the Reply button use the Additional Text button to paste the report in your reply.

Then we can examine the report and see if we can determine the cause of the problem.

Chris_0607 wrote:

Hello

Thanks for your reply

So I found an SSD external at my home, and just launched and installed macOS Monterey on it, and it's working great. It's just a little bit warm

I've found the latest available MS office for Monterey and it's working too

Do you think it's a good solution

thanks a lot for your help

Chris

Only you can decide that, but from what you indicated in your initial post I would think it will be fine as long as the limited 4GB of RAM doesn't cause you a problem. Only time will tell if using the computer for days will show a problem.