Apple Event: May 7th at 7 am PT

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

What is the OPTIMAL version of the OS for a 2010 Mac mini?

Searching for expert opinions on which is the optimal (not necessarily the latest) version of OS X to run on a 2.4GHz Mac mini 4,1 2010 model, built in Feb of 2011? It's currently on Snow Leopard 10.6.8. This is my wife's machine.

Additionaly, if it happens to be 10.7.5, are there any considerations when attaching an external FW800 2-GB hard drive regarding partitioning the drive?

Thanks in advance.

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.5), 2.66GHzQuad 2006,16GB RAM,1GB VRAM

Posted on Aug 14, 2013 3:15 AM

Best reply

MlchaelLAX

Level 4

2,286 points

Posted on Aug 14, 2013 9:21 AM

If you have no need to upgrade, such as access to iCloud, apps that require Lion or Mt. Lion, or otherwise, many users here recommend that you stay with Snow Leopard.

View in context

40 replies

MlchaelLAX

Level 4

2,286 points

Aug 15, 2013 10:20 AM in response to MlchaelLAX

Be aware that Mountain Lion no longer comes with Rosetta...

den.thed

Level 9

77,248 points

Aug 15, 2013 4:38 PM in response to Ramón G Castañeda

Sorry I was at work and couldn't respond earlier.

Just for info, Hynix is one of the brands that Apple has put into Mac's for years.

In addition to the OWC and Newegg RAM that woodmeister50 suggest's.

Also compare the price for the 8GB kit from Crucial.com that I have in my Mac Mini.

Apple Mid 2010 Mac mini (Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz) DDR3 Memory from Crucial.com

Aug 15, 2013 9:19 PM in response to Joe Bailey

Joe Bailey wrote:

FWIW my wife's Mac mini is older tha your wife's and it has been happily running Mountail Lion since the first day it was released. I should not that it is my long established custom to max out the RAM on any new Mac we purchase so my wife's Mac mini has 8GB of RAM…

Very, very helpful comment. Thank you, Joe. Wish there were more points to be awarded in this thread.

Joe Bailey wrote:

…In all fairness to OWC, I have used a lot of their memory over the years and the one or two times I got a bad stick they have simply shipped me a replacement, no questions asked and no return requested.

Oh, I've never had bad RAM from OWC—or from any other vendor as a matter of fact. 😀

My reference was to one very poorly made "LG"-brand optical drive I felt compelled to return to OWC because of its obvious low quality (stuff rattling about inside the drive, etc) and I had to pay for the return shipment, with insurance, in order to get my refund. I still remain a happy and regular OWC customer.

Aug 15, 2013 9:26 PM in response to MlchaelLAX

MlchaelLAX wrote:

Be aware that Mountain Lion no longer comes with Rosetta...

Right; neither does Lion 10.7, which I run on my 65-lb Mac Pro.

That's why I kept my PPC Power Mac G5 Quad running Tiger 10.4.11, which is networked with the Mac Pro and shares dual monitors, keyboard, mouse and tablet. Too many PowerPC—and even Classic—applications that are irreplaceable and unupgradeable.

Thanks!

Aug 15, 2013 9:30 PM in response to den.thed

den.thed wrote:

…Just for info, Hynix is one of the brands that Apple has put into Mac's for years…

Thanks for the reassurance; that's what I had learned from my brief Google research. 😉

Thank you also for the links to Crucial. 🙂

Aug 15, 2013 9:36 PM in response to MlchaelLAX

MlchaelLAX wrote:

If you search this forum, you will see there are ways to implement iCloud in Snow Leopard…

Thank you, MichaelLAX. Following your tip I searched the Apple forums and Googled the entire Internet. After due consideration, my wife determined she doesn't want to get into those ingenious workarounds. 😝

MlchaelLAX

Level 4

2,286 points

Aug 16, 2013 10:06 AM in response to Ramón G Castañeda

Ramón G Castañeda wrote:

MlchaelLAX wrote:

Be aware that Mountain Lion no longer comes with Rosetta...

Right; neither does Lion 10.7, which I run on my 65-lb Mac Pro.

That's why I kept my PPC Power Mac G5 Quad running Tiger 10.4.11...

When your PPC Mac fails, here is a recent post I assembled of the workarounds to run PPC apps in Lion/Mt. Lion:

There are four acknowledged workarounds to attempting to use PowerPC software that requires Rosetta translation software in the "modern" Mac era (i.e., Lion and Mt. Lion) - five if you include the option to purchase an older PowerPC Mac that will run this software natively:

1. If your Mac originally was shipped with the ability to boot Snow Leopard and you do not need any of the updated features of Lion and Mt. Lion (such as iCloud), restore it to Snow Leopard.

2. If your Mac originally was shipped with the ability to boot Snow Leopard, but you need to access the updated features of Lion and Mt. Lion, partition the internal HD or add an external HD and install Snow Leopard into it. This will give you the ability to "dual-boot" to Snow Leopard or Mt. Lion as needed (similar to the way Bootcamp handles the abiltity to use either Mac OS X or Windows).

3. Explore the ability to update your software to Intel versions that will work in Mt. Lion. Some software offers 100% functionality with these updates and other software do not; or worse yet, has no upgrade path. In that event, explore alternative software that will be able to either open or import your data files, modify them and save them in their modified state for future use.

4. Add a virtualization program, such as Parallels, VMWare Fusion or VirtualBox and install Snow Leopard Server (with Rosetta) into that program so that you can have concurrent use of PowerPC apps and the features of Lion or Mt. Lion. The disadvantages of this approach are: (a) no firewire peripheral can be used and (b) diminished ability to use complex or 3D graphics.

While some criticize this approach due to the double emulation layers (Rosetta running in virtualization) the speed of modern Mac's CPU's effectively compensate for the theoretical slowdown of this approach.

[click on image to enlarge]

More information on running PPC in SLS in Parallels 8 for use in Lion/Mt. Lion:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1365439

Aug 16, 2013 10:49 AM in response to MlchaelLAX

Thank you for all that info, MichaelLAX.

My Mac Pro originally shipped with Tiger, but it boots fine into Snow Leopard and Lion.

Snow Leopard wouldn't help me because I do use the Classic environment often.

When my PPC G5 fails, I'll either restore it at whatever the cost or replace it with another just like it. I need Tiger to run Classic and to continue using my originally very expensive SCSI scanners that would cost me a fortune to replace with mother unit.

Tiger is perfect. If it were not for Adobe's ACR 8.x and Photoshop 13.0.5 requiring an Intel machine and 64-bit OS, I would have stayed with just the PPC Mac.

If Photoline continues to thrive, I'll drop Photoshop in a heartbeat—and then I won't need an Intel Mac at all. I absolutely refuse to sign up to pay a monthly tribute to Adobe for the rest of my life.

Leopard totally broke SCSI, and it dropped Classic support if I recall correctly.

Just FYI, I also keep a PPC MDD Dual G4 and a beige G3 Mini Tower upgraded to a G4 with a Sonnet ZIF CPU. 😀

Aug 16, 2013 10:58 AM in response to MlchaelLAX

MlchaelLAX wrote:

…While some criticize this approach due to the double emulation layers (Rosetta running in virtualization)…

Hehehe… reminds me of the days when I used to run FWB Software's "SoftWindows98 for Power Mac" emulation software in the Classic environment under Panther 10.3.x. 😀

MlchaelLAX

Level 4

2,286 points

Aug 16, 2013 11:06 AM in response to Ramón G Castañeda

My "emulator" of choice at that point was VirtualPC from Connectix; going all the way back to SoftPC on a PowerMac 6100 to be able to play Hearts on AOL Games!

I still use the licensed copy of Windows XP that I extracted from VirtualPC for Bootcamp/Parallels on my MacBook Pro!

MlchaelLAX

Level 4

2,286 points

Aug 16, 2013 11:07 AM in response to Ramón G Castañeda

Ramón G Castañeda wrote:

I need Tiger to run Classic and to continue using my originally very expensive SCSI scanners that would cost me a fortune to replace with mother unit.

In that case, I will not bother to tell you about SheepShaver and its cousin, Chubby Bunny!

Aug 16, 2013 3:08 PM in response to MlchaelLAX

"mother unit"? Good grief! I meant to type "modern units". 😊

MlchaelLAX

Level 4

2,286 points

Aug 17, 2013 9:26 PM in response to Ramón G Castañeda

If you really want a broader sample of opinion of Mountain Lion vs. Snow Leopard, read here:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1422415

Aug 18, 2013 3:00 AM in response to MlchaelLAX

Interesting. Thank you.

den.thed

Level 9

77,248 points

Aug 18, 2013 8:29 AM in response to Ramón G Castañeda

Once again, I'm incline to disagree.

That MacRumors thread is over a year old and after several updates Mountain Lion has improved 10 fold.

Besides, someday sooner or later you will be replacing her computer and is it not an easier transition, if both the old computer and the wife are up to date....?

😉

What is the OPTIMAL version of the OS for a 2010 Mac mini?