Mac Mini Slow

how to speed up the mini and make it a bit more snappy and spritely?

i have a mid 2011 Mac Mini i5 2.3 Ghz 2Gb ram. It was new to me this year. I've been setting it up as a media server and connected to my Pioneer plasma tv display using HDMI. In the few months that ive had it it seems to run quite slowly - lots of spinning beach ball, spinning blue ball, stuttering drop down menus. I have checked activity monitor and it seems the CPU is running with little demand as is the ram. I have only got itunes, plex media server running and downloading the Maverick update. doesnt seem like too much of a demand.

I have ordered 16GB ram upgrade , is this likely to speed things up? i realise that it will help ram hungry apps but surely what i have running should be ok?

The HD is 500Gb and 32 GB available. - enought space to avoid slow down?

Pioneer Plasma causing issues?

Ram going to help?

any other improvements/upgrades/suggestions and help much appreciated.

many thanks

Nick