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Mac Mini 2,1 max OSX version?

I have a new Mac Mini and a MacBook Air running on Mavericks and an older Mac Mini 2,1 1,83Ghz Core 2 Duo 2Gb RAM running on Snow Leopard 10.6.8. I use back to my Mac a lot with my Air to my new Mini when traveling. The old Mac Mini is built into my boat and I want to use this one on Back to my Mac too but it's not available for Snow Leopard :-(


So I'm considering an upgrade. Back when Lion came out I upgraded the Mini to Lion but that was a complete disaster. It became sooooo slow!!! So I downgraded it to Snow Leopard again and everything is back to normal. It's a snappy computer which only runs some navigation software, e-mail and internet. And even VMWare Fusion with a Windows partition.


But... I want Back to my Mac.... -back- So my question is: is it advisable to upgrade the thing to Mountain Lion? Or Mavericks? (if even possible) Or will it get as slow as it was on Lion again? I need to know... I don't feel much for an experiment and then downgrade it again. Any ideas? Would a RAM upgrade help? What's the max RAM for this thing?


Thanks....

Mac mini, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on May 12, 2014 10:29 AM

Reply
5 replies

Jun 1, 2014 9:31 AM in response to blauw777

Thanks! And do you have any idea if it will run Lion with 4Gb as good as it runs Snow Leopard now?

First, note that you can install 4 Gigs of RAM, but it can only use 3 Gigs of RAM.


Whether Lion will run better with 3 Gigs of RAM compared to Snow Leopard with 2 Gigs of RAM would be a close call. However, Snow Leopard with 3 Gigs of RAM will be better than Snow Leopard with 2 Gigs of RAM.


Considering the age of the MacMini, the RAM limitations, the OS X limitations, and the expense of an SSD, you might want to just save up for a newer Mac.

Mac Mini 2,1 max OSX version?

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