danielkyl

Q: Mac Mini Late 2014 Ram vs SSD

Hey guys, I have just purchased the Mac Mini late 2014. Perhaps I should blame myself for not doing some homework as I have a late 2012 model before this. I used to upgrade the ram myself whenever I need it, it was easy-peasy. So I bought the 2014 version, thinking that it will be the same. But no, the ram's soldered on and there's no way I can upgrade. The mac was purchased from an APR, so returning is not possible according to store policy.

 

I do understand that if the RAM is not enough, the OS will use the space from harddisk instead. So what I intend is to upgrade the harddisk to SSD, which I have did so on my previous Mac Mini. Just so that it will speed up the processes and minimise crash.

 

Question being, will this help solve ram issue? Or nothing can be done and that's it?

Posted on Feb 12, 2016 11:35 PM

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Q: Mac Mini Late 2014 Ram vs SSD

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  • by lllaass,

    lllaass lllaass Feb 13, 2016 2:10 AM in response to danielkyl
    Level 10 (189,070 points)
    Desktops
    Feb 13, 2016 2:10 AM in response to danielkyl

    Yes an SSD will improve performance and partially make up for not enough RAM. However, how good it gets depends upon what apps you run. Some apps are very memory intensive and might not show that much of an improvement

  • by danielkyl,

    danielkyl danielkyl Feb 13, 2016 2:16 AM in response to lllaass
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 13, 2016 2:16 AM in response to lllaass

    Thanks for the advice. Mainly the com will be used for home use (surfing internet, light office work such as word & excel, maybe a little photo-editing with photoshop <- brighten or sharpen images, not intensive editing).

     

    I have checked videos, it seems that the fastest would be upgrading RAM + SSD, follow by SSD itself, then RAM. So generally, upgrading SSD is somehow "faster" than upgrading RAM. Not sure if that's true

  • by lllaass,

    lllaass lllaass Feb 13, 2016 2:53 AM in response to danielkyl
    Level 10 (189,070 points)
    Desktops
    Feb 13, 2016 2:53 AM in response to danielkyl

    For a lot of users like yours, except for Photshop, an SSD will help most. Photoshop is memory intensive so might not show that much improvement but the improvement will be noticeable.

  • by Rudegar,

    Rudegar Rudegar Feb 13, 2016 3:07 AM in response to danielkyl
    Level 7 (28,638 points)
    Apple TV
    Feb 13, 2016 3:07 AM in response to danielkyl

    I would not get a ssd to make up for not having enough memory and have the faster speed of ssd swapping fix it

     

    ssd memory cells have a limited number of times you can write to them before they die

    the trim feature largely make up for this limitation but if you swap data back and forth on it even trim will be hard pressed

  • by woodmeister50,

    woodmeister50 woodmeister50 Feb 13, 2016 4:04 AM in response to danielkyl
    Level 5 (5,557 points)
    Mac OS X
    Feb 13, 2016 4:04 AM in response to danielkyl

    For an app like Photoshop, there is no substitute for having sufficient RAM.

    Yes, if Photoshop does get into disk swapping mode an SSD will be better

    than an HDD, however, it will still be quite slow.

  • by danielkyl,

    danielkyl danielkyl Feb 13, 2016 8:35 AM in response to danielkyl
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 13, 2016 8:35 AM in response to danielkyl

    Thanks for the advices guys. Supposedly if I were to give up photoshop, simply using just safari, mail, office and perhaps itunes, would there be an issue in long-term?

  • by lllaass,

    lllaass lllaass Feb 13, 2016 8:39 AM in response to danielkyl
    Level 10 (189,070 points)
    Desktops
    Feb 13, 2016 8:39 AM in response to danielkyl

    I say an SSD with be fine then

  • by den.thed,

    den.thed den.thed Feb 13, 2016 9:39 AM in response to danielkyl
    Level 7 (27,570 points)
    Feb 13, 2016 9:39 AM in response to danielkyl

    Question is how much stock RAM does the 2014 have...?

     

    If it is only the 4GB model, then you might be better off re-purposing or re-selling the 2014 and souping up your 2012 with an SSD and more RAM. see > http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/mac-mini/

     

    FWIW my 2012 screams... I moved the HDD to the upper bay for library storage and put a 240GB SSD in the lower bay using an OWC DATA Doubler kit. I upgraded the RAM to 10GB using one stock 2GB and one 8GB module. I had planned to go the full 16GB, but never did because most times it never uses more than 6 or 7GB no matter what I do. I also run dual 21.5" DVI Samsung monitors without any issues whatsoever.


    Screen Shot 2016-02-13 at 9.35.51 AM.jpg

    Screen Shot 2016-02-13 at 9.36.11 AM.jpgScreen Shot 2016-02-13 at 9.36.25 AM.jpg

  • by danielkyl,

    danielkyl danielkyl Feb 14, 2016 12:09 AM in response to den.thed
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 14, 2016 12:09 AM in response to den.thed

    Thanks for advice. I have rang up Apple, trying to see if able to send to their service centre to do the upgrade or something (they can only get back to me on Monday). So hopefully this goes through. Otherwise I guess I have to live with it. I have tried put up listing to sell in local marketplace at 10% loss, but sadly Mini is not a popular choice here, most people preferred macbook over mini.

  • by lllaass,

    lllaass lllaass Feb 14, 2016 12:59 AM in response to danielkyl
    Level 10 (189,070 points)
    Desktops
    Feb 14, 2016 12:59 AM in response to danielkyl

    Apple will not upgrade your Mini, all they MAY do is offer a good trade-in for one with more RAM. You are right that the 2014 low-end Mini are not in demand. The 2012 i7 Mini are in demand

  • by dwb,

    dwb dwb Feb 17, 2016 6:08 AM in response to danielkyl
    Level 7 (24,209 points)
    Notebooks
    Feb 17, 2016 6:08 AM in response to danielkyl

    As mentioned above, Apple doesn’t upgrade computers but an independent Apple provider will. Also, check iFixit’s guides to see what is involved for a DIY upgrade - it looks worse than it is. With the correct tools and patience it isn’t that bad. BTW I’m running Photoshop 5.5 on a 2011 MBA with 4GB and a 2013 iMac with 16GB and an SSD. Obviously the iMac runs it faster due to the faster CPU but I have no complaints about how well my MBA runs it.

  • by John Lockwood,

    John Lockwood John Lockwood Feb 17, 2016 6:32 AM in response to dwb
    Level 6 (9,324 points)
    Servers Enterprise
    Feb 17, 2016 6:32 AM in response to dwb

    dwb wrote:

     

    As mentioned above, Apple doesn’t upgrade computers but an independent Apple provider will. Also, check iFixit’s guides to see what is involved for a DIY upgrade - it looks worse than it is. With the correct tools and patience it isn’t that bad. BTW I’m running Photoshop 5.5 on a 2011 MBA with 4GB and a 2013 iMac with 16GB and an SSD. Obviously the iMac runs it faster due to the faster CPU but I have no complaints about how well my MBA runs it.

     

    Hypothetically yes an engineer with the right tools could possibly remove the current chips and fit new ones. However as the current chips are surface mounted/glued to the logic and chips have far higher density connections then they used to this is nowhere near as straight forward as the old days. (I had a 128K Mac upgraded to a 512K Mac by swapping the original soldered chips.)

     

    Note: No way is your average PC store going to have the right tools for this level of work.

     

    See https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Mac+Mini+Late+2014+Teardown/30410#s71241

     

    Any such attempt to replace the original memory chips this way would definitely invalidate the warranty. I would not risk it, far better to sell it secondhand or trade in against a new one.

  • by dwb,

    dwb dwb Feb 17, 2016 6:50 AM in response to John Lockwood
    Level 7 (24,209 points)
    Notebooks
    Feb 17, 2016 6:50 AM in response to John Lockwood

    I was referring to the SSD, not RAM.

  • by careyglenn,

    careyglenn careyglenn Mar 8, 2016 11:02 AM in response to den.thed
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iTunes
    Mar 8, 2016 11:02 AM in response to den.thed

    Okay, excuse the length of this, but I've been working on this for awhile. I've got a 'late 2012' Mac Mini, which I was excited to get as I'm 'apple to the Core', as they say: previously, Mac classic, iMac DVD (1999), 13" PowerBook, gave daughter 2010 MacBook, have iPad Mini, iPhone 5C, . . . and now she's got the MacBook Air, which is astonishing, I have to say.

    Because, my Mini, which I thought I could ramp up to 21st century speed given my previous experience, has ALWAYS been slow, slow, very slow. And I've never figured out why.

     

    There are many options: remove memory heavy images & videos from desktop (done), ensure at least 1/3 harddrive available (it is), reduce screen icon animations in dock and other Finder options (done), never rely on wi-fi (don't).

     

    But, today I timed the startup time from the chime to when the Apple disappears offscreen (56 seconds) and then when I can simply open a Finder window (2 minutes, 50 seconds). And then after THAT, I can open an application!  Is this REALLY normal?

     

    I have low vision, so I have my screen inverted and use VoiceOver, which I know is QUITE processor heavy, I believe, but there seems to be inconsistency as to the ability of the Mini to deal with what is not a new part of the operating system.

     

    I got excited by the response from Den.thead with the link to the memory and SSD options and How-To videos, until I realized that I already HAVE the 16Gb (maximum) memory installed. I remember, when upgrading the RAM, thinking "THIS will pick us up!"

     

    What am I missing? Here's images of my desktop (connected 1 terabyte drive partitioned into Rama 1,2,3)

    and the images of my applications and Utilities folders



    file:///var/folders/x5/qc1ms7g126j8ff_sw48_5l500000gn/T/com.apple.Preview/com.ap ple.Preview.PasteboardItems/ScreenApp-iMovie.png


    could there be something happening which I don't know about here? If I run Mail and Safari and Pages (my most common configuration), while connected to a cable modem through a Belkin router, I can watch a beachball spin when switching between applications, and wait for 15-30 seconds for "Save" dialog boxes to appear, if at all.

     

    AND, Pages, used always with VoiceOver, is constantly screwing up, and other applications seem to follow suit, which I assume is caused by the memory issues.

     

    So then I thought maybe the Mini is just a pice of crap, Until I read Den.thead's comment about how his 2012 Mini 'screams' with more devices, displays, and less memory . Is VoiceOver the Kiss of Death?

     

    I have tried looking at the Activity Monitor, but there seems to be lots of memory available at any given time, but it's not great for the visually challenged! The only OTHER thing I can note is that I use Mail as a storagesystem, as I send a LOT of emails with business and coursework in the 'On My Mac' section there are 39 nested folders, and then a few folder on a separate .ca domain: I don't know if that's significant, but that's the only other thing I'm unsure of. The only applications running at startup is  a screensaver called BOINC  from Berkeley for Setiathome, but I've always figured they'd know their stuff.

     

    I keep talking 'cause I'm kind of desperate. This is the WORST Mac I've ever owned, bar none!

     

    Carey

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