2012 Mac Mini Upgrade in 2024 - The YouTube Video I Wish I NEVER Started!
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- čas přidán 30. 03. 2024
- Upgrading an 2012 Mac Mini that was running slower than a tortoise with a broken leg.
I hope this video helps as it was utterly painful to make!
Along with a large bucket of patience you will need..
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#macminiupgrade
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Do not go and buy a new Mac. Your old bag of nails might still have some life left in it yet!
please dont say that. Who wants to use a 12 year old processor and integrated graphics with new ram and storage if they cant get the full use put of it. 1200 mega hertz *example* original ram replaced with 3000 megahertz ram. what if the board does not support it?
nice video though was nice to watch
@@user-qf6kb4vl6d thank you for watching and you are quite right. It depends on what you need I guess. My parents didn’t need anything super fast however it was horrendously slow before the upgrade.
While I agree with the idea of keeping devices out of the landfill, this Mac is near end of life. It will only get a few more months of updates leaving it vulnerable to malware and app support issues.
While it sounds annoying, I recommend putting a Linux distro on it that resembles MacOS just enough for a sense of familiarity and will keep this thing around longer.
@@chandlerbing7570 I will certainly keep that in mind. Thank you.
There are good reasons for removing the connectors but you were careful so fair play. I found slotting a credit card into the plastic in between the drive bays helps you get the drive into the right groves. Since you have done this it would be well worth looking into installing Monterey using open core legacy patcher as that will allow your dad to use the Mac mini for a lot longer. We are finally getting to the point where a lot of applications won’t work on Mojave (my favourite os) or Catalina. I still run Mojave on a few older macs for a variety of reasons. 2012 Mac mini works great on open core 😊
I’ll certainly consider using the patch and see how it goes. The reassuring thing being there is an option to extend the life of the machine. All things considered it’s not bad for a 12 year old Mac 👍
Lovely video! Impeccably shot and great overview of the procees required for a RAM+SSD upgrade. Keep it up like this and you'll have a mountain of subs in no time, well done!
Super thanks for the feedback. It was a challenging video to put together but I’m quite happy with how it turned out 🙏
I have one from 2011 and is still working nicely. I made few upgrades like SSD and 16gb ram.
Great to hear 🤙
You had my sub at “I’m a bit of a geek”.
Haha thank you. Asking for subs was an oversight on this video. They do say ‘don’t ask, don’t get’ so thanks for taking the time to watch and indeed subscribe
How monumentally screwed would Apple be if you could still do this with modern hardware.
@@RichFletcher Very. Possibly why they have gone down the route they have. Cunning move Apple 🤣🤣
I've done a few of these. The first one is always a pain in the butt. SSD and RAM are always what I do when keeping these machines running.
I've put an SSD in a 2002 iMac and that boots in 13 secs now.....
Makes such difference doesn’t it.
Thank you. I'm just waiting for my cheap(ish) 2012 MacMini impulse buy to arrive and this has helped a lot.
Good luck with it 👍
Wow! Loved this video. subscribed
Thank you so much 🙏
I love when youtube actually shows me something interesting and its a low sub channel that has good production quality. You got my sub mate.
thank you so much @siktah 🙏
When I first upgrade the SSD on a 2011 and 2012 Mac Mini, screwing the SSD back on was a pain. I found that if I fold a long piece of plain paper a few times and stick it under the SSD to hold it up, it make it easier to screw in the SSD. After that I can pull the paper out and tighten the screws.
Yes that part was a right pain!
This so reminds me of my own 2014 Mac Mini (2,6 GHz i5 dual core CPU, 8 GB RAM and a 1 tb hard drive). I've ended up buying a 250 gb Samsung SSD and a USB enclosure to connect the SSD to one of the Mini's USB ports. I've kept the internal 1 tb hard drive for data storage.
From a very slow hog it became a pretty quick computer. An SSD is the best thing you can do to upgrade the old guys and give them a new lease on life.
Good shout on using an external drive. I never thought about that on my old 2014!
You’re very right. SSD is the way to go 👍
I've got 2 of these and one already has 16gb of RAM and an SSD running Ubuntu. I am going to check the other one but I think it has a mechanical hard drive so that has to go. I wish these had a CPU socket so we could upgrade that as well without soldering or replacing the logic board etc.
But for it's age it's not bad once you do the memory and SSD upgrade. I'd like to get a 2018 intel i& based Mac but in my area in Texas they are around $300-$400 USD.
I subbed as well. Thanks for the video!
That’s awesome. Thank you 🙏
good job :P
Thank you 🙏
Up and running in my basement, 10+ years until today. No issues, everything is fine. Never had any speed problems. Last update in 2015 (added the two SSDs for about 900 Euro each).
Mac mini. Late 2012, 2.3 Ghz Quad Core Intel Core i7, 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3, 2x 1TB WD SATA SSD, Sonoma 14.4
Replacing the harddrives was so easy back in the day, the same for the RAM. Would be nice if Apple ever would go back to these behaviors.
BTW: your speed improvements are just related to the SSD. After about 2016 none of the Mac OS X versions was optimized for magnetic drives. Just the huge amount of short read accesses kill any usable performance of the sad device.
If only. I doubt they ever will. They want to sell new machines 🤣🤣
@@realmattjc Really sad. Of cause the Mac mini in my basement is in his has years, caused by the x86 CPU. But it worked so long, so stable. It is at least one reason why I still think Apple makes really good hardware.
@@ronny332 agreed. I love them 👍
how did you get sonoma on there? I'm sure my 2012 mac mini told me a couple of osx versions ago that it was not supported.
@@derecwilsom4546 I believe you have to run a patch but not tried that myself and tbh I don’t think it’s needed for my parents computer.
I was thinking of getting this one to install Linux, I switch over to hp EliteDesk mini as I got a good deal on it. It's a big jump of speed putting in a SSD in it on that mac mini.
Massive jump. It’s gone from majorly frustrating to use to the performance of a new machine. Opens rapid and no hanging around.
I'm running the latest Linux Mint on my 2014 Mac Mini. From a USB connected SSD. The internal hard drive is used for my user account and file storage. Works like a charm.
It's running my music server, but it is also hooked up to my living room's LCD TV. So I can also use it to surf the Internet from my couch using Chrome.
@@SandsOfArrakis easy surfing my friend 🤙
@@SandsOfArrakis yeah can be turn in to a Linux server too.
I'm running a 2012 mac mini i7, 16gb RAM, 500gb ssd, 1tb ssd. Running Linux 22.04 LTS for over a year. Every thing works, much quicker than macos. Very nice rig.
About a year ago I made the exact same suggestion to my dad who, like yours, was struggling with the speed of his Mac Mini. He put an SSD in it and all of a sudden the complaints are gone.
Makes the world of difference doesn’t it. Thanks for commenting 🙏
Ha! I just ordered the exact same components earlier today (before watching your video). Plan on using my 2012 Mac Mini as a Proxmox hypervisor to run virtual machines.
Hey there. Good luck with the upgrade. It certainly makes a big difference :-)
@@realmattjc is it possible to upgrade the i5 cpu to and i7 cpu?
@@buckeye43210 good question. I’m not sure on that one as I think the cpu is integrated into the main board. I’d be inclined to say not.
I just ordered a second 2012 refurbished Mac Mini :-)
Still great devices but a little bit expensive. A 2012 is 150-200€ over here, but a used m1 mac mini goes for just 300-400€
Won’t lie. I’d go for the M1. That’s what I use for editing. Thanks for the comment. 🙏
Is this your main machine and did you upgrade it to Sonoma using OCLP?
Hi there. It’s my parent’s machine. It was painfully slow and my dad was on about buying a new one but for what he uses it for I didn’t think buying new was worth it.
The only things upgraded was the hard drive and RAM.
I didn’t put sonoma on it as to do that requires some sort of patch. I didn’t think it was worth it at the time of upgrade but others in the comments of this video have done it. Worth having a look through the comments.
I might have a go myself at some point. Should I do it, I’d be sure to film that.
I like upgrading old Macs because they still have their uses, like with your father's Mac mini. It's a common misconception that adding RAM makes a computer faster because it improves multitasking and minimizes the potential for disk swapping (which does aid performance to a point). But otherwise, more RAM does not make a computer faster, it's the swap from platter drive to SSD that makes the big difference, as you discovered.
Yes I was always aware it would be the SSD that made the difference but figured the RAM might be worth doing too. Either way it’s night and day difference now so all good.
I think you’re right. They still definitely have their uses. Thanks for watching 🙏
@@realmattjc Yep, that RAM was worth upgrading too, I would have done the same thing.
I have a 2010 Mini and a 2020 Mini. The 2020 Mini is faster.😉
The 2010 Mini still works after all these years, and it has a SuperDrive.
Thanks for commenting. It’s as the old saying goes, ‘if it’s not broken, don’t fix it’. I just sold my m1 Mac mini to get a MacBook Pro as the need was more for remote working.
That said my parents Mini was slow as anything. Doing this has given it a new lease of life so it was worth the pain 🤣
I have a 2008 I mac which will become a large paper weight in a few years or sooner since I can't upgrade new software. I really hate this. I wish I could put new parts in it like buying an old car & rebuilding the motor. A profound bummer
Umm not sure what to say on the old iMacs. I fear you might be right about it being a paper weight. It was one of my own concerns when thinking about buying one. Who knows, there might be a way.
@@realmattjc . After reading that there's really no way I was thinking in this day of mini pcs I would think an ingenious person could swap out parts one from another. Plus Apples prices are ins a ne for their upgrades on new computers. I believe they could make things easier but they want u to spend ur money.
@@ewaldradavich7307 afraid so! 😞
Apple were (and still are) very mean with ram and SSD provisioning.
This has a new lease of life.
The future 10 years from now 8GB ram and tiny ssd M3 users will not be so lucky.
Very true. I had the 2014 some time back and I’m not sure you could upgrade those
Same with my 2014 Mac Mini. RAM is soldered to the mainboard. The 2012 version was the last Mini that was fully upgradable (RAM and storage).
Just put linux on it and it will fly
If it were mine I’d give it a go.
it still runs an outdated version of MacOS, without recent security patches.
it's only good for web browsing using Chrome or Firefox, because Safari is not patched.
Indeed. I have also installed Chrome but good point made 👍
@@realmattjc You should get OCLP and install a more modern OS like Ventura or Sonoma. They run great on these machines.
@@SteveAaron funnily enough I was thinking about that. Correct me wrong but it’s some sort of patch?
@@realmattjcyeah OCLP will patch Sonoma to run on the older hardware. I use my 2012 i7 Mac Mini every day with Sonoma after putting in a Samsung 850 SSD beside the 1TB HDD.
@@superjamesworld nice one. I’ll get on that. Thank you 🙏