This Mac Mini was a couple of years old and was due for some upgrades. It was working OK, but was bogging down on videos and some common tasks. We took a look and noticed that the RAM was low for today’s standards and also we could gain a large speed boost by upgrading the hard drive to a new SSD drive.
We upgraded the RAM to 8GB of DDR3 laptop style memory and cloned the hard drive over to a new 500 GB solid state drive. While the original computer came with 4GB of RAM it’s a little low for today’s computing needs. 8GB of RAM is quickly becoming the standard for modern computers and that’s what this user needed to ensure that the computer wouldn’t be slowed down by running out of RAM when editing large files in Photoshop or even browsing the web with multiple tabs open at the same time.
The new SSD hard drive is what gives this Mac Mini it’s biggest speed boost. Removing the old and slow mechanical drive and replacing it with a solid state hard drive makes this Mac Mini faster than it was when it was brand new. It also reduces heat and fan noise which can be a concern on these older Mac Mini computers.
If you have a Mac, either old or new, it can probably be upgraded to make it faster or add years to an aging machine. This can save you the cost of replacing an expensive computer.