Is 4GB RAM enough to run Mavericks on a MacMini 2.5Ghz/i5?

Question

Since purchasing this new Mac Mini at Best Buy two weeks ago and upgrading from Mountain Lion to Mavericks, I've experienced two unsettling events:  first, an out-of-the-blue Bluetooth shutdown (which required swapping out my wireless mouse and keyboard with my old USB models in order to wake the Mini out of a sleep, and then doing an SMC reset to get Bluetooth going again) and a confidence-rattling Microsoft Office 2011/Word hang tonight that required a force-quit and a frustrating loss of some work.
I've also noticed some intermittently sluggish app launching -- the Preferences pane sometimes takes 4 seconds to open, for example.  The Office apps don't exactly spring open, either. So I'm wondering whether the base 4GB of RAM Apple installed on this model (late 2012, 2.5GHz/Intel dual-core i5) is enough to smoothly manage the possibly more memory-intensive Mavericks OS?  Has Mavericks slowed anyone else down?  I know they always say the more RAM the better, but would it be worth spending $75 to go to 8GBs? I'd appreciate your suggestions!

Answer 1

Between the smallish hard disk drive and limited RAM I'd say no since you don't get as much flexibility for OS X to manage automatic functions to help keep it as efficient (under a load) as it will be expected to with Mavericks compared to an earlier OS X that may have been happy with less resources, or less of a load.
A larger HDD and maybe a good third-party source for high quality RAM, and $75 seems cheap in the historical sense to double the RAM. Be careful to check the upgrade for stability, and if the unit doesn't work well, you can revert to the original as-shipped RAM chips. Isn't 16GB the most it can use? I'd go with that.
{And expect to pay a little more for a good brand, guarantees aside. Their word just isn't good enough when all the RAM warranty does is hand you another set of the same stuff. Even if it is the cause of misery.}
Then if you think it still goes slow, look into how the resources are managed by the OS X, the activity monitor utility helps. Look at things like page-ins, page-outs, virtual memory, free RAM (not in use) and RAM tied up in things you can't easily see. And perhaps consider an SSD.
Another idea would be to put a larger drive in the Mini and use the 500GB for a backup drive, maybe run a clone of your OS there, or maybe run installation of the older OS X you aren't running now, in an external HD.
Good luck & happy computing!