Maximum RAM upgrade for Mac Mini mid-2010?

Hi,
I have a Mac Mini mid-2010 (Model 4.1). I purchased it with 4 Gb RAM, and I am now considering a RAM upgrade.
I currently am running OS 10.95 - and not particularly happy with the sluggish performance that has been the hallmark of my 'upgrade' to Mavericks on this machine. I figure that increasing RAM can only help what has become a sometimes teeth-gnashingly slow computer.
In any case, the Apple tech specs document says that the maximum RAM for this machine is 8 Gb. However, the macmemory.com web page for this model Mac Mini says it can handle 16 Gb so long as the OS is 10.7 or greater.
Is this true? Anyone tried this?
Thanks,
HJ

Memory capabilities:
Maximum Memory
16 GB (Actual) 8 GB (Apple)
Memory Slots
2 - 204-pin PC3-8500 (1066 MHz) DDR3 SO-DIMM

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Caught in a conundrum while trying to upgrade a Mac Mini (mid 2010) from Snow Leopard to Mountain Lion

Hi gang,
I am in a very frustrating position as I try to upgrade my Mac Mini (mid 2010) from OS X 10.6.8 Snow Leopard to whatever the latest version of Mountain lion is. The reason I am doing this is because the original hard drive died and the Mini sat there for 6 months before we decided to get a new hard drive and revive it.
I installed a new 500GB 7200rpm SATA drive and the problems began.
First I couldn't get Mountain Lion installed as a fresh OS installation (using both a USB drive and a DVD to no avail). It just wouldn't go. The grey Apple logo/loading screen would come up and just sit there doing nothing while the loading icon spun.
I then tried installing Snow Leopard (the OS that the Mini came with when it was new). After some messing around, that got done.
However, a peculiar thing happens when the Mini boots. Everything loads up into Snow Leopard, but although the mouse curser moves, I cannot click on anything or use the keyboard for 4-5 minutes. Then it just work (I am typing this on the Mini). This happens every time.
Now, when I updated to 10.6.8, I was able to load up the App Store and download the Mountain Lion install app. I clicked it and went through the initial copying of files and then the restart, but after the reboot, the grey loading screen would not progress. I rebooted again and held down the Option key to check out the available boot volumes, and all I saw was the installation DVD I had in there for Snow Leopard and a hard disk volume called "Mac OS X Installer."
So I booted into the Snow Leopard install DVD and opened Disk Utility to check things out. I did a verify disk and a permissions repair. Interestingly, the first repair I did gave me the message that the ACL was missing from Volumes and that is was fixed. I read something somewhere which talked about the Access Control List and mouse/keyboard issues. But who knows. When I boot back into the Mini as normal I am returned to the fully-functioning Snow Leopard installation, like nothing happened.
And now here is the kicker: it appears that the Firewire bus is hooped. In the Profiler, when I view the FireWire settings I get the message, "Warning: Unable to list FireWire devices." So I am pretty sure the one thing I cannot do is boot the Mini into target disk mode attached to my Mac Pro and installed Mountain Lion that way.
So to recap: I can't finish the Mountain Lion installation because the install won't continue after rebooting because there is something wrong with the underlying base system, which might be hardware (FW bus) related. I think.
Some things I have tried:
Resetting the SMC
Resetting the PRAM
Reparing permissions
Booting into Safe Mode (doesn't work)
Booting into Verbose Mode to observe what happens (I get the "Can't load the Bootcache.playlist" error, which I suspect is related to the screwed up FW bus)
Trying to boot using Internet Recovery (doesn't work)
Booting into Single User Mode and attempting the "fsck -y" etc. sequence to try and repair the ACL that way
So I am stuck.
I guess the question is, should I get an external HD enclosure and install Mountain Lion onto the hard drive that way and hope it works when I put it back into the Mini?
Any other ideas? I have spent a couple days ******* around with this is am running out of ideas...
Any advice would be appreciated!

Addendum: I read on a post here (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=420169) about removing some kext files in order to trick OSX into thinking that there were no FireWire ports.
I followed the instructions and removed from /System/Library/Extensions/ the following files:
IOFireWireSerialBusProtocolTransport.kext
IOFireWireAVC.kext
IOFireWireFamily.kext
IOFireWireIP.kext
IOFireWireSBP2.kext
I restarted and BAM...Snow Leopard booted crazy fast and the mouse and keyboard worked instantly.
The System Profiler says "No FireWire ports were found."
So this tells me that the FW port is probably the culprit and is messing up the installation.
So how do I hack the Mountain Lion installer and tell it to ignore the FW port, which is obviously quite dead? Or is there something I can do to the Base system that is similar?

Happy to report (Ram upgrade for Mac mini))

Hello All,
I would like to share this info with you, just in case someone wanted to add more Ram to their Mac mini.
I purchased 2X4GB Kingston DDR3 Ram and followed instructions that I found on YouTube and other sources to replac my 2GB Mac mini.
The Kingston ram is very cheap KVR1066D3S7/4G but you should evaluate how much Ram you will need.
If I knew that I will only need 4GB then I would have saved my money in a warmer place (my pocket).
Anyway here is the info of my Mac mini after the RAM upgrade:
Hardware Overview:
Model Name:          Mac mini
Model Identifier:          Macmini3,1
Processor Name:          Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed:          2 GHz
Number Of Processors:          1
Total Number Of Cores:          2
L2 Cache:          3 MB
Memory:          8 GB
Bus Speed:          1.07 GHz
Boot ROM Version:          MM31.0081.B06
SMC Version (system):          1.35f0

I'm not sure what your point is here. How does one actually "evaluate" how much RAM you think you need?         I think most would agree that a RAM upgrade is one of the best performance boosters for the money and the simple rule is the more RAM the better. I have a new Mac Mini with 2.3 GHz i5 processors and upgraded to 8GB of RAM from Crucial.com (complete with instructions so you don't have to search YouTube) and noticed an immediate performance increase when working with multiple applications and while playing iTunes, etc. The Crucial upgrade was only $59.99 for 8GB kit and I think the 4GB kit was only $20 cheaper so it doesn't make sense to not get thte 8GB kit.

RAM upgrade for mac mini

can i use this ram for my new mac mini - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Komputerbay-MACMEMORY-PC3-10600-133

Does not seem right. The specs are:
PC3-12800 DDR3
Unbuffered
Non-parity
204-pin module
1600 MHz
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5475
It appears those will work with 2011 Mac
PC3-10600 DDR3
Unbuffered
Non-parity
204-pin module
1333 MHz
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4805

How far is it possible to upgrade a Mac Pro mid-2010 to the maximum extract.

Hello
How far is it possible to upgrade a Mac Pro mid-2010 to the maximum performance. I would be interested how far one could come close to the performance of the new Mac Pro 2013, or is it hopeless.
My computer
Mac Pro
mid-2010
Processor 2 x 2.4 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
Memory 14 GB 1066 MHz DDR3 ECC
Graphics Card ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024 MB
Software OS X 10.9.1 (13B42)
Please excuse my english is not the best because.

For what apps?
Okay, you have the slower 2.4GHz processors, most have found that MHz still rule and matter, meaning a 6-core 3.4GHz for some applications (most) was the best and the sweet spot.
So you could upgrade to a pair of 3.2GHz 4-core (cheapest) rather than splurge on two 6-core 3.34GHz (more expensive and more cores).
First thing to do, put the system on a 256GB Samsung 840 SSD.
For photoshop and graphics, invest in some more SSD ($US300 for 500GB) and put those on a PCIe SSD controller ($300 Sonnet Tempo Pro) and put Aperture/Lightroom on one, and use the 2nd SSD for scratch.
RAM: 24-32GB would probably help all but the more casusalist of user.
Tips and articles:
http://www.macperformanceguide.com head to the TOPICS main page and there are dozens of sections each a different area of upgrade and optimization for applications. Storage, memory, how to, use arrays, backup strategy.

Max capacity for sd card slot Mac Mini mid 2010

Has anyone with a MAC Mini mid 2010 tried using the SD card slot for an extended drive? I'm wondering what the max size is for the slot, and if I put a 64-128 gig SD Card in, would OS X 10.8.2 be able to combine that with an internal HD to create a "fusion drive"?

Your Mid 2010 Mac mini doesn't support SDXC, so you can't use this type of cards. Fusion Drive needs an SSD and a hard drive on the same Mac mini, so an SD won't work with this

Mac mini mid 2010, graphic ghosts

*Mac mini mid 2010 2,4 Ghz 4 GB ram, Mac OSX 10.6.4*
*Hi everyone, please help me because here in Italy also the Apple's technicians don't know what to say about this problem that I have.*
I connect usb keys but also firewire ext drives and when I open one of them from the desktop doing 2 clicks the usb key/firewire ext drive open but during the opening of the file there is a video fake (I don't know how to explain), as like as the graphic card can not open easily and quickly the files and does a sort of graphic ghost.
Then when I open many files and I try to close all from the keybord the graphic card will work slow to close them all.
Please help me because for me is the first time since 1997 that I watch a thing like that, it seems that I have bought a very old Mac and not a brand new one!!
I have another Mac mini (previous version 2009) and it works very nice and fast without this problem!!
Thank you all for your replies
ps: This machine soffered of a problem to the sd card reader and the main logic board has been replaced but the problem continues.

You can't upgrade the graphics card on a Mini. As far as I'm aware it is part of the logic board and also uses shared memory with the main RAM.
As to which of those is the best card that is going to be hard to answer. I suspect it may be a toss up between the 320M and the 8800GTX although I suspect that even with less memory the 320M is probably the best.

Is my mac mini mid-2010 64 bit?

is my mac mini mid-2010 64 bit?

Yes.
It can be upgraded to Mountain Lion, if that is the reason for asking.

Mac mini (Mid 2010) HDMI & DTS-HD

Hello to everyone,
I'm using Mac mini (Early 2009) as HTPC.
With Mac OS X 10.6.4 and Plex, I watch MKV with DTS.
I have connected my mac with my Harman/Kardon.
My problem is when I want to play Blu-Ray (iso files).
I boot Win 7 (Boot Camp), and I use as a player the ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre 3 Platinum.
So I get the Audio from SPDIF and I have a DTS signal.
Because of the limitation of the SPDIF it is not possible to get the DTS-HD, the SPDIF dose not support bitstream.
Does the new Mac mini (Mid 2010) pass the DTS-HD throu the HDMI?
thanks.

Completed my testing.. My mission was to watch a non ripped blu ray on my mac using a USB external blu ray player, Sony/NEC JV edition.
:confused:
*Short Version - There appears no way to play a blu ray on a mac unless you rip it.* Period ... but I tried really.
*Detailed Version*
Did some testing today, on a new 4gb mac mini w/ snow leopard and a USB External mac friendly 'labeled' external sony/nec blu ray player. I use the mac mini as a media extender connected to my 52" plasma and back to my 'PC Config'
The 'PC config' is cat5 connected via GIGe from the mac mini back to a Apple Extreme that acts as a network hub connecting to my NAS, (2x2tb raid) & PC (Windows 7 on Quad core 8gb ram 20TB HD (5x 2TB internal and 5 x 2TB external) NAS and ADSL2+ Internet (got all that).
Here are my results; no surprises.
Litmus Test : On a windows 7 PC it lets you play a blu ray disc on it (go figure) or dvd/cd of course.
Test 2 On the Mac it plays a dvd only
Test 3 On the Mac running window 7 in parallels it plays a dvd only
Test 4 On the Mac running windows 7 in boot camp it plays a dvd only
Test 5 On the Mac networked to a PC with the blu ray drive shared it plays a dvd only
Test 6 On the Mac networked to a PC with the blu ray drive shared it plays a dvd only in Parallels 5 and Windows 7
Test 7 On the Mac networked to a PC with the blu ray drive shared it plays a dvd only in boot camp running Windows 7
Software used for windows 7 (pc and in MAC vm) VLC, and Cyberlink Power DVD 10. The mac will run an MKV file (ripped blu ray no problem), too mcuh trouble, I just want to play a blu ray.
Hope to avoid buying another blu ray player.

Why is not Mac Mini mid 2010 airplay supported in Mountain Lion?

I am really disappointed that a two year old computer mac mini mid 2010 is not supported for airplay in the new OS release Mountain Lion.
I do not think it can be HW related, I think it is the marketing people at apple who are greedy. I am willing to pay for the software upgrade but I don't want to buy a new computer every year. Bought mac for premium price since I thought it would last longer and have HW that is supported.

Actually I was not after the video part in Airplay more the Airtunes part which is working on my machine in Itunes. I hoped there now would be support for the audio part of Airplay in any program so that I could play spotify from my mac to my airplay capable airport express. Today I am using my Ipad or Iphone to airplay spotify which is working great, but say I want to have some music on my stereo while watching a youtube video on the Ipad then the spotify stream is stopped and the video i airplayed instead, anoying. Yes I now there is a third pary solution for this http://rogueamoeba.com/airfoil/mac/ but why is not this built right into the OS?
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I have a Mac mini mid 2010. I have ML installed on one of the 500GB disks. I want to install Boot Camp on the 2nd 500GB disk. Mine is XP Professional.

I have a Mac mini mid 2010. I recently installed ML on one of the 500GB disks. I want to install Boot Camp on the 2nd 500GB disk. Mine is XP Professional. My original OS was Snow Leopard Server edition. Please let me have your suggestions and advice. Thank you. I am in India.

Mountain Lion Boot Camp no longer supports Windows XP, it would also only prepare the same physical disk you run the Boot Camp Utility from i.e. the Mountain Lion disk.
See http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4818#3
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How do I download pictures from a Canon 5D Mark III to my Mac mini (mid 2010)

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If the USB 3 card reader states that it is backwards compatible with USB 2, it should work. Otherwise, purchase a USB 2 card reader.

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After using boot camp to install and run Windows 7 on a Mac Mini Mid 2010, I restarted the machine to boot OSX. Now I can't boot back to Windows. Boot Camp seems to be working fine, but the partition I created doesn't appear to be bootable. I don't know what to do or how to solve the issue. How can I solve this issue?

I will venture that you were unlucky. Twice could be a coincidence. However, if it were to occur again, then you have a pattern and I would imagine that Apple would think something in your home/office is causing the issue and be less likely to want to swap for another.
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I have lost the original Install DVDs for my Mac Mini Mid 2010. Where can i download the Bootcamp drivers for Windows XP for this specific computer model? Or where can i order the original DVDs in Germany?

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Hi all,
For the last couple of months my Mac Mini Mid 2010's fan has been running at high speed as soon as I turn it on. The sound is really annoying, I've reset the SMC and of course reset the PRAM. Neither worked. Not sure what else I can do. I haven't tinkered with the interior of the machine and it hasn't been moved or bumped of anything like that. Any ideas?

Anything helpful in the Apple article below?
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1473

Maximum RAM upgrade for Mac Mini mid-2010?

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