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SimpleLife
New Member
Joined: 30 Jun 2008
Posts: 15
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 Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 3:25 am Post subject: |
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Thanks to everyone who shared info on this thread.
For a month now I've been running 4GB on my Mac Mini 1.83 GHz Core 2 Duo.
I originally wanted to buy my RAM from OWC (macsales.com) ($100). I had bought from them before and was a happy customer. I sent them an email inquiring if 4GB would work OK with Boot Camp. Unfortunately, they never replied to me at all. I bought from them before, and I liked that they publicized their findings about using 4GB RAM with MacBooks and Mac Minis.
Anyway, I was a bit annoyed by the lack of response to my email. I ended up buying at my local Fry's for $90 with a $30 rebate=$60 
Here is a link to a Hi-Res JPEG of the Crucial RAM packaging in case anyone's interested (2.2 MB):
http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=2yjr9xj&s=3
Here are some links that I used for the "How To Do It" (YouTube is good too).
http://forums.appleinsider.com/showthread.php?t=81881
http://soledadpenades.com/2007/11/01/diy-replace-your-intel-mac-minis-hard-disk-drive/
I got 4GB because it was super cheap and to take advantage of the dual channel mumbo jumbo (i think that's what it is sorry for un-techy info).
It does just show as a total of 3 GB in OS X and Boot Camp. I no longer use Boot Camp, but use VMware Fusion, which was the original reason I got the extra RAM in the first place.
Results: 4GB RAM works excellently with 10.5.3, Boot Camp, and VMware Fusion. I toggle between OS X and Windows XP easily.
Very happy. Thank you to everyone, and I hope my info helps others too.
Cheers.
_________________
Mini 1.83 GHz 4 GB RAM
LaCie d2 Quadra 500GB
Dual 19” LCD displays w/ EVGA UV+ & DisplayLink 0.9 Driver |
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kaidomac
Veteran Member
Joined: 29 Mar 2006
Posts: 668
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| Posted: Sun Jul 06, 2008 7:01 pm Post subject: |
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| SimpleLife wrote: | Thanks to everyone who shared info on this thread.
For a month now I've been running 4GB on my Mac Mini 1.83 GHz Core 2 Duo.
I originally wanted to buy my RAM from OWC (macsales.com) ($100). I had bought from them before and was a happy customer. I sent them an email inquiring if 4GB would work OK with Boot Camp. Unfortunately, they never replied to me at all. I bought from them before, and I liked that they publicized their findings about using 4GB RAM with MacBooks and Mac Minis.
...
Results: 4GB RAM works excellently with 10.5.3, Boot Camp, and VMware Fusion. I toggle between OS X and Windows XP easily.
Very happy. Thank you to everyone, and I hope my info helps others too.
Cheers. |
That's too bad about their email service, they're a great company! Having worked in tech support jobs in the past, my advice is that if you can get a live person, do it - that's the best method because then they're on the spot and talking to you live. OWC actually has a Live Chat feature on their site, so if you snag them during their normal business hours you can usually chat with a knowledgable rep and you don't have to phone in (personally I prefer Live Chat because it's easier to send links and cut-and-paste technical terms instead of trying to speak them verbally over the telephone, haha).
When you say that 4GB RAM works excellently with 10.5.3, do you mean that the 2x2GB sticks showing up as 3GB works fine, or does 10.5.3 now recognize the full 4 gigs? I'm assuming it's just working smoothly while recognizing 3GB RAM, but I just want to be sure  |
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SimpleLife
New Member
Joined: 30 Jun 2008
Posts: 15
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| Posted: Sun Jul 06, 2008 9:02 pm Post subject: |
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With either 4GB or 3GB, the computer per Activity Monitor (not "About this Mac" menu) will only recognize 3GB.
By going with 4GB, there is a very slight performance benefit of having "matched pairs" of memory sticks.
In addition, I already cracked the Mac Mini open. The RAM was dirt cheap at $60 for 4GB, so that's what I put in.
I'm sure there's a technical reason Apple caps the specs at 2GB of RAM. Regardless, with 4GB everything works fine for me so far.
Regarding tech support, email is great. The representative can take their time to find the answer. Oftentimes, when a customer calls in the representative has no clue what is going on , so the customer ends up waiting while the rep looks things up in a database or asks a supervisor, etc.
Email is very convenient. As are forums. No company of any size should just plain old ignore a customer and never respond. That's an instant no-sale. They spend tons of money advertising, but can't even respond to an email. This isn't just about OWC. It's about any company generally.
A really good website for customer service, tech support, and quality issues is http://macintouch.com/.
It's all about community and sharing experiences. That's what makes forums and online sharing so awesome.
Cheers.
_________________
Mini 1.83 GHz 4 GB RAM
LaCie d2 Quadra 500GB
Dual 19” LCD displays w/ EVGA UV+ & DisplayLink 0.9 Driver |
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kaidomac
Veteran Member
Joined: 29 Mar 2006
Posts: 668
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| Posted: Sun Jul 06, 2008 9:31 pm Post subject: |
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| SimpleLife wrote: | With either 4GB or 3GB, the computer per Activity Monitor (not "About this Mac" menu) will only recognize 3GB.
By going with 4GB, there is a very slight performance benefit of having "matched pairs" of memory sticks.
In addition, I already cracked the Mac Mini open. The RAM was dirt cheap at $60 for 4GB, so that's what I put in.
I'm sure there's a technical reason Apple caps the specs at 2GB of RAM. Regardless, with 4GB everything works fine for me so far.
Regarding tech support, email is great. The representative can take their time to find the answer. Oftentimes, when a customer calls in the representative has no clue what is going on , so the customer ends up waiting while the rep looks things up in a database or asks a supervisor, etc.
Email is very convenient. As are forums. No company of any size should just plain old ignore a customer and never respond. That's an instant no-sale. They spend tons of money advertising, but can't even respond to an email. This isn't just about OWC. It's about any company generally.
A really good website for customer service, tech support, and quality issues is http://macintouch.com/.
It's all about community and sharing experiences. That's what makes forums and online sharing so awesome.
Cheers. |
Absolutely true. However, companies are run by humans and stuff falls between the cracks. It's sad but every company is affected by it, even Apple, as nice of a company as they portray themselves to be. As far as forum communications go, they're a goldmine. My dream is that someday Google will release a forum-crawling robot that will mine all that wonderful, useful information into a Wiki...I was killing some time tonight and responding to various posts, probably 90% of which asked the same questions over and over again. Google, if you're reading this, please feel free to steal my idea for aForum2Wiki bot 
Also, I think the "technical" reason is to avoid criticism...if Apple was put in the spotlight (no pun intended), they'd have to explain why they used un-matched pairs of RAM which (theoritically, not realistically) results in a decrease in performance. Plus having 3-4 gigs of ram would put it closer to iMac territory, and Apple likes having fine lines between their products. |
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Ratteler
New Member
Joined: 31 May 2008
Posts: 9
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| Posted: Fri Jul 25, 2008 2:24 pm Post subject: |
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| SimpleLife wrote: | | The RAM was dirt cheap at $60 for 4GB, so that's what I put in. |
Care to share where you got that price? Lowest I've seen is $77 from Newegg.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220258
There is no guarantee it will work in a MacMini. For that you need to spend almost double. |
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barnz
Senior Member
Joined: 19 Oct 2007
Posts: 423
Location: Oakland, CA
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| Posted: Fri Jul 25, 2008 2:52 pm Post subject: |
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@Ratteler:
I don't know about SimpeLife, but I got my Crucial 2x2 GB set for $60 from Buy.com (after mail in rebate which has since expired). Works great in the mini. I also got a $10 discount from Google Checkout, so I ended up paying $50. 
_________________
MacMini 2GHz C2D 4GB RAM, 320GB HDD| Panasonic TH-37PX60U | iPhone 3G 16GB
in cold storage:
Winegard Square Shooter HD Antenna | Elgato 250+ | Linn AV5103 | Thule IA60 | Linn Sondek LP12 |
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SimpleLife
New Member
Joined: 30 Jun 2008
Posts: 15
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svedel77
Junior Member
Joined: 20 Jul 2008
Posts: 44
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| Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2008 9:25 am Post subject: Mac Mini 2.0 GHz |
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Hi,
I've got a 2.0 GHz mini purchased July 2008, and I use these 2GB RAM modules :
Kingston ValueRAM
KVR667d2s5/2g
- Søren |
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iYann
New Member
Joined: 13 Aug 2008
Posts: 3
Location: Canada
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| Posted: Wed Aug 13, 2008 11:12 pm Post subject: 2Gb+512 Mb ??? |
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Hi guys,
I don't think this has been discussed yet...
I have a 1.66 CoreDuo Macmini, with the "Nanya" 2x512Mb RAM it shipped with.
After reading this whole thread, I decided to get a single 2Gb stick, Buffalo DDR2-667 PC25300 in FutureShop.
Opened my mini, removed the 2x512 and put the 2Gb in the LOWER slot, boot-up (really fast!). As expected, everything is so much faster... but is it fast enough ?...
Looking at my 2x512 sticks on the table and looking at the system profiler that said "BANK0: Empty"; it finally hit me ! Why did I remove both sticks ??? I am no memory expert, but some guys in the forum were successful with 3Gb or 4 Gb configuration, so why not try a 2.5 Gb configuration and see if I can gain some performance ? (I understand there may not even be a performance gain, but I had to try)
Only when I installed a 512 stick in the top slot, the mini wouldn't boot-up (no start-up chime). I tried inverting the 512 stick with the other 512, no success. I tried switching slots (2 Gb on top, 512 at the bottom) without success. In order to boot-up again I had to remove the 512, leaving only the 2 Gb (on TOP this time).
Now I'm wondering why some people manage to boot-up with 1x2Gb + 1x1Gb, and I can't boot-up with 1x2Gb + 1x512Mb.
Is it because they're different brands ?
Is it because the specs are slightly different ?
Was anyone successful booting-up with 2.5 Gb ?
Any thoughts ? |
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iYann
New Member
Joined: 13 Aug 2008
Posts: 3
Location: Canada
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| Posted: Wed Aug 13, 2008 11:13 pm Post subject: |
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| Oh and... First post ! ...for me... |
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bfuerst1
Member
Joined: 02 Mar 2008
Posts: 146
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| Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2008 10:30 am Post subject: |
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core solo and core duo macs can use ony 2 gbs
core 2 duo macs can use up to 3.2 of the 4gbs
_________________
bfuerst
1.83 c2d mac mini- 7200 rpm hdd, 3 gbs ram, wireless n, dvd burner
80 gb ipod classic
apple bluetooth wireless mouse
apple aluminum keyboard
22 inch Samsung Display |
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iYann
New Member
Joined: 13 Aug 2008
Posts: 3
Location: Canada
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| Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2008 12:03 pm Post subject: |
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| bfuerst1 wrote: | core solo and core duo macs can use ony 2 gbs
core 2 duo macs can use up to 3.2 of the 4gbs |
Yeah but shouldn't they boot-up ? |
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TS
New Member
Joined: 30 Aug 2008
Posts: 1
Location: Sydney Australia
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| Posted: Sat Aug 30, 2008 3:30 am Post subject: |
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On my C2D mini, I installed 2gb Kingston along with factory 512mb. I got a free 1gb stick from a Asus laptop which is 800mhz. So now i got 3gb.
Both Kingston and Asus used Elixir chips replacing the factory Hynix. |
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milleythomson
New Member
Joined: 31 Aug 2008
Posts: 1
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| Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2008 11:25 am Post subject: |
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mac mini guide is very useful and it will make us to work comfortably in mac mini using the steps given in that guide. From this guide we can also know about the core duo processor and the entire details of mother board.
===============================================
Miller Thomson
WideCircles |
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sn0zc0r3
Junior Member
Joined: 04 Sep 2008
Posts: 21
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| Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2008 11:14 am Post subject: |
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I apologize for beating a dead horse, but I'm pretty confused at the moment.
Just to clarify for my own sake, since my mac mini had a core solo chip installed when I bought it off someone, and even though I'm replacing the core solo chip with a C2D proc, the max amount of memory I can install is 2gb? Is this correct? |
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