Mini Mac - Upgrading RAM?

Hiya, at work we have a minimac and its sooo slow, it seriously does all of our heads in like krazy!

I used to have a macbook laptop that had 1GB RAM (2x512MB card thingys inside) i upgraded to 2GB RAM so still have the two 512MB's, can i just put these straight into the macmini at work?

Appreciate any advice ;D

You need to tell us the specifications of your computers before we can tell you if the ram is compatible.

What I will say is...Mac-Mini's only have two ram slots. And if both of your Mac-Mini's ram slots are already occupied...and if the ram in those slots are already 512meg each...then you won't be able to use your old MacBook ram even if it is compatible.

If only one of your Mac-Mini's ram slots is occupied...then you may be able to use 1 stick of that old ram...but then that's why we need your computers specs (Mac-Mini & MacBook) to see if the ram is compatible.

- Nick

Can i not take out the old RAM & put new RAM in?
Thats what i did with my macbook if i remember correctly?
Took out 2x512 & put in 2x1GB
It was 2/3 years ago though...

I can't give the spec of the macbook as ive sold it now, it was from late 2007... the macmini is 1.42GhZ powerpc G4, its has 256 MB DDR SDRAM inside it currently, haven't opened it up yet

Thanks for the reply...

chronic said:

Can i not take out the old RAM & put new RAM in?
Thats what i did with my macbook if i remember correctly?
Took out 2x512 & put in 2x1GB
It was 2/3 years ago though...

I can't give the spec of the macbook as ive sold it now, it was from late 2007... the macmini is 1.42GhZ powerpc G4, its has 256 MB DDR SDRAM inside it currently, haven't opened it up yet

Thanks for the reply...

Click to expand...

You never mentioned in your original post how much ram your Mac-Mini currently had...so it was pretty hard to answer your original question.

But if it currently has 256meg of ram in it...then sure you COULD replace it with higher density (512meg) sticks of ram. But...since you cannot provide the specs of your old MacBook (so I can determine what sort of ram it had)...it's hard to say if the MacBook ram is compatible with your Mac-Mini.

Your Mac-Mini uses PC-2700 ram..and your Mac-Mini has a max ram limit of 1 gigabyte. No MacBook ever sold used PC-2700 ram. I'm going to take a "wild guess" that your old MacBook used PC-5300 ram.

In any case...256meg of ram certainly would make your G4 Mac-Mini pretty slow...and increasing it's ram would certainly help speed it up. In fact...I would recommend upgrading your Mac-Mini to 1 gig of ram.

I would also recommend that you just purchase the 1 gig of ram you need to assure compatibility. I usually like to purchase from these guys:

Performance Upgrades; FireWire USB SATA Storage; Memory, more at OWC

Hope this helps,

- Nick

Cool thanks for the info, guess ill give it a go and ifit doesn't work then i'll buy the right RAM (PC-2700)

Def gonna go for the 1gig

Thanks for the link but im in the uk...

chronic said:

Cool thanks for the info, guess ill give it a go and ifit doesn't work then i'll buy the right RAM (PC-2700)

Def gonna go for the 1gig

Thanks for the link but im in the uk...

Click to expand...

Actually it really doesn't matter that you're in the UK. I know a number of UK & Australian Mac-Forums members that have ordered from OWC & highly recommend them!!!

As far as your MacBook ram. I think that your Mac-Mini's ram & the MacBook ram look very very similar (same length & width, and the "notch" along the pins is in the same spot).

So the MacBook ram will probably fit in your Mac-Mini's ram slots...but that doesn't guarantee that it will function properly. If you install the Macbook ram into your Mac-Mini the Mac-Mini may:

- not boot up at all
- may give you an "unhappy" startup sound
- may be semi-stable (you may experience system crashing or kernel panics)
- might be 100% stable

Basically consider this an experiment. If it works out successfully..awesome!

Please post your results. Myself & others would probably like to know if it works.

Good luck,

- Nick

Will do dude, ill report back on friday

chronic said:

Will do dude, ill report back on friday

Click to expand...

[size=+2]FRIDAY[/size]...why are you going to make me wait so long!!! Ha ha!

- Nick