Will Additional RAM help?

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Before I format and do a clean install of Mavericks, I planned on upgrading my RAM from 8GB to 16GB. My Mac specs are listed under my avatar. Even under extreme use and using my Mac Mini under a heavy load, I never saw the RAM usage go above 5GB. Would upgrading this Mini to 16GB of RAM be of any help? If I rarely use above 5 GB now, would having 16GB improve anything? Would Mavericks be able to utilize the full 16GB better and provide a huge performance boost or a significant processing speed increase?
 

vansmith

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If you're not using more than 5, adding more isn't going to help. It would only help if you hit 8 regularly.

If you're looking for a performance boost, think about adding a SSD. It'll make your machine feel like new.
 
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If you're not using more than 5, adding more isn't going to help. It would only help if you hit 8 regularly.

If you're looking for a performance boost, think about adding a SSD. It'll make your machine feel like new.

Agree with Van. 8GB is the sweet spot for modern systems. 16GB will increase your performance only marginally. But the same amount of money spent on a SSD will boost your performance drastically.. So yea.. Get yourself a SSD. I would go with Samsung EVO 840 Series 250GB SSD.. Performance, price and reliability is hard to beat..IMHO..
 

pigoo3

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With your current ram usage...a 16gig ram upgrade would only make your wallet lighter!;)

- Nick
 

chscag

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I agree with Van. Save your money and buy a large enough SSD. The additional memory is not going to do much if anything at all.
 

RavingMac

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That makes it unanimous. I vote SSD as well.
 
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The optical drive works great...original drive. Will I have to "ditch" that to instal an ssd?
 

pigoo3

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The optical drive works great...original drive. Will I have to "ditch" that to instal an ssd?

You can go either way. Keep the internal HD…and replace the optical drive with an SSD (there are kits for this). Or replace the internal HD with an SSD and keep the optical drive.

- Nick
 
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The extra memory will not do much as the others have said.

That mdel Mini has a pretty low GeekBench test of 3782 compared to the later 2012 model with 2.3GHz i7 and a score of 10,784.
 
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Thanks to you all . . . when all of YOU concur, I'll have to conclude that an ssd would be the way to go.
 

pigoo3

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