Looking for advice for Mac Mini (late '09)

Hey everyone, I have never owned any mac outside of my early 2007 macbook pro. That thing just bit the dust about a month ago.

I picked up a used mac mini 3.1 / late 2009 / 2.53 mhz / 4gb ram / 500gb hdd with the power supply / usb mouse / usb keyboard / dvi adapter for about $130 bucks plus $20 shipping. It came with 10.6 installed.

That seems like a decent bang for my buck, and is already faster/better than the MBP I was used to. So far so good, about 6 hours into owning it.

I plan to use this for a few months until a refresh on the imacs, then upgrade to something nicer. I'll probably give this to my non-tech savvy parents, re-sell it, or keep it as a back up.

Question time:

1. I read that this can support up to 8gb ram. Should I upgrade to get the most longevity? I know this has DDR3 as opposed to my MBP which was DDR2. My parents won't use it for much other than email/youtube/netflix. I know I won't be editing 4k on it, but I may do some light editing, hoping at least 720p, I photoshop some as well (nothing filter heavy or after affects heavy).

2. Should I upgrade the OS? Snow Leopard is not really being supported anymore, but things are functional at the moment. I read that it can support up to and including El Capitan. Should I just go as modern as possible? Or go with Yosemite? (I have prior installers from my MBP that I never used).

3. Should I upgrade the drive to SSD? I've never had one before, so I'm not totally sure about the pros/cons.

If I upgraded the ram and got a 128gb ssd that would bring the total investment to about 300 bucks. (Again, I figure I could always re-sell it for about what I paid).

Thoughts?

- Thanks.

kennerguy66 said:

1. I read that this can support up to 8gb ram.

Click to expand...

Not if you're only going to keep it for a couple months. An 8gig RAM upgrade will cost $50 + shipping (you only paid $130 for it). But...if you decide to give it to your parents...then yes...maybe a good idea. Although my wife has a 2010 MacBook Air with 4gig of RAM...and she has no issues.

kennerguy66 said:

2. Should I upgrade the OS? Snow Leopard is not really being supported anymore, but things are functional at the moment.

Click to expand...

Go as modern as you can. But this depends on what you have available to you. If you did not download El Capitan (or Yosemite) previously...it won't be available to you now (they are only available to users who downloaded them previously). Only Sierra the latest OS is available which this Mac-Mini can't run.

kennerguy66 said:

3. Should I upgrade the drive to SSD? I've never had one before, so I'm not totally sure about the pros/cons.

Click to expand...

Again...not if you're only going to keep it for a couple months. But if parents are going to use it after you...then it might be worth it (will make it feel faster).

kennerguy66 said:

If I upgraded the ram and got a 128gb ssd that would bring the total investment to about 300 bucks. (Again, I figure I could always re-sell it for about what I paid).

Click to expand...

You may or may not be able to recoup all costs (original purchase price & upgrades).

- Nick

Thanks again, Nick.

That pretty much settled all of my thoughts. I may only up the RAM, and leave the hard drive alone.

If I could only do one upgrade...I think the RAM would be it.

And if you want to get "spunky"...you could try to sell the 4gig of RAM in it currently. Maybe you get $20.

Or keep it for "backup RAM" just in case something goes wrong.

- Nick