Upgrading a Late 2014 Mac Mini. How much faster am I looking at here?

[HungarianStan]

So, today, taking my Mac Mini 2014 in to upgrade. I have the base Mac Mini 2014 (meaning SATA 500GB, 1.4 GHZ, 4 GB RAM). I plan to upgrade to a 256GB SSD and 8GB RAM.

My question is, I know it's faster, but how much faster? Like, in real terms, if folks can give me an idea. Just curious. I know the machine will be "better", but I'd love to get a feel for how much, in anticipation.

 

[ferrarr]

I don't believe the ram can be upgraded.

 

[HungarianStan]

I don't believe the ram can be upgraded.

Interesting. The shop seemed to think it could when I messaged them. We shall see! I did tell them it was a Late 2014...

 

[pigoo3]

As member ferrarr mentioned...unfortunately RAM in Late 2014 Mac-Mini's is not upgradeable. 2014 Mac-Mini's need to be configured at the original time of purchase with as much RAM as it will ever have.

Late 2014 Mac-Mini's are the ONLY Mac-Mini model where the RAM is not upgradeable. Even newer 2018 Mac-Mini RAM can be upgraded.

Sorry,

- Nick

 

[MacInWin]

As for the SSD speeds, the biggest thing you will see is boot time and launch time for applications. Once running, the SSD will help when opening/closing files.

If the tech can upgrade the memory, that will help with apps when running as there will be more "headroom" for applications in memory, but even if he cannot do that, the SSD will help because the swap in/out to the SSD will be much quicker.

Overall, it should feel much more crisp in operation.

 

[HungarianStan]

As for the SSD speeds, the biggest thing you will see is boot time and launch time for applications. Once running, the SSD will help when opening/closing files.

If the tech can upgrade the memory, that will help with apps when running as there will be more "headroom" for applications in memory, but even if he cannot do that, the SSD will help because the swap in/out to the SSD will be much quicker.

Overall, it should feel much more crisp in operation.

Yes, you are right! So, to report: I was able to get the SSD yesterday; they said they could do the 8GB upgrade, but it needed more days (though they were coy about how - maybe they would swap out the motherboard? Unhitch and solder it themselves? No one said, but the dudes in the back room said they could, no worries).

The mac is now MUCH faster. Used to take, for example, 45 seconds to a minute to start Microsoft Office; I timed it, and now it takes about 6 seconds. So, a different world.

If I ever get around to the changing the RAM I think I'll be in Heaven. As is, the Mac feels like it has a new life.

 

[pigoo3]

...they said they could do the 8GB upgrade, but it needed more days (though they were coy about how - maybe they would swap out the motherboard? Unhitch and solder it themselves? No one said, but the dudes in the back room said they could, no worries).

If they can do something like you mentioned...where they remove the old RAM (desolder)...and install some sort of new/more RAM (and solder it back in)...this falls into the category of "anything is possible"... if you can find the right person with the right skills and knowledge. AND...if cost is not a problem.

This sort of RAM upgrade is wayyyy past the skills of the average do-it-yourselfer!

If they end up doing this RAM upgrade...PLEASE let us know how it goes...and any info you can pass along in regards to how they did it. Also be super sure they don't do something "sneaky"...by swapping out the motherboard with something older.

Thanks,

- Nick

 

[HungarianStan]

If they can do something like you mentioned...where they remove the old RAM (desolder)...and install some sort of new/more RAM (and solder it back in)...this falls into the category of "anything is possible"... if you can find the right person with the right skills and knowledge. AND...if cost is not a problem.

This sort of RAM upgrade is wayyyy past the skills of the average do-it-yourselfer!

If they end up doing this RAM upgrade...PLEASE let us know how it goes...and any info you can pass along in regards to how they did it. Also be super sure they don't do something "sneaky"...by swapping out the motherboard with something older.

Thanks,

- Nick

I will! If I ever do it. Right now, my Mac is so snappy, I'm not sure I will. As is, this sort of speed is what I was hoping (for the record, they put in a Samsung 860 SATA; I understand this isn't as fast as it could be if it were slotted into the PCIe but still...I find it blazing fast). I don't do any heavy duty anything, so I don't know if I'd need 8GB anyway (Word or Excel is about as heavy as it gets with this machine these days; I do my gaming on my Xbox).

 

[pigoo3]

Right now, my Mac is so snappy, I'm not sure I will. As is, this sort of speed is what I was hoping (for the record, they put in a Samsung 860 SATA; I understand this isn't as fast as it could be if it were slotted into the PCIe but still...I find it blazing fast).

It sounds like your speed issue was mostly with the original slow 500gig "spinner" HD (4gig of RAM is fine)...and with the install of the new SSD...all is good...congrats!

As member MacInWin explained above...SSD's don't REALLY make your computer faster...SSD's make your computer feel faster (by booting faster, faster opening of apps, faster opening of files, etc.). The REAL SPEED/processing power of a computer (the CPU and GPU benchmark scores) are basically the same before or after an SSD install.

Congrats again...sounds like the SSD install was a significant upgrade for your Mac-Mini!

- Nick

 

[HungarianStan]

It sounds like your speed issue was mostly with the original slow 500gig "spinner" HD (4gig of RAM is fine)...and with the install of the new SSD...all is good...congrats!

As member MacInWin explained above...SSD's don't REALLY make your computer faster...SSD's make your computer feel faster (by booting faster, faster opening of apps, faster opening of files, etc.). The REAL SPEED/processing power of a computer (the CPU and GPU benchmark scores) are basically the same before or after an SSD install.

Congrats again...sounds like the SSD install was a significant upgrade for your Mac-Mini!

- Nick

Oh, it is a significant upgrade. Quality of life and all that. Basically, the thing works much faster. The base CPU and RAM are fine for what I need, but the SSD gives quickness to the apps that I needed; opening Office apps was a chore, as I said earlier, which made me hesitate to use them sometimes. Startup time is also greatly reduced; it's about 70% shorter now, I think, though I didn't time it yet. Other apps are obviously opening more quickly as well, so, yeah, this thing is reinvigorated!

 

[Randy B. Singer]

Oh, it is a significant upgrade. Quality of life and all that. Basically, the thing works much faster. The base CPU and RAM are fine for what I need, but the SSD gives quickness to the apps that I needed; opening Office apps was a chore, as I said earlier, which made me hesitate to use them sometimes. Startup time is also greatly reduced; it's about 70% shorter now, I think, though I didn't time it yet. Other apps are obviously opening more quickly as well, so, yeah, this thing is reinvigorated!

Did you do any diagnostics on your old rotating disk hard drive before swapping it out? Was it always that slow? My bet would be that it used to be significantly faster. I suspect that your old hard drive was beginning to fail.

 

[chscag]

The 2014 Mac Mini pre-installed hard drive was a slow spinner (5400 RPM) but even at that like Randy stated, it may have had problems.

Let us know how you make out with getting the memory upgraded. We're interested in seeing how they go about it since the memory is soldered to the logic board.

 

[pm-r]

The 2014 Mac Mini pre-installed hard drive was a slow spinner (5400 RPM)

You beat me as to mentioning the same thing Charlie.

Those 5400 RPM HDDs could be quite slow, even without obvious problems.


- Patrick
======

 

[Chris Pink]

As member MacInWin explained above...SSD's don't REALLY make your computer faster...SSD's make your computer feel faster (by booting faster, faster opening of apps, faster opening of files, etc.). The REAL SPEED/processing power of a computer (the CPU and GPU benchmark scores) are basically the same before or after an SSD install.

- Nick

Well, it's all very well saying that but as most of the waiting time in computing is reading and writing to a hard disk then the real world difference is, as the OP says, astounding. I got four more years of life out of a 2011 MacBook Pro simply by doing this.

OK, your render time for Photoshop Gaussian blur isn't any better but loading the file in and out of disk, opening, swapping programmes. In the real world it makes a huge difference.

I'm only going on about this because if someone is reading: for £50-£100 you can make your Mac seem like a new machine if you can't afford a new one (and who can these days?) then this upgrade is well recommended.

 

[HungarianStan]

Well, it's all very well saying that but as most of the waiting time in computing is reading and writing to a hard disk then the real world difference is, as the OP says, astounding. I got four more years of life out of a 2011 MacBook Pro simply by doing this.

OK, your render time for Photoshop Gaussian blur isn't any better but loading the file in and out of disk, opening, swapping programmes. In the real world it makes a huge difference.

I'm only going on about this because if someone is reading: for £50-£100 you can make your Mac seem like a new machine if you can't afford a new one (and who can these days?) then this upgrade is well recommended.

As said, it’s made a big difference for me. Breathed new life and all that. If they do manage something sneaky and give me 8GB later on (though now I plan to delay this) then the machine will be good for along while yet. ****, maybe I don’t even need the other upgrade; it’s plenty fast now compared to what I had before in terms of start up times and such.

 

[HungarianStan]

Did you do any diagnostics on your old rotating disk hard drive before swapping it out? Was it always that slow? My bet would be that it used to be significantly faster. I suspect that your old hard drive was beginning to fail.

Meant to answer this earlier. I didn’t do diagnostics, but it was slowish from the start. When I had El Capitan it wasn’t that big a deal, but I noticed from the last El Capitan through Mojave, that opening things like Word got slower and slower. As said, I timed it to 45-60 seconds of icon bouncing before it would open. Heaven help me if I mistakenly clicked something else to open at the same time.

P.S. - that slowness is one of the reasons I tend to use Mac native apps; they worked faster. I mean, once open, Office apps were snappy enough, but wait for them to open was a chore (and they sometimes failed to open, I’d get fed up and Force Quit the app, then start the process all over again).

 

[allen-uk]

Just to confirm what has already been said: I have a MacMini late 2014, with 8Gb of RAM which was ticking along nicely but then I upped the hard drive to a 1Tb SSD - cheap upgrade (only about £100 here in the UK).

And the difference was (seemed?) blistering. Everything booted faster, very little spinning wheel or beechball watching. I didn't time operations before, but it is now as fast as I want it to be (no games, no complex Photoshop work, etc), and I won't be changing until OS upgrades force me to!

Allen.

 

[krs]

As member MacInWin explained above...SSD's don't REALLY make your computer faster...SSD's make your computer feel faster (by booting faster, faster opening of apps, faster opening of files, etc.). The REAL SPEED/processing power of a computer (the CPU and GPU benchmark scores) are basically the same before or after an SSD install.

Swapping out a 5400 rpm spinner for an SSD would also significantly speed up swapping between RAM and the drive should that be required because there is not enough RAM.
That would make it less necessary to increase the RAM.

 

[krs]

If they can do something like you mentioned...where they remove the old RAM (desolder)...and install some sort of new/more RAM (and solder it back in)...this falls into the category of "anything is possible"... if you can find the right person with the right skills and knowledge. AND...if cost is not a problem.

This sort of RAM upgrade is wayyyy past the skills of the average do-it-yourselfer!

If they end up doing this RAM upgrade...PLEASE let us know how it goes...and any info you can pass along in regards to how they did it.

I saw a video a while back where someone was replacing a very high density surface mount chip it had pins on all four sides with a pin spacing of 0.5mm
Was fascinating to watch
They had some special tool that would heat all pins at once to desolder the chip which was quite fast, then they took a long time to clean any excess solder from every pad, it also too a while to position the replacement chip correctly which was done using tweezers.
And then they used the same tool to solder that chip in one go.

With the right tool and skill set, that didn't seem to be overly complicated, but nothing for the do-it-yourselfer I'm sure that tool costs a pretty penny.

 

[pigoo3]

With the right tool and skill set, that didn't seem to be overly complicated, but nothing for the do-it-yourselfer I'm sure that tool costs a pretty penny.

Sounds similar to brain surgery. With the right tools, skill set, and experience...not so overly complicated.

- Nick