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Resolved Do the 2010+ Mac minis support 10.13 (High Sierra)?
- Thread starter King Mustard
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If you can, I recommend sticking with Sierra. You probably will not see any benefit from 10.13 and it still has some bugs and compatibility issues.
I've got a 2010 Mac mini Server that is running 10.12.6 and it performs beautifully as an AST/NetInstall server. It has 8GB of RAM and dual 1TB 7200RPM drives. High Sierra saw some slow downs and AST doesn't currently do very well being installed on High Sierra.
I just got notification that the next update to High Sierra will not be 64 bit compatible with a critical software program I use. Is there a way to decline the automatic OS upgrades, just in case the publisher doesn't fix it in time?
My 2010 Mac Mini is on HS and it's so slow. That's simply because I kept it on the default 2 GB of RAM and spinning HDD. My 2008 MacBook with 8 GB of RAM works a lot better on HS though, even though it's unsupported.
The next release after High Sierra may not be compatible, but High Sierra should remain compatible. Apple introduced the same kind of alert in iOS 10, and in iOS 11 support for 32-bit apps was dropped, but devices on the last build of 10 can still run them just fine.
High Sierra will always run 32 bit code. The next version may or may not. If you don’t want automatic updates, turn them off in System Preferences.
Blooming heck, I didn't realise how expensive second-hand Mac minis (that supported macOS 10.13) would be!
These are the starting prices for used ones on eBay UK (PassMark CPU scores in brackets):
Mid-2011, Intel Core i5-4515M (3,300), £310 (dual core)
Mid-2011, Intel Core i5-2520M (3,580), £340 (dual core)
Mid-2011, Intel Core i5-2620M (3,840), £430 (dual core)
Mid-2011, Intel Core i7-2635QM (5,460), £480 (quad core)
Late-2012, Intel Core i5-3210M (3,820), £310 (dual core)
Late-2012, Intel Core i7-3615QM (7,370), £570 (quad core)
Late-2012, Intel Core i7-3720QM (8,120), non currently on eBay UK (quad core)
Current five variants:
Late-2014, Intel Core i5-4260U (3,509), £350 (dual core) (£470 new from Apple)
Late-2014, Intel Core i5-4278U (4,360), £450 (dual core) (£680 new from Apple)
Late-2014, Intel Core i7-4578U (4,750), £750 (dual core) (£950 new from Apple)
Late-2014, Intel Core i5-4308U (4,150), £550 (dual core) (£950 new from Apple)
Late-2014, Intel Core i7-4578U (4,750), non currently on eBay UK (dual core) (£1,130 new from Apple)
These are the starting prices for used ones on eBay UK (PassMark CPU scores in brackets):
Mid-2011, Intel Core i5-4515M (3,300), £310 (dual core)
Mid-2011, Intel Core i5-2520M (3,580), £340 (dual core)
Mid-2011, Intel Core i5-2620M (3,840), £430 (dual core)
Mid-2011, Intel Core i7-2635QM (5,460), £480 (quad core)
Late-2012, Intel Core i5-3210M (3,820), £310 (dual core)
Late-2012, Intel Core i7-3615QM (7,370), £570 (quad core)
Late-2012, Intel Core i7-3720QM (8,120), non currently on eBay UK (quad core)
Current five variants:
Late-2014, Intel Core i5-4260U (3,509), £350 (dual core) (£470 new from Apple)
Late-2014, Intel Core i5-4278U (4,360), £450 (dual core) (£680 new from Apple)
Late-2014, Intel Core i7-4578U (4,750), £750 (dual core) (£950 new from Apple)
Late-2014, Intel Core i5-4308U (4,150), £550 (dual core) (£950 new from Apple)
Late-2014, Intel Core i7-4578U (4,750), non currently on eBay UK (dual core) (£1,130 new from Apple)
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Still using mine - look at the geekbench ratings, it is 50% faster than the top of the line 2014 Mini!
The 3.0Ghz does beat it out in single core, but multi-core isn't even a competition.
3925 Single, 7633 Multi - Late 2014 3.0Ghz i7 (Dual)
3718 Single, 12636 Multi - Late 2012 2.6Ghz i7 (Quad)
Yep. With 8 GB of RAM and an SSD, my Late 2008 Unibody MacBook still runs HS very well. When it had 2 GB and a spinner as recently as El Cap, it was a total slug.
My 2008 MacBook still has the spinning HD. I really need to upgrade it to an SSD soon.
Got my 16gb on the way. My son was using the mac mini with the original spinner hd and 4gb ram. Decided to liberate him of it and give him my windows pc. Upgraded to SSD and ram shortly. Really wish I had the 2012 i7 though.
Yeh, I just don't use it too much tho so if I were to upgrade it it'd just be 8 gigs.
2010's are workhorses. Optical drive comes in handy, too. Picky about the 16gbs of ram in the beginning, I'm sure it's all worked out now with the ram issue. 2010 MPB 13" had the same 16gb finicky ram issue, but flew on maxed out ram like the Mini's.
So after the ssd and ram upgrade, my 2010 mini is still a bit laggy for normal office and youtube use. I dont remember el capitan being this laggy with standard spin drive and 2gb ram. Is it possible to go back to el capitan or am i wasting my time? what about a linux distro? thx
What process did you use to transfer your system and files from the hard drive to the SSD?
If you simply did a full restore from a backup, I would suggest that you boot to your High Sierra installer, and reinstall High Sierra to your SSD. That will simply reinstall all the system files, and can sometimes give you back that performance that may not be there just yet.
So, reinstall macOS on your SSD. (the reinstall does not delete any of your own files and added apps and settings, unless you choose to erase the SSD first)
Reset NVRAM (hold Option-Command-p-r on a restart. You should hear the boot chime sound. Continue to hold the same 4 keys until you hear the boot chime two more times, then release the keys to let your system boot normally.
Go to System Preferences, and set your boot drive in the Startup Disk pref pane, as NVRAM reset clears that selection.
While in System Preferences, go to the Spotlight pane, and add your SSD to the Privacy window. Close the pane, then reopen the same Privacy window. Delete your hard drive from that window, and close System Preferences. That short process removes, then restarts the Spotlight database in your system. The rebuilding of the Spotlight database goes very quickly, maybe less than 5 minutes, on Hight Sierra, on an SSD. The SSD is formatted to APFS format automatically by a High Sierra install.
In my experience, the NVRAM reset, and resetting the spotlight database, then simply using your new configuration for a couple of days, THEN evaluating the relative speed of your mini, may then show that your system is working (much) better than your first impression.
If you simply did a full restore from a backup, I would suggest that you boot to your High Sierra installer, and reinstall High Sierra to your SSD. That will simply reinstall all the system files, and can sometimes give you back that performance that may not be there just yet.
So, reinstall macOS on your SSD. (the reinstall does not delete any of your own files and added apps and settings, unless you choose to erase the SSD first)
Reset NVRAM (hold Option-Command-p-r on a restart. You should hear the boot chime sound. Continue to hold the same 4 keys until you hear the boot chime two more times, then release the keys to let your system boot normally.
Go to System Preferences, and set your boot drive in the Startup Disk pref pane, as NVRAM reset clears that selection.
While in System Preferences, go to the Spotlight pane, and add your SSD to the Privacy window. Close the pane, then reopen the same Privacy window. Delete your hard drive from that window, and close System Preferences. That short process removes, then restarts the Spotlight database in your system. The rebuilding of the Spotlight database goes very quickly, maybe less than 5 minutes, on Hight Sierra, on an SSD. The SSD is formatted to APFS format automatically by a High Sierra install.
In my experience, the NVRAM reset, and resetting the spotlight database, then simply using your new configuration for a couple of days, THEN evaluating the relative speed of your mini, may then show that your system is working (much) better than your first impression.
Thanks DeltaMac, i did a clone from the HDD to the SSD. I will try what you said and see how it goes, thanks for all the info! Not sure how to boot to my High Sierra Installer but will search and find out. ThX
It's pretty easy if you have the installer already on an external drive partition, or a USB flash drive.
If not, it's a simple task to make an installer from your downloaded High Sierra installer app through the terminal.
If terminal commands are not something that you enjoy, there are also single-purpose apps available, such as DiskMaker X, or Install Disk Creator. You can quickly find either of those apps, and both work for that purpose (I use both frequently)
A 16GB USB flash drive is cheap, and works nicely for that use, too.
If not, it's a simple task to make an installer from your downloaded High Sierra installer app through the terminal.
If terminal commands are not something that you enjoy, there are also single-purpose apps available, such as DiskMaker X, or Install Disk Creator. You can quickly find either of those apps, and both work for that purpose (I use both frequently)
A 16GB USB flash drive is cheap, and works nicely for that use, too.