Mm 1,1-6,2 Mac Mini for iMesssage

[oldmacmini]

I have a 2011 Mac Mini that I'm trying to breath some life into. It has a fresh install of Sierra and 2 GB of memory. I basically just want to use it for iMessage, and I think it should be suitable for that. It's very slow to open applications though, so I had some questions:

- I'm only getting around 15 MB/s throughput on the HDD. I assumed the HDD was failing, but Disk Utility doesn't report any health issues and smartctl doesn't show any issues either. Is there something else that would cause such poor disk throughput?
- Would installing an older OS version help? I think my Mac Mini is on the low end in terms of hardware supported by Sierra.
- Anything else I should do to improve performance? Again, I really just need iMessage. Can I do anything to reduce graphics quality, turn off unneeded services, etc.?

If I do need to replace the disk, I want to spend as little as possible. I think these are my options?
- USB 2.0 thumb drive. Cheap, bad performance, but probably better than the current HDD?
- New 2.5" SSD. Also surprisingly cheap? This one is $14 and I think it would work in the Mini? It's SATA 3.
- Anything else?

Thanks!

 

[eyoungren]

If you want to keep iMessage, El Capitan might be a better fit. ElCap still supports iMessage. I believe it's the earliest OS to still do so. Of course, Apple may cut it off in the future.

As to SSDs, there is an improvement. I have a 500GB SSD in one of my 2009 Mini's, but it's not a cure. It works, it's not slow, but it's not fast either. However, that Mini is running a patched version of Mojave so the SSD might be quite a bit faster on an earlier OS.

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

I have a 2011 Mac Mini that I'm trying to breath some life into. It has a fresh install of Sierra and 2 GB of memory. I basically just want to use it for iMessage, and I think it should be suitable for that. It's very slow to open applications though, so I had some questions:

- I'm only getting around 15 MB/s throughput on the HDD. I assumed the HDD was failing, but Disk Utility doesn't report any health issues and smartctl doesn't show any issues either. Is there something else that would cause such poor disk throughput?
- Would installing an older OS version help? I think my Mac Mini is on the low end in terms of hardware supported by Sierra.
- Anything else I should do to improve performance? Again, I really just need iMessage. Can I do anything to reduce graphics quality, turn off unneeded services, etc.?

If I do need to replace the disk, I want to spend as little as possible. I think these are my options?
- USB 2.0 thumb drive. Cheap, bad performance, but probably better than the current HDD?
- New 2.5" SSD. Also surprisingly cheap? This one is $14 and I think it would work in the Mini? It's SATA 3.
- Anything else?

Thanks!

A pair of 4GB DDR3 SODIMM 1333 is 10$.

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An old Intel SSD is 11$

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And your Mac Mini can be installed with High Sierra. I think it's quite stable for your needs.