RAM Question

ilan

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hi

a year ago i have upgraded my laptop with an SSD drive and i am very happy with the results so i decided to upgrade also my MAC Mini and i recommend everyone to do that.

my question is, i had 2x 2GB on my mac mini (so 4GB in total)
it has 2 slots and on each i can put up to 16GB.

yesterday i upgraded the SSD and also the RAM to 1x8GB.
my question is can i put in the second slot 1x2GB ram?

i heard that it is not recommended to put 2 different RAM (so 1x8GB and 1x2GB), is it true?

thank you
 

ilan

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Emme Developer said:
Yes, you should not put different size RAM
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-1638304/sized-ram.html
Click to expand...

ok i see that the voltage is also important.
so if they have different voltage its not recommended. ok, i will stay with 1x8gb. actually, the SSD is the main factor for the boost and i see a very large difference.

now when i open XCode it takes maybe 3 seconds and loading os simulator maybe 5 sec. before i waited maybe 5-10 minutes. it was terrible to work like this.

so SSD is really really a performance boost even for very old pc's.
my mac is about 3-4 years old and my dell is also about 4-5 years old but i still enjoy it
 

Emme Developer

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Yeah i also add an ssd on my pc.
Before put i need to wait 10 minutes to compile a project with visual studio, now i need 1-2minutes
 

JakeBullet70

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I have 2 machines with mis-matched RAM. 1 * 4gb and 1 * 2gb = 6gb total
The other with 2 * 4gb and 1 * 8gb = 16gb total
All work fine.

From the article above:
"I would not worry too much about ram speed, more is usually better than faster."
 

barx

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hmmmmmm, matching pairs went out the window with SIMMs did it not??

I've never had an issue mixing sizes since the days DIMMs started
 

OliverA

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I'm using a 2012 mini (see specs here: http://www.everymac.com/systems/app...-mini-core-i7-2.3-late-2012-server-specs.html). As per the spec, the processor in this box supports "dual channel" memory. This is only active with two memory modules (in this case, since that is all this mini supports) that match. The speed gain of dual channel configuration may be debatable (of the cuff, 6-8%?), so this is the only thing you would be loosing out on when having only one memory module or different sized modules (if your system/processor supports it to begin with).

Originally, this box came with 4GB of RAM and 2 x 1TB 7200rpm hard drives. This configuration felt dog slow. After going to a 256GB SSD for the boot drive and 16 Gigs of memory, it works like a charm. The funny part is that I use the mini more on the virtualized Windows (10) side (via Parallels), then the OSX side. I'm using a triple display 1080p setup (2 native, 1 via USB) and love it. I still can tell that I'm virtualized when using B4X (be it a, i, J, not using R yet), since I can out-type the autocomplete (it's actually a little slow in this configuration).
 

barx

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Oh..... We talking Apple shi-tuff. Not my scene. Ignore my above comment then.
 

ilan

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barx said:
Oh..... We talking Apple shi-tuff. Not my scene. Ignore my above comment then.
Click to expand...

i must say that i was very disappointed by the performance when i bought it. i bought it because b4i came out and you had to use a local mac then (before erel introduced the hosted macs)

it was very slow. you could wait about 10 to 15 minutes until a simulator was loaded or xcode opened but after upgrading to SSD and 1x8GB Ram it runs perfect. xcode in about 5 second, simulator about 10-15 seconds. so now i really enjoy it
 

OliverA

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barx said:
hmmmmmm, matching pairs went out the window with SIMMs did it not??

I've never had an issue mixing sizes since the days DIMMs started
Click to expand...
barx said:
Oh..... We talking Apple shi-tuff. Not my scene. Ignore my above comment then.
Click to expand...
Actually, my comment about dual channel configuration applies to PC's as well. Unless one needs every % of speed out of one's system (and this optimization is memory related only) though, it's not something to be really concerned about. So why mention it? Because it exists!
 

moster67

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Well, just like you @ilan, I also bought a second hand Mac Mini with only 2 GB of Ram. I added a SSD and then I bought 8GB of additional RAM so I have a total of 10GB of RAM. I bought RAM which are compatible but not equal to the pre-installed RAM so no dual channel. Everything is working just fine since 3 years, the Mac is always on and I have never experienced any problems. The extra RAM and the SSD turned the Mac Mini into a superb developer computer.
 

MikeH

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I believe Mac Mini can only accept up to 16gb RAM. Could be wrong and I hope I am, can never have too much RAM

Also, yes, Mac Mini can work perfectly well with odd sized RAM.
 

ilan

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MikeH said:
Also, yes, Mac Mini can work perfectly well with odd sized RAM
Click to expand...

In my opinion the main factor for good performance is switching from HD to SSD and not really put more RAM.

My mac mini runs very fast now with 8GB and SSD. Actually my win pc also has only 8GB but i also switched to SSD and it runs very fast for a 4 years old laptop.

So SSD is a must for every pc in my opinion.
 
S

stanks

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def because M$ don't know hot to write fast os so as once one said: "Windows works great on future hardware."
 

MikeH

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Perhaps I shouldn't have said "perfectly well" as matched ram is that. Mine both have SSD and 16gb ram (2 x 8gb matched). One of them has 2 x SSD.
 
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