Odd score: 2009 Mac Mini

[LaPorta]

I’d been looking for a while to bridge a gap in my ability: early Intel. I have G4s abs a G5, but then my next Intel is a 2011 Mac Mini - which won’t do 10.6.

I just spotted a 2009 Mac Mini on OWC for $70 to upgrade RAM to 8 GB RAM and ship! I thought that was better than even an eBay price, plus a guarantee it will work and good packaging.

I’ll see how it goes when it gets here!

 

[CC_333]

but then my next Intel is a 2011 Mac Mini - which won’t do 10.6.

Actually, they can! The retail installer won't work, however, so it requires some workarounds. You have to either find a restore DVD set from a similar Mac that does support SL (the early 2011 MacBook Pros, for instance, as some models came with Sandy Bridge CPUs, same gen as the 2011 Minis) and hack it to run on the Mini (with an external optical drive, of course), or take said similar Mac and install SL from within it to the Mini's disk drive via target disk mode.

Once done, make sure it's fully updated, then boot it up on the Mini. I've never had the opportunity to try this myself as I don't have any 2011 Macs, but this procedure was well documented at the time, and SL on the 2011 Mini was said to work quite well, almost like stock because SL actually supports all the hardware (the installer block was genuine, as the retail installer doesn't contain the updated drivers that the 2011 Mini requires).

That said, a 2009 Mini is still a very solid choice, is natively supported by the retain SL installer, and, when properly upgraded, is still decently fast for a Core2 Duo. I have one connected to a 32" TV, and I use it for watching TV shows and such.

c

 

[LaPorta]

I ran 10.6 on my 2006 MBP Core Duo, and it really worked rather well, so I figure the Core2Duo won’t be bad at all. Just want to have it around in case I want to run a few older Intel things. Plus..I don’t have a Mini like this (only have 2011s and up), so it was a nice surprise find.

 

[Corgi]

10.6 was a nice release. An '08 mini was my first Mactel box, so while I hate the things (it suffered through four dead nvidious GPUs before Apple gave up and sent me a unibody to shut me up), they are a bit of nostalgia for me. Have fun with it!

 

[mikes-macs]

Was it an early 2009 Mac mini or Late 2009 Mac mini? I got a LOT of 5 2009 Mac mini 2.53 GHz Server models for $130, varying RAM, 2 500 GB HDD. I set them up with 10.6.8 and Final Cut Studio with Compressor and Qmaster. Great for converting movies for QTSS. They fly with Gigabit Ethernet. One actually runs Mac OS X Server 10.6.8 so that it can host a Netboot/NetInstall Server for other Macs. No need for DVD Installs. I bought my original Early 2009 Mac mini brand new. 2.0 GHz 4 GBs RAM and I had EyeTV on that for years. So I actually have 6 running in the cluster. The 2010 Mac mini/server was the last to officially support Mac OS X 10.6 I remember how upset people who bought 2011s were when they were forced onto Lion. No more Rosetta. Or was that Mountain Lion? I can't even remember now.

 

[Corgi]

10.6 was the last with Rosetta.

 

[LaPorta]

Late 2009. I’ve never seen five for that price, you are a lucky guy!