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Don't overpay, though, for one that someone else has upgraded, when you can likely do the work yourself for less. Where do you find one, though? That depends where you live, but the usual places like eBay and Craigslist are a great place to start. Still, if you're looking for a really expensive way to get into Mac computing, or want a solid secondary machine, you can do a lot worse than picking up a used 2012 Mac Mini and upgrading it. Ultimate performance will always be better on newer models. Pair it with a good monitorĪ new Mac is an expensive thing there's no denying that. If this is the case, the system won't post, so it's easy to spot. Remove one, reboot, and check About This Mac again to verify.īy doing it a stick at a time, you can easily identify if you have any bad RAM.
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If not, you'll need to go back in and troubleshoot your installation one stick at a time. If it shows the amount of RAM you installed, all is well. To verify all is well, boot up the Mac Mini and check out the About This Mac information. Push down gently until they lock into place.Line up the new RAM sticks and push gently into the slots.Pry apart the metal brackets around the current RAM sticks.The base should simply pull away, but may need prying with a plastic tool or even a credit card.Place your thumbs in the circular divots and twist the base clockwise.So the best you can do is grab a 16GB kit (opens in new tab) made up of a pair of 8GB sticks. The 2012 Mac Mini uses 1600MHz DDR3 SODIMM modules and can accept up to 16GB across two slots. The most you can install in the 2012 Mac Mini, 16GB of RAM is a great performance upgrade, and this kit from Crucial will slot right in.īesides adding an SSD, the next best thing to do to give your old Mac Mini some additional legs for present-day computing is to add more RAM. Insert the logic board removal tool into the holes pictured.Remove the final screw from the logic board with a Torx T6 screwdriver.You will need to detach any remaining items from the logic board at this point, including the wireless shroud and the IR cable.
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