Any point to putting 8 GB RAM in Mac mini?

hudson1hudson1
Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
I've seen the OWC info on being able to put 8 GB of memory in the mini but I've yet to see why this might be useful. Here are a couple of questions the answers to which I think will help me better understand what's what:



1) Has anyone figured out how to get a current generation mini to boot into a 64 bit kernel?



2) If the kernel is locked to 32 bits, does the mini have any capability of taking advantage of more than 4 GB memory? If yes, under what circumstance would that be?



Thanks.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 4
    vineavinea Posts: 5,585member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Hudson1 View Post


    I've seen the OWC info on being able to put 8 GB of memory in the mini but I've yet to see why this might be useful. Here are a couple of questions the answers to which I think will help me better understand what's what:



    1) Has anyone figured out how to get a current generation mini to boot into a 64 bit kernel?



    2) If the kernel is locked to 32 bits, does the mini have any capability of taking advantage of more than 4 GB memory? If yes, under what circumstance would that be?



    Thanks.



    1) Just run snow leopard. Poof! 64 bit kernel.

    2) False, it's not locked to 32 bits.



    How hard is this to google? The Minicolo folks are offering 8GB minis.



    http://www.macminicolo.net/



    There are lots of threads. Picked at random:



    "We just tested the two old models from March 2.0GHz and 2.26GHZ + the current October shipping 2.26GHz and 2.53GHz models - all with the latest 10.6.x Snow Leopard... And they ALL work 100% with 8GB. FULL utilization, no slow down - performance gained for applications open that can result in more than 4.0GB utilized."



    http://www.123macmini.com/news/story/1357.html

    http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=784083
  • Reply 2 of 4
    sandausandau Posts: 1,230member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Hudson1 View Post


    I've seen the OWC info on being able to put 8 GB of memory in the mini but I've yet to see why this might be useful. Here are a couple of questions the answers to which I think will help me better understand what's what:



    1) Has anyone figured out how to get a current generation mini to boot into a 64 bit kernel?



    2) If the kernel is locked to 32 bits, does the mini have any capability of taking advantage of more than 4 GB memory? If yes, under what circumstance would that be?



    Thanks.



    snow leopard server is a good reason to have 8gb ram. also if you are running parallels or other virtualization software.
  • Reply 3 of 4
    hudson1hudson1 Posts: 800member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by vinea View Post


    1) Just run snow leopard. Poof! 64 bit kernel.

    2) False, it's not locked to 32 bits.



    How hard is this to google? The Minicolo folks are offering 8GB minis.



    http://www.macminicolo.net/



    There are lots of threads. Picked at random:



    "We just tested the two old models from March 2.0GHz and 2.26GHZ + the current October shipping 2.26GHz and 2.53GHz models - all with the latest 10.6.x Snow Leopard... And they ALL work 100% with 8GB. FULL utilization, no slow down - performance gained for applications open that can result in more than 4.0GB utilized."



    http://www.123macmini.com/news/story/1357.html

    http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=784083



    It's not hard at all to do a search... the trick is understanding what you find.



    "MacBook and Mac Mini models definitely will not boot into 64-bit Snow Leopard. The later Unibody MacBook Pros (5,3 and 5,4) are not listed, and it is not known if they work or not."



    http://blog.fosketts.net/2009/08/30/...eopard-kernel/



    Since no one else has responded yet, I'm starting to think that no one has found a way to boot a Mac mini with a 64-bit kernel. So that brings me back to my original question: despite a mini accepting 8 GB perfectly fine, what are the advantages of having that much memory if the OS itself can't use it? Does it simply reduce to a "Photoshop runs better" argument at that point?
  • Reply 4 of 4
    vineavinea Posts: 5,585member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Hudson1 View Post


    It's not hard at all to do a search... the trick is understanding what you find.



    "MacBook and Mac Mini models definitely will not boot into 64-bit Snow Leopard. The later Unibody MacBook Pros (5,3 and 5,4) are not listed, and it is not known if they work or not."



    http://blog.fosketts.net/2009/08/30/...eopard-kernel/



    Since no one else has responded yet, I'm starting to think that no one has found a way to boot a Mac mini with a 64-bit kernel. So that brings me back to my original question: despite a mini accepting 8 GB perfectly fine, what are the advantages of having that much memory if the OS itself can't use it? Does it simply reduce to a "Photoshop runs better" argument at that point?



    Except that the new firmware supports 8GB and it runs without a slowdown. So why on earth is 8GB on a mini a waste if you wanted 8GB in the first place? And yes, the OS CAN use it. Which part of the report that they were running many apps pushing the usage above 4GB without slowdowns is misunderstood?



    Besides, folks that want to run the 64bit kernel are running it with a slightly patched boot64.efi.



    http://antihackerlink.or.id/kernel-6...-x-10-2-6.html



    So yes, I was mistaken that the 8GB firmware update fixed the 64bit kernel issue but there's a work around if you care. But for most users it doesn't matter.
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