Alright, time to get back on track once again. I will still have pieces to pick up, but they will stumble in as I get time. It is time to get back to projects at hand; and they have been stacking up on me. 

My kids have a Mac Mini 2011. It is still a solid machine, but the hard drive and lack of RAM are showing its’ age though. It seemed pretty good for a spell, but with kids apps, games, and the lot, it could use a boost. The kids stopping using it so much and when I asked they said it was slow. No it isn’t I said in that fatherly tone of you don’t know what you are talking about. Then I tried to do a little work on it to clean it up and see if I could make it at least “act” quicker. I do crack myself up at times, this was one of them. 

After a little research and checking prices online. I hit the Confirm button for 2 purchases.

The LittleMac only had 4GB of RAM.  Not a lot anymore if you fire up an app or 2 with a couple of browser windows open. I found a stick of 8GB for a decent price on eBay. After saving one of the 2GB sticks of the 4, I brought it up to 10GB.

Second was the hard disk, it was no speed deamon (cracking myself up). Other World Computing has always treated me well when it has some to upgrades, especially storage. It has been a while since I have checked on the prices and I was pleasantly surprised how much they have come down. I was able to pick up a 120GB for $30 and change. I actually bought 2 of them and I am using the other one as the main boot drive in my Debian box now. 

I have not taken apart an Aluminum Mac Mini before. I didn’t think it was going to be a big deal, but to make sure I had my wits about myself I check online exactly how to take it apart. I have long given up my days of manual be gone, hand my my screwdriver! It was a little more involved then I thought, but my boy and I were able to get it done in about an hour. 

Everyone is much happier and I did it under $80. Now maybe we can get a few more years out of it.