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Is the Apple Mac (late 2014) the most useless computer of all time?

catashtrophe

catashtrophe

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,111
UK
So long story short, I was given an old Mac book pro and an old Mac Mini.

The Mac Book Pro is incredible, very powerful fast and smooth for everything. I even partioned it and put windows on it to play some free EGS games all of which is runs perfectly...

Then comes the Mac Mini (i5 2.6GHz, 8GB Ram, 1TB storage) and what utter shit. Its slow, takes ages to respond to things, feels like it has no power its currently being used to display whatsapp on my TV / TV web browser coz i can't think of anything to do with this.

I'm going to sell it (not sure how much it is worth) but for anyone who has one. What on earth are you using it for?
 
Stinkles

Stinkles

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
20,459
catashtrophe said:
So long story short, I was given an old Mac book pro and an old Mac Mini.

The Mac Book Pro is incredible, very powerful fast and smooth for everything. I even partioned it and put windows on it to play some free EGS games all of which is runs perfectly...

Then comes the Mac Mini (i5 2.6GHz, 8GB Ram, 1TB storage) and what utter shit. Its slow, takes ages to respond to things, feels like it has no power its currently being used to display whatsapp on my TV / TV web browser coz i can't think of anything to do with this.

I'm going to sell it (not sure how much it is worth) but for anyone who has one. What on earth are you using it for?
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Are you running it from a total clean scrub and if so what OS?
 
Borman

Borman

Digital Games Curator at The Strong Museum
Verified
Oct 26, 2017
843
Check the HDD, the one in my parents failed super quick and made everything feel sluggish to the point of being unusable. I have it sitting under my TV waiting for me to swap the HDD permanently, but it is a big fix. Still not going to be super fast, but many of them (from a certain year, dont remember exactly) had issues.
 
NameUser

NameUser

Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,967
Don't have one, but does it have an HDD? Cause I know even a 2012 MacBook Pro with an SSD is pretty decent for normal everyday tasks.

Edit: Looks like we all had the same idea lol
 
entremet

entremet

You wouldn't toast a NES cartridge
Member
Oct 26, 2017
59,903
Borman said:
Check the HDD, the one in my parents failed super quick and made everything feel sluggish to the point of being unusable. I have it sitting under my TV waiting for me to swap the HDD permanently, but it is a big fix. Still not going to be super fast, but many of them (from a certain year, dont remember exactly) had issues.
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He should be able to add a cheap SSD. Adding SSD on older Macs is like raising them from the dead lol.

Here's a vid:

 
Borman

Borman

Digital Games Curator at The Strong Museum
Verified
Oct 26, 2017
843
entremet said:
He should be able to add a cheap SSD. Adding SSD on older Macs is like raising them from the dead lol.
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Totally. The one in my Mac Mini was beyond just normal HDD slow, it was so bad that I thought the machine was defective after a year or so.
 
Wackamole

Wackamole

Member
Oct 27, 2017
16,931
Mac Minis can be great. Not sure what's wrong with yours.
But working on a Macbook Pro is much better of course.
 
entremet

entremet

You wouldn't toast a NES cartridge
Member
Oct 26, 2017
59,903
Wackamole said:
Mac Minis can be great. Not sure what's wrong with yours.
But working on a Macbook Pro is much better of course.
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MacMini's are so versatile, tho. I would not give up on this MacMini. I'm sure getting an SSD would "revive" it. Worst case scenario he can use it as a home server or HTPC (you can install Windows too) run emulators, tons of stuff.

But modern OSes on spinning disks HDD is pure garbage lol.

I'm still surprised iMacs ship with spinning disks. Luckily, those can be replaced as well.
 
Sanjuro

Sanjuro

Member
Oct 25, 2017
30,975
Massachusetts
catashtrophe said:
So long story short, I was given an old Mac book pro and an old Mac Mini.

The Mac Book Pro is incredible, very powerful fast and smooth for everything. I even partioned it and put windows on it to play some free EGS games all of which is runs perfectly...

Then comes the Mac Mini (i5 2.6GHz, 8GB Ram, 1TB storage) and what utter shit. Its slow, takes ages to respond to things, feels like it has no power its currently being used to display whatsapp on my TV / TV web browser coz i can't think of anything to do with this.

I'm going to sell it (not sure how much it is worth) but for anyone who has one. What on earth are you using it for?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
My 2011 Mac mini is my main computer. I think it probably runs better than yours.
 
secretanchitman

secretanchitman

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,753
Chicago, IL
I have a 2018 Mac Mini (8700B, 512GB, 32GB) and it's blazing fast. My guess is that yours either needs a total reformat or an SSD to breathe new life into it.
 
Dan

Dan

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,948
So angry at something free. I'd say that's a lucky position to be in OP.

You can get a 1tb SSD for £100.
 
MercuryLS

MercuryLS

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
5,578
As people have mentioned, SDD upgrade will make a world of difference. It's how I brought my 2009 MacBook Pro back from the dead and gave it to my mom.
 
linkboy

linkboy

Member
Oct 26, 2017
13,676
Reno
My fiancee has late 2012 Mac Mini and it still had the stock 500GB HDD that it came with. That computer was a slog to use.

I just put a 500GB Samsung SSD in it and it's like it's a totally different computer.

I'm going to upgrade it to a 1TB SSD this weekend when my 1TB M.2 NVME drive arrives for my Thinkpad.
 
OP
OP
catashtrophe

catashtrophe

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,111
UK
Reformatted it on and off for the last 6 months and its running Catolina (think thats what the new OS is called)

I've just never experienced anything so slow and useless when it comes to tech.

If i put my external hard drive on it to view picture as an example it takes ages for it to do anything

A week back i thought i'd partition windows on it since its got 1TB hard drive since i'm not even using 10GBs. So added windows 10 and installed Doom 64 from the Bethesda launcher and i just waited and waited. and thought it crashed then it finally loaded the title screen and closed down.

If i was to put an SSD in it, is this thing even powerful enough to run basic games or something like Doom 64?
 
Tobor

Tobor

Member
Oct 25, 2017
28,370
Richmond, VA
I have an old 2011 Mac mini, but I don't use it for much of anything. My main computer now is my iPad Pro. If i need the Mac mini for anything, I remote into it from the iPad Pro.

It's slow due to the HDD but it still works just fine.
 
Mr. Snuffleupagus

Mr. Snuffleupagus

Avenger
Oct 30, 2017
13,136
Your Imagination
Not 100% sure OP, but my partner has an early 2014 MacBook Air and it's still running fine. We were planning to upgrade to this year's Air but the benchmarks and upgrades don't look all that amazing to us atm.
 
entremet

entremet

You wouldn't toast a NES cartridge
Member
Oct 26, 2017
59,903
catashtrophe said:
Reformatted it on and off for the last 6 months and its running Catolina (think thats what the new OS is called)

I've just never experienced anything so slow and useless when it comes to tech.

If i put my external hard drive on it to view picture as an example it takes ages for it to do anything

A week back i thought i'd partition windows on it since its got 1TB hard drive since i'm not even using 10GBs. So added windows 10 and installed Doom 64 from the Bethesda launcher and i just waited and waited. and thought it crashed then it finally loaded the title screen and closed down.

If i was to put an SSD in it, is this thing even powerful enough to run basic games or something like Doom 64?
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That's definitely the conventional HDD giving you the slowness issues.

I'm not a big PC gamer so no idea about Doom 64. MacMini's have on-board graphics, not sure if that's enough for Doom 64, which seems to require a graphics card. Again, PC gaming is not my lane, but just brainstorming.
 
bionic77

bionic77

Member
Oct 25, 2017
30,888
OP it would probably make a nice emulation box if you don't want to upgrade the HDD due to its small form factor.

But as everyone has said the bottleneck is probably the slow mechanical HDD. A SSD really makes a big difference for most of the tasks you do everyday.
 
exodus

exodus

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,935
catashtrophe said:
Reformatted it on and off for the last 6 months and its running Catolina (think thats what the new OS is called)

I've just never experienced anything so slow and useless when it comes to tech.

If i put my external hard drive on it to view picture as an example it takes ages for it to do anything

A week back i thought i'd partition windows on it since its got 1TB hard drive since i'm not even using 10GBs. So added windows 10 and installed Doom 64 from the Bethesda launcher and i just waited and waited. and thought it crashed then it finally loaded the title screen and closed down.

If i was to put an SSD in it, is this thing even powerful enough to run basic games or something like Doom 64?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

The only real difference between your old MPB and your old Mini is the SSD. Expect similar performance to your MBP. An i5 Haswell is still plenty competent today.

I'd probably just use it as an emulation and media box. You won't be able to play anything recent, but you should be able to emulate anything up to PSX/N64 at least.
 
Fatoy

Fatoy

Member
Mar 13, 2019
7,217
Mechanical HDDs are the biggest contributor to computers feeling old. My wife is still using a 2012 MacBook Air, and it's not perfect (screen and battery are awful) but it still boots fast and runs acceptably.
 
OP
OP
catashtrophe

catashtrophe

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,111
UK
Will give it some thought and either just sell it or if i can think of a use for it upgrade to SSD

thanks for the advice all
 
Stinkles

Stinkles

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
20,459
ReAxion said:
people with fistfuls of money don't seem to think so. they don't stay in stock.
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2014 iMac minis? Btw we had a mini and a desktop iMac (2018) that both got CRAZY unusable slow and we fixed both by completely nuking and starting from scratch so it's possible the hdd is becoming corrupted in a way that fragments it through major events and needs a hard scrub and defragmentation.
 
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ReAxion

ReAxion

Member
Oct 26, 2017
3,882
entremet said:
This model is no longer in stores. MacMini's had a refresh in 2018.
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Stinkles said:
2014 iMac minis?
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My work is in the secondary market. Mac minis, as a segment, move pretty rapidly. estimated retail of $400-$550.

If you would like an example of a truly useless system at this point, and I don't think I'm being hyperbolic... they come to mind because they are in the channel and also not moving, comparatively... the 2009 iMacs. estimated retail: $100-250.
 
evrythngwastakn

evrythngwastakn

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,529
I use a 2012 i7 model with 16gb of ram and a 500gb SSD as my main computer and have zero issues.

put in the ssd. It's a pain to do but those slow ass 2.5" 5400rpm stock drives are pretty bad.
 
rsfour

rsfour

Member
Oct 26, 2017
16,711
I'm all about those imacs where you have to take off the screen to upgrade.

Fucking trashy as hell.
 
Materia Man

Materia Man

Banned
Apr 29, 2020
61
They had decent use as a budget HTPC solution but the chromecasts/firststicks of the world are good enough for the majority of people. Apples desktop strategy was abysmal though for the average user. Either you had to go overkill with the Mac Pro line or underpowered with the Mac mini. If you wanted anything in between it had to be a Macbook.
 
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