Chosen Solution
I want to squeeze out some more life of my mac mini 1.83Ghz. I am running snow leopard with 4GB Ram and 500gb HD. (Can’t remember the HD but it is a faster one) I am afraid Lion will slow it down even more. I want to make it faster. What to do? Ssd? Cpu change? Or does it make more sense to buy latest 2011 model? Thanks in advance for you input. Update I broke down and upgraded. I got a ssd drive. It seemed easier then replacing the CPU. I might still consider CPU upgrade if I can find one cheap enough. I got a Corsair Force 3 @ Newegg. It had good specs. I got the 120gb version but regret that I didn’t get the bigger one. For a comparison I did a xbench before and after.
xbench with 7200rpm WDC HD was (Disk test)64.43. xbench with ssd was (Disk test)243.85. sequential w/HD 101.94 sequential w/ssd 148.85 random w/HD 47.10 random w/ssd 673.98 Night and Day the difference.
I would opt for a complete upgrade to a newer Mini. You have a core solo machine and it’s only going to bottleneck the systems performance even with an SSD and max RAM. Don’t get me wrong, a good SSD will greatly improve the performance for your machine, but I would opt for a newer Mini, then place an SSD in place of the HD, and you’ll be a happy camper for a few years to come. That’s just my opinion though. ;)
I installed a 2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU into a 1.83 GHz Core Duo 17" xbench on the original was 117.88, CPU 78.21 New configuration is 154.06, 154.06 CPU. This compares to the 2.66 GHz ‘08 & ‘09 machines.
If I change the CPU and add a ssd then it will max out this machine. The total cost for both is around $500-$600. It is so close to a new machine cost that I am starting to lean towards buying a new one.
