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Desktops and mini PCs · Apple Mac mini

Apple Mac mini 2012

10owners with an opinion
88%of verdicts positive
3/1positive/negative since 2024
0happy after 3+ years

Praised for reliability and performance; criticized for repairability and durability.

What people wrote

Likes itOwned 11 yearsStill going
How long would you expect a machine can be kept up to date with the latest OS? I have a Mac Mini from 2012 that has the security updates from 2022-05 and Catalina, from 2019, but I have the latest version of Firefox that I use. The machine is perfectly usable and probably performs even better than day one given I put in an SSD in it. I bought it used for less than 300 euros with a wireless keyboard, and given the form factor, ability to use multiple monitors, great integration with my other devices, it wouldn't be fair to complain about a this 11 year old machine that still works as intended.
Likes it
I still run a MacMini (2012) with Catalina, and it just got a security update. Long back, the drive got an SSD upgrade, with max-out RAM. It still serves as a Media Server. Unfortunately, I don’t want to find out or fix, but my other Macs running Tahoe are unable to access the drives there directly, and a few other issues. I used to just mount it on my local drive like a file server. I had attached two drives, one as an offline Apple Photos copy and another for Dropbox. Both seem to have stopped working the way I want. But hey, it still works. Survived a bad fall while cleaning up, duck-taped as the screws are not screwing.
Doesn’t like it
Running 32GB RAM and 1TB SATA SSD with Windows 10, like a mad scientist, on my thus upgraded 15-years-old Sony Viao laptop.. SATA and SDRAM are backwards compatibible so a couple of years ago, I put in a new 1 TB SATA SSD drive in the old SATA1 slot, and two cheap DDR4 3200+ Mhz SDRAM chips in the RAM slots; I can upgrade again a few years later). This Sony Viao notebook (for it is a cute little laptop) now purrs like a Jaguar waiting to be unleashed. Dual booting Windows 10 and Mint Linux - OS boots in few seconds - and everything feels so snappy to work there. Meanwhile, my Apple Mac Mini 2012 (Intel CPU) - which needed extraordinary efforts by me to make it triple boot MacOs, Windows 10 and Linux (trust Apple to make it hard to install other OSes on an Intel CPU PC) - is slow and fussy because of its meagre RAM and old HDD (not SSD). But the Apple service center refused to upgrade this Mac Mini to new RAM and new SSD, citing Apple policies to not allow such upgrades. Apple has made it quite hard to custom upgrade such iDevices, so this little PC is lying unused in my cupboard, waiting for the rainy day when I'll get the courage to tinker it by myself to upgrade it. And even if I did upgrade the hardware, this Mac Mini can only be upgraded to MacOS Catalina, and it won't get security upgrades, because Apple has stopped supporting it. P.S.: I hate Apple.
Doesn’t like it
Windows allows third-party software (e.g., Stardock's suite of programs) to customize its GUI. Linux has such customization options built in (e.g., Gnome/KDE GUI settings). I couldn't find such third-party apps or inbuilt options for MacOS for my Mac Mini 2012. It's one of the reasons I stopped using the Mac Mini, but the main reason is that Apple made it too hard to swap the old HDD in the Mini to a new SSD I could purchase, and the Apple service center guys refused to do such upgrade even when I offered to pay them extra for it. There are YouTube DIY videos to do such SSD and RAM upgrade for the Mac Mini, but I was scared to brick the Mini attempting to do such upgrade myself.
Neutral
I did that with a 2012 Mac Mini a few years ago, and it was ok, but not great. A few months ago I replaced it with a little Intel N100 box, and I'm much happier now. Consider that the utility of old hardware depends on what you want to do with it, as well.
Likes it
I have a 2012 Mac mini server running Monterey right now thanks to Open Core. Still getting security updates (for now at least). Too many reported issues with Ventura and Sonoma to bother trying them.
Likes it
During the pandemic, some of my company's Lenovo laptop orders were backlogged by weeks (or months for a brief period). We had difficulty obtaining laptops for remote employees, even when lowering requirements to "Anything reasonably suitable". At the same time MacBook Pro's did not have significant changes in order times. I suspect this is because that for large corps, Macs are not as prevalent as Windows laptops. More "specialist" less "commodity". Personally, I have 10 year old Macs still usable. This message comes from a 2012 MacMini - laptop level hardware. Equivalent age Windows laptops are either Linux (which is also not as corporate common) or our of service.
Recommends itDoesn’t say they own it
I’m not sure why the author brought up used Apple TVs without even mentioning Mac minis. The 2012 Mac mini has two 2.5” drive slots, replaceable RAM, a quad-core processor, low idle power consumption, it’s quiet, and you can upgrade it to the latest macOS with OpenCore Legacy patcher. The cost is around $100. Chrome Remote Desktop and Jump Desktop are two good ways to access the GUI over the network, or of course you can use SSH or install Linux if you’d like. It’s probably not the most cost/performance efficient option but if you have any need to run macOS it’s a good choice.