Actual Mac Hardware Query?

[outlaw69uk]

Hey guys,
Not sure where to put this, or even if its discussed. I think part 2 may be though haha
Anyway, I just had my machine running, bought some extra RAM and a new SSD for it, and, it finally died, kaput, gone. So, since I use it as a recording studio, i have been in dire need, and turned out, my step dad had a Mac Mini I could have, which is ace, but...

Mac Mini (late 2012)
Core i5
16Gb Ram

All good so far, but, its got the crappy 500Gb 5400rpm HDD, so, I am running it through a Wavlink docking station on the 1Tb SSD I got. Still all good, but, its a dual dock, and, when I add a second drive, it just wont boot, and obviously, I cant plug it in when its running. I have a second USB to Sata adaptor arriving, so, going to connect the OS drive to that, and,hopefully that solves the problem (Fullness of time, I will get the SSD into the machine, and avoid all this, but, I am a bit newvous about doing it myself, so, finding somewehere that does it.

Part 2, I was looking, and, hadnt thought about it, but, using Opencore, I can upgrade past Catalina I believe? Monterey would be great, thats what I was on before, but, with it being an actual Mac, do you think this is worth doing? I can get by on Catalina so far I think, so, wondering if there are perks/benefits, and, if the drawbacks would outweigh them? (I have the guide on "how to", just wondering if its worthwhile really)

J

 

[Feartech]

Hey guys,
Not sure where to put this, or even if its discussed. I think part 2 may be though haha
Anyway, I just had my machine running, bought some extra RAM and a new SSD for it, and, it finally died, kaput, gone. So, since I use it as a recording studio, i have been in dire need, and turned out, my step dad had a Mac Mini I could have, which is ace, but...

Mac Mini (late 2012)
Core i5
16Gb Ram

All good so far, but, its got the crappy 500Gb 5400rpm HDD, so, I am running it through a Wavlink docking station on the 1Tb SSD I got. Still all good, but, its a dual dock, and, when I add a second drive, it just wont boot, and obviously, I cant plug it in when its running. I have a second USB to Sata adaptor arriving, so, going to connect the OS drive to that, and,hopefully that solves the problem (Fullness of time, I will get the SSD into the machine, and avoid all this, but, I am a bit newvous about doing it myself, so, finding somewehere that does it.

Part 2, I was looking, and, hadnt thought about it, but, using Opencore, I can upgrade past Catalina I believe? Monterey would be great, thats what I was on before, but, with it being an actual Mac, do you think this is worth doing? I can get by on Catalina so far I think, so, wondering if there are perks/benefits, and, if the drawbacks would outweigh them? (I have the guide on "how to", just wondering if its worthwhile really)

J

swapping drives should be relatively straight forward

you could look into OCLP (opencore legacy patcher)
but you are probably better off staying at the latest version for the mac

 

[outlaw69uk]

swapping drives should be relatively straight forward

you could look into OCLP (opencore legacy patcher)
but you are probably better off staying at the latest version for the mac

Yeah I think I was looking at the OCLP thing, looks great, and a good guide too.

I didnt think about going most current. I remember in the past trying to run windows on older machines, and, it wasnt good haha. Monterey was awesome with Protools and the Steven Slate stuff I had so, be nice to get back to that if doable. I think it is, but, there is that whole "real world" experience I thought I would ask about