Internet slow on late 2012 mac mini, VPN issue

[ErikinGermany]

My second computer is a late 2012 Mac Mini, 500 GB internal HD, 16 GB RAM. It is running Catalina.
I only use this for streaming the internet with my kids, nothing else at all is important to me to run on this computer. I have NordVPN installed.
When I run a speed test (firefox) without connecting through the VPN, I get 250 MBps download, 40 Mbps upload, which is exactly what I pay for from my ISP. When I run the test connected through the VPN, I only get 90-100 download, upload still good at 40.
Through chrome, I get the same 90-100 download when not connected to the VPN, when connected it drops to 70-80.
The weird thing is, when streaming unconnected through FF, it hangs up a lot and isn't much better than with the VPN connected, even though the speeds are so much faster unconnected. It still gets stuck a lot and has to be reloaded to continue. This might happen 5 times in a half hour show. Same with chrome - I would say it makes very little difference whether on chrome or FF, connected to the VPN or not, the streaming is still bad. I've been in contact with Nord, they are no help at all.
As an aside, my newer late 2019 mac mini (on which I do lots of stuff other than streaming) uses the same VPN, same browsers and has no issues at all.

I'm wondering if it's the computer itself and if there's any fix. Since I don't care about anything that's on there, I could simply reset the computer to factory settings, might that help? I've already deleted most software and files, it's using about half of the 500 GB HD.
Or reading other threads, would getting an SSD HD (even 250 GB would be enough, maybe external) help? Since my problem is internet streaming, I'm not sure if that would do much, but if it would, I'm not sure what to then do, perhaps I could set it up to boot from there? I was also considering running a malware scan or using some cleanup software, would this make sense?
Or any other thoughts/advice? Any and all help is very much appreciated!

Thanks in advance.

 

[MacsBug]

Hi Erik,

Getting reduced download speeds is typical with a VPN.

As far as the streaming goes, that may be a hard drive issue since you buffer the video file to your drive. macOS Catalina uses APFS as the format for storage. APFS is really hard on spinning drives, so replacing it with an SSD may solve your issue. It definately wont make it worse, so after replacing the spining drive with an SSD you can then start troubleshooting.

 

[ErikinGermany]

Hi Erik,

Getting reduced download speeds is typical with a VPN.

As far as the streaming goes, that may be a hard drive issue since you buffer the video file to your drive. macOS Catalina uses APFS as the format for storage. APFS is really hard on spinning drives, so replacing it with an SSD may solve your issue. It definately wont make it worse, so after replacing the spining drive with an SSD you can then start troubleshooting.

I know VPN reduces the speed, but so much? Firefox gets close to the 250 Mbps I'm paying for without going thru the VPN servers (50-60 when connected). On chrome it's about 90-100 without VPN, 70-80 with, so I don't know what's going on there (why so low even without VPN).

I could try the SSD, but I'm really a novice when it comes to hardware stuff. Would an external SSD work? If so, how do I go about telling Catalina to buffer the video I stream to that instead of the internal HD?

 

[MacsBug]

On the 2012 mini an External SSD would work. I recommend getting a 2.5" SSD in an enclosure. If you decide to get a portable style SSD I would get one rated at 1000MB You won't get those speeds, but the SSD rated at higher speeds should stay cooler on the 2012 mini.

Once you get the SSD, you can then use an app like Carbon Copy Cloner to move your system over to the SSD and boot from that.

 

[ErikinGermany]

On the 2012 mini an External SSD would work. I recommend getting a 2.5" SSD in an enclosure. If you decide to get a portable style SSD I would get one rated at 1000MB You won't get those speeds, but the SSD rated at higher speeds should stay cooler on the 2012 mini.

Once you get the SSD, you can then use an app like Carbon Copy Cloner to move your system over to the SSD and boot from that.

Thanks. Might there be a way to somehow verify first that the HD actually is the problem? Also, how do I go about telling the system to boot from an external drive?

 

[MacsBug]

You can test your hard drive with AJA speed Test (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/aja-system-test-lite/id1092006274). Normally your HD should give you speeds of over 100MB/Sec. But since you are using APFS which wears down rotational drives my guess is that you will see speeds of about 50MB or less.

Once you clone your system to the SSD you go into the System Prefs -> Startup Disk and tell it to boot from the SSD.

 

[JonathonPerry]

Resetting to factory settings could help clear out any lingering issues, so that's worth a try if you don't mind starting fresh. Upgrading to an SSD can also make a big difference in overall performance and might help with the streaming issues. If you go that route, setting it up to boot from the SSD would be a good idea. Running a malware scan or using cleanup software like CleanMyMac might also help. Sometimes, even a simple system reboot can make a big difference.

 

[ErikinGermany]

Resetting to factory settings could help clear out any lingering issues, so that's worth a try if you don't mind starting fresh. Upgrading to an SSD can also make a big difference in overall performance and might help with the streaming issues. If you go that route, setting it up to boot from the SSD would be a good idea. Running a malware scan or using cleanup software like CleanMyMac might also help. Sometimes, even a simple system reboot can make a big difference.

Thanks. Is there a best practice for doing the system reset on Catalina? I've read that later OS's make it easy, but not Catalina. I really have nothing I care about on there since I only stream, so I think I'd only have to download the browsers and VPN software.

 

[ErikinGermany]

Just wanted to thank everyone again who've been offering advice and give an update: I did wipe my system clean and start over. It seemed to have a positive effect, especially on Safari, where I'm getting between 100 - 130 download speeds. As this computer is only for streaming, the only things on the computer are the three apps I downloaded: chrome, firefox and NordVPN. FF doesn't seem much better than before, Chrome seems to have jumped up to about 100. So I plan to use it like this for a bit and if it doesn't stay stable and/or if the improvement isn't tangible eough, I'll try a portable 1000Mb SSD as has been suggested. These seem pretty reasonable, the better ones in enclosures are just too expensive for an old computerthat only has one dedicated function.