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Replacing the Mac Mini 2012's HDD with SSD

A

A.Chakery

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 27, 2011
78
8
Vienna, Austria
Hello,

I wanna replace my 500GB HDD with a 120GB SSD , but before doing this I have some questions :

1.Is it compatible with MacMini ?
2.Will it give me 6GB/sec transfer rate on my mac mini ?



Any help is appreciated !

thank you
 
simsaladimbamba

simsaladimbamba

Guest
Nov 28, 2010
22,670
30
located
If it is a 2.5" S-ATA SSD, it will be compatible.
If it is an S-ATA 6.0 Gbps (S-ATA III) SSD, it will work at S-ATA 6.0 Gbps (S-ATA III) speeds.

Since you did not mention what SSD you want to get, there are many 120 GB SSDs out there, you have to look for the above specs.
 
philipma1957

philipma1957

macrumors 603
Apr 13, 2010
6,365
251
Howell, New Jersey
Sata I = 1.5GB/s oldest 2006 mac minis have it


Sata II = 3.0GB/s 2010 mac minis have it


Sata III = 6.0GB/s Newest Around 2010 or so. Both 2011 and 2012 mac minis have this


real speeds are

150Mb/s = Sata I

300MB/s = Sata II

600MB/s = Sata III

here is some free advice do you have the ssd on hand or are you buying one?

If you are buying one buy 180gb or larger. If you have it on hand tell us what you own. I can tell from model and make how fast it is.
 
Last edited:
M

majkom

macrumors 68000
May 3, 2011
1,854
1,150
someone who does not have a clue what sata is shouldnt be doing replacement by himself...
 
M

motrek

macrumors 68030
Sep 14, 2012
2,613
305
A.Chakery said:
Hello,

I wanna replace my 500GB HDD with a 120GB SSD , but before doing this I have some questions :

1.Is it compatible with MacMini ?
2.Will it give me 6GB/sec transfer rate on my mac mini ?

...
Click to expand...

SATA III is 6 Gb/s (gigabits, not gigabytes) so the most you'll see is 750 MB/s. But that's a theoretical value and actual transfer rate mainly depends on the drive you choose.

The main point of having an SSD is lower latency though which has nothing to do with these bandwidth numbers.
 
A

A.Chakery

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 27, 2011
78
8
Vienna, Austria
majkom said:
someone who does not have a clue what sata is shouldnt be doing replacement by himself...
Click to expand...

Thanks everyone for all your replies ...

I know what SATA is and I already repair my iphone and MacBook Pro, but I haven't had any experiences with SSDs and thats why I asked for more info about it.

thanks :)

----------
philipma1957 said:
Sata I = 1.5GB/s oldest 2006 mac minis have it


Sata II = 3.0GB/s 2010 mac minis have it


Sata III = 6.0GB/s Newest Around 2010 or so. Both 2011 and 2012 mac minis have this


real speeds are

150Mb/s = Sata I

300MB/s = Sata II

600MB/s = Sata III

here is some free advice do you have the ssd on hand or are you buying one?

If you are buying one buy 180gb or larger. If you have it on hand tell us what you own. I can tell from model and make how fast it is.
Click to expand...

motrek said:
SATA III is 6 Gb/s (gigabits, not gigabytes) so the most you'll see is 750 MB/s. But that's a theoretical value and actual transfer rate mainly depends on the drive you choose.

The main point of having an SSD is lower latency though which has nothing to do with these bandwidth numbers.
Click to expand...
thats all I wanted to know about SSD ... thanks :)
 
A

A.Chakery

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 27, 2011
78
8
Vienna, Austria
Exodist said:
Different Brands and Sizes can effect speed. My 256GB Samsung 830series SSD in my Gaming PC reads just over 500MB/s and writes right at 420MB/s. Some brands go faster, but hard to beat a 830 for reliability and consistency.
Click to expand...

I heard that the 6GB/s models have had more problems , have you had any problems with yours ?

for example please take a look at this topic :
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1177020/
 
Exodist

Exodist

macrumors member
Dec 5, 2012
61
0
Buenavista, Agusan Del Norte, Philippines
A.Chakery said:
I heard that the 6GB/s models have had more problems , have you had any problems with yours ?

for example please take a look at this topic :
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1177020/
Click to expand...

Nah no issues what so ever. Extremely happy with the purchase. It keeps itself running great and worry free. Unlike many other SSDs the use Sanforce. Samsung makes almost all the chips that go into their SSDs.
 
A

A.Chakery

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 27, 2011
78
8
Vienna, Austria
Exodist said:
Nah no issues what so ever. Extremely happy with the purchase. It keeps itself running great and worry free. Unlike many other SSDs the use Sanforce. Samsung makes almost all the chips that go into their SSDs.
Click to expand...
Great ,

I was gonna purchase an OCZ SSD, now I think I should look into SAMSUNG drives too ...

thank you
 
B

blanka

macrumors 68000
Jul 30, 2012
1,551
4
Don't replace it, just ADD it.
Don't worry about Sata I, II, or III
Even on USB2 an SSD will put the built in 5400rpm drive knockout for most except 4Gb single file transfers.
 
Exodist

Exodist

macrumors member
Dec 5, 2012
61
0
Buenavista, Agusan Del Norte, Philippines
A.Chakery said:
Great ,

I was gonna purchase an OCZ SSD, now I think I should look into SAMSUNG drives too ...

thank you
Click to expand...

Your question got me looking for any rumors, turns out the Samsung 840 series got a bad rep on the prerelease models sent to a few online sites for reviews like on Anandtech. Turns out they had bad firmware, but that issue was corrected before any was sent into the retail market. So the newer 840 series all have that issues fixed. I was looking just last night matter of fact and the 512MB 840 series drives are performing very good (~500r/~400w) and rufly about 300ish bucks..
I would say just get one of those kits that come with the extra ribbon cable, add it to the system and clone your current drives OS over to the SSD. Then just use the original HDD as extra storage. At least thats my plan for mine.

Cheers,
Joe
 
A

aleflu

macrumors newbie
Dec 11, 2012
4
0
Hello Guys...

I buy an OCZ Vertex 4 256GB to REPLACE the 1TB HDD. I will change the drive in my mac mini and how can I install the iOS in the SSD? Do you guys have some guide to install? And I have to change some settings to the SSD work perfectly?

I have one Mac in the work but I am noob in the iOS.

Thx!
 
beyond

beyond

macrumors member
Jun 17, 2009
63
0
aleflu said:
Hello Guys...

I buy an OCZ Vertex 4 256GB to REPLACE the 1TB HDD. I will change the drive in my mac mini and how can I install the iOS in the SSD? Do you guys have some guide to install? And I have to change some settings to the SSD work perfectly?

I have one Mac in the work but I am noob in the iOS.

Thx!
Click to expand...

You'll have to format it for IOS
 
A

aleflu

macrumors newbie
Dec 11, 2012
4
0
beyond said:
You'll have to format it for IOS
Click to expand...

Is just replace de HDD to the SSD, turn on the Mac Mini and format the SSD? And how I will install the iOS? The Mac Mini don't have a DVD Drive, this is the problem...
 
A

A.Chakery

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 27, 2011
78
8
Vienna, Austria
aleflu said:
Is just replace de HDD to the SSD, turn on the Mac Mini and format the SSD? And how I will install the iOS? The Mac Mini don't have a DVD Drive, this is the problem...
Click to expand...

you should create a bootable flash (thumb) drive ...

there is two ways to do this , one of them is to use disk utility and another one is to use this app

for mountain lion I personally prefer to use the app I mentioned above...

but first you should download the mac from appstore ...

here is another article which also contains the disk utility method.
http://www.tuaw.com/2012/07/25/building-an-os-x-mountain-lion-installer-thumb-drive/

I hope it helps
 
L

LaunchpadBS

macrumors 6502a
Nov 11, 2008
653
5
iLondon/iDurban
aleflu said:
Hello Guys...

I buy an OCZ Vertex 4 256GB to REPLACE the 1TB HDD. I will change the drive in my mac mini and how can I install the iOS in the SSD? Do you guys have some guide to install? And I have to change some settings to the SSD work perfectly?

I have one Mac in the work but I am noob in the iOS.

Thx!
Click to expand...

How does one get iOS on an SSD? Or is that a typo and I fell asleep for 5 years and woke up in a world where Apple finally upgraded the iPhone to 256GB???

On a serious note, if you're confusing iOS and OS X and you're too lazy to use google you prob shouldn't be swapping that drive on your own.
 
Menge

Menge

macrumors 6502a
Dec 22, 2008
611
3
Amsterdam
To the OP: You seem to be ignoring/confused with the difference between GB and Gb. GB = Gigabytes, Gb = Gigabits. One is 8 times the other.

Sata III is 6Gb/s which is (nominally) 750MB/s. Notice capital B versus non-capital b. Please try not to confuse those two otherwise it'll lead to confusion and redundant posts (kind of like this one, yes) in these threads.

And no: adding an extra SSD to your Mac mini won't affect performance. You'll only get the benefits of the SSD's speed if you have your data on it, though. Any data you keep on your HDD will stay "slow".
 
A

A.Chakery

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 27, 2011
78
8
Vienna, Austria
Menge said:
To the OP: You seem to be ignoring/confused with the difference between GB and Gb. GB = Gigabytes, Gb = Gigabits. One is 8 times the other.

Sata III is 6Gb/s which is (nominally) 750MB/s. Notice capital B versus non-capital b. Please try not to confuse those two otherwise it'll lead to confusion and redundant posts (kind of like this one, yes) in these threads.

And no: adding an extra SSD to your Mac mini won't affect performance. You'll only get the benefits of the SSD's speed if you have your data on it, though. Any data you keep on your HDD will stay "slow".
Click to expand...
oh sorry you are right ...

and thank you for the answer ... thats all I needed.
 
A

aleflu

macrumors newbie
Dec 11, 2012
4
0
iOS, i mean OS X... There is no iPhone or iPad with SSD, lol! My bad!

A.Chakery said:
you should create a bootable flash (thumb) drive ...

there is two ways to do this , one of them is to use disk utility and another one is to use this app

for mountain lion I personally prefer to use the app I mentioned above...

but first you should download the mac from appstore ...

here is another article which also contains the disk utility method.
http://www.tuaw.com/2012/07/25/building-an-os-x-mountain-lion-installer-thumb-drive/

I hope it helps
Click to expand...

Thank you! I will download in the App Store and put in the Enclosured HDD to install the OSX.
 
A

A.Chakery

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 27, 2011
78
8
Vienna, Austria
aleflu said:
iOS, i mean OS X... There is no iPhone or iPad with SSD, lol! My bad!



Thank you! I will download in the App Store and put in the Enclosured HDD to install the OSX.
Click to expand...

Actually it does not exist in the App Store and you should download it directly from the link I provided to you.

Don't worry its virus free and I tested it using my Kaspersky Mac .

and you can also use the second method if you don't wanna download any app outside the AppStore :)
 
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