[UPGRADE] Base 2012 Mac Mini SSD and Memory Upgrade - Page 2

Talon Six · Nov 24, 2012, 08:19 PM

Based on That-Guy's great instructions and encouragement, I took the plunge and installed an OCZ Vertex 4 SSD in my mid-2011 Mac Mini today. The OCZ was on sale through Amazon for $389 on my birthday last week, so I figured what the hell?

I did a little bit different installation since the data doubler kits were backordered through OWC. I put the OCZ into an external USB 2.0 enclosure and used CCC to clone the drive overnight. Next I just replaced the factory HDD with the OCZ according to the instructions on OWC's website. The only thing that was a bit tricky for me was getting the OCZ properly mounted into grommets in the front of the mini's case. Without a second drive to support the OCZ, I had to do a bit of fishing around to line up the holes with the screws. I also did not have to remove or disconnect the power supply - there was plenty of room to remove and install the drive.

The mini took a bit longer to startup for the first time (no doubt trying to figure out what the heck happened to the HDD it was expecting to see), but it got into Mountain Lion without incident or going into recovery mode. I installed TRIM and did a reboot. Wow. The increase in performance is INCREDIBLE. I'm getting 450 MB/s read and 420 MB/s write.

Now I think i'll ask for a 1TB drive and a data doubler for Xmas.

That-Guy · Nov 26, 2012, 02:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Talon Six

Based on That-Guy's great instructions and encouragement, I took the plunge and installed an OCZ Vertex 4 SSD in my mid-2011 Mac Mini today. The OCZ was on sale through Amazon for $389 on my birthday last week, so I figured what the hell?

I did a little bit different installation since the data doubler kits were backordered through OWC. I put the OCZ into an external USB 2.0 enclosure and used CCC to clone the drive overnight. Next I just replaced the factory HDD with the OCZ according to the instructions on OWC's website. The only thing that was a bit tricky for me was getting the OCZ properly mounted into grommets in the front of the mini's case. Without a second drive to support the OCZ, I had to do a bit of fishing around to line up the holes with the screws. I also did not have to remove or disconnect the power supply - there was plenty of room to remove and install the drive.

The mini took a bit longer to startup for the first time (no doubt trying to figure out what the heck happened to the HDD it was expecting to see), but it got into Mountain Lion without incident or going into recovery mode. I installed TRIM and did a reboot. Wow. The increase in performance is INCREDIBLE. I'm getting 450 MB/s read and 420 MB/s write.

Now I think i'll ask for a 1TB drive and a data doubler for Xmas.

Glad it went well for you too

I have also updated the OWC video in the first post to the 2012 edition!

BRyken · Nov 26, 2012, 03:08 PM

Thanks for your post. Makes me think twice about going for the Fusion drive.

jfriedman8 · Nov 27, 2012, 01:03 AM

Awesome guide. Great info here all around. Thank you!

That-Guy · Dec 15, 2012, 04:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BRyken

Thanks for your post. Makes me think twice about going for the Fusion drive.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jfriedman8

Awesome guide. Great info here all around. Thank you!

No problem, glad to help

Saved me so much money doing it this way.

Carl Spackler · Dec 16, 2012, 11:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by domhoenig

also...

ZERO issues with using the HDMI port....granted with an apple 23" cinema display but it's fine! perfect quality.

Is this after the EFI update? I have the same display and ended up returning the Mini, deciding to wait for a fix, since I had the "snow" issues.

That-Guy · Dec 16, 2012, 02:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Carl Spackler

Is this after the EFI update? I have the same display and ended up returning the Mini, deciding to wait for a fix, since I had the "snow" issues.

Still getting the snowy screens after the EFI update myself but this is with a Samsung SA350 Monitor. Seems to happen while bringing the machine out of standby sometimes.

Also now getting random WHITE screens instead of black, not sure what thats all about

Griffon XII · Dec 17, 2012, 02:41 PM

Hello,

When I get a Mac mini (I'm sick of my 2010 iMac with its screen buzz) I plan to get the base model and install my own SSD, or have it installed at an Apple service.

I see that the Samsung 830/840 and Crucial M4 are the most suggested SSD's here, but sadly neither is sold in Turkey.

My options are the Vertex family (3 and 4), Force 3 and 3 GT, Neutron GTX, Intel 335, SanDisk Extreme and Kingston HyperX.

The Neutron is the most expensive followed by the Vertex 4. They're all advertised as about 500 MB/sec read and write, Vertex 4 and Neutron GTX claim a bit faster.

Still, I'd rather have an SSD that is proven to work well with the Mac mini rather than go for 520 MB/sn instead of 500 MB/sn. I see differing opinions about the TRIM enabler so I'd rather get an SSD with good garbage collection. Last, but not least, I should be able to update the SSD's firmware without pulling it off the mini.

Which one would you suggest? I considered starting a new thread about it, but this one seems to have good advice about SSD's. I can start a new one, though, so as not to "hijack" this one..

That-Guy · Dec 17, 2012, 02:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Griffon XII

Hello,

When I get a Mac mini (I'm sick of my 2010 iMac with its screen buzz) I plan to get the base model and install my own SSD, or have it installed at an Apple service.

I see that the Samsung 830/840 and Crucial M4 are the most suggested SSD's here, but sadly neither is sold in Turkey.

My options are the Vertex family (3 and 4), Force 3 and 3 GT, Neutron GTX, Intel 335, SanDisk Extreme and Kingston HyperX.

The Neutron is the most expensive followed by the Vertex 4. They're all advertised as about 500 MB/sec read and write, Vertex 4 and Neutron GTX claim a bit faster.

Still, I'd rather have an SSD that is proven to work well with the Mac mini rather than go for 520 MB/sn instead of 500 MB/sn. I see differing opinions about the TRIM enabler so I'd rather get an SSD with good garbage collection. Last, but not least, I should be able to update the SSD's firmware without pulling it off the mini.

Which one would you suggest? I considered starting a new thread about it, but this one seems to have good advice about SSD's. I can start a new one, though, so as not to "hijack" this one..

I use a Vertex along with Trim Enabler all working well for me

nicholaseb · Dec 17, 2012, 03:29 PM

I have the same upgraded setup. (16gb ram) and I also made a diy fusion drive. Can I enable TRIM on this?

Squeak825 · Dec 17, 2012, 04:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nicholaseb

I have the same upgraded setup. (16gb ram) and I also made a diy fusion drive. Can I enable TRIM on this?

I did, on my DIY Fusion with a Samsung 840 Pro.

hamkor04 · Dec 24, 2012, 07:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by That-Guy

Yeah I guess, it made sense for me as I already had an SSD.

But for me to upgrade to the i7 Mac Mini with a Fusion Drive it would cost me an extra £380 from the Apple Site. I can get a fairly decent SSD + Data Doubler for less than £150.

did you buy Data doubler kit in UK?

That-Guy · Dec 25, 2012, 09:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hamkor04

did you buy Data doubler kit in UK?

No got direct from OWC in the US, it took 8 days to get here so not too bad.

hamkor04 · Dec 25, 2012, 10:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by That-Guy

No got direct from OWC in the US, it took 8 days to get here so not too bad.

Is it defiantly Sata 3 ribbon? Any benchmarking?

nicholaseb · Dec 25, 2012, 12:19 PM

Can you enable TRIM the normal way, even once the diy fusion drive is already created? Thanks!

Squeak825 · Dec 26, 2012, 11:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nicholaseb

Can you enable TRIM the normal way, even once the diy fusion drive is already created? Thanks!

Yes.

ermo · Apr 6, 2013, 02:42 PM

thanks for the great instructions.
I've got a 2012 mac mini, standard.

I wanna upgrade to a second ssd hd and 16gb internal memory.

Just got of the chat with OWC and they told me this:
OWC Joe: [2:27:24 PM] there is no need for a data doubler however did you order your comptuer with dual drives?
erik moust: [2:28:04 PM] no, it is a standard 2012 mac mini. i would like to install the data doubler and an extra ssd.
OWC Joe: [2:28:20 PM] you will need to find a dual drive cable. Apple would be the best choice for that one.

Does this mean I cannot install a second disk?
(without the dual drive cable, in the instruction video it looks like it is on the doubler kit.

fatlardo · Apr 6, 2013, 10:24 PM

Can't wait till all my parts come to try this!

mlody · Apr 14, 2013, 09:52 PM

Today, I purchased my brand new mac mini 2012 i7 (2.3) base and Samsung 840 250GB SSD. I am also going to order OWC disk doubler and 16GB memory. My intention is to setup fusion driver between the stock hdd and Samsung ssd.

Since this is my first mac and I got no data to worry about, I do not plan on doing any backups (there is nothing to be backed up)/cloning etc.
With that said, what are my best options to fuse the drives and install OS X from scratch? What concerns me is the recovery partition - I could not find any instructions on how to create the recovery partition on a brand new drive. Can someone please point me into the right directions on how to do it properly?

Thanks

Nov 26, 2012, 03:08 PM	#28
BRyken macrumors 6502 Join Date: Jul 2008	Thanks for your post. Makes me think twice about going for the Fusion drive. __________________ Mac Mini 2.7GHz i7 16GB RAM Fusion Drive \| 27" Thunderbolt Display \| Seagate Backup Plus 3TB USB 3.0\|16 GB Black iPhone 5
	0

Nov 27, 2012, 01:03 AM	#29
jfriedman8 macrumors regular Join Date: Feb 2008	Awesome guide. Great info here all around. Thank you! __________________ 2012 Mac Mini; i7 2TB HDD 8GB 2012 MacBook Pro Retina 15" 2.3 i7 256GB 8GB 2012 MacBook Air 13" i5 128GB 4GB iPad Mini: 32 GB Black - iPhone 5: 32GB Black
	0

Dec 17, 2012, 03:29 PM	#35
nicholaseb macrumors newbie Join Date: Nov 2012	TRIM on DIY Fusion Drive? I have the same upgraded setup. (16gb ram) and I also made a diy fusion drive. Can I enable TRIM on this?
	0

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Nov 24, 2012, 08:19 PM	#26
Talon Six macrumors member Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: The Gulf Coast	Based on That-Guy's great instructions and encouragement, I took the plunge and installed an OCZ Vertex 4 SSD in my mid-2011 Mac Mini today. The OCZ was on sale through Amazon for $389 on my birthday last week, so I figured what the hell? I did a little bit different installation since the data doubler kits were backordered through OWC. I put the OCZ into an external USB 2.0 enclosure and used CCC to clone the drive overnight. Next I just replaced the factory HDD with the OCZ according to the instructions on OWC's website. The only thing that was a bit tricky for me was getting the OCZ properly mounted into grommets in the front of the mini's case. Without a second drive to support the OCZ, I had to do a bit of fishing around to line up the holes with the screws. I also did not have to remove or disconnect the power supply - there was plenty of room to remove and install the drive. The mini took a bit longer to startup for the first time (no doubt trying to figure out what the heck happened to the HDD it was expecting to see), but it got into Mountain Lion without incident or going into recovery mode. I installed TRIM and did a reboot. Wow. The increase in performance is INCREDIBLE. I'm getting 450 MB/s read and 420 MB/s write. Now I think i'll ask for a 1TB drive and a data doubler for Xmas.
	0

Dec 17, 2012, 02:41 PM	#33
Griffon XII macrumors newbie Join Date: Nov 2012 Location: Istanbul, Turkey	Hello, When I get a Mac mini (I'm sick of my 2010 iMac with its screen buzz) I plan to get the base model and install my own SSD, or have it installed at an Apple service. I see that the Samsung 830/840 and Crucial M4 are the most suggested SSD's here, but sadly neither is sold in Turkey. My options are the Vertex family (3 and 4), Force 3 and 3 GT, Neutron GTX, Intel 335, SanDisk Extreme and Kingston HyperX. The Neutron is the most expensive followed by the Vertex 4. They're all advertised as about 500 MB/sec read and write, Vertex 4 and Neutron GTX claim a bit faster. Still, I'd rather have an SSD that is proven to work well with the Mac mini rather than go for 520 MB/sn instead of 500 MB/sn. I see differing opinions about the TRIM enabler so I'd rather get an SSD with good garbage collection. Last, but not least, I should be able to update the SSD's firmware without pulling it off the mini. Which one would you suggest? I considered starting a new thread about it, but this one seems to have good advice about SSD's. I can start a new one, though, so as not to "hijack" this one..
	0

Dec 25, 2012, 12:19 PM	#40
nicholaseb macrumors newbie Join Date: Nov 2012	Can you enable TRIM the normal way, even once the diy fusion drive is already created? Thanks!
	0

Apr 6, 2013, 02:42 PM	#42
ermo macrumors newbie Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Maastricht, The Netherlands	thanks for the great instructions. I've got a 2012 mac mini, standard. I wanna upgrade to a second ssd hd and 16gb internal memory. Just got of the chat with OWC and they told me this: OWC Joe: [2:27:24 PM] there is no need for a data doubler however did you order your comptuer with dual drives? erik moust: [2:28:04 PM] no, it is a standard 2012 mac mini. i would like to install the data doubler and an extra ssd. OWC Joe: [2:28:20 PM] you will need to find a dual drive cable. Apple would be the best choice for that one. Does this mean I cannot install a second disk? (without the dual drive cable, in the instruction video it looks like it is on the doubler kit.
	0

Apr 6, 2013, 10:24 PM	#43
fatlardo macrumors regular Join Date: Mar 2011	Can't wait till all my parts come to try this!
	0

Apr 14, 2013, 09:52 PM	#44
mlody macrumors member Join Date: Nov 2012	Today, I purchased my brand new mac mini 2012 i7 (2.3) base and Samsung 840 250GB SSD. I am also going to order OWC disk doubler and 16GB memory. My intention is to setup fusion driver between the stock hdd and Samsung ssd. Since this is my first mac and I got no data to worry about, I do not plan on doing any backups (there is nothing to be backed up)/cloning etc. With that said, what are my best options to fuse the drives and install OS X from scratch? What concerns me is the recovery partition - I could not find any instructions on how to create the recovery partition on a brand new drive. Can someone please point me into the right directions on how to do it properly? Thanks
	0