2012 quad mini Fusion dying

[bigfatipod]

i have a 2012 quad i7 with a 2tb + 512gb ssd “homemade” fusion drive. I bought it in 2015 on eBay and it’s been working great. Recently, it’s been giving various software errors and, while addressing another issue, Apple mentioned the disk errors indicate the drive is likely dying.

i am trying to decide if it’s worth getting a large 1 or 2tb ssd replacement for this mini. While generally fast and responsive with the fusion drive, it does beachball from time to time.

Am I throwing good money away buying a large ssd or is this still a good way to get a few more years out of it? I’m aware the machine will probably be considered obsolete soon if it isn’t already.

Thanks for any advice.

 

[sublunar]

I assume the 2Tb HDD is the one failing? If so then you at least have the option of fitting a replacement, perhaps another SSD.

The value proposition of the 2012 is in part down to the ability to replace failing parts such as RAM and storage but the ancient HD4000 GPU is the weak point of your machine. At least if you replace a drive you can remove the SSD and recycle it onto the next machine in an external enclosure if necessary.

The 2012 isn't likely to be considered vintage until 2019 as it was on sale until October 2014 but these machines won't be obsolete until 2021 by the 7 year limit. On this scale, the 2014 Mini won't be vintage till 2023 - nine years after its introduction - because of it still being on sale for four long years. Of course, Apple may have been told by Intel when the Haswell CPU will be considered EOL and this could be part of the reason why (finally) the 2014 Mini gets put out to pasture.

The value proposition may change with a 2018 Mac Mini, especially if you need horsepower or the reliability of a newer product. Only you can answer whether or not you consider it to be worthwhile - I'd nurse the machine through the next 7-8 weeks till the end of October to see if (for the fourth time) Apple might produce an update to the 2014 Mini.

 

[KrisLord]

I sold my 2012 mini earlier in the year as I noted resale prices for 2012 models were really high for such an old machine.

There’s rumours of a new mini coming, so perhaps if prices still look good it’s time to sell?

I put a brand new 1TB mechanical hard drive in mine as the original Apple disk was showing errors in SMART diagnostics saying it was failing and I didn’t want to mislead a buyer.

I put a 128GB drive in too as a fusion, I didn’t think including the 1TB SSD I had in the machine would add much value, so I sold that separately.

 

[bigfatipod]

Thanks for the helpful info. It certainly does make sense to at least wait until after this week just in case something gets announced.
I think my next step is to order a 1tb ssd - I see they are under $200 now. I deleted a bunch of old user accounts and that got me down to ~800gb used. I’ll live with the 1tb until the mini dies or something better comes along.

Btw, I’ve been unable to determine which of the drives in the fusion config is going bad. Now that I realize the failure rate is increased since there are two drives that can error/fail, i’d probably stick to ssd from now on.

 

[sublunar]

I'm not sure SSDs give you much warning before dying - it's more likely in my opinion that an early SMART warning points to the HDD. Especially if the HDD has been installed for years. Also, bear in mind that SSDs really need 10% of capacity unused to keep going to best speed. SSDs are sub-optimal when close to capacity continually.

 

[Zdigital2015]

Thanks for the helpful info. It certainly does make sense to at least wait until after this week just in case something gets announced.
I think my next step is to order a 1tb ssd - I see they are under $200 now. I deleted a bunch of old user accounts and that got me down to ~800gb used. I’ll live with the 1tb until the mini dies or something better comes along.

Btw, I’ve been unable to determine which of the drives in the fusion config is going bad. Now that I realize the failure rate is increased since there are two drives that can error/fail, i’d probably stick to ssd from now on.

Try DriveDx by Binary Fruit https://binaryfruit.com/drivedx

It will show you both drives separately and the SMART errors occuring. I doubt it is the SSD, more likely the HDD has hit its MTBF. Hope it works out for you.