Late 2014 Mac Mini, SSD, Monterey?

csonni said:
All done. And what a difference! Very useable. Wasn't sure if I should create the same User Account name as my MBP. I saw somewhere that Catalina broke that option....so, I named it closely different. Very happy with it all.
Click to expand...
How's your experience with the base model Mac Mini 2014 (SSD Upgrade) with Monterey? I was thinking of picking up one for cheap and upgrading the SSD. I plan to give it to my little sister for online classes.
 
EugW said:
Also, IMO you would have been better off buying an NVMe M.2 SSD and adapter (unless you just want to tinker). The NVMe install takes just 5 minutes,
Click to expand...
Hello EugW
where did you get the adaptor, and will my macmini 2012 read any formatted MNVe drive?
thanks in advance!
 
ktomcruz said:
How's your experience with the base model Mac Mini 2014 (SSD Upgrade) with Monterey? I was thinking of picking up one for cheap and upgrading the SSD. I plan to give it to my little sister for online classes.
Click to expand...
My base model Mac mini works great with Monterey. That's all I can say. No issues at all.
 
MBAir2010 said:
Hello EugW
where did you get the adaptor, and will my macmini 2012 read any formatted MNVe drive?
thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
I got the Sintech adapter from amazon. There are plenty of NVMe drives that others recommend and attest that work. My Samsung 970 Eco Plus is overkill but it works just fine.
 
Last edited:
MBAir2010 said:
Hello EugW
where did you get the adaptor, and will my macmini 2012 read any formatted MNVe drive?
thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
csonni said:
I got the Sintech adapter from amazon. There are plenty of NVMe drives that others recommend and attest that work. My Samsung 970 Ego Plus is overkill but it works just fine.
Click to expand...
The 2012 Mac mini doesn't support NVMe drives. Mine is a 2014 model.

BTW, @csonni, that is a funny typo for your drive model name. ;)
 
csonni said:
Relatively never used Mac Mini (1.4/4 gig of ram/HDD) but running very slow on Catalina. Froze in the Monterey upgrade process through SystemPrefs...hard rebooted back into Catalina. I rally don’t want to spring for a new(er) Mac Mini, so I ordered a Crucial MX500 SSD 1TB to install. Looks like over an hour job to replace but no biggie with the right tools. I would imagine the SSD should breathe new life into the Mac Mini. Just want something to keep synced with my MBP And to use in my office. I know Monterey is supported on it but how well will Monterey run in real life? Anyone?
Click to expand...
Personally I would avoid further OS upgrade. Your machine has a dual-core CPU and 4 GB of memory soldered onboard. These specs aren't strong enough to guarantee solid performance. You can replace HDD with a faster SSD (your machine has SATA and PCIe connections) but I would stay on Catalina, a downgrade to Mojave maybe it's even better.
 
Andrea Filippini said:
Personally I would avoid further OS upgrade. Your machine has a dual-core CPU and 4 GB of memory soldered onboard. These specs aren't strong enough to guarantee solid performance. You can replace HDD with a faster SSD (your machine has SATA and PCIe connections) but I would stay on Catalina, a downgrade to Mojave maybe it's even better.
Click to expand...
Andrea Filippini said:
Personally I would avoid further OS upgrade. Your machine has a dual-core CPU and 4 GB of memory soldered onboard. These specs aren't strong enough to guarantee solid performance. You can replace HDD with a faster SSD (your machine has SATA and PCIe connections) but I would stay on Catalina, a downgrade to Mojave maybe it's even better.
Click to expand...
You probably haven't read the above posts.
 
csonni said:
Sounded like you didn't see that I already replaced the HDD. And Monterey runs fine for what I need it to do.
Click to expand...
Yes I see but a dual-core CPU with 4 GB of memory soldered onboard isn't a good deal nowadays. Your machine run an obsolete HDD 5400 rpm so jump to NVMe PCIe storage made the trick. Anyway I'm glad to hear about your successful upgrade.
 
I did the same procedure with a cheap NVME drive (Kingston NV2)
and I was wondering about average boot times.

I definitely saw an improvement compared to the Apple HDD which was taking around ~1 min 40 seconds to the desktop on Monterey.

With the SSD my boot times are approx ~48 seconds
12 seconds to filevault login screen
35 seconds to desktop

I guess I was expecting faster boot times :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Back
Top