Mac mini 2014 SSD Upgrade - Slow Speed

[ab225]

I just replaced my internal 1TB HD with a cheap Samsung 120GB 840. It's got a clean install of Big Sur on it. To be honest I was expecting better speeds. I'm getting around "30MB/s" for write speeds and maximum "300MB/s" for read. It's not nvme, but I was expecting better than that.

Am I missing something?

 

[Juicy Box]

Was the 840 used?

Also, you need to enable TRIM:

How to enable trim High Sierra?

I have downloaded cinder's trim enabler, but it just don't work, enable, restart, no prompt to allow driver as per instructions, every time I open it it says its off? any idea's guys? Matty

forums.macrumors.com

You do it with terminal, but it is crazy easy to do so.

Enable TRIM and run the tests again. There could be an improvement.

 

[Juicy Box]

Also, how much free space is remaining?

 

[ab225]

It was used, and I reformatted it. There is about 75GB free.

I didn’t think trim was relevant in later versions of macOS for some reason, but I’ll give it a try when back at my computer, thanks.

 

[Juicy Box]

It was used

SSDs can get slower as they age.

There is about 75GB fre

This is plenty. Sometimes SSDs can slowdown when they start to get nearly full. Some say leave 20% free, but I have tested SSDs with almost no storage left, but they ran fine, so YMMV.

Either way, I am sure that isn't your issue.

I didn’t think trim was relevant in later versions of macOS for some reason, but I’ll give it a try when back at my computer, thanks.

I bet TRIM is your issue.

While you would think that TRIM would impact only when writing, I have seen people have issues with both reads and writes and used my suggestion of enabling TRIM, and it fixed both reads and writes.

I reformatted it

What is it formatted to?

 

[ab225]

SSDs can get slower as they age.

This is plenty. Sometimes SSDs can slowdown when they start to get nearly full. Some say leave 20% free, but I have tested SSDs with almost no storage left, but they ran fine, so YMMV.

Either way, I am sure that isn't your issue.



I bet TRIM is your issue.

While you would think that TRIM would impact only when writing, I have seen people have issues with both reads and writes and used my suggestion of enabling TRIM, and it fixed both reads and writes.




What is it formatted to?

It's APFS formatted. Thanks I enabled TRIM and the speeds have gone way up. But I'm still only getting max write speeds of 130MB/s. Read speeds hover around 500MB/s which is what I'd expect. Shouldn't I be getting higher than 130MB/s for write speeds though?

 

[Juicy Box]

Thanks I enabled TRIM and the speeds have gone way up.

I suspected TRIM being the issue here.

For some reason, many people thing that TRIM doesn't really impact performance, but clearly it did for you.

I am unsure of the effect of TRIM on read speeds, I used to think it would only impact write speeds, but you are one of a growing number of times I have seen over the last few years where both poor read and write speeds has been corrected by enabling TRIM.

Read speeds hover around 500MB/s which is what I'd expect.

This is the high end of what I would expect from a brand new SATA SSD.

500MBps is a great speed for a used SSD.

Shouldn't I be getting higher than 130MB/s for write speeds though?

This is still a little low, but it could be due to the age of the SSD.

Also, if the SSD was used as a USB drive for MacOS, or just used without TRIM enabled on any OS, this speeds up the aging of the SSD.

Another issue that could be affecting speed would be indexing. If you just installed the OS, this might last a day or two.

You could check the SMART status of the drive to see if it is having any issues.
Terminal could be used to check out the number of writes on the drive.
There are a few apps out there that will give you more information than Terminal, and also give you an estimated level of wear on the SSD.

 

[ab225]

I suspected TRIM being the issue here.

For some reason, many people thing that TRIM doesn't really impact performance, but clearly it did for you.

I am unsure of the effect of TRIM on read speeds, I used to think it would only impact write speeds, but you are one of a growing number of times I have seen over the last few years where both poor read and write speeds has been corrected by enabling TRIM.


This is the high end of what I would expect from a brand new SATA SSD.

500MBps is a great speed for a used SSD.



This is still a little low, but it could be due to the age of the SSD.

Also, if the SSD was used as a USB drive for MacOS, or just used without TRIM enabled on any OS, this speeds up the aging of the SSD.

Another issue that could be affecting speed would be indexing. If you just installed the OS, this might last a day or two.

You could check the SMART status of the drive to see if it is having any issues.
Terminal could be used to check out the number of writes on the drive.
There are a few apps out there that will give you more information than Terminal, and also give you an estimated level of wear on the SSD.

Hey thanks. SMART is all good, but I'll check on the write count in Terminal later. I'll be honest I didn't even consider the wear and slowing down of the disk from use, but I think you're probably right. It's a good lesson for me in sourcing future disks.

 

[Juicy Box]

I am not sure if you are coming from a HDD, but the majority of the SSD experience comes from the reads and the faster response time, so unless you are doing something that you need that faster write speed, you would probably not really notice the slower write speed.

 

[IowaLynn]

840 came out before your 2014 Mac. ~2012
Smaller SSDs have fewer channels. Think of it as RAID.
An SSD writes pages and there’s overhead moving the page.

OWC is good place to start looking, and support.

OWC SSD Flash Storage Upgrade for Mac mini 2014

Upgrade your 2014 Mac mini flash storage up to 2.0TB with speeds up to 92x faster than the original drive. Kit includes all tools for DIY installation.

eshop.macsales.com