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Should I upgrade my 2011 mini with an SSD?

Alright. I did it! Bought a Samsung 850 EVO 500 GB. I was tempted to go with WD to give them a shot but chickens out. I also bought a USB 3.0 enclosure, don’t remember which, Amazon top pick.

And a 1TB WD Black drive for my PowerMac. It had a good price and I need to get my project going.
 
davidg4781 said:
Alright. I did it! Bought a Samsung 850 EVO 500 GB. I was tempted to go with WD to give them a shot but chickens out. I also bought a USB 3.0 enclosure, don’t remember which, Amazon top pick.

And a 1TB WD Black drive for my PowerMac. It had a good price and I need to get my project going.
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Good choice...WD bought Sandisk so a WD SSD is really just rebadged. Hard to go wrong with the EVO, especially with the 5 year warranty.
 
Yup. Warranty was what did it. Other than that specs were about the same, I think WD was a bit better in some areas.

I also realized my current one is 6 years old. That’s a long time for me to go on a HDD, at least compared to ALL the HDDs I’ve had in the past.
 
I will caution a hard drive replacement on a mini is harder than most machines. Take your time and be extremely careful with sensors on the motherboard. I know a few people who ripped them off the motherboard versus disconnecting them. There's also a lot of screws to keep track as you get to the hard drive. As with anything, the tools you have can make/break the project.

My objective is to NOT discourage you. Swapping out hard drives on most machines is pretty easy these days. The mini is more involved, and there's a risk there. Just re-frame your mindset it will take longer than ten minutes, and use good judgment on your working area/tracking pieces (i.e. don't do this on a coffee table on a shag carpet.)

The performance improvement is noticeable, and the machine runs cooler to the touch (although it can still generate massive amounts of heat.)

I'd personally recommend it as a fun hobby project even if you had a newer machine. There was a great feeling of satisfaction watching the apple appear on the monitor on reboot post surgery. More so than any upgrade I've done.
 
Thanks. I moved last year so I'll have to look for all my tools. I have a set of small Torx and Phillips drivers and some other stuff I got from ifixit.

Right now I'm working on how I'm going to install HS onto the new drive. I was looking over the instructions on Apple and it's saying I need at least 12 GB on a USB drive... the largest I have is 8.

Can't i just download and install to the SSD? I'd either have to download tonight or download tomorrow. Either way, still downloading. I'd understand if I have several Macs to update.
 
I'd recommend purchasing a HD adapter kit like this (I'm providing the listing for example purposes. I'm not endorsing this choice specifically.) You would then connect it to the mini, and use carbon copy cloner (or similar) to do a bit by bit copy of your existing drive to the SSD. Replace your SSD, and you should boot right up.

You can do a clean install from there if desired.
[doublepost=1508525762][/doublepost]Other World Computing has a video you can follow for the replacement.
 
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Just earlier today I upgraded my Mac Mini late 2012. It took me longer than the 30-40 min. Perhaps an hour. The problem was some info on the video (macsales) was a bit off. For example the power supply cable was a B* to pull from the motherboard. In the video he was doing it so easily, barely touching it and was coming out. It just...pissed me off. I am not kidding, seriously pissed me off.
Anyway, I am not new to hardware tinkering, been doing this for decades, but this whole operation reminded me why I no longer find it fun.
For someone who has no knowledge to computer hardware (hands on experience), I am not so sure replacing both drives is the best way to start. It can easily go the wrong way.
If you have patience and the right tools (you will need a couple more things than what is usually mentioned in such tutorials), including a tool to grab delicate parts and a credit card (to help you place the second hard drive in place), you should do fine. Just make sure you have plenty of light, good eyesight, plenty of room and patience.
 
Trusteft said:
Just earlier today I upgraded my Mac Mini late 2012. It took me longer than the 30-40 min. Perhaps an hour. The problem was some info on the video (macsales) was a bit off. For example the power supply cable was a B* to pull from the motherboard. In the video he was doing it so easily, barely touching it and was coming out. It just...pissed me off. I am not kidding, seriously pissed me off.
Anyway, I am not new to hardware tinkering, been doing this for decades, but this whole operation reminded me why I no longer find it fun.
For someone who has no knowledge to computer hardware (hands on experience), I am not so sure replacing both drives is the best way to start. It can easily go the wrong way.
If you have patience and the right tools (you will need a couple more things than what is usually mentioned in such tutorials), including a tool to grab delicate parts and a credit card (to help you place the second hard drive in place), you should do fine. Just make sure you have plenty of light, good eyesight, plenty of room and patience.
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I concur that a HD swap in a mini isn’t a good initiation to hardware repair...will be doing my 2014 tomorrow and that’s even more of a chore.
 
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Thanks everyone. FWIW I’ve put several ATX PCs together, although I know this may be more of a challenge. I have confidence I’ll be alright.

I’ve only had 2 issues in all my years. Plugging in a FDD and shorting 2 pins out. The other time was when I put together my G4 and pinched the WiFi cable in half... after I just replaced it.
 
davidg4781 said:
Thanks everyone. FWIW I’ve put several ATX PCs together, although I know this may be more of a challenge. I have confidence I’ll be alright.

I’ve only had 2 issues in all my years. Plugging in a FDD and shorting 2 pins out. The other time was when I put together my G4 and pinched the WiFi cable in half... after I just replaced it.
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Yeah, you’ll be fine. The challenge is the connectors and not breaking something. Take it slow and use a spudger if you have one.
 
Done. I hope. Took about 30 minutes.

The only issue I had was the standoff came loose, I think, on the last screw holding on the fan. It’s going to be a pain if I ever have to change anything in there again.

Now to reinstall macOS.
 
davidg4781 said:
Done. I hope. Took about 30 minutes.

The only issue I had was the standoff came loose, I think, on the last screw holding on the fan. It’s going to be a pain if I ever have to change anything in there again.

Now to reinstall macOS.
Click to expand...
Good timing! I took around 40 minutes for my 2014...ridiculous the number of steps to go through...it’s obvious Apple wanted to discourage upgrades on the latest model when you’re left with an empty aluminum shell after removing the hard drive 😱
 
I skipped a lot. I used the ifixit guide and checked the comments. A lot were saying to skip this or do that. So I used my best judgement. I didn’t unplug anything, so I didn’t have to worry about breaking that connector.

Now if I were to add in the 2nd drive I might have to pull the logic board out. That’s if I can even get the fan off.
 
davidg4781 said:
I skipped a lot. I used the ifixit guide and checked the comments. A lot were saying to skip this or do that. So I used my best judgement. I didn’t unplug anything, so I didn’t have to worry about breaking that connector.

Now if I were to add in the 2nd drive I might have to pull the logic board out. That’s if I can even get the fan off.
Click to expand...
Luckily 2011/2012 aren’t as involved. I did my 2012 years ago...hopefully won’t have to touch it anytime again soon.
 
The hardest part upgrading my 2012 was the psu cable, unplugging that was nerve wrecking. I couldn't grab the plastic part of it and was afraid of damaging the cables as I could only grab some of them and it was not moving.
Also, and I believe I might be completely alone in this, actually opening the case/base. I actually hurt my fingers trying to twist that open. Every video shows it just easily moving the few degrees it needs to move to unlock. It took me like 5 minutes and a soar thumb.
 
Having iCloud Drive helps a LOT in installing a new SSD. I probably could have used the migration assistant but chose to do it myself. Apps are downloaded from MAS. Files from iCD. The only issues I may have are saved game files. I've had to go dig around in Library to get them. I think I'll leave them there and start fresh on the games. Some might be saved on Game Center. But the others were fun to play so I wouldn't mind starting again, or I just got through the first couple of levels, so no big deal.
 
Nice job! I've been running an SSD in my 2011 quad mini since it was first bought, and I finally replaced the second spinner for a second SSD (moved from my 2011 MBPro) and upgraded to 16GB. I have my system/user account on the original 256GB drive and my DropBox folder symlinked onto the other (512GB). The only thing that is slightly odd about this set up is that moving anything to/form my Dropbox to/from the Desktop results in a forced *copy*.
 
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