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davidjacobs21

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 7, 2010
261
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So i just picked up a late 2012 Mac mini. Dual core 2.5ghz. It has 16gb of ram and 500gb regular hard drive. It was in mint condition and it was only 250 dollars. Thought it was a really good deal but I want to update the hard drive to ssd.

Does anyone have any recommendations on which one to choose. Probably need 250-500gb and I don’t really want to spend more then 100 bucks.

Thanks guys!
 
If you want an SSD towards the top end, the 250GB Samsung 860 Evo is $78, the Crucial MX500 is $70 (at Amazon). Both have 5-year warranties. For 500GB, it's $118 and $110, respectively. Over your limit, but worth going $10 over your budget, IMO. The SSD Plus has a 3-year warranty and typically for SanDisk, the SSD Plus is their lower-performing entry. $54 for the SanDisk is a good price but I would personally pay $16 extra for the Crucial.

If you're not familiar with replacing the disk in the 2012 Mini, please ask - there are certain things you should know before doing it.
 
iFixit has very good guides for replacing the hard drive. I just finished two last week, both with Crucial MX500. One mini has just an SSD now, and the other has both the original HDD and added an SSD as a second drive. I formatted the HDD, and it serves duty as an internal time machine backup.
The SSD upgrade, with whatever SSD you want to choose, is a great upgrade for the mini.
 
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If you want an SSD towards the top end, the 250GB Samsung 860 Evo is $78, the Crucial MX500 is $70 (at Amazon). Both have 5-year warranties. For 500GB, it's $118 and $110, respectively. Over your limit, but worth going $10 over your budget, IMO. The SSD Plus has a 3-year warranty and typically for SanDisk, the SSD Plus is their lower-performing entry. $54 for the SanDisk is a good price but I would personally pay $16 extra for the Crucial.

If you're not familiar with replacing the disk in the 2012 Mini, please ask - there are certain things you should know before doing it.


I saw on slickdeals that the Samsung one is 99 dollars on eBay through Newegg for 500gb. People say that’s a good price for that.

I figured I would look at ifixit for installation. Is there anything else that I should know for installing it ?
 
it is a fairly easy swap. just don't get in your own head and just pay attention when doing it.
2012's use "normal" screws and not the security keyed versions so a basic ifixit screwdriver kit will give you what you need.
You can also get a hdd doubler kit, essentially a 2nd sata cable for that Mini if you wanted to add a 2nd drive. OWC sales these cables.
They just stack on top of each other in the mini. It's a decent idea if you plan on keeping it for a while or putting a 500GB to 2TB laptop drive in there for extra storage.

A 2TB seagate drive can be had for about $90 on Amazon.


or

a SSD + HDD and macOS can let you create a DIY fusion Drive and combine the two.
 
I bought the 500 go Samsung evo 860 for 100 bucks on eBay. Thanks everyone

That's a good price for the 860 Evo. If you're just swapping drives, make sure you have the right screwdrivers. You should also get spudger(s) if you don't have them. If you're keeping the HDD, you need additional hardware. It's not uncommon for people to botch the job so be careful and don't rush it. Look at multiple video and online written guides. Keep a clean and organized workspace where you have access to the online guides as you do your work.
 
That's a good price for the 860 Evo. If you're just swapping drives, make sure you have the right screwdrivers. You should also get spudger(s) if you don't have them. If you're keeping the HDD, you need additional hardware. It's not uncommon for people to botch the job so be careful and don't rush it. Look at multiple video and online written guides. Keep a clean and organized workspace where you have access to the online guides as you do your work.


I just plan on swapping drives. Do you have a link to the best video to use and the types of screwdrivers I need ?
 
The iFixit guide at:
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Mac+mini+Late+2012+Hard+Drive+Replacement/11716

has a list of the tools needed. A spudger similar to the one they use in the iFixit guide and one that I have found useful is something similar to:
https://www.amazon.com/Apple-Nylon-Probe-Spudger-Black/dp/B003TOFFNQ

Take a look at this page:
https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/DIYIMM11D2

There's a note in the second column about drive placement and how to find out where your drive without opening the computer. The drive is either in the "upper" bay or the "lower" bay. The position is relative to when the Mini is flat sitting on the black plastic plate. I believe you can swap the drive in the lower bay without having to remove the logic board (removing the logic board makes the operation quite a bit more difficult). I haven't done it this way myself but it appears doable and I haven't seen anybody who says that it can't be done this way. It's most common to have the drive in the lower bay in which case you can do the swap with the easier method. If you have the drive in the upper bay, to swap it you have to remove the logic board, thus you may want to consider buying the OWC kit in the link above and just keep the HDD where it is. You have to order the kit for the upper bay (they sell their kit based on the bay where your existing HDD is). The kit OWC sells also has the screwdrivers (but the spudger they include is not as useful as the one I mentioned above, IMO). The video in the OWC link is one where the logic board is removed. I'll don't have a list of videos using the easier method - I'll take a look and post if I find a useful one.

Another alternative altogether is to just put the SSD in an external enclosure and boot from it. I prefer to put the SSD in the computer myself, but if you're interested in the advantages/disadvantages of doing that, ask.
 
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OP:

The Sandisk drive you linked to in post 3 will do fine. As good as you need.

You DON'T have to open the Mini, however, unless you want to.
Be advised that there's a danger of breaking something doing an internal install.
Some folks do it without problems.
Others, however, think they can do it... and then.... open it... and BREAK something inside. Many, many previous posts here about that.

The fastest, easiest, safest way to connect the SSD is to get something like this:
https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-2-5-...478&sr=1-2-spell&keywords=sabremt+usb3+to+ssd

Just connect it and "away you go".
I've been booting and running my own late 2012 Mini this way since the first day I took it out of the box in January 2013. Still running great.

Leave the internal HDD "in place" -- use it as a backup.
 
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I have a 2011, and was stunned at the difference an SSD upgrade made. Spinning disks eat up so much of your computer's power.

My Mini was a base model when I bought it, upgraded to 8GB. The spinning disk was KILLING it and for most of its life it sat unusued or rarely used. Then, I replaced the HD with an SSD. WOW! It went from useless to daily driver.

Can't ewait to see what your replies are after you change!
 
I've taken a look at the videos, an I think I can do it. I ordered the Samsung 860 on ebay yesterday, but it won't arrive until late next week. The Mac mini is running pretty good right now, but I definitely want to add the ssd to make it even better. I'll let you know how it goes when I get it up and running with it all done.

With the most recent post from treekram about trying to tell if the drive is in the upper or lower bay through the disk utility tool, I can't find the right information for some reason. I clicked on the last link and followed the directions, but I don't have "Location" as an option.
[doublepost=1531601635][/doublepost]
The iFixit guide at:
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Mac+mini+Late+2012+Hard+Drive+Replacement/11716

has a list of the tools needed. A spudger similar to the one they use in the iFixit guide and one that I have found useful is something similar to:
https://www.amazon.com/Apple-Nylon-Probe-Spudger-Black/dp/B003TOFFNQ

Take a look at this page:
https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/DIYIMM11D2

There's a note in the second column about drive placement and how to find out where your drive without opening the computer. The drive is either in the "upper" bay or the "lower" bay. The position is relative to when the Mini is flat sitting on the black plastic plate. I believe you can swap the drive in the lower bay without having to remove the logic board (removing the logic board makes the operation quite a bit more difficult). I haven't done it this way myself but it appears doable and I haven't seen anybody who says that it can't be done this way. It's most common to have the drive in the lower bay in which case you can do the swap with the easier method. If you have the drive in the upper bay, to swap it you have to remove the logic board, thus you may want to consider buying the OWC kit in the link above and just keep the HDD where it is. You have to order the kit for the upper bay (they sell their kit based on the bay where your existing HDD is). The kit OWC sells also has the screwdrivers (but the spudger they include is not as useful as the one I mentioned above, IMO). The video in the OWC link is one where the logic board is removed. I'll don't have a list of videos using the easier method - I'll take a look and post if I find a useful one.

Another alternative altogether is to just put the SSD in an external enclosure and boot from it. I prefer to put the SSD in the computer myself, but if you're interested in the advantages/disadvantages of doing that, ask.


At first I couldn't find the information about the lower or upper bay on my Mac mini, but I finally found it and it says lower bay. So I guess that is the easier option. Is there a video specifically for that location where I don't have to remove the logic board?
 
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I think I followed this guide:
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...preorder-for-crucial-960gb-ssd.1568313/page-2

You can look at a number of guides and get a "feel" for it.
I you don't want to install a 2nd drive, it's fairly easy and you don't have to disassemble the whole thing.
Be careful with the various cables and connectors. They're very flimsy. You can probably order cheap spare parts from Aliexpress - but they're going to take a long time to ship. Or order them from ifixit and pay more money....
 
Videos which show changing of drive in lower position without removing logic board:

(OWC)

In this case, the person partially pulled out the MB and didn't remove RAM

I didn't that closely at this one.

It helps to look at different videos. You can search for others and scan it - it's pretty easy to spot those that remove the logic board.
 
I was able to do an SSD swap without removing the logic board, it's tricky but totally doable. The trickiest bit is getting the drive back into the proper spot, but if you lay down a couple of credit cards to act as a bridge it makes the job easier. Just set them down vertically across from the logic board to the front of the Mac mini, and then you should be able to slide the SSD into the right spot.

However if you want to have dual drives, you have no choice but to pull out the logic board.
 
Videos which show changing of drive in lower position without removing logic board:

(OWC)

In this case, the person partially pulled out the MB and didn't remove RAM

I didn't that closely at this one.

It helps to look at different videos. You can search for others and scan it - it's pretty easy to spot those that remove the logic board.

Thank you so much for these videos. Looks doable for sure
 
Thank you so much for these videos. Looks doable for sure

Of the 4 wires/cables that need to be pulled using this method, the IR connector seems to cause the most problems. All these cables/wires are pretty delicate so the main thing to remember is don't apply too much pressure to dislodge it. They should come off pretty easily once you find the right spot to apply the pressure to. That's why I like the spudger I mentioned in my post #12 - you can apply a little amount of pinpoint pressure with it.

Also, one thing I encountered was that I initially couldn't put the WiFi antenna plate back with all of the screws (used 3 of 4 screws). This doesn't seem to be a common problem - if you have this problem, information on this is at:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/late-2012-antenna-plate.1547254/

If you encounter this problem, you can use your Mini without a problem with only 3 of 4 screws and then come back to it later to fix it since it's easily accessible.
 
Drive location can also be found in...
Click the Apple Icon ":apple:"-> "About this Mac"->"System Report"->"Sata/Sata Express".

Screen Shot 2018-07-15 at 6.39.51 PM.png
 
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Sorry. I don't mean to hijack your thread, but I have a question. I'm also planning on upgrading my late 2012 mini. So my question is, is the U-shaped mac tool really necessary?
 
If you need to remove the logic board, the special tool makes it simple to move the logic board, as it can sometimes be pretty tight in place. The tool is designed to give you a helpful handle, so you don't have to apply pressure on the logic board components, where you could perhaps break a component on the board. You only need to move the board a cm or two, and then it should slide out fairly easily.
Really necessary? as in the only possible way to slide out the logic board? No.
I think that I remember reading about using rods (maybe drill bits) of the right size
 
If you need to remove the logic board, the special tool makes it simple to move the logic board, as it can sometimes be pretty tight in place. The tool is designed to give you a helpful handle, so you don't have to apply pressure on the logic board components, where you could perhaps break a component on the board. You only need to move the board a cm or two, and then it should slide out fairly easily.
Really necessary? as in the only possible way to slide out the logic board? No.
I think that I remember reading about using rods (maybe drill bits) of the right size

Thank you. You were right. The tool wasn't really necessary. I managed to change out both drives without it.
 
I wanted to give an update on my Mac mini. Samsung Ssd drive showed up yesterday and I was able to install it via the videos that were posted for me. Taking the old drive was absolutely no problem, but putting it back together got a little frustrating. It took me a little longer then it should have, but I was able to get it back together. The Mac is now up and running and it is humming along pretty quickly.

Thank you all for the help!
 
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