Hi all! I have maxed out my 2009 Mini with 8GB RAM and a Crucial 1TB SSD. I would like to replace the original Superdrive with an internal 4K UHD capable blu ray burner (same 12.7mm slot-loader) if possible. Anyone know if Panasonic or LG make such a device? I hope to use it to rip my Blu-Ray collection. Thanks for any assistance!
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Upgraded Late 2009 Mac Mini- Looking for 4K Superdrive Replacement
- Thread starter mistrrmac
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I actually didn't know that there were no shipping 4K drives that are compatible with or capable of ripping UHD/2160p Blu-ray discs. I'll settle for regular 1080p discs, if that's what it takes- HD is still great quality. I've been out of the loop on disc ripping for 3-4 years, and just upgraded all my old stuff, like the Mac Mini, Handbrake and MakeMKV. I was hoping to try out Don Melton's ripping scripts and tools.
I’ve actually just started looking into ripping 4K discs. The scene has a solid following and looks like it has for about a year or so.
Digging around the MakeMKV forums has me wanting to upgrade my drive for a 4K compatible one soon.
Since you’re in the market already, I’d take a look there you’ll be able to get a 4K compatible drive that will do everything you’re looking to do anyways.
Sorry to bump an old thread, but how are you feeling about your 2009 Mac Mini with the 8GB ram and the Crucial 1TB SSD? My Late 2009 Mac Mini 2.53ghz Core 2 Duo has now passed a decade of ownership. But it's always been a secondary device at my house. For many years, it was just in storage. But it's getting a 2nd life at my parents house now. It's feeling pretty alright so far with a clean El Capitan install, but I'm wondering if maxing out the RAM (currently 2gb x 2gb RAM) and replacing the 320gb SATA with a SSD will make a big difference.
I have the same Mini with 8G and a Samsung 840 evo 256GB, Mac OS El Capitan 10.11.6.
IMHO it depends on your tipical usage of the mini.
Probably the biggest impact is the SSD: the boot will be really quick and not only, consider also that SWAP on SSD is better than SWAP on spinning drive.
But also the memory can have impact, I used it as my primary PC till 2018 (I bought a 2018 mac mini) and it was OK for my usage.
Obviously now my new mini has a i7 8th gen, 32 GB of RAM and 512 G of SSD and the difference between the two minis is... really huge, but I still use the 2009 as backup or just with my TV (now it is placed just under the TV and connected via HDMI) to watch some movie (obviously no 4K, just FullHD) and after more than 10 years since I bought it I'm really satisfied and impressed about the performances (considering its age)
IMHO it depends on your tipical usage of the mini.
Probably the biggest impact is the SSD: the boot will be really quick and not only, consider also that SWAP on SSD is better than SWAP on spinning drive.
But also the memory can have impact, I used it as my primary PC till 2018 (I bought a 2018 mac mini) and it was OK for my usage.
Obviously now my new mini has a i7 8th gen, 32 GB of RAM and 512 G of SSD and the difference between the two minis is... really huge, but I still use the 2009 as backup or just with my TV (now it is placed just under the TV and connected via HDMI) to watch some movie (obviously no 4K, just FullHD) and after more than 10 years since I bought it I'm really satisfied and impressed about the performances (considering its age)
While not exactly in the same situation as you, I recently had to downgrade temporarily a 2012 MacMini from 16 GB to 4 GB and it wasn't bad at all - even running Catalina. But the difference between a HDD an SSD is day and night. So I wouldn't spend money on RAM memory for a 2009 Mac except if you can get it for a very good price.
The SSD is totally worth it however and you can re-use it easily afterwards if your 2009 breaks down one day. I have "recycled" an SSD from a Macbook (damaged by water) and put it into an external USB3.0-case for example.
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Thanks for the responses guys. Mr_Hyde's initial mention of the Booting time alone didn't convince me much about the value of SSD, but Passy, your comment did. The question is just what kind of cost would I be looking at for this SSD upgrade.
One thing that could be possible is the SSD drive out of my 15" mid-2014 MacBook Pro. I just replaced that with a new 16" and am in the process of trading the old 15" into Apple. But I am concerned they may send it back because it has an issue where it crashes if you do too much on which likely is a logic board issue. If they do, then I'm just going to be selling it for parts so maybe I can just use that HD in there and sell off the rest.
I guess I'll go with that for now and hold off on the RAM. Although if it's cheap and I'm already in there, may as well do that.
Usage on this computer will be secondary across the board. My dad has a windows laptop he mainly works off of and my mom just works off her ipad and iphone, but with a mac computer there, one big thing I can see them both doing with it is photo management. That way they don't have to drop money on icloud as their collection grows. I only wish there was a way my parents could both access their saved Photos to the mac off their phones and ipad.
I'm there often and the main thing I'm interested for is using it to import in my CD collection so I can get rid of them and burning imported video footage/footage still on MiniDVs to DVD. The whole thing is going to be a drawn out process so if I can get a few years to do that, it would be great. Then eventually I'll replace this with something else for them, and I guess buy an external DVD reader to access the data I've burned as I need it.
When I spoke about the boot time with SSD: I just mean to say that the quick boot is the first improvement that ususally it is noticed.
But for sure it is not the only one (IMHO, as written in my previous post, one of the benefit is also on usage of disk swapping)
Anyway I agree with your plans: as start try just the SSD and then decide about the RAM.
Just a couple of suggestions:
- the 2009 mini SATA is not the latest SATA version so avoid to buy some very expensive modern SSD SATA drive, I was lucky with a Samsung EVO 840 but reading the forum I noticed that some users had bad experiences with these drives, probably a Crucial is a better/safer choice
- once replaced the disk remember to reset PRAM
- while waiting to decide if it is worthy to upgrade also the RAM keep the mini with the case open (don't know about you but I usually spend a lot of time - and a lot of "not good words"
to open it)
But for sure it is not the only one (IMHO, as written in my previous post, one of the benefit is also on usage of disk swapping)
Anyway I agree with your plans: as start try just the SSD and then decide about the RAM.
Just a couple of suggestions:
- the 2009 mini SATA is not the latest SATA version so avoid to buy some very expensive modern SSD SATA drive, I was lucky with a Samsung EVO 840 but reading the forum I noticed that some users had bad experiences with these drives, probably a Crucial is a better/safer choice
- once replaced the disk remember to reset PRAM
- while waiting to decide if it is worthy to upgrade also the RAM keep the mini with the case open (don't know about you but I usually spend a lot of time - and a lot of "not good words"
to open it)