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Who swapped stock HDD with an SSD on 2011 Mini?

japtor said:
I'd wait on it until Intel patches the bug they found. The Samsung 470 performs pretty similarly and is cheaper per GB (at least at the larger sizes), I'm leaning towards that one right now.
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What is the bug that they found and what does it affect?
 
Are you guys using TRIM Enabler?
It looks like people have mixed experiences with TRIM enabled on non-Apple SSDs.
 
wow...

i think i'll try to find SSD of other manufacturer for 2011 mini.

any suggestions besides samsung 470 series? I need 80 - 128 GB disc.
 
volodymyrqa said:
wow...

i think i'll try to find SSD of other manufacturer for 2011 mini.
Click to expand...

I'm using the OCX Vertex 3 drive (240GB) in my Minis and both perform flawlessly. In my 2011 MBP 13" I'm using a Crucial C300 256GB and, again, no issues at all under Lion.
 
Quite a few different SSDs in use it seems - did anyone factor in price or did you just go after the best performing or most reliable (!) drive?

I am leaning towards the last generation Vertex 2 as it is substantially cheaper - what do you think? 240/250/256 gb drives. Rough price conversion from Danish Kroner to US dollars:

Vertex 2 - 460
Intel 320 - 710 (300gb)
Intel 510 - 740
Crucial M4 - 560
Samsung 470 - 600
Vertex 3 - 660
Agility 3 - 550
 
Just reporting back.

I put Crucial M4 128GB to the $599 mini. The drive (or rather its enclosure) was thicker than the stock HDD, I had to remove back cover of the drive to put it in without dealing sliding logic board. The front cover, actual SSD board and black spacer are held together with 4 screws so it's not going anywhere.

I hope this won't cause any problem in the future. The SSD board is getting a bit extra veneration, and since the new mini doesn't have optical drive, dust piling should be minimal.
 
volodymyrqa said:
wow...

i think i'll try to find SSD of other manufacturer for 2011 mini.

any suggestions besides samsung 470 series? I need 80 - 128 GB disc.
Click to expand...
You seem like the type of person who believes anything put in front of them.

DID YOU KNOW THAT MORE PEOPLE EACH YEAR ARE KILLED BY SECOND HAND SMOKE THAN CANCER, HEART DISEASE, AND BAD BREATH COMBINED?!?!

Intel makes the highest quality, most reliable consumer-grade SSDs you can buy. You will be happy with your purchase.
 
Update:

I did another swap, exact same make/size SSD (Crucial M4 128GB) to another base Mac mini. This time, for some reason, there was a little more room around the bay/logic board/memory card bracket area and the SSD went in without a problem, back plate intact. I don't know why. I am positive the space was tighter in the other mini, requiring ether sliding the logic board or taking the back plate from SSD. I think the difference was about an millimeter or could be less so maybe the second mini had the whole thing built slightly off from the first one.

BTW, I did formatted the SSD from another Mac, and started the mini with Cmd+R after the installation of the drive. The Internet Recovery prompt came right up.

So I'd say, as far as the installation goes, Crucial M4 (at least the 128GB model) is a GO if someone else was thinking about it.

coelacanth said:
Just reporting back.

I put Crucial M4 128GB to the $599 mini. The drive (or rather its enclosure) was thicker than the stock HDD, I had to remove back cover of the drive to put it in without dealing sliding logic board. The front cover, actual SSD board and black spacer are held together with 4 screws so it's not going anywhere.

I hope this won't cause any problem in the future. The SSD board is getting a bit extra veneration, and since the new mini doesn't have optical drive, dust piling should be minimal.
Click to expand...
 
A guide to follow?

Hi all, just about to do this myself with the corsair m4 128gb.

Is there a guide with the steps I can follow? I did see the ifixit guide for the 2010 model but have seen some of the comments saying that the antenna does not need to be removed.

Any help would be much appreciated
 
Can anyone of you guys with SATA III upgrades please report on the speeds you're getting ?
I'm trying to find out if the Mini achieves SATA III speeds with the stock cable (since the BTO SSD is still SATA II).

Thx !
 
philipma1957 said:
a clear guide a lot of photos

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1194678/
Click to expand...

Thank you for the tips, the photos as they say do paint a 1000 words. Although I still would feel more confident with the guide as in iFixit which tells you exactly what tool to place in what hole etc.

I noticed though that you took the antenna of, there are others on this forum stating that is not necessary. Did you find that it had to come off?
 
Im85288 said:
Thank you for the tips, the photos as they say do paint a 1000 words. Although I still would feel more confident with the guide as in iFixit which tells you exactly what tool to place in what hole etc.

I noticed though that you took the antenna of, there are others on this forum stating that is not necessary. Did you find that it had to come off?
Click to expand...

iFixit did post a tear down guide, but nothing specifically relating to installing or replacing a hard drive. Check it out here.
 
Im85288 said:
Thank you for the tips, the photos as they say do paint a 1000 words. Although I still would feel more confident with the guide as in iFixit which tells you exactly what tool to place in what hole etc.

I noticed though that you took the antenna of, there are others on this forum stating that is not necessary. Did you find that it had to come off?
Click to expand...

I have now done 4 of these. those photos were of the first job. if you move the antenna grill off to the side you can leave it attached. in fact you can even leave the fan plugged in. or you can remove them both carefully. or you can remove either one.

If you have the tools and the eyes or magnification in my case then removal of both is best. The reason is the grill will dangle when you try to put the drive back in. I use gravity to help put the drive back in place. I hold the mini upside down as I push the hdd /ssd back this lets the two little screws on the side of the drive align with the two holes in the hdd bracket in the mini. Having the grill and or the fan hanging by their cables gets in the way.
 
kerplunknet said:
You seem like the type of person who believes anything put in front of them.

DID YOU KNOW THAT MORE PEOPLE EACH YEAR ARE KILLED BY SECOND HAND SMOKE THAN CANCER, HEART DISEASE, AND BAD BREATH COMBINED?!?!

Intel makes the highest quality, most reliable consumer-grade SSDs you can buy. You will be happy with your purchase.
Click to expand...

Intel fanboy ? 🙂

If they make the highest quality and most reliable SSDs, how is it possible that after uncontrolled loss of power supply your 256 Gb SSD ( worth 400 $$$ ) becomes 8mb flash drive?

I'm just kind of person who try to stay away from products with troubles...
 
I have a 600gb series 320 intel in my mac pro. I also have a ups connected to my mac pro. I also purchased a square trade warranty on the ssd.

Why did i buy the warranty if you read the thread on intel the warranty is not honored quickly or easily by intel. You also need deal directly with intel for repair/replacement. It does seem to be a small percentage of ssds maybe 1 percent. If you paid 1000 usd and have to wait 3 weeks for a new one you will be very p o'd. I now use samsung and micron's.
 
moxxey said:
For some reason it didn't pick up the wired network. Asked for a wireless connection.

Anyway, how many people have a wired network at home? I'm surprised you even asked! I'd assume most home users use wireless.
Click to expand...

Easy - anyone with a Video Streaming requirement or wants to send Video files to/from a NAS. Try mirroring Video .iso files on Wireless.

CAT6 LAN gives me 110MBps write rates.
 
All SSD manufacturers have their issues though because SSD technology is still fairly new.

Intel, Samsung, OCZ, Crucial, etc. all have good choices and you could get a lemon from any of them. You just have to roll with it.

I was originally going to go with Intel several years ago with the X-25M although I'm going to go with the Samsung 470 or 830 series (830 if it proves to be reliable out of the gate).
 
coelacanth said:
I understand you'll have to source a propriety cable to fit the second drive, but for the primary drive, the swap job looks rather straight forward assuming you have all the basic hand tools.
Click to expand...

Yes I did mine right out of the box. It is not possible to install the primary drive correctly without removing the logicboard. There are two screws that protrude to the back of the unit. They slid into grommets. These grommets are inserted into the plastic tray that holds the drive. Because the unit is so tightly packed, when you slide the HDD back in, it goes in at an angle (slightly downwards). This makes it impossible to reseat the screws back into the grommets properly.

After some finagling, the drive will go back into the unit, but in doing so, the pins will crush the grommets. You'll feel them fighting as you push on the drive. The only way to seat the drive straight is to take out the board.

So it depends what kind of quality you are looking for.
 
vertex 2 I pulled out of our MBP before I sold it

unscrewed fan, unscrewed plastic insert, unscrewed shielding

left the fan and shielding attached

pulled out drive fitted new one in its place

shoved rest of it back together and done.

Will drag it all apart properly once I dig out a 1TB and necessary cable to add second drive.
 
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