jedimasterkyle88

Q: Best SSD for Mac Mini late 2012?

So lately, I've been thinking about installing a SSD as the primary boot drive into my Mac Mini.  I want to keep the original HD for storage but after installing an SSD into my Windows machine, I'm finding that my Mac is...lacking.

 

I've been doing some research into the process and for the most part, it doesn't seem too difficult with installing an SSD as a 2nd drive into the Mac Mini (thanks to the thousands of YouTube videos on how to do it).  The part I am stuck on is WHICH SSD to install?

 

From what I've been able to figure out, any SSD will do but I might run into a problem with TRIM?  I understand that this can play a big part in which SSD I get for my Mac Mini.  So my question is this...what SSD's have others installed into their Mac Minis?

 

Personally, I'm looking at the Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5-Inch SATA III as that is the same one that I have installed in my Windows machine and I am in LOVE with it.  Will this SSD work and do I have to worry about TRIM with this?


My Mac's specs:
Mac mini (Late 2012)

Processor:  2.5 GHz Intel Core i5

Memory:  16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3

OS X Yosemite 10.10.1

Mac mini, OS X Yosemite (10.10.1)

Posted on Nov 19, 2014 6:16 PM

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Q: Best SSD for Mac Mini late 2012?

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  • by dwb,

    dwb dwb Feb 12, 2015 10:42 AM in response to houlem
    Level 7 (24,152 points)
    Notebooks
    Feb 12, 2015 10:42 AM in response to houlem

    if you want the SSD to be your primary boot disk you also probably will want it to have a recovery partition. You can accomplish this two ways: (1) install Yosemite on it and then use Setup Assistant to transfer everything from the current boot disk or (2) use carbon copy cloner to clone the internal drive to the SSD. I do not think Disk Utility will do this on its own (I could be wrong - I often am)

  • by antaljani,

    antaljani antaljani Jan 4, 2016 11:40 PM in response to jedimasterkyle88
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 4, 2016 11:40 PM in response to jedimasterkyle88

    Hello Guys,

     

    I also tried to setup an SSD as a primary disk. Unfortunatelly my first drive was Samsung EVO 850 250GB SATA III, but it was very unstable, it was not working for me.

    Now I trying to use Kingston HyperX Savage 240GB SATA III drive (530MB/s for writeing, 560MB/s for reading).

    I started my system as usual from the original HDD (Macintosh HD) and then I used DiskUtility application.

    After erasing SSD, I tried to use Restore function to clone my original Machintosh HD, from the original HDD to HyperX SSD.

    It was not started at all, I got the following error message :

    Validating target...

    Validating source...

    Source volume is read-write and cannot be unmounted, so it can't be clock copied.

    Operation failed...

     

    Now I just would like to know, what to do? What am I doing wrongly?

    Can I start DiskUtility application without starting the original Macintosh HD usage?

    How can I unmount Macintosh HD to clone it to SSD?

     

    Thanks your answer in advance!

     

    Regards,

    Janos

  • by lllaass,

    lllaass lllaass Jan 5, 2016 1:07 AM in response to antaljani
    Level 10 (188,672 points)
    Desktops
    Jan 5, 2016 1:07 AM in response to antaljani

    Sounds like you booted from the disk you want to clone. You can't do that. Boot to Recovery

    https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201314

    and then then use DU

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Jan 5, 2016 4:29 AM in response to antaljani
    Level 7 (23,813 points)
    Safari
    Jan 5, 2016 4:29 AM in response to antaljani

    If you have Bootcamp/Windows, please be aware that this DU method does not work for moving Windows.

  • by Rohit Prakash,

    Rohit Prakash Rohit Prakash May 12, 2016 2:25 PM in response to jedimasterkyle88
    Level 1 (4 points)
    May 12, 2016 2:25 PM in response to jedimasterkyle88

    Here is my experience adding a second drive (Samsung SSD 850 EVO 500GB) to my Mac Mini Late 2012.

     

    I would say two things:

    1. DON'T DO IT UNLESS YOU ARE VERY EXPERIENCED. I have changed out several components such as RAM, HDDs, etc., over the years in various older MacBooks/Powerbooks and desktops but this is CHALLENGING. I followed OWCs video which is quite detailed but, unknowingly, I broke off two boots/connectors from the logic board while trying to disconnect the IR connection and the fan. It is really easy to do this without realizing what you've done. It was when reassembling the unit that I realized I actually had pried the boots right off the board. (Luckily for me, I have a friend who works on circuit boards for a living who was able to insert pins in to the logic board and solder the fan wires directly in. Could not do that for the IR connector but that was not critical).
    2. DO IT. Pay someone else to do it but get it done! It's worth the extra $$ to have someone do it. My machine is screaming FAST after the upgrade. Night and day difference! My user login times have gone from 2 minutes to literally seconds. All apps launch in seconds. It's fantastic. :cool:

    Notes:

    • I ordered the installation parts right off eBay for $8.39. Search for "Dual Hard Drive SSD Flex Cable for Mac Mini A1347" - doesn't matter if it says "server."
    • I left the original drive in the lower bay (or upper, if you have the unit opened and upside down).
    • Once the SSD was installed, I booted up in restore mode, formatted the SSD, ran first aid on it, and then used Disk Utility to "restore" the old drive on to the new SSD. "Restore" is a menu item in Disk Utility. It cloned the drive with no issues. Of course, you then have to rename the new drive and select it as the startup disk. (I had to use disk utility again to figure out which drive was the new SSD as it completely cloned the original drive, including name and icon).
    • Once booted up, I enabled TRIM. To run trimforce, open a Terminal window and type the following command: sudo trimforce enable -- this will result in some warnings but after you accept it will perform the command and reboot the machine.

     

    End result? The machine is running just great with no problems.

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