Worth upgrading Mac mini 2012 to 2015

After adding RAM, the second best thing that I did to both my 2010 and 2012 Mini's was to swap out the stock 5400rpm HDDs with 7200rpm HGST HDDs. That in itself made as big, if not bigger difference in there reaction timesas the RAM upgrades did.

I recently upgraded my 2012 using the same Data Doubler kit that IIIaass speaks of. I moved the 7200rpm HGST HDD into the empty bay and put an SSD into the lower bay. I run OS X and App's on the SSD and access my mega iTunes and Photos libraries that are stored on the HGST HDD.

All I can say is 'WOW' what a difference. The Mini boots in around 7 seconds and all my App's open in the wink of an eye, including those with large libraries like iTunes and Photos.

The i5 2012 Minis are all dual core. There was an option to get a 4-core but that was an i7 i7 2012 Mini.

The 2104 MIni you propose will be somewhat faster since the Haswell i5 is faster and the 2014 has better integrated graphics.

I would stick to the 2012 and add an internal SSD boot drive. I added a SSD to my 2102 Mini and retained the HD. I used one of these:

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/DIYIMM11D2/

That site has videos for how to add the doubler. I found it not that hard.

Based on Geekbench scores (https://browser.primatelabs.com/mac-benchmarks),

you will get roughly get from 12-15% performance improvement. This is pretty

much just a test of raw CPU performance but is a good yardstick of what you may

expect.

It also has somewhat better integrated graphics processor.

So, the decision is yours as to whether 12-15% and a somewhat better graphics processor

worth buying a new computer.

It depends on how much you want to spend and how much performance you want.

Even a "low end" SSD will likely wow you in terms of boot time and app opening

times.

Personally, I have installed 240GB Kingston SSDNOW V300 drives in my 2011 Mac Mini Server

and my 2011 13" 2.7GHz Macbook Pro and both have been performing quite well. Not the speediest

of SSD drives on the market but were on sale at a really good price. Performance is still way better

than any HDD out there.

I have also been using a 256GB Toshiba Q Series Pro with my 2late 2013, 27" iMac which has also

been working quite well.

Another source of reliable/Mac compatible SSD drives is OWC (http://www.macsales.com/). Their

products a very highly regarded in the Mac community.

Quad-core CPUs are nearly twice as fast as dual-core at the same clock speed. Get an SSD.

2012 much easier to upgrade. Just replace your HDD with an SSD and keep it.

Any 2.5" SATA SSD will fit, Samsung 850 Pros have been reported as problematical by some (not all). Crucial makes good ones, but so do most of the competition.

In my 2012 Mini I have a Samsung 840 EVO . Been working great the last two years. I do use Trim Enabler (although not really required).