I think once you tear the mini apart to do the SSD install, you may not want to do this again to remove the HDD. On the otherhand, with a compatible external USB3 enclosure, it might find even more utility as a shared or backup device. There is no reason why you can't leave the original HDD inside the mini. Using Disk Utility, I can still mount/unmount that HDD any time after boot. To uncomplicate having two drives mounted with OS X 10.8.2, I created an /etc/fstab file on the SSD that blocked mounting the original HDD on boot. I installed my SSD as a primary boot/application/user drive, and left the original 500GB drive in place. The drive should be large enough that in operation, it is not more than 50% capacity, or slower drive algorithms in the SSD controller may slow the device down. Oh, and a 9.5 mm, fast SSD compatible with Mountain Lion and with current firmware.
Owc mac mini hard drive upgrade upgrade#
The two things you need to bring to the SSD upgrade party is plenty of patience, and the OWC (macsales) Mac mini SSD drive kit.
Are there any other factors to consider in making my decision? My question is, will having 2 internal drives both operational degrade performance? If so, any idea how much? BTW my Mac mini model is SATA 3 6GB. So now I'm trying to decide whether to remove the mechanical WD drive to an extenal enclosure or leave it in. I've seen statements in several palces that benchmark testing has established that which bay a drive is installed in makes no difference as to its performance, apparently either drive will work equally well in either bay position. I know that several places (such as iFixit and OWC) offer kits to add a second internal to my model. I'm familiar with the fact that my model has space for a second internal 2 1/2 HD, and also has a second SATA connector on the mother board.
Owc mac mini hard drive upgrade install#
My choice is to either install the new SSD as a second internal HD in the mini, or to pull the old conventional drive and retire it to an external enclosure, leaving the new SSD as the sole internal HD in my mini. (Macmini 5,2) I'm planning to upgrade to a Solid State Drive (SSD). Be sure to do "what if" exercises before you buy the mini to make sure the faster, aggressively priced G5 iMac isn't a better deal for you.I have a mid 2011 Mac mini, 2.7 MHz, i7, 8 GB Ram with the 7200 RPM Western Digital 750 GB factory upgrade drive. Of course, the cost of drive (and memory) upgrades can cause the price of the mini to mushroom. The sustained transfer speed jumped from the mid 30s to the mid 50s when we connected the FireWire 400/800 enclosure with DiamondMax 10 drive to a G4 PowerBook's FW800 port. Too bad the mini doesn't sport a FireWire 800 port. It added both speed and mucho capacity to the Mac mini system.
Not only did we test the same drives externally as we tried internally, but we added the fast Maxtor DiamondMax 10 300GB 3.5inch 7200rpm drive to the mix. If you find the 60GB capacity too confining, the Seagate Momentus 5400rpm drive provided much more speed than the stock drives in all except the Photoshop test while providing greater 100GB capacity.Īnother way to add speed to your Mac mini without cracking open the case (and risking warranty nullification) is to attach a fast drive to the FireWire 400 port. The Hitachi 7K60 was the fastest alternative internal drive. This can make the Mac mini feel more sluggish than the clock speed would imply - especially if you are running with less than 1GB of memory.Īs you can see from the graphs, there are faster alternatives to the factory drives. The Mac mini's drive is similar to what you find in an iBook or PowerBook - 4200rpm with sluggish average seek time and latency.
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