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2011 2.3ghz Mac Mini OWC 6G SSD Installed
- Thread starter sunnyj
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Heh, I just installed one of these yesterday 
. I did have a slight accident..I twitched and broke the IR/light connector off the logic board..now I have no IR receiver for the remote or a power indicator. Oddly enough, worthy sacrifice
. I did have a slight accident..I twitched and broke the IR/light connector off the logic board..now I have no IR receiver for the remote or a power indicator. Oddly enough, worthy sacrifice
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The 240GB or 480GB versions would put you over 500MB/s!
I just added two 256GB Samsung 830 SSDs to my stable, but find the slower write speed lack luster. Amazing build quality of the Samsung. It's worth to be shown off with Apple products.
I just added two 256GB Samsung 830 SSDs to my stable, but find the slower write speed lack luster. Amazing build quality of the Samsung. It's worth to be shown off with Apple products.
I'm hoping i can install the second hard drive without pulling the logic board all the way out. did you install a owc ssd also?Heh, I just installed one of these yesterday
honestly, I'm happy with the performance of this drive for my usage. all i use the mac mini for is the internet, movies & some light photo processing. i have a mac pro and mbp for my heavy video editing for work.
what is the write speed you are getting?
Nice. What's the spec of your Mini? I'm picking up one later on today ;D
Did the SSD help boost the performance lots?
Cheers
You can't. I just did the install of an SSD with the second drive kit last night and the whole machine has to come apart so you can get the drive bracket out. It is really not a hard install, just take your time and all will go well. The instructions on the iFixit website are exact, so follow those and you will be OK.
You can let the second drive float below, but I recommend that it would be the SSD in this scenario. Otherwise, removing the logic board is necessary at a minimum. Depending on the grommets and screws, you may not have to remove the plastic drive chassis.
its the base 2.3ghz model with the intel3000 graphics card.
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the bottom hard drive flex cable arrived today and i opened up the mac mini again. as others said, taking the logic board to install the second drive helps a lot.
i eventually had to remove the screws from this side of the tray because once inserted into the mac mini the screw holes for the bracket wouldn't line up. i tried shaving down the grommet but with the screws it was still to big. i ended up only using 2 screws on the other side to secure the hard drive. its a snug fit and i don't think the hard drive will move.
Those are some speeds and it's just the base model. I've ordered my mini, Server 2011 and going to replace the HDD with OWC Electra 120GB (Sata 3)
Hope mine performs as well as yours. I'll be very pleased if I get speeds approaching what you're getting.
Hope mine performs as well as yours. I'll be very pleased if I get speeds approaching what you're getting.
You'll enjoy your Mini I'm sure. I did feel the base model was enough for me, but now I have the Mac Mini I'm looking forward to getting my mbp in a few months. The Mini is a great Mac
thanks LiquinnWow nice photographs!
Nothing wrong at all with the base model, as that's what I'm about to buy in two hours.
Thanks for showing the photographs!
Cheers
I'm sure you'll speed will be the same or close to mine. be sure to post your results when you get a chance. it would be interesting to see if theres any speed variations between drives.
The OWC Electra 6G will only lag with incompressible data. Mainly due to lower cost NAND, toggle vs non-toggle, 2x nm vs 3x nm, multilevel vs not, etc.
I know this is a little off topic but which Mac out of the three you have do you use more?thanks Liquinn
I'm sure you'll speed will be the same or close to mine. be sure to post your results when you get a chance. it would be interesting to see if theres any speed variations between drives.
I know this is a little off topic but which Mac out of the three you have do you use more?
i use the mac pro and mac mini the most.
the mac pro is my work machine and it runs about 20 hours a day. sometimes lt will run at full cpu load encoding videos for 2-3 days non-stop and she hasn't skipped a beat. i use my macbook pro for dj'ing and editing videos in the field so it doesn't get used as much as my other computers. the mac mini is my person computer which is just used for internet and watching movies.
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this is a little off-topic but ill post it anyways
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I've had my 1st gen TC since its been released and its been running flawlessly for many years. I've read many horror stories online about the TCs breaking down but fortunately I've had no issues. at this time the 1tb hd isn't enough for my backup needs so I'm installing a 2tb western digital caviar green hard drive.
I'm also doing a fan mod by cutting a hole in the metal tray to allow better airflow. overall the install was pretty easy and took about half a day. i must warn you guys its not the prettiest job and i would do somethings differently if i had to do it again.
heat up the rubber with a blowdryer and peal it off slowly
remove the 10 screws
bottom tray removed
old 1tb hard drive
new 2tb western digital caviar green hard drive
remove the screws from the old hard drive and install them on the new hard drive
remove the fan by pushing out the rubber tabs. (its a lot harder to install the tabs back into the plate.i used a tiny bit of dish soup on each tab to help them slide in easier)
fan removed
cut a hole in the rubber backing and metal tray
i added a fine metal mesh so protect the fan from debris
i also made 10 holes in the rubber where the screw holes are. doing this will allow me to open up the TC without pealing the rubber backing off.
....................
I've had my 1st gen TC since its been released and its been running flawlessly for many years. I've read many horror stories online about the TCs breaking down but fortunately I've had no issues. at this time the 1tb hd isn't enough for my backup needs so I'm installing a 2tb western digital caviar green hard drive.
I'm also doing a fan mod by cutting a hole in the metal tray to allow better airflow. overall the install was pretty easy and took about half a day. i must warn you guys its not the prettiest job and i would do somethings differently if i had to do it again.
heat up the rubber with a blowdryer and peal it off slowly
remove the 10 screws
bottom tray removed
old 1tb hard drive
new 2tb western digital caviar green hard drive
remove the screws from the old hard drive and install them on the new hard drive
remove the fan by pushing out the rubber tabs. (its a lot harder to install the tabs back into the plate.i used a tiny bit of dish soup on each tab to help them slide in easier)
fan removed
cut a hole in the rubber backing and metal tray
i added a fine metal mesh so protect the fan from debris
i also made 10 holes in the rubber where the screw holes are. doing this will allow me to open up the TC without pealing the rubber backing off.
it just isn't finished. the hole was cut like lot's of people do it, only they use a file (iron file, as it has finer carvings than wooden) to make the circle round.
so get back to work
i also think it sits directly to a desk? so the airflow isn't maybe altered this much? you can maybe put some little rubber feet under the time capsule.
how's the mini now with both drives? did you do a geekbench test already? I'm very curious as I have the same mini, and the same plans
so get back to work
i also think it sits directly to a desk? so the airflow isn't maybe altered this much? you can maybe put some little rubber feet under the time capsule.
how's the mini now with both drives? did you do a geekbench test already? I'm very curious as I have the same mini, and the same plans
You mean tuck the ssd under the HDD without a bracket?
Interesting if this works, because I would hate to tear this whole thing apart to add an SSD for boot and apps, and 500GB Hybrid for data etc.
Mine does not move off my desk but I am wondering how this will work.
Correct. You run the risk of having a lose SATA connector over time. You could do one side with screw and grommets. Possibly velcro tape would work as well.
I have a question related to the discussion above. I think I know the answer, but just want it clarified. If you get a 2011 mid-tier Mini with the 500 GB stock HDD in it, can you add a small SSD into it (in addition, while leaving the HDD still in it), so you can place all start-up items and apps on the SSD and other data on the HDD (to make a sort of hybrid SSD/HDD but with 2 drives)?
Now, in Lion, would these 2 drives be recognized as one single HD or 2?
And, would you install the SSD into the "upper" or "lower" bay (what is easier) or does it not matter?
Now, in Lion, would these 2 drives be recognized as one single HD or 2?
And, would you install the SSD into the "upper" or "lower" bay (what is easier) or does it not matter?
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the machine would show 2 drives. here is my 2011 mac mini. both drives in the mini are the 750.16 gb western digitals. I happen to have 4 volumes as one of them is partitioned as 3 separate osx's and the other is one osx. ignore the purple/blue drives they are in my external machine. the second thumbnail shows I can boot with four choices of osx. in your case I would take the 500gb drive make a 60 gb osx backup a 470 gb storage partition and I would take the ssd say a 64gb and use it as the main osx. when you looks at the utility you would see
hdd a
ssd osx
hdd b
back up osx = 60gb partition
storage section = 440gb partition
this can save your butt if the ssd crashes on hdd a you can boot from the osx back up on the other hdd.
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Thank you for awesome post. Just another thing, you can put all your applications on the SSD too and they will communicate well with the HDD partition? Is there anything I should put on the SSD? And finally, approximately how big is Lion installed (no including any applications or data, just the OS)?
yes the osx and all apps can be on the ssd.
you can assign iTunes folder to the other hdd.
I have eyetv I record onto a second hdd.
I assigned the eyetv archives folder to the second hdd.
lion is about 6gb to 8gb