Anybody wants to put a SSD drive into the Mac Mini?

[OldMike]

Which operating system is best for solid-state drives?

I thought that this was an interesting article from Dec '08 which compares operating systems and their capabilities running on SSDs.

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=Storage&articleId=9123140&taxonomyId=19&pageNumber=1

 

[enochpeng]

I thought that this was an interesting article from Dec '08 which compares operating systems and their capabilities running on SSDs.

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=Storage&articleId=9123140&taxonomyId=19&pageNumber=1

Interesting read. Thanks for sharing.

Let's all go back to windows 98 then!

 

[HHarm]

Is the new mini SATA 150 or 300?

If it's the slower one will I be throwing a lot of performance away by getting a X-25M?

 

[OldMike]

Is the new mini SATA 150 or 300?

If it's the slower one will I be throwing a lot of performance away by getting a X-25M?

The new mini is SATA 300 - so the interface should still be faster than the SSD.

I have still been doing a lot of research on the SSDs - because if I do purchase a Mac Mini I'm pretty certain I will be putting one in.

As of right now, with OCZ's newly released SSDs, it looks like the top choices for reliability and speed are (all prices and specs come from NewEgg):

1. OCZ Vertex (Read: 200 MB/s, Write: 160 MB/s) 60 GB = $279
2. Intel X-25M (Read: 250 MB/s, Write: 70 MB/s) 80 GB = $393
3. OCZ Apex (Read: 230 MB/s, Write: 160 MB/s) 120 GB = $319

The OCZ Apex looks like a good deal. It has internal RAID 0, with two of the older JMicron controllers that were the source of problems for so many owners. It seems that the RAID 0 plus some cache has alleviated the problems, but RAID 0 bothers me and I'm not sure long term if there would be any problems with that design.

If I was going to buy today, I think I would probably end up going with the OCZ Vertex, which was just released this year, It has received lots of good reviews and is a second generation SSD that does not have the JMicron controller.

I liked the Intel X-25M, but I don't know if it is worth the extra money and slower write speed in comparison to the Vertex. Last week, the Intel would have been my first choice - but after doing more research it appears that this new Vertex from OCZ might be just as reliable, less expensive and better performing...

 

[jjh]

Right now, for MLC drives, the only SSD drives I'm reading good reviews for is the Intel X25-M series drives. If you research all the other lower priced SSD drives, everyone complains about freezing, stuttering and degrading write performance.

If I was going to buy a MLC SSD drive today, it would without a doubt be the X25-M. From the reviews I read, anything else might end up giving you worse performance that the regular HDD you already have...

I guess I've read the same reviews, I ordered X-25M 80GB and will pick it up tomorrow.
I'll make the SSD my boot drive and replace the optical drive with 500 GB 2.5" regular HD.
Totally silent system (or near enough) and there's a backup drive and lots of space inside the tiny enclosure.

 

[jjh]

I guess I've read the same reviews, I ordered X-25M 80GB and will pick it up tomorrow.
I'll make the SSD my boot drive and replace the optical drive with 500 GB 2.5" regular HD.
Totally silent system (or near enough) and there's a backup drive and lots of space inside the tiny enclosure.

An update: I got the Intel X-25M and put it to Mac Mini. Additionally, I threw in 4 GB of memory and replaced the optical drive with 500G 2.5" HD.

Needed some soldering though, to make the HD power cable to fit in the Slim SATA -connector.
Fitting the HD in the case was the most difficult part, as I first made the power cable too short. SATA adapters were quite big, so I could make the HD to fit in the case in only one position.
There's no need to secure the second HD, as the casing is quite tight and will hold the drive in place.

But now the machine is totally quiet and blazing fast. If you have a whole evening and some patience to tune the thing, I recommend it.

 

[TechViking]

An update: I got the Intel X-25M and put it to Mac Mini. Additionally, I threw in 4 GB of memory and replaced the optical drive with 500G 2.5" HD.

Needed some soldering though, to make the HD power cable to fit in the Slim SATA -connector.
Fitting the HD in the case was the most difficult part, as I first made the power cable too short. SATA adapters were quite big, so I could make the HD to fit in the case in only one position.
There's no need to secure the second HD, as the casing is quite tight and will hold the drive in place.

But now the machine is totally quiet and blazing fast. If you have a whole evening and some patience to tune the thing, I recommend it.

Do you know if it is possible to boot off the second internal HD?

I need to find a way to boot Windows on the mini. As windows installations can not detect the X25-M.

I picked up a 320 Gb Scorpio black today and have been trying to installed Windows on it while connected via USB ( via sata --> usb adapter ) but no luck so far. Anyone managed to boot Windows off a USB HD in a mac?

 

[zap2]

I considered it when my HDD died on mine....but in the end, 320Gb HDD was just so cheap vs even an 80GB SDD

 

[buddster]

I did the same thing as jjh. i got a 2.26ghz mini, put an OCZ Vertex 120gb SSD and a Western Digital 500gb 2.5" drive in for storage and 4gb ram. It's fast. The xBench score was 188. I ran it again at 187.9, which I think is the fastest mini score I saw on the xBench site (which included a hard disk) and makes it faster than most iMacs. If you can afford it, you get the form factor of a mini, the speed of an older mac pro and plenty of storage. I was going to try 6gb of ram, but it's deathly expensive. Has anyone tried it yet?

 

[dctodaylight]

I know the VelociRaptor is 15mm thick instead of the standard 9.5mm but I would like to see someone fit a bare VelociRaptor in a Mac Mini.

That's because the VelociRaptor is based on an enterprise server drive, NOT a lap top drive. I've got a pair of them in my Mac Pro as the boot disk, in Raid 0. Very nice...

 

[lostime]

That's because the VelociRaptor is based on an enterprise server drive, NOT a lap top drive. I've got a pair of them in my Mac Pro as the boot disk, in Raid 0. Very nice...

it's still sata with sata connectors, so in theory it should hook up. Fitting it in there would probably be as simple as removing the optical drive and trimming the plastic tray that they fit in a little. At worst you'd have to provide external power and a data extender.

If I had a velociraptor available to me I'd try it in a heartbeat.