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Anyone have the dual hard drive kit from ifixit on their 2011 mini?
- Thread starter gus6464
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I am picking up a Mac Mini today and plan to get their kit so that I can install a SSD as the primary drive.
I am curious to hear experiences as-well.
I got a bottom hard disk cable ONLY from www.powerbookmedic.com. I got screws and grommets elsewhere. I used the cable to put the second SSD into the Mac Mini (of the base model). With two SSDs inside it, the Mac Mini runs very nicely.
Try it. It makes a huge difference imho. (I have a vertex 1 in my old mbp and a vertex 3 in my iMac)
The ifixit kit is often sold out. I definitely recommend getting grommets for the bottom drive location. The 922-8114 screws with grommets work well.
SATA III 6G SSDs make a huge difference in performance and overall feel. Your Mac will seem faster over the years as well.
SATA III 6G SSDs make a huge difference in performance and overall feel. Your Mac will seem faster over the years as well.
I guess here. it's rather expensive at $33...
http://www.macpartsonline.com/922-8114-screw-w-grommet-hdd-rt-nbr80-pk-5-macbook-pro.html
Those are the correct grommets and screws. They work really well and will eliminate vibration if you use a traditional hard disk drive in the bottom location. I actually prefer working with these grommets and screws over the factory ones that come with the Mac Mini. The factory ones almost need to have the plastic hard drive carrier removed
This one?
http://www.powerbookmedic.com/Mac-Mini-Server-Bottom-Hard-Drive-Flex-Cable-p-20708.html
It says for mid 2010 mac mini.
Yes, it is the right one! Be very careful with the infrared sensor connector when you disconnect it and in the whole process of upgrading.
I just picked up one of these from iFixit. Got an email that they were recently in stock for $70. So now I am looking for a hard drive to pair with the mac mini 2011. I saw the three recommendations there, but not so sure I trust Seagate or Samsung. Any other hard drive recommendations out there that will work as a second hard drive in the mac mini 2011? I am looking for size primarily, and then speed.
I did the whole upgrade with the kit from iFixit but instead of a SSD, I went for a 2nd 1 TB drive as I need loads of space on my mini and can't be bothered with external HD's. I followed the tutorial on iFixit website for the installation. Took me a bit less than an hour and it works very well. While I was at it, I upgraded to 8GB RAM too.
Pay attention to the fan power cable when rebuilding your mini and make sure the fan is running properly. The first time I closed the box, I didn't see it was not properly pinned, it stopped running, my mini went up to about 140°C and hung. All is back to normal, though.
Pay attention to the fan power cable when rebuilding your mini and make sure the fan is running properly. The first time I closed the box, I didn't see it was not properly pinned, it stopped running, my mini went up to about 140°C and hung. All is back to normal, though.
I was researching this second SSD option for the mac mini all last night and I was amazed at how mush faster SSD performance was on the mac mini, going from 45Mb/s to 400MB/s+ is just what this little box needs to get some serious performance.
The thing I want to know is where can you buy just the extra hard drive cable for the second drive in the UK. I really do not want to spend the $65 asking price for the kit when I have all the tools and just need the cable.
?
The thing I want to know is where can you buy just the extra hard drive cable for the second drive in the UK. I really do not want to spend the $65 asking price for the kit when I have all the tools and just need the cable.
?
I bought mine from here:
http://www.powerbookmedic.com/Mac-Mini-Server-Bottom-Hard-Drive-Flex-Cable-p-20708.html
Great international shipping cost (I'm from Spain).
Bye!
There are hundreds of benchmarks on the web that show how much faster a SSD is in comparison to a mechanical hard drive.
Geekbench does results are not effected by SSD upgrades.
From my experience, bench test results are useless. The real work "feel" is all that is important.
I think I might wait to see what kind of Black Friday deals are out there on SSDs after all. That looks like the smartest option, and then use it as the boot drive.
What about games like Warcraft? Do they benefit from an SSD?
What about games like Warcraft? Do they benefit from an SSD?
http://www.thebookyard.com/product.php?manufacturers_id=15&products_id=7276
Just ordered one for my web designer. We got him an i7 mini with the stock hdd and we've ordered an SSD, 8 gig of ram and the cable. It should be a quick machine.
I stuck an SSD in my MacPro it was well worth it even on the sata 1 bus.
Had one in my MacBook pro too before I chopped it in for an air.
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Pretty much everything will benefit. There isn't a hdd light on a mac, but on a pc you can see. Every time that light flashes, your computer is doing something that it could do faster with an SSD.