Anyone tried an SSD in their Mac mini? It's FANTASTIC.

[mackonsti]

Hi

I just installed a 120GB SSD in my new unibody MBP. My experience with the SSD in my MBP is right in line with the thread starter.

There are no lags, the spinning ball of death doesn't show much at all, rarely.

Starting up, opening applications, well it was actually faster than I anticipated.

If you're leaning, I'd be happy to give you the nudge.

joegomolski please could you be so kind to inform us on the make/brand and model of this SSD? Did you order it with the MacBookPro (thus Apple provided it) or you purchased it separately? Apple must be using some high-quality SSD drives (e.g. Intel which they say are excellent) compared to the basic ones found in the market...

There are two memory chip types, MLC and SLC, and they differ in speeds. Also, the sATA to NAND micro-controller does make a difference (they say JMicron sucks)...

NOTE: I hope that via System Profiler, we can see the brand and model, if purchased directly from Apple (built-to-order)

 

[joegomolski]

SSD forever!

joegomolski please could you be so kind to inform us on the make/brand and model of this SSD? Did you order it with the MacBookPro (thus Apple provided it) or you purchased it separately? Apple must be using some high-quality SSD drives (e.g. Intel which they say are excellent) compared to the basic ones found in the market...

There are two memory chip types, MLC and SLC, and they differ in speeds. Also, the sATA to NAND micro-controller does make a difference (they say JMicron sucks)...


The SSD I purchased, from Newegg, was a OCZ. It's great.

I have a MBA Rev B, with SSD, only way to good.

Buy when I bought the unibody MBP I wanted a fast and spacious HDD.

Then after the purchase the thought came to me, why didn't I get the SSD.

So I thought about and came to conclusion that I had made a bad booboo.

Ordered a new SSD the OCZ from Newegg, exceeded my expectations.

Go SLC, google it.

Remember the MBP has a Sata connector.

 

[Michael CM1]

Maybe im wrong but i heard the SDD dies after a certain amount of uses.. true?

Everything in a computer does, especially hard disk drives. Spinning around at 7,200 rpm for hours and hours will wear a product out. Notice how engines in stock cars, which run at 9,000+ rpm, often don't last for even 500 miles, while engines in cars usually last at least 100,000. Car engines go mostly in the 2,000-3,000 range.

SSDs don't have moving parts, so they don't have that wear and tear. But they are circuits, so eventually they'll die. But I think the lifespan has been improved well beyond what normal people need.

 

[mackonsti]

The SSD I purchased, from Newegg, was a OCZ. It's great.

I have a MBA Rev B, with SSD, only way to good.

Buy when I bought the unibody MBP I wanted a fast and spacious HDD. Then after the purchase the thought came to me, why didn't I get the SSD.

So I thought about and came to conclusion that I had made a bad booboo. Ordered a new SSD the OCZ from Newegg, exceeded my expectations.

Go SLC, google it. Remember the MBP has a Sata connector.

Is it safe to assume that you bought the very expensive OCZ? You don't mention model, and it's crucial... Currently, OCZ has in the market 3 types, the Solid State (base) series, the Core V2 series and the "plain" OCZ SSD series (aluminum-cover): http://www.ocztechnology.com/products/flash_drives/

I am not taking into account the newly-released Vertex and Apex series, since they're not available yet.

But joegomolski, besides telling us the exact model (I want to get the Core V2 this weekend!) please also tell us your impressions on the first boot-up from SSD and how the machine reacted--how was Leopard installation? Smooth?

SSDs don't have moving parts, so they don't have that wear and tear. But they are circuits, so eventually they'll die. But I think the lifespan has been improved well beyond what normal people need.

I agree--besides, with such need for capacity, before you know it, you will be replacing your first SSD with a better & bigger one, way before its date of death!

 

[dctodaylight]

SSDs don't have moving parts, so they don't have that wear and tear.

Actually, you're wrong... Although SSD's don't have moving parts, they do have a wear and tear mechanism. Flash memory is a bit of an oddball in the solid state world, the bit cells can only be reliably written, or erased a finite number of times. Low end flash can be less than 1000 times. Higher end chips can be written 5000-10000 times.

The best flash controllers scroll through the available space, preferring to fragment files, rather than re-writing blocks. After all, with SSD, fragmentation isn't a speed issue, as there's no hunt and seek of drive heads.

 

[mstrze]

To the OP....didn't you mods end up costing more than a new iMac Mini?

 

[Transporteur]

So I took the plunge, purchasing an OCZ Solid series 60GB SSD for around £115ish.

Where did you get the drive?
It's a pretty good price and I'd like to do the same with a current gen Mini.
I'm a little bit frightened about putting it in though, since it voids the warranty of the computer.

 

[Gordy]

Where did you get the drive?
It's a pretty good price and I'd like to do the same with a current gen Mini.
I'm a little bit frightened about putting it in though, since it voids the warranty of the computer.

It won't void the warranty unless you damage something in the process.

I'm really tempted to put an ssd in my mini, but I'm waiting for the 120-128gb ones to drop to the £100-150 range first I think.

Threads like this keep tempting me to bite the bullet on a smaller drive now though!

 

[princemarko]

Let me add my 2 cents...

I have a Macbook black 2.4 ghz, 4gb ram and 667 bus speed.... with a Patriot SSD 128gb installed.

My business partner has a new unibody Macbook 2.4 ghz, 4 gb ram, 1066 bus speed with a 7200 rpm HDD.

Opening up Microsoft word takes me about 2-3 seconds, his Macbook is up around 15-20 seconds. Every program we shot open, I just flat out smoked him with the SSD even though his bus speed is double mine. Especially if we tried opening multiple applications at once, his laptop opens the spinning wheel of death.

The SSD for speed is well worth it. I purchased it for $380 and have no regrets. 128gb is a bit slim, but I manage since its only my work computer.

 

[bkbaskin]

My experience

Mackonsti,

I installed an Intel X25-M 160GB SSD (MLC model from Intel) into my 1,1 Mac Mini. Drive swap was smooth, just move slow inside the mini.

I did not install the new drive and then install software. I put the SSD into a cheap external enclosure and cloned my boot drive onto the disk with Carbon Copy. Once the boot drive data was on the SSD, I did the physical swap and rebooted. The mini responded fine, just faster. I did a "repair permissions" on the SSD using Disk Utility and haven't looked back since.

I concur with original poster's performance evaluation. I chose the SSD update as an interim step to a new computer (in the next year or so) and intend to move the SSD to the new machine when that purchase happens.

 

[KeriJane]

OK, I tried it too!

I just put an Intel X25-M 40GB SSD into my Mini 2.1...

Here's my impressions:

SL/iWork/iLife install was nothing specially fast.
Updates also didn't seem any quicker, including the "writing files" part.
However, Boot time is way down. So is launch time.

The previous install was pretty clean with only the "SL Box Set" installed and updated. It was already pretty snappy on a 7200rpm 120GB Hitachi with 16mb Cache along with 4GB RAM.

System: Mac Mini 2.1 with 4GB RAM, 1.83 C2D, GMA950 graphics.

Boot Time: Halved.
Hard drive= 38sec
SSD= 20sec (from pressing power button to Finder)

Shutdown time: Halved.
Hard Drive= 3-4sec
SSD= 1.5sec

Sleep/wake times went from fast to practically instantaneous.

Heat levels as felt at the air vent on the backside are noticeably lower. Also, the fan runs slower. (Yes, I transferred the little foam piece on the bottomside of the hard drive to the SSD)

I never timed the original 1GB/5400rpm configuration but remember "Dashboard" being quite pokey and choppy when called up and especially when hidden.
The 4GB/7200rpm configuration caused Dashboard to operate much more smoothly.
The 4GB/SSD seems to have made an additional improvement, though it's difficult to quantify "Choppiness"

I can't say that an SSD had completely transformed the machine from the 4GB/7200rpm configuration... it was already snappy. It did make noticeable improvements in speed and heat output.

If it had been an upgrade from the original 1GB/5400rpm configuration it would have been a profound difference.

SSDs are going to be the way to go very soon.
But for right now plenty of RAM and a fast Hard Drive with plenty of Cache can give you much of the advantage with far more storage capacity.
This is especially noticeable with the Mini's slow 5400rpm/8mb Cache drive. That thing needed to go!

In the meantime this is one very quick Mini.

I can't wait until SSD's get big enough for my MP1.1

Have Fun,
Keri

PS. Quicker boot and load times are only part of it. There's much less Beachball-of-Doom. When it boots, the ball stops quickly and STAYS stopped.

 

[ikir]

I agree, it is awesome. I've put an SSD on my MacBook Pro 13" and i love it. Super fast :-D

 

[KeriJane]

Yay!

Another benefit found for putting an SSD in a Mac Mini 2.1 (mid-2007 1.83 C2D model).

When ripping a CD into iTunes onto the hard drive any music already playing would stutter or pause.

With the SSD, you can play a song while ripping more onto the SSD. No problem.

These things are gonna be great when they get a bit bigger.

Have Fun,
Keri

 

[PerfSeeker]

Question - can I buy an SSD and have Apple store install it for me?

 

[DoFoT9]

Question - can I buy an SSD and have Apple store install it for me?

yup - for a fee its reasonably pretty cheap.

 

[PerfSeeker]

yup - for a fee its reasonably pretty cheap.

Any SSD or is there a specific kind that the mini needs?

 

[stefimke]

If you're looking for more speed then a normal HDD and way more capacity for the buck then SDD, then have a look at the Seagate Momentus XT. It's a hybrid HDD with 4GB of self-learning read-flash.

 

[mangrove]

Just bought the XT Momentus 500GB. Not yet installed, but will inform my experiences. It will go into late 2009 (3,1) Mini plus 8GB Ram.

 

[mr.steevo]

Hi,

I would be very interested in hearing your impressions on this.

Dang. I just upgraded my sister's HDD to a regular 7200rpm 500GB. Had I known about this drive I would have suggested it to her.

s.

 

[mangrove]

Hi,

I would be very interested in hearing your impressions on this.

Dang. I just upgraded my sister's HDD to a regular 7200rpm 500GB. Had I known about this drive I would have suggested it to her.

s.

Did not forget, but now have decided on an SSD in main bay and the XT in SD bay with an OBHC.

Trouble is I have never opened a late 2009 Mini 3,1 and have searched high and low to get a heads-up on what to expect re the SD area.

Easy to remove ? Any ribbon cables or other cables to be aware of, etc? Stuff like that. Have one more tool coming and then plan to start project in perhaps one week more.

If you have input pass it on. Thanks.

 

[glitch44]

Did not forget, but now have decided on an SSD in main bay and the XT in SD bay with an OBHC.

Trouble is I have never opened a late 2009 Mini 3,1 and have searched high and low to get a heads-up on what to expect re the SD area.

Easy to remove ? Any ribbon cables or other cables to be aware of, etc? Stuff like that. Have one more tool coming and then plan to start project in perhaps one week more.

If you have input pass it on. Thanks.

try the ifixit teardown

 

[mangrove]

try the ifixit teardown

Thanks, finally had the time to do that. Thanks, you were right on the money. I had been so concentrating on the HDD and RAM replacement stuff, I completely overlooked the teardown details.

Now I'm worried I bought the wrong OBHC from modeus. Oh well, we'll see when I open it up.

 

[flaquito]

Highly recommended

Just registered on MacRumors to encourage people thinking of installing a SSD to do so!

I had been using a Samsung 5200rpm 500GB disk; installed about 6 months ago as a replacement to the Mini's original 160 GB. Lately though I had become frustrated with the Mini's performance which coincided with the rising popularity of SSDs.

Today I bought a Kingston SSDnow V series (SNV425-S2BN/64GBER). Rather than reinstall everything from scratch I used carbon copy cloner to make an image of original disk.

As for performance, I have no benchmark tests and haven't even bothered timing boot up, shut down, loading programs, etc. Basically there is no need. For me the speed improvement has not been measured in seconds, but the numbers of exclamations I have made. The MacMini has been transformed. All media is stored externally so the small size of the SSD is not an issue. For 90 Euros this upgrade represents fantastic value for money.

 

[And]

I have just ordered a 64GB Kingston V series too. Not looking forward to fitting this thing in my 2009 mini, but fingers crossed it will go ok. Also ordered a 4GB ram upgrade too, so hopefully this thing will be flying a few days time. Or maybe it'll be a brick after I've tried to fit it all... My plan is to keep music and film media (and some little used docs) on an external drive, and keep the boot drive for apps only (with current work). Does this seem like a sensible plan, how do others handle the low drive space?

best, a.

Just registered on MacRumors to encourage people thinking of installing a SSD to do so!

I had been using a Samsung 5200rpm 500GB disk; installed about 6 months ago as a replacement to the Mini's original 160 GB. Lately though I had become frustrated with the Mini's performance which coincided with the rising popularity of SSDs.

Today I bought a Kingston SSDnow V series (SNV425-S2BN/64GBER). Rather than reinstall everything from scratch I used carbon copy cloner to make an image of original disk.

As for performance, I have no benchmark tests and haven't even bothered timing boot up, shut down, loading programs, etc. Basically there is no need. For me the speed improvement has not been measured in seconds, but the numbers of exclamations I have made. The MacMini has been transformed. All media is stored externally so the small size of the SSD is not an issue. For 90 Euros this upgrade represents fantastic value for money.

 

[flaquito]

A clean SL installation + updates, MS Office, Lightroom 3, iLife and iWork take around 14GB. Therefore a 64GB should be more than adequate.

Storing media on an external drive is the way to go.

Good luck fitting the RAM/HDD and let us know how you get on.

I have just ordered a 64GB Kingston V series too. Not looking forward to fitting this thing in my 2009 mini, but fingers crossed it will go ok. Also ordered a 4GB ram upgrade too, so hopefully this thing will be flying a few days time. Or maybe it'll be a brick after I've tried to fit it all... My plan is to keep music and film media (and some little used docs) on an external drive, and keep the boot drive for apps only (with current work). Does this seem like a sensible plan, how do others handle the low drive space?

best, a.