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Base Mac Mini & SSD

A

argonaut12

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 1, 2012
5
0
I am a Apple virgin and have an SFQ (Stupid ******* Question) to ask you all. Please accept my appologies if this has been already answered.

I fancy a change from the PC's and I am planning on buying my first apple Base Mac Mini 2012 computer. I will be upgrading the RAM to 16gb by myself( to keep costs down). Is it possible upgrade and replace the hard drive with a Sold State Drive, if so, which SSD's do you recommend? and how much does it cost? I am from the UK.

I am not very technical with computers, so please keep all advice in layman's terms please.

Please accept my thank you's to all that provide positive feedbacks.
 
You can replace the HD with an SSD, but by many accounts it voids your warranty because it is reasonably tedious and Apple only counts the RAM as a user-allowed repair.

That said, just about any 2.5" SSD will work great. I'd recommend the Samsung 840s myself. If you have a local Apple repair shop (not corporate) nearby, they might charge you ~$40-60 to put it in for you.
 
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Thanks for the reply, they are certainly alot cheaper than apple and appears alot less hassle than installing an internal ssd
 
argonaut12 said:
Thanks for the reply, they are certainly alot cheaper than apple and appears alot less hassle than installing an internal ssd
Click to expand...

You could also get a cheaper USB3 enclosure and put an SSD in there yourself. It would be a more compatible option, and the speeds would be very comparable.
 
Hi mate.

I bought the base model and replaced the HDD with an Intel 335 SSD myself. Wasn't too difficult, probably took me about 25 mins including coffee/ smoke break. Have a look on iFixit for some guides.
 
Snowcake said:
I would only use this with thundebolt. Than i can't use a thunderbolt/displayport monitor anymore!
Click to expand...

Well you could use a thunderbolt display with it, just put the display first and the hard drive after the display.

Now a displayport monitor would be a no go....

or you could go with something like the Seagate Desktop thunderbolt adapter that has two thunderbolt ports....
 
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argonaut12 said:
I am a Apple virgin and have an SFQ (Stupid ******* Question) to ask you all. Please accept my appologies if this has been already answered.

I fancy a change from the PC's and I am planning on buying my first apple Base Mac Mini 2012 computer. I will be upgrading the RAM to 16gb by myself( to keep costs down). Is it possible upgrade and replace the hard drive with a Sold State Drive, if so, which SSD's do you recommend? and how much does it cost? I am from the UK.

I am not very technical with computers, so please keep all advice in layman's terms please.

Please accept my thank you's to all that provide positive feedbacks.
Click to expand...

It's relatively easy to replace the hard drive in a Mini and there are many resources online that explain how to do it. I haven't done it myself but the only tricky bit seems to be removing the logic board, which can be done easily with a simple, inexpensive tool that you can buy from several companies.

But personally I would just buy an SSD and a cheap USB3 enclosure for it and connect it via USB3.
 
Hi
I'm from the uk also. Get the Samsung 256gb 830 ssd from dabs and 16gb memory upgrade from crucial.
Have a look at some YouTube vids regarding the upgrade, should take about 20 minutes or so.
Keep the 1tb and put it in a usb3 caddy and away you go :)
Boot speed went from 1m20 to sub 15s!
 
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