So I'm considering the 2014 Mac mini but I'm curious one a couple of things. First how fast is the HDD portion of the fusion drive? Is it 5400rpm or 7200rpm? Second can I add a second HDD or SSD?
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Mac mini 2014 questions.
- Thread starter bigpoppamac31
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1. It's only a 2.5" 5400rpm slow drive.
2. There is only one SATA III slot (for 2.5" drives) and one PCIe slot. You can only one 2.5" drive inside at any time.
I'd just recommend a Fusion Drive setup for your case. It's a 128GB SSD with a 1TB 5400rpm HDD. It gives you 80% of the performance of an SSD with a large storage.
Boot times are just around 15 seconds, and apps almost always open instantly. OS X will intelligently shuffle files between SSD and HDD depending on how frequent you use them. The OS itself is always in the SSD portion only.
Hmm okay. 5400rpm is pretty slow by today's standard. I've also considered a rMBP but the Mac mini is much cheaper. But I thought about going with a Mac mini and just connecting it to my HDTV.
Another option is to boot from an external SSD. The Samsung 850 EVO can be had for around $99 for 250GB and $200 for 500GB. You can go with either a USB or Thunderbolt enclosure and you will end up with a fast boot drive for cheaper. Personally, I use my internal HDD as an additional Time Machine backup disk...
Not exactly the most elegant solution.
The Fusion Drive upgrade isn't too pricey, and it provides a large amount of storage for around 80-90% of a pure PCIe SSD's speed.
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See my post above
Yeah I'd simply get the high end Mac mini which comes with the fusion drive. I'd just add 16gb ram. But when it has to write to the HDD wouldnt 5400rpm be really slow?
It will always write to the SSD first. Writing to the HDD isn't that common.
OS X leaves a minimum buffer of 4GB in the SSD for write operations when the SSD portion is nearly full. After writing to the SSD, it will transfer the data to the HDD in the background.
In fact, I don't think you'd even need 16GB of RAM. You only need it if you're running several VMs together.
PS save yourself $100 and go for the middle end 2.6GHz/8GB variant, with an FD upgrade. The processor upgrade isn't worth it, because the difference is almost zero.
Well what if all your content is more than the 128gb of the SSD? I'd get the 16gb for longevity. Also cause I can't upgrade it later if I were to need it.
I don't use the computer for much more than everyday use. Web browseing, email, iTunes and the like. I had a 2011 MBP previously and briefly a 2013 rMBP before I returned it.
If your content is more than 128GB, OS X will leave the most-frequently accessed files and apps in the SSD portion and put the rest in the HDD.
You don't need 16GB for longevity. OS X's RAM compression makes 8GB act like 12+GB of RAM. Even 4GB is still pretty sufficient by today's standards. The SSD/FD makes all the difference. Look no further than this review to see how powerful 4GB actually is with an SSD: http://bgr.com/2013/11/18/apple-13-inch-retina-macbook-pro-review-late-2013/
You don't need more than 8 GB, it'll be fine doing those tasks for years to come.
Then some of it be stored on the HDD portion, obviously. The data you haven't accessed recently.
I've actually found 8gb to be slow after a while and I'd have to restart my Mac. I'm also kinda torn between the Mac mini and the 13" rMBP seeing as I had MBP before.
What makes you believe that this slowness is memory related?
Why do you have to restart your mac?
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You plug in an external hdd.
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Have you considered an iPad?
I'd restart my Mac to clear the memory. Safari has always been a memory hog but it's interface the best.
The OP is talking about the 128 GB SSD in Fusion drive. The excess data will simply be stored on the HDD portion.
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Just quit out of Safari then, no need to restart.
Not enough space for all my files. Plus I don't want to use cloud services to store my files.
How do you come to these conclusions?
How do you know that Safari is a 'memory hog'?
Why do you think that your system is slow because of lack of RAM?
I do that but it's not always enough.
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Cause activity monitor lists safari as using the most resources. I only have my iPhone right now so I can't try an example.
That is to be expected, since the other apps you are running are trivial at best.
But: Why do you think that your system is slow due to lack of RAM?
Well I'm no tecky but it's my best guess. What else could it be? Crappy integrated graphics?
No Mac sold in the last 5 years will slow down due to lack of memory just from the apps you are running.
If you are not tecky, then get the base standard configurations.
If you don't know about computers, then don't order optional upgrades.
If you want a speed improvement, upgrade the hdd to an ssd.
The apple reseller around the corner has these on display.I think a 2 GB MBA would
They work just fine.