Yes, with your current SATA SSD it would drop your boot time to under 20 seconds. The 2014 mini has an internal port for an even faster PCIe SSD. That is why 2014 Fusion Drive minis have great storage performance.
Both types of SSD are somewhat challenging* to install.
*This recalls your impulse that "I am gonna have to ditch the 2014 model for a 2012...". You may choose to replace that mini with a 2012 or more potent 2014 after weighing the cost, effort, and risks involved with an internal storage upgrade against the basic limitations of a 2012 base model mini. Regardless of what you do to that mini you will always be limited to 4GB of RAM and a CPU clock rate that is a bit over half as fast as the 2012s and other 2014s. Because the 2012 minis have upgradeable RAM and the 8GB available in the other 2014 minis is enough for most tasks you need to consider these factors and others.
Are you good at tinkering with compact or delicate electronics? Experience with laptop repairs would help as would the videos, text info, and tools from iFixit and others.
How do you plan to use this mini? Eight really is enough for most folks most of the time. Upgrading my 2012 mini RAM from 4GB to 8GB provided a real improvement but the next step to 16GB was more subtle. With the RAM maxed out Activity Monitor stats like Memory Pressure reveal that this Mac is never short of RAM but it is hard to pinpoint specific performance improvements.
Both types of SSD are somewhat challenging* to install.
*This recalls your impulse that "I am gonna have to ditch the 2014 model for a 2012...". You may choose to replace that mini with a 2012 or more potent 2014 after weighing the cost, effort, and risks involved with an internal storage upgrade against the basic limitations of a 2012 base model mini. Regardless of what you do to that mini you will always be limited to 4GB of RAM and a CPU clock rate that is a bit over half as fast as the 2012s and other 2014s. Because the 2012 minis have upgradeable RAM and the 8GB available in the other 2014 minis is enough for most tasks you need to consider these factors and others.
Are you good at tinkering with compact or delicate electronics? Experience with laptop repairs would help as would the videos, text info, and tools from iFixit and others.
How do you plan to use this mini? Eight really is enough for most folks most of the time. Upgrading my 2012 mini RAM from 4GB to 8GB provided a real improvement but the next step to 16GB was more subtle. With the RAM maxed out Activity Monitor stats like Memory Pressure reveal that this Mac is never short of RAM but it is hard to pinpoint specific performance improvements.
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SSD and 16gb ram, very happy compared to 2014 model