New entry level Mac Mini - performance is very poor..

[mlody]

It is amazing that the same company "gets it" when it comes to the laptops (exception to be the new retina MacBook) but when it comes to desktop lines: Mac mini and iMac, they royally suck. The base models are so anemic because of the lousy 5400 or 7200 spinners. 256gb flash should be the minimum storage offered in each base model. The retina iMac is somewhat bearable because it has the fusion drive in the base model, but even that is not acceptable give the price tag.
I am really hoping that Apple wakes up and redefines the Mac mini and iMac lines and start offering flash storage in the base. Only time will tell.

 

[steve217]

I have a question. I bought the exact setup you recommended and formatted the drive. My TM backup is on my old mini now working as server. I boot and get the restore from time machine option, but it doesn't see my server. Can I plug the new drive into my old mini and just restore from there and then finish it off on my new machine?

TIA

I'm not sure about "plugging in the new drive in the old mini" - that sounds like bad juju.

It seems like you need to do an Internet recovery and then Migration Assistant on the new machine to pick up your files from your old Mini/new server.

Hope this helps.

So did you get the mid-Mini refurbed? Are you fusing? Let me know how your set up works out.

Steve

 

[gixxerfool]

I'm not sure about "plugging in the new drive in the old mini" - that sounds like bad juju.

It seems like you need to do an Internet recovery and then Migration Assistant on the new machine to pick up your files from your old Mini/new server.

Hope this helps.

So did you get the mid-Mini refurbed? Are you fusing? Let me know how your set up works out.

Steve

Hey Steve thanks for the reply. It turns out it didn't matter because it won't let me access the TM backup on the server anyways. I downloaded CCC and used their free trial. I want to boot it a couple of times and see the results. I added 16G ram while I was at it. App opening is zippy. Startup was at about a minute with the 4 and 16 G of ram. I will definitely report back on my findings.

Mine was a leftover at a local electronics store. When they announced the 14s I pulled the trigger on this. I like to upgrade the ram myself. In fact, the ram, SSD and enclosure was the same price as the apple ram upgrade, so no regrets.

 

[steve217]

I want to boot it a couple of times and see the results. I added 16G ram while I was at it. App opening is zippy. Startup was at about a minute with the 4 and 16 G of ram. I will definitely report back on my findings.

Mine was a leftover at a local electronics store. When they announced the 14s I pulled the trigger on this. I like to upgrade the ram myself. In fact, the ram, SSD and enclosure was the same price as the apple ram upgrade, so no regrets.

I got confused - I thought you got the mini I recommended which is a refurbed 2014 2.6mHz i5. But you meant the enclosure and hard drive I recommended!

Gotcha!

Please let me know what you think of the performance running from the external.

 

[gixxerfool]

I got confused - I thought you got the mini I recommended which is a refurbed 2014 2.6mHz i5. But you meant the enclosure and hard drive I recommended!

Gotcha!

Please let me know what you think of the performance running from the external.

Correct! I see the confusion.

From stock to 16G ram, startup was the same, about 1:06. App opening and fluidity was night and day. It's amazing the difference. After the SSD startup is around :24 now! That floored me. It's like a whole new machine.

I was reading the Fusion drive instructions, but I'm a little confused by them. I need to go back and carefully read them. I'm a little lost on how to treat all the drives. I have yet to wipe the spinner, just in case something happens in the next couple days. They used a third (external) drive in the article and that's where I get lost. I will figure it out soon enough.

 

[steve217]

I was reading the Fusion drive instructions, but I'm a little confused by them. ... They used a third (external) drive in the article and that's where I get lost. I will figure it out soon enough.

The third drive is for booting into the system utilities. You can't fuse drives that are in use so you need a different boot drive.

 

[gixxerfool]

The third drive is for booting into the system utilities. You can't fuse drives that are in use so you need a different boot drive.

Oh. Well that's a bummer. I don't have one. Lol. I guess the fusion drive will have to wait.

Is it possible to boot from a usb stick?


EDIT: Found it. I'll give that a shot.

 

[gixxerfool]

Wanted to check back in. Just finished the Fusion drive setup. It is a lot easier than I thought and hopefully I will see the gains. In my research, I found a good check after all is said and done to see if it is recognized as a Fusion and not just a CoreStorage is as follows:

In terminal run:

diskutil cs list

Copy the UUID of the Logical Volume Group to your clipboard

then run:

diskutil cs info [Paste UUID here]

it should give an output table like this:

Core Storage Properties:
Role: Logical Volume Group (LVG)
UUID: -----------------
LVG Name: Fusion
LVG Version: 1
LVG Size: 1127036829696 B
LVG Free Space: 73728 B
LVG Status: Online
LVG Sparse: Yes
Fusion Drive: Yes

The last line is what you're looking for. There are scripts you can run to test the setups performance, but from what I have read, as long as you get this, you should be golden. Thanks to everyone for their help.

 

[steve217]

Wanted to check back in. Just finished the Fusion drive setup. It is a lot easier than I thought and hopefully I will see the gains. ... Thanks to everyone for their help.

And this, in my not so humble opinion, is how to do it!

External boot SSD (especially for HDD 2014's) fused to the internal. Maximum storage, minimum cost/risk/hassle!

Enjoy!

 

[gixxerfool]

And this, in my not so humble opinion, is how to do it!

External boot SSD (especially for HHD 2014's) fused to the internal. Maximum storage, minimum cost/risk/hassle!

Enjoy!

Yeah man. Zero regrets. The only downside is if a drive fails you need to do it all over. I made the oops of missing part of the command line and it fused the drives and didn't complete. So i couldn't find them. I had to split the drives and redo it. Not a huge deal but the 3.5" spinner I was using for a boot drive got quite the workout. Thanks again for all your help.

 

[mfacey]

I'm amazed. I'm currently running the entry level mid-2011 mac Mini which i recently maxed out to 16GB of Ram and installed a 512GB Intel SSD a year ago. It just blazes.
If i wanted to get something equivalent, let alone faster, i would be spening close to €1000!

 

[gixxerfool]

And this, in my not so humble opinion, is how to do it!

External boot SSD (especially for HDD 2014's) fused to the internal. Maximum storage, minimum cost/risk/hassle!

Enjoy!

I was looking through disk utility today and noticed the drive is stated as only having 74 KB available and 1.13 TB used. I am running the factory 1TB drive and the SSD is 120G. This seems wrong to have all the space used. Any ideas?

EDIT: I pulled the Get Info window by right clicking on the drive and it reports ok. So odd. It shows total 1.12TB Available:994 GB and used as 126GB which is where I was at before I changed everything.