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Samsung 840 SSD for Mac Mini 3,1 (Early 2009)?
- Thread starter cantueso
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They are most likely compatible. I have 2 Samsung 840 Pro 256GB in a Mac Mini 2010 (it's not the same model but this model also supported the 830's).
The 830 and the 840 aren't very different (granted they have different controllers and flash but they have the same "behavior", if you know what I mean).
The 830 and the 840 aren't very different (granted they have different controllers and flash but they have the same "behavior", if you know what I mean).
Yes, they are, but you're better off with the SanDisk Ultra Plus SSDs: Faster for small files (i.e. booting the system and loading apps), less expensive and lasts longer.
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Even better: save some bucks and grab a 750Gb Caviar Black 7200 RPM drive.
Also a lot faster than the original drive, but you still can put a lot of files on it.
I use it as media center, and do a lot of MKV remuxing, and these are all large files 5-10Gb. With a SSD I'm cleaning the house all day long, and the 2009 mini does not have very fast external drive connection options (gigabit is excellent though).
SSD is overrated, especially for single-2.5 inch drive machines. They all come with slow 5400rpm drives by default, so you think SSD=wow. But they just put in a very lousy normal drive. And SSD is mainly used to store the applications and system, and IMO booting those 2 seconds faster is not a big issue. If you work like me with huge photo RAW's ore video files, SSD is not helping much. And for that Photoshop cache, I use 4Gb of my RAM as RAM drive, which is 10 times as fast as SSD.
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They are: the 830 is tech-wise comparable to the 840pro. The 840 without pro is totally different technology.
Also a lot faster than the original drive, but you still can put a lot of files on it.
I use it as media center, and do a lot of MKV remuxing, and these are all large files 5-10Gb. With a SSD I'm cleaning the house all day long, and the 2009 mini does not have very fast external drive connection options (gigabit is excellent though).
SSD is overrated, especially for single-2.5 inch drive machines. They all come with slow 5400rpm drives by default, so you think SSD=wow. But they just put in a very lousy normal drive. And SSD is mainly used to store the applications and system, and IMO booting those 2 seconds faster is not a big issue. If you work like me with huge photo RAW's ore video files, SSD is not helping much. And for that Photoshop cache, I use 4Gb of my RAM as RAM drive, which is 10 times as fast as SSD.
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They are: the 830 is tech-wise comparable to the 840pro. The 840 without pro is totally different technology.
Thanks a lot for your advices (Blanka, you came a little later). I went for the Samsung because the other option seeemed a bit "experimental" for me. Now I am cloning the disks and have to see about enable TRIM and NOADATE and these stuff. I will post the behavior of the system after a bit of work. Thanks again.
Well, after installing the SSD (and with 8 Gb of RAM), the mini looks almost like new. The boost is noticeable, no miracles of course, but satisfactory. After reading some posts I decided just to use the TRIM ENABLER and forget about the other tweaks. I think I will play around with the virtual ram disk to improve more, if possible.
I love my mini
I love my mini
Did you ever check your link speed?
I installed a Samsung 830 in a late 2009 mini and only get 1.5 Gbps instead of 3. Why? See e.g. this article:
http://blogs.helsinki.fi/tuylaant/2014/01/upgrading-old-macs-to-ssds/
I installed a Samsung 830 in a late 2009 mini and only get 1.5 Gbps instead of 3. Why? See e.g. this article:
http://blogs.helsinki.fi/tuylaant/2014/01/upgrading-old-macs-to-ssds/
Well, after installing the SSD (and with 8 Gb of RAM), the mini looks almost like new. The boost is noticeable, no miracles of course, but satisfactory. After reading some posts I decided just to use the TRIM ENABLER and forget about the other tweaks. I think I will play around with the virtual ram disk to improve more, if possible.
I love my mini
Hey I know this was a old thread. But can you maybe talk more about the experience (maybe you have upgraded to Yosemite by now)? I also have the Early 2009 model and I want to know if putting in an SSD is going to help it and how future proof do you think it will be? Thanks. I'm debating on upgrading the early mini 2009 or keeping the new 2012 that I just got.
Also did you go with the 830 or 840pro? I'm reading that some of the 830 will only give you a speed of 1.5Gb/s do you have that problem?
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840 EVO 1TB SSD slow boot up
Hi, so I upgraded my drive to SSD 840 EVO on my Mac Mini 2012. However, I noticed that the boot up time is still around 55 secs? Comparing my DIY Fusion on my 2011 MBP 13", my MBP boots around 14secs.
Mac Mini 2012 (trim enabled/trim disabled) shows the same boot up speed. But the black magic test shows 400GB read speed.
Thoughts?
Hi, so I upgraded my drive to SSD 840 EVO on my Mac Mini 2012. However, I noticed that the boot up time is still around 55 secs? Comparing my DIY Fusion on my 2011 MBP 13", my MBP boots around 14secs.
Mac Mini 2012 (trim enabled/trim disabled) shows the same boot up speed. But the black magic test shows 400GB read speed.
Thoughts?
Yes, I already did that part. I even did the PRAM reset, it work after one boot 25secs boot time (still slow compared to my DIY 2011 MBP 15secs). Then it return back again to slow boot....
Well the benchmark from black magic app shows 400gb++ faster than my DIY on my MBP, which I don't understand.....
read this
The bug affects older data. Not 'new data' that was just written by the benchmarking program
Repair permissions?
When I moved the system from the stock HDD to a SSD on my Mini by using Carbon Copy Cloner, it was booting slower than expected, and also took forever to wake up from sleep. After reading logs, I found that it had something to do with permissions, then I did a repair through Disk Utility and it solved the problem.
You don't need a Windows machine to do it. There is an ISO available for the Performance Restoration patch that works on Macs. Installed it for my 840 EVO on my Mac Mini today.
Is this the link where you got it?
http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/minisite/SSD/us/html/support/downloads.html
Is this how you perform your installation? ISO files may be used only via DOS using a bootable CD/DVD.
Yup. I downloaded the ISO CD-ROM image and burned it to a CD. Then rebooted my Mac and held down the option key after the chime and selected the CD to boot from. It has DOS on it so it boots up and you just follow the prompts and it patches your drive and you're done.
Remember the Nvidia MCP79/89+SSD Issues ?
This may have come a bit too late to this thread, but let it be said...
If you are upgrading your Nvidia chipset-based Mac to SSD from HDD, you should definitely be aware of the Nvidia (MCP79/89) + SSD bug. You'll at first be symptom-free for a while, then randomly you'll get the spinning beach ball of death to unreadable SSD drive and unbootable, if you choose the wrong SSD. The "wrong" SSD, as it turns out, are most SSDs. First symptom is the down-negotiating of SATA link speed to 1.5GBps (instead of the full 3.0GBps link).
Long story short, the only guaranteed combo for Nvidia chipset-based Macs is anything in the Crucial M500 series.
You can see what this guy did with his Mini and a short recount of the SSD+Nvidia chipset fiasco:
http://blogs.helsinki.fi/tuylaant/2014/01/upgrading-old-macs-to-ssds
Here is one recent thread where there are still people trying Samsung SSDs with their MCP79/89 based Macs with some issues (SATA-link negotiated to 1.5GBps):
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1696760/
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6020167?start=0&tstart=0
Long story short, I would not recommend trying the Samsung (any series) with these (Nvidia-chipset) Macs. Try a crucial M500 for best chances of long-term head-ache-free upgrade.
This may have come a bit too late to this thread, but let it be said...
If you are upgrading your Nvidia chipset-based Mac to SSD from HDD, you should definitely be aware of the Nvidia (MCP79/89) + SSD bug. You'll at first be symptom-free for a while, then randomly you'll get the spinning beach ball of death to unreadable SSD drive and unbootable, if you choose the wrong SSD. The "wrong" SSD, as it turns out, are most SSDs. First symptom is the down-negotiating of SATA link speed to 1.5GBps (instead of the full 3.0GBps link).
Long story short, the only guaranteed combo for Nvidia chipset-based Macs is anything in the Crucial M500 series.
You can see what this guy did with his Mini and a short recount of the SSD+Nvidia chipset fiasco:
http://blogs.helsinki.fi/tuylaant/2014/01/upgrading-old-macs-to-ssds
Here is one recent thread where there are still people trying Samsung SSDs with their MCP79/89 based Macs with some issues (SATA-link negotiated to 1.5GBps):
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1696760/
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6020167?start=0&tstart=0
Long story short, I would not recommend trying the Samsung (any series) with these (Nvidia-chipset) Macs. Try a crucial M500 for best chances of long-term head-ache-free upgrade.
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Just replaced Samsung 830 with Crucial MX100
I just replaced Samsung 830 with Crucial MX100 on my 2 GHz 2009 mini (10.8.5, both SSDs are 128 GB). Now I get 3 Gbit negotiated link speed vs 1.5 Gbit with the Samsung 830 (latest firmware) and the Black Magic Disk Speed went up from 103/131 to 180/265. The mini is clearly snappier now, but boot time still is a slow 50 s (5 s to the chime and then another 45 or so), luckily I don't reboot that often. Coming back from sleep is almost instant (<2 s), which is much more important.
BTW my internal 1 GB 7200 rpm HGST gets about 90/90.
For comparison, the stock 1 GB 5400 rpm drive gets 75/80 on my late 2012 mini (10.10).
I paid $69 for the MX100 on Amazon, the Samsung 830 was $100 2 years ago.
I just replaced Samsung 830 with Crucial MX100 on my 2 GHz 2009 mini (10.8.5, both SSDs are 128 GB). Now I get 3 Gbit negotiated link speed vs 1.5 Gbit with the Samsung 830 (latest firmware) and the Black Magic Disk Speed went up from 103/131 to 180/265. The mini is clearly snappier now, but boot time still is a slow 50 s (5 s to the chime and then another 45 or so), luckily I don't reboot that often. Coming back from sleep is almost instant (<2 s), which is much more important.
BTW my internal 1 GB 7200 rpm HGST gets about 90/90.
For comparison, the stock 1 GB 5400 rpm drive gets 75/80 on my late 2012 mini (10.10).
I paid $69 for the MX100 on Amazon, the Samsung 830 was $100 2 years ago.
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Damn... I just installed a Samsung EVO 120Gb on my 2009 Mac Mini 3,1, having successfully run it on a similar era Macbook and been very happy with it.
Now I read all this and see about this 1.5gbps link speed bug, which of course mine has too.
Really disappointed. Is there still no way to force a SATA II 3.0gbps link speed?
Now I read all this and see about this 1.5gbps link speed bug, which of course mine has too.
Really disappointed. Is there still no way to force a SATA II 3.0gbps link speed?
Which would you rather... Samsung 840 vs Crucial M550
I'm conflicted on which SSD to keep for my 2012 i7 2.3GHz mini:
I snagged a Crucial M550 512GB for $180 and a Samsung 840 EVO 1TB for $375. Ideally I would love to get Samsung 840 Pro or the new Samsung 850. But they're outside my price point.
I am hoping there will be some good deals coming up...
I'm conflicted on which SSD to keep for my 2012 i7 2.3GHz mini:
I snagged a Crucial M550 512GB for $180 and a Samsung 840 EVO 1TB for $375. Ideally I would love to get Samsung 840 Pro or the new Samsung 850. But they're outside my price point.
I am hoping there will be some good deals coming up...
Hmmm if I were you I would return the Samsung 840 EVO and grab another M550 and run them in RAID 0. Or return both and get 2 Samsung 840 EVOs in 500GB and run in RAID 0. Or keep it simple and just use the 1TB
Unfortunately no. This bug has existed for quite some time now. I highly recommend Crucial SSDs in any Mac with Nvidia chipsets as they seem to play nice with the MCP97 series.
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I know this is from 2 years ago, but how has the Crucial SSD been, long term wise, in the Mac mini? This article mentions that Crucial is fast, but fails often, and these folks deal with a lot of Mac minis:
https://macminicolo.net/blog/files/some-lessons-on-mac-minis-and-ssd-options.html
I have a late 2009 Mac mini with the buggy controller and a Transcend 256GB SSD which runs at 1.5gbps [it's SATA III, which one should never buy for the late 2009 Mac mini, as I learned later]. From the comments at http://blogs.helsinki.fi/tuylaant/2014/01/upgrading-old-macs-to-ssds/ it looks like Crucial BX100 SSDs will only run at the 1.5GBit speeds as well, but the M500 will work at 3.0GBit speed. I wonder how dependable the M500 is...? :\