upgrading my late2009 MacMini

[Amethyst1]

Looks bad

Negotiated Link Speed should be 3 Gbps. But you'll still benefit from low access times etc. so I wouldn't replace the SSD just because of that. It's a nuisance but not make-or-break.

 

[zoran]

Negotiated Link Speed should be 3 GbpWhy should it be 3GPS?

Why should it be 3GPS?

 

[Amethyst1]

Why should it be 3GPS?

Both the Mac mini and the SSD support it. 1.5 Gbps means that a lower-than-possible speed has been negotiated, causing a performance hit.

 

[zoran]

Both the Mac mini and the SSD support it. 1.5 Gbps means that a lower-than-possible speed has been negotiated, causing a performance hit.

And what could be the reason for this lower-than-possible negotiation?

 

[DeltaMac]

The usual reason for negotiating a slower speed is a problem of some kind in the hardware.
Either the SATA cable, or the SSD can't accept the speed requested.
Some SSDs that are designed for the faster 6Gbps, may not successfully connect at 3Gbps, and it defaults to whatever works. 1.5 works, just slower.. You could try a different brand of SSD.

 

[zoran]

You could try a different brand of SSD.

I don’t have any SSDs to check. Isn’t there a diff way to make the test?

 

[Amethyst1]

The usual reason for negotiating a slower speed is a problem of some kind in the hardware.

The MCP79 southbridge is known for having this issue with some, but not all, SSDs. I had some cheap Intenso SSD in my 2009 Mini and it worked fine at 3 Gbps.

Isn’t there a diff way to make the test?

You can check if the Mac mini's and the SSD's firmware are up-to-date just in case - if not, update them. If they're already up-to-date or that doesn't fix it, you can either live with the slower speed (which isn't too bad actually, given that you'll still benefit from the very low access times and much higher speed compared to the stock hard drive even at 1.5 Gbps) or find another SSD that's known to successfully negotiate 3 Gbps with the MCP79.

 

[zoran]

You can check if the Mac mini's and the SSD's firmware are up-to-date just in case - if not, update them.

How can i check if the firmware is up to date and if its not, how can it be updated?

 

[NewbiePPC]

Hi, if you at some point installed el Capitan (max official OS) your mini already have the latest firmware. I found that it's not worth put an expensive SSD in those, and the two that I tried works at SATA 2 speeds adata 650 and crucial bx in a 2010 Server MM, HFS+ and trim support enabled. The weird thing is in this machine the ssd for the OS is being recognized as SATA 2 and the stock 500gb 7200rpm is negotiated at 1.5 Gbps. (I have an early 2009 2.0ghz but I don't want to upgrade it at the moment, I think that have the same hardware except for the cpu, graphics and wifi-bt module).

 

[Amethyst1]

I wonder if the MCP89 southbridge in eg. the 2010 mini has the same issue. I put a Samsung 840 or 850 Pro in a friend's 2010 13" MBP and it did 3 Gbps.

 

[crowe-t]

The 2009 Mac Mini only officially supports up to Mac OS 10.11 El Capitan.

With that patcher you can run High Sierra. High Sierra is no longer getting updates, so future software updates breaking it isn't the issue. The issue is that more and more app developers will stop supporting High Sierra with newer versions of their apps.

I'm currently booting an early 2009 Mac Mini into El Capitan off a FW800 SSD. I may do the same with my late 2009 Mini. I haven't put High Sierra on them but might look into giving that a try at some point.

How are you able to do this with an externa HD?

 

[Amethyst1]

How are you able to do this with an externa HD?

Just like with an internal HD. macOS can boot from external drives just fine.

 

[MultiFinder17]

One thing I've discovered recently in all my 9400M-based Macs is that they're actually just peachy with 1333MHz RAM so long as both sticks are low-density sticks! I've been running 1333MHz RAM in all my 9400M Macs for a few months now with no issue