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Which SSD do Apple use in Late 2012 Minis?

D

davidedwards

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 25, 2013
2
0
Hi,

I am considering buying a late 2012 Mac Mini.

Could someone please confirm which 256GB SSDs Apple are currently shipping as factory installed option? (brand and model number would be very useful)

Thanks,

Dave
 
Thank you for the quick reply mvmanolov.

This was exactly what I was hoping to hear. Those results sound very good and I have heard that the Samsung 830s are very reliable.

I would much prefer to get the factory fitted drive rather than risk breaking my new Mini by taking it apart!

Thanks,

Dave
 
davidedwards said:
Thank you for the quick reply mvmanolov.

This was exactly what I was hoping to hear. Those results sound very good and I have heard that the Samsung 830s are very reliable.

I would much prefer to get the factory fitted drive rather than risk breaking my new Mini by taking it apart!

Thanks,

Dave
Click to expand...

well, the way i saw it, the $180 upgrade is cheaper than what i would have to spend for a samsung 840 or a 840 pro. trim is already enabled and the firmware is tweaked for apple. so i don't have to worry about future firmware upgrades... Also it comes with the warranty from apple so... :D

Oh and btw. i just turned on FV2 and the speed only dropped by 10-20mb so... Super awesome :D
 
the samsung 830s (you sure?) are a few years old now

All depends what you do with the computer. If you're frequently moving files over 3GB then id recommend the 840 Pro series. If you're fairly normal PC user not working with large files, the 840 EVO is a great bargain.

Samsung is likely the most reliable on the market. The 840 EVO uses materials thought to have less longevity than the 840 PRO but don't be fooled. Its still rated at 25GB of writes per day for 5 years straight I believe. It'll last longer than your next two computers

840 PRO 256 $212
840 EVO 250 $150
 
wwohl said:
the samsung 830s (you sure?) are a few years old now

All depends what you do with the computer. If you're frequently moving files over 3GB then id recommend the 840 Pro series. If you're fairly normal PC user not working with large files, the 840 EVO is a great bargain.

Samsung is likely the most reliable on the market. The 840 EVO uses materials thought to have less longevity than the 840 PRO but don't be fooled. Its still rated at 25GB of writes per day for 5 years straight I believe. It'll last longer than your next two computers

840 PRO 256 $212
840 EVO 250 $150
Click to expand...

The OP was asking what Apple uses for their sad in the mini. i rad somewhere or other, in these forums i think that, they use the 830. the benchmarks also add up to that. and tbh the 830 is a better derive than the 840 or the EVO obviously not better than the 840 Pro.

Also while the Pro is a really good derive it isn't the best for consistency in manipulating large files:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7545/best-ssds-holiday-2013

:D
 
I'm hoping against the PCIe. Don't get me wrong I've got the rMBP and love it but I don't want that locked down when I purchase my Haswell Mini. Same with the RAM. :D
 
FearThySelf said:
I'm hoping against the PCIe. Don't get me wrong I've got the rMBP and love it but I don't want that locked down when I purchase my Haswell Mini. Same with the RAM. :D
Click to expand...

i hear you loud and clear mate. in fact its one of the reasons why i bought my 2012 mini not that long ago :D
 
mvmanolov said:
The OP was asking what Apple uses for their sad in the mini. i rad somewhere or other, in these forums i think that, they use the 830. the benchmarks also add up to that. and tbh the 830 is a better derive than the 840 or the EVO obviously not better than the 840 Pro.

Also while the Pro is a really good derive it isn't the best for consistency in manipulating large files:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7545/best-ssds-holiday-2013

:D
Click to expand...

But isn't the SSD upgrade through apple a solid $200? What I was saying is that you can get a better drive than that for less. Plus, you'll wind up with a 500/1000gb hard drive left over that way to use for storage
 
FearThySelf said:
I'm hoping against the PCIe. Don't get me wrong I've got the rMBP and love it but I don't want that locked down when I purchase my Haswell Mini. Same with the RAM. :D
Click to expand...

qcbGeiu.gif


Thunderbolt II is more than enough for SSDs.
 
wwohl said:
But isn't the SSD upgrade through apple a solid $200? What I was saying is that you can get a better drive than that for less. Plus, you'll wind up with a 500/1000gb hard drive left over that way to use for storage
Click to expand...

well i got mine for $180 (Apple upgrade) so what drive do you think is better for that? give some examples maybe?
 
mvmanolov said:
well i got mine for $180 (Apple upgrade) so what drive do you think is better for that? give some examples maybe?
Click to expand...

Better than the 830? Thats preference depending on what the user wants to do.

Theres plenty of 250gb options for less than that and then you wind up with the original HDD as a storage drive.

Now, if you wanna buy it and be done with it. Then who cares. But if you're a DIYer you can save a little cash and wind up with exactly what you want
 
wwohl said:
Better than the 830? Thats preference depending on what the user wants to do.

Theres plenty of 250gb options for less than that and then you wind up with the original HDD as a storage drive.

Now, if you wanna buy it and be done with it. Then who cares. But if you're a DIYer you can save a little cash and wind up with exactly what you want
Click to expand...

Today only one of the consumer grade crucial offerings is $150, everything else named brand is more than $180. An equivalent SSD as the OEM Apple is at least $200 when they are on sale. There are many pros that prefer the Samsung 830 over the 840, but that depends on what you are using it for.

I think it only makes sense to break open the mini is when you are not satisfied with the OEM internal drive capacity. If you buy the base mini with rotational 1TB drive and swap out, you end up with an extra OEM drive that you could have paid $30 (both drive and enclosure) for on the street and now have to buy a $25 enclosure to use. Risking warranty and damage for $5 on a $1000 machine... I don't know. But if pinching pennies is your thing.... currently buy the mini with the CPU you need and perhaps the SSD option, get your RAM elsewhere and use an external drive (lots of +1TB options from $30 to $4000). A TB RAID can be set up to offer better performance than an internal SSD anyway.
 
Last edited:
I don't mean to revive the dead, but I don't agree with the information here.

There are plenty of drives available now that offer more features, better performance and identical or better reliability than the samsung 830. For example, the 840, 840 pro and the Evo series. Samsung definitely has the reputation for reliability overall.

I think forums should be careful to specify specific needs vs good for the general public. It may be your opinion, but its easy to influence those researching..

In my opinion, and what I think is good for the average user who doesn't have terabytes of data: Upgrading a mac mini is most economically friendly if you do it yourself. I think you can get more bang for your buck by a long run.

Lets say someone picks up the 2.3ghz mac mini with 1tb internal drive for $799.00. That comes with 4gb of ram and a 1tb hard drive (a slow one...)

16gb of ram will cost the customer $300. It costs $140 and 5 minutes to do that yourself and is a 1/10 on the difficulty scale.

A 256gb SSD will cost them $200. A 250gb EVO will cost them $160, plus the cost of the bracket. Total, $190. Doesn't seem like much of a savings, but they do get to keep the 1tb HDD that came with their mini. Thats valued somewhere around $65. Difficulty: 5/10 (not to mention the 830 series is waining in availability which could mean support from samsung in the future)

For most (and i mean 95%) of the people that buy a mac mini, that gets them a snappy machine that does everything they need it to. Plus, they can store media on the HDD and partition it for Time machine backups.

Some may look at the DIY version as unrewarding on the surface. But its not that difficult to do and rewards them an extra drive. Something that most users do not have and won't have to spend $50-$100 on for backing up. 256gb is not a lot of space.

I think most of personal preference is about brand, not features or reliability. People either want the fastest or the cheapest.

JMO, but I think those considering the purchase of a mac mini would do well upgrading themselves. If you can put an IKEA table together, you can probably handle this just fine

Bill
 
wwohl said:
. For example, the 840, 840 pro and the Evo series. Samsung definitely has the reputation for reliability overall.

Bill
Click to expand...

Frankly I didn't read your entire post. Heck I didn't make it past this paragraph. I realized it wasn't worth reading when you stayed the 840 and 840 EVO are better than the 830. The 840 is newer but benchmarks show it's slower. As for costs you can't compare January 20 prices to early December when this thread was created. The EVOs have dropped considerably in the last month.

Further cost difference is negligible and maybe the OP doesn't want a second SLOW internal drive and would want a faster external drive anyway. Thus the internal mechanical drive would have no value to the OP.

Since we are trying to set the record straight right?!?!?
 
I would get the current model if it had PCI SSD option but it doesn't and currently the mini is the only Mac that doesn't have PCI SSD option
 
The 830 is still a better drive than the 840 or the EVO.
The EVO is kind of a fusion between a high speed cache, 3GB for the 256GB model, and that slightly outperforms the 830, but from that point on, for example if you write a 10GB file, you drop back to old Samsung 840 speeds. I think Apple does not use it because of that, because when people make a fusion with a drive that has Fusion-like algoritms itself, it will get a mess.
 
blanka said:
The EVO is kind of a fusion between a high speed cache, 3GB for the 256GB model, and that slightly outperforms the 830, but from that point on, for example if you write a 10GB file, you drop back to old Samsung 840 speeds.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but that 3GB cache looks really good with benchmarking software ;)
 
blanka said:
The 830 is still a better drive than the 840 or the EVO.
The EVO is kind of a fusion between a high speed cache, 3GB for the 256GB model, and that slightly outperforms the 830, but from that point on, for example if you write a 10GB file, you drop back to old Samsung 840 speeds. I think Apple does not use it because of that, because when people make a fusion with a drive that has Fusion-like algoritms itself, it will get a mess.
Click to expand...

Honestly, I think everybody gets too caught up in what is the "best" SSD. Do you really think if one installed any of the SSDs mentioned here you could even tell the difference without benchmark tests. I doubt one could.

For the average user you can just go to Amazon or Newegg (U.S. users) and buy whatever is on sale in the size you need and be just fine. This whole thing is a bit like Chevrolet vs. Ford trucks IMO. :)
 
Weaselboy said:
Honestly, I think everybody gets too caught up in what is the "best" SSD. Do you really think if one installed any of the SSDs mentioned here you could even tell the difference without benchmark tests. I doubt one could.

For the average user you can just go to Amazon or Newegg (U.S. users) and buy whatever is on sale in the size you need and be just fine. This whole thing is a bit like Chevrolet vs. Ford trucks IMO. :)
Click to expand...

Bah, this is quite simple, everyone knows that Ford is best.... ;)
 
paulrbeers said:
Frankly I didn't read your entire post. Heck I didn't make it past this paragraph. I realized it wasn't worth reading when you stayed the 840 and 840 EVO are better than the 830. The 840 is newer but benchmarks show it's slower. As for costs you can't compare January 20 prices to early December when this thread was created. The EVOs have dropped considerably in the last month.

Further cost difference is negligible and maybe the OP doesn't want a second SLOW internal drive and would want a faster external drive anyway. Thus the internal mechanical drive would have no value to the OP.

Since we are trying to set the record straight right?!?!?
Click to expand...

Its not all about what has the absolute fastest speed. The OP and 99% of computer users out there won't notice the difference between any SSD. Unless you're a pro, buy whats reliable and gives you the best bang for your buck.
 
wwohl said:
Its not all about what has the absolute fastest speed. The OP and 99% of computer users out there won't notice the difference between any SSD. Unless you're a pro, buy whats reliable and gives you the best bang for your buck.
Click to expand...

Very true except your post states that the 840 was faster than the 830 which it is not. That was my point. Simply was invalidating your entire unnecessarily long rant.
 
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