The best ssds are faster, more durable, more efficient and produce no noise. So the best you can do is grab a 16gb kit made up of a pair of 8gb sticks. Digital art and signage from performance art to immersive digital billboards, the mac mini drives some of the biggest and brightest digital displays with its powerful processor. If it is still under warranty or have applecare, getting it installed by an authorized. Includes storage speed, hard drive size and dimensions, ssd specifics, identifiers. Swap your imac, mac mini or macbook cddvd drive for. An external ssd drive plugged in via usbc will only be 15 the speed of the new internal pcie drives, but its still fast. One of the best upgrades to make is to swap out the old mechanical hard drive for an ssd. If you have replaced the hard drive on your mac with an ssd which you should do, you already know how much faster your computer is. Find the best ssd hard drives for mac based on what customers said. Whatever your use of the mac mini, be it media server or desktop computer, the one upgrade that will make the biggest impact is a ssd. How to give your 2012 or 2014 mac mini a performance boost by replacing the hard drive with an ssd. Hard drive and ssd upgrades for each apple mac mini with complete specs.
While the 2010 mac mini limits you to firewire 800 or usb 2. Normally we start these guides with why an ssd is fast, and why it will change your life. You will be comparing your fast new mac mini with your slow old one, and this will probably have a much bigger impact than the. However, it always is best to buy from a trusted company with mac knowledge for the most troublefree experience. In my case it was a mac mini late 2012 model, with the original drive being in the lower position ie. Mac mini comes standard with 256gb of fast ssd storage.
Upgrade your mac mini to up to 8x more capacity and 92x faster speeds than with the apple factory drive. In theory, just about any hard drive or ssd that meets the minimum requirements should work in the mac mini. For a new aluminium mac mini you will need to replace one of the internal drives. They are one of the most effective ways to upgrade and speed up a mac. Looking to add storage, or for a smart way to back up your mac. How to upgrade aluminum mac mini hard drives or ssds. The best external hard drives for mac in 2020 pcmag.
Right now the fastest mac mini you can buy is this build to order option. Apples fusion drive isnt a new idea after all, seagate sells their momentus xt solid state hybrid drive and corsair promises that their accelerator series ssd cache drives will improve the performance of your pc by augmenting existing hard drives but it is a new option available for apples latest mac minis and imacs. Place your thumbs in the circular divots and twist the. Plus, because the new mac mini has apples t2 security chip, which also acts as a coprocessor, the computer gets a huge boost in ssd performance for reading. I have the 2014 base model with a 500gb sata hard drive which i. The lacie rugged pro is the fastest ssd weve tested lacies rugged drives have been popular with mac users for many years, thanks to their combination of highperformance and that nowfamiliar. Dec 25, 2016 today i share with you how you can speed up and gain performance from your mac mini computer. The apple mac mini has a loyal fan group around the world.
Works great to add a secondary drive to a mac mini. May 25, 2016 240gb ssd and 8gb of ram upgraded on a 2010 mac mini. The 8 best external hard drives and ssds for mac and pc users in. Jump straight to the section you want with these quick links. I suspect the fast pci express ssd came into play here for the mac mini. They are a hackers delight, in the true sense of the word. Mac mini features the apple t2 security chip secondgeneration custom mac silicon designed by apple to make mac mini even more secure. At this point, i havent done any more extensive testing. If youre looking for a fast, dependable and easy way to. The 8 best external hard drives and ssds for mac and pc users in 2020.
The t2 security chip consolidates several controllers into one, and includes a secure enclave coprocessor that provides the foundation for encrypted storage and secure boot capabilities. The external ssd drive on my new mac mini is faster than the internal nonpcie ssd. Mac mini 256 gb ssd, green from currys pc world all hours. The mac mini comes with 8gb of ram standard and can be upgraded to 64gb. You can always use slower, bigger external drives for additional file storage. Owc thunderblade the fastest external ssd setup ive. Nov 21, 2018 mac mini hard drive or ssd purchase options. Welcome to our pick of the best external hard drives for macs and pcs. Apple says the new mac mini is up to five times faster than the previous one which, after all, was released in october 2014. How to live with a mac mini or macbook air with a small. Can an external ssd match the mac minis pricey inbuilt storage. Apr 25, 2020 mac mini 256 gb ssd, green from currys pc worldmac mini 256 gb ssd, green. Upgradingreplacing the hard drive in a laptop with a solid state drive hp. Ssds are the key to truly fast daytoday navigation of an operating.
With its 128gb pcie ssd, fast performance, and small footprint, mac mini becomes a live musical instrument with mainstage on some of the worlds largest concert tours. Mac compatible ssd drive upgrades for apple macbook, imac and mac mini. However, im going to show you how to avoid this one simple. Apr 18, 2020 in all models of the mac mini, up to 16gb, 32gb, or 64gb ram can also be added, and there are options for configurations for 256gb, 512gb, 1tb, or 2tb of ssd storage. For example, ssds can stream data much faster than they can read. The best thunderbolt 3 ssd and hard drives for your macbook pro. How to give your 2012 or 2014 mac mini a performance boost by. And, theyre here to free you from the mechanical shackles of hard drives, putting a stop to those slow, loud and. Owc 500gb electra 6g ssd diy upgrade bundle for 2011, 2012 mac mini, includes data doubler, 5piece installation toolkit. Mar 14, 2019 apple can supply the unit with up to 2tb of solid state drive ssd storage, but charges an eyewatering. Aug 10, 2015 when i wrote a series of howto guides showing how easy it was to swap old mac hard disks for new solid state drives ssds, i focused on raw upgrades slow mechanical drives for fast chip. Mac ssd upgrades for all mac mini models macs by capability. How to speed up your mac with a solid state ssd drive. This is mainly down to the fact that its a traditional hard drive, not an ssd, which means its not quite as fast as it could be though it will still give you an upgrade to your transfer speeds.
Get the best deals on mac mini ssd allinones and find everything youll need to improve your home office setup at. Adding an ssd to the new 2018 mac mini macintosh how to. Find low everyday prices and buy online for delivery or instore pickup. Mar, 2020 the move to a pcie solid state drive ssd for storage doesnt just make the mac mini faster.
When i wrote a series of howto guides showing how easy it was to swap old mac hard disks for new solid state drives ssds, i focused on raw upgrades slow mechanical drives for fast chip. The tools worked to take everything apart and get access to the bracket to install my ssd in the upper position. Unlike previous models, you cannot upgrade the internal hard drive. All mac mini users know this, they are use to sqeezing the most out of.
How to upgrade your mac mini with an ssd 2019 updated. The drive i ended up using was the seagate fast ssd. Apr 15, 2018 connect the ssd to the mac mini via usb e. How to give your 2012 or 2014 mac mini a performance boost. The 8 best external hard drives and ssds for mac and pc. I have the 2014 base model with a 500gb sata hard drive which i am going to be sharing on how to. The 8 best external hard drives and ssds for mac and pc users. Heres what you need to know, along with our toprated applefriendly drives. Even in a 2007 mac mini, an ssd is fast low end mac. How to speed up your mac with a solid state ssd drive macintosh. Can an external ssd match the mac minis pricey inbuilt.
These are some of the fastest apple compatible solidstate sata iii drives. The move to a pcie solid state drive ssd for storage doesnt just make the mac mini faster. An ssd is faster, lighter and less powerhungry, whereas an hdd drive will be cheaper, have a higher capacity more storage and are more. The 2012 mac mini uses 1600mhz ddr3 sodimm modules and can accept up to 16gb across two slots. Ive verified that it works, and ive determined how quickly it boots my mac mini. But thanks to the usbc interface on the new mac mini, an external ssd drive is now a good option. The rugged ssd pro is the fast, featuring a seagate firecuda nvme ssd with up to. Drive thats on the top when the mini is turned upside down to open it. Ssd storage delivers significantly improved performance compared with a traditional hard drive speed you will notice when you start up your mac mini, launch an application, open a big project, or tackle dataintensive tasks. How to add a fast new ssd to your old mac or macbook for only. Powerful specs with a quadcore processor and super fast ssd versatile connectivity options with thunderbolt, hdmi and usb macos mojave includes new features to help you focus secure design with apples t2 security chip powerful specs the apple mac mini is more than just a desktop. If your going to buy a new mac mini then the fastest option is to get it with a builtin ssd. The ssd i chose has firewire 800 to provide a fast enough connection to my mac mini, plus usb 3. This involvespulling out the fan and motherboard to get the new ssd drive in.
It means that it runs cooler and quieter as well essential for a small formfactor pc. The hard drives in the new 2018 mac mini are pcie which means they are very fast, but also expensive. Most people arent going to need to go this far, however, especially since it comes with a fast processor and at least 256gb of storage. When buying a new apple mac you have the option to buy three different types of storage. Feb 29, 2020 besides adding an ssd, the next best thing to do to give your old mac mini some additional legs for presentday computing is to add more ram. Mac mini speed up base model ssd upgrade performance. Mar 21, 2020 having the best external hard drive or ssd for your mac or pc is essential if you have lots of creative work to store. Owc 500gb electra 6g ssd diy upgrade bundle for 2011, 2012 mac mini, includes data doubler, 5piece installation toolkit by owc in stock. And now you can configure even more memory up to 64gb to run even heavier workloads. Today i share with you how you can speed up and gain performance from your mac mini computer.
Can an external ssd match the mac mini s pricey inbuilt storage. How to upgrade the 2012 mac mini for use in 2020 imore. Data transfer speeds will be at least four times faster, and that will make a huge difference in the daytoday running of your mac mini. There are many options in upgrading a mac mini, and. Mac mini features highperformance 2666mhz ddr4 sodimm memory for faster rendering, working with massive files, or running multiple virtual machines.
Ssd storage has no moving parts, so it operates silently. You will be comparing your fast new mac mini with your slow old one. Ssd is definitely faster than the 7200 rpm deskstar. How to live with a mac mini or macbook air with a small internal drive. Sounds like what i should do is have a mac shop install the samsung ssd in my mac mini. Jul 20, 2016 if you have replaced the hard drive on your mac with an ssd which you should do, you already know how much faster your computer is.