Late 2014 was the first mac mini to support apples blade solid state. Discover the world of external hard drives for mac. All these ports are kept at the back of the mac mini for a minimalist. In my case it was a mac mini late 2012 model, with the original drive being in the lower position ie. Ssds are the key to truly fast daytoday navigation of an operating system. The system contains a builtin speaker and an analog. This gdrive mobile solidstate drive is resistant to water and dust, making it suitable to take outdoors. Replacing a macs 500gb or 1tb hard drive with a samesized ssd required at least.
Apple now offers a solidstate drive ssd option on all imacs except for the 2. Its 500gb of storage space lets you travel with essential documents, and its 560mbsec. The best thunderbolt 3 ssd and hard drives for your. The aluminum mac pro towers offer two solidstate drive upgrade options.
Fusion is really composed of two hard drives in the mac mini, a traditional 1tb 5,400rpm mechanical hard drive, and a 128gb flashmemorybased solidstate drive ssd, but. High performance line of ssds excellent for everyday use, and up to 89x faster than your original drive. Crucial memory and ssd upgrades 100% compatibility guaranteed for apple mac mini mid 2011 free us delivery. Apple mac mini intel core i3 8gb memory 128gb solidstate. Mac mini mid 2011 hard drivessd installation video youtube. Mac mini late 2014 late 2014 was the first mac mini to support apples blade solid state drives, but its extremely limited internal space required a. These upgrades are guaranteed compatible when you order from.
The mac mini doesnt use a hard drive, or even a fusion drive. Can an external ssd match the mac minis pricey inbuilt. If you configure your imac with both the solidstate drive and a serial ata hard drive, it will come preformatted with mac os x and all your applications on the solidstate drive. Owc ssds turn the 2011 mac mini into a powerhouse macrumors. How to upgrade aluminum mac mini hard drives or ssds everymac. However, users should be mindful of overheating if the mac mini does not have enough airflow.
How to install a second drive in a 20112012 mac mini with owcs data doubler. Starting with mavericks, the mini would eventually bog down after a number of days. Instead, apple uses solidstate drives ssds to provide fast performance. According to everything i read, the mid2011 mini is sata3. The ultimate guide to apples proprietary solid state drives. Differences between mid2011 and late 2012 mac mini models. Reviewed july 26, 2011 by lisa gade, editor in chief twitter. Sata is a standard internal connection interface for connecting a hard drive to the rest of the computer system.
Mac mini 2018 and later mac mini late 2014 more mac compatibility less mac. If youre quick, and you really want a mac mini with an optical drive, you might still find one on apples refurbished products site if youre willing to forgo a thunderbolt port and the discrete graphics performance. Thunderbolt 3 and usb typec are the latest innovations in the external storage market, but before we get to them, we need to address a. I unfortunately purchased a macbook pro inch, 2017, two thunderbolt 3 ports121gb storage. Use an external ssd to make an old mac feel new without cracking. The new apple mac mini mid2011 features the intel sandy bridge dualcore i5 and i7, plus a super fast quadcore i7. Owcs stepbystep video of how to install a hard drive in the apple mac mini 2011 with model id.
Apple can supply the unit with up to 2tb of solid state drive. Lacie mobile drive 5tb external hard drive usbc usb 3. The 2018 mac mini includes four thunderbolt 3 ports, which are relatively rare on. The move to a pcie solid state drive ssd for storage doesnt just make the mac mini faster. Configuretoorder options include up to 8 gbs of memory, a faster 7200 rpm hard drive and a 256gb solid state drive. Store raw camera footage on this portable 1tb g drive solid state drive. Drive thats on the top when the mini is turned upside down to open it. Assuming the ports are pointed towards you, on the bottom left is a single.
For example, one thunderbolt 3 port could provide video data to a 4k display along with a drive, or even be used with multiple drives. What type of hard drives or ssds do they each support. How to give your 2012 or 2014 mac mini a performance boost by. Shop apple mac mini intel core i3 8gb memory 128gb solidstate drive space gray at best buy.
Mac mini server mid 2011 late 2012 hard drivessd installation. By installing a second drive you can greatly expand your storage capabilities or even install a solid state drive for lightning fast boot times. The mac minis polycarbonate plastic exterior encases a hard drive, dualcore i5 or i7 processor, intel iris graphics, and several input ports. It is much more powerful, and as a result, it is no longer all that cheap. Ssd only ssd with upgrade kit 120gb owc mercury electra 6gbs 2. How to install a second drive in a 20112012 mac mini with owcs. Hey guys, i want to install an ssd into my mac mini. Mac mini mid 2011 mac mini server late 2012 mac mini server mid 2010 mac mini server mid 2011 mac mini late 2018 mac pro. Unable to use secondary drive solid state drive mac.
The tools worked to take everything apart and get access to the bracket to install my ssd in the upper position. Find low everyday prices and buy online for delivery or instore pickup. In short, sata just wasnt made for solid state drives. Networking is supported with 10100 ethernet and 56k v. Compare portable, usb and external hard drive models for office and home and shop online. Optical to sata drive converter bracket solution add up to 2. Works great to add a secondary drive to a mac mini. Very fast, impossibly thin, strong metal build, comes with mac os x lion. Another option is the use of a pcie ssd card in one of the slots which can typicially support either 1 or 2 2.
Best performing mac compatible ssd drive upgrades for apple macbook, imac and mac mini computers in 2020. This g drive solid state drive is resistant to water and dust, which makes it ideal for travel. All aluminum mac mini models can be precisely identified by the model. However, the ssd itself, while much faster than the stock drive, is still. Switching to an ssd could give a mac mini a new lease of life, but at the. The computer features multiple ports and connectivity options, including wifi, bluetooth, ethernet, firewire, hdmi, an sdxc memory card slot, two thunderbolt ports, and four usb 3. While the 2010 mac mini limits you to firewire 800 or usb 2. Wrapping up we found the mid2011 mac mini, at least in 2. How to upgrade aluminum mac mini hard drives or ssds.
One is to use a readily available drive trayadapter to convert an off the shelf sata ssd to 3. The best external hard drives for mac in 2020 pcmag. Protect your files from the elements with this gdrive mobile solidstate drive. Ask different is a question and answer site for power users of apple hardware and software. There seems to be so much conflicting articles on what ssd works and what doesnt. Mac mini mid 2011 crucial us dram, solid state drive. I want to keep the 500gb it came with and install an ssd externally. Mac compatible solidstate ssd drive recommendations. How to add a fast new ssd to your old mac or macbook for only. Despite its small size, the mac mini is capable of supporting several processorintensive programs. Rocket yard blog diy install videos join our affiliate network covid19 response. The 2011 mac mini has a second sata socket on its logic board and plenty of room to install a second 2.
Owc mount pro ssd bundle for mac pro 20092012, 250gb 2. I want to reinstall osx mavericks as well as my current mavericks install is becoming very sluggish. Its starting to get sluggish i have 480gb free on a 1tb drive 3. How to add a fast new ssd to your old mac or macbook for. However for the secondary drive, it will not allow me to mount, erase, first aid or restore the drive. Previously two hard drives but secondary drive was swapped with a ssd. Tier 1 nand flash storage for sata 3 6g apple mac computers. Add a solid state drive ssd to your macbook pro for a huge increase in performance and capacity. The highend standard late 2012 model the mac mini core i7 2. Regular mid2010 aluminum unibody mac mini models, which have optical drives, support a single 2. The company says that the ssds are four times faster than. Owc mercury extreme 6g ssds work with the new 2011 mac mini and. The speed boost an ssd provides over a hard drive is certainly worth the. Adaptors are also available for vga, svideo, and composite video.