#2013 mac mini hard drive replacement install#
#2013 mac mini hard drive replacement series#

YouвЂ™ll need two large suction cups to remove the iMacвЂ™s glass front, a T10 Torx screwdriver, and a spudger. The excellent DIY repair shop iFixit publishes iMac model-specific optical drive replacement guides for theВ 21.5вЂі iMac ( late-2009, mid-2010, and mid-2011),В 27вЂі iMac ( late-2009, mid-2010, and mid-2011), and earlier 17вЂі, 20вЂі, and 24вЂі modelsВ that are about as far back as you should consider for possibleВ SSD swaps.ДЄs each guide notes, the process of replacing an iMacвЂ™s SuperDrive with an SSD should take a confident and reasonably computer-savvy person less than an hour if you donвЂ™t feel comfortable opening your own Mac, ask a friend. Samsung also makes the 850 PRO, which has an even longerВ warranty and faster performance than the 850 EVO, if youвЂ™re willing to pay a premium for them. But if youвЂ™re going to have both the SSD and original hard drive in your Mac, you could pick a smaller SSD for OS X and your apps, keepingВ your music, photos, and videos on the old hard drive. I feel a lot safer with my important photos and files on an SSD versus an aging mechanical drive. Personally, I opted for a 1TB 850 EVO before the 2TB version was released, and IвЂ™d recommend going for as much capacity as you feel comfortable buying. Samsung just introduced a 2TB version of the 850 EVO, which offers incredible storage capacity for an SSD with the same outstanding warranty and performance found in the 120GB, 250GB, 500GB, and 1TB versions. What youвЂ™ll lose is the ability to read and write optical discs, which at one point was a big selling point of computers but has become less important over time.В Some people buy AppleвЂ™s external $75 USB SuperDrive to keep around вЂњjust in case.вЂќ I personally havenвЂ™t used my optical drive in around two years, and consider any optical drive purely optional at this point.ДЇor most Macs, IвЂ™ve recommended SamsungвЂ™s 850 EVO drive (rated 4.7 out of 5 stars with nearly 4,000 reviews), the SSD I useВ and love, and readers have told me they love theirs, too. Unless you want to add a mounting kit, a sub-$20 part, all you need is the drive itself.

#2013 mac mini hard drive replacement install#

One extraВ benefit of choosing the optical drive for an SSD swap: unlike a hard drive to SSD swap, thereвЂ™s no need to buy a special cable with a thermal sensor to install the SSD, since the MacвЂ™s existing optical drive cable already has a thermal sensor attached. Putting an SSD inside your Mac, then moving OS X and your apps over to the SSD, can radically improve the MacвЂ™s speed: itвЂ™s possible to get 4X to 5X improvements in OS X and app loading times, a difference youвЂ™ll notice every time you wake your Mac from sleep or switch apps. Even if your CPU, graphics card, and other components are on par with current-generation Macs, your apps and files could be stored on a slow hard drive that takes a long time to load and saveВ things youвЂ™re using. Every MacвЂ™s overall performance isВ weighed down by the computerвЂ™s slowest parts. What Does Swapping The Optical Drive For An SSD Get Me?

The SATA III standard Apple began to support in 2011 isВ backward-compatible, so an SSD with SATA III support will work in SATA II Macs, just at slower (but still noticeably better than typical hard drive) speeds.) (Techies will note thatВ the most significant speed improvements will be seen onВ late 2008 or newer machines, as those Macs support faster SATA II or SATA III storage devices, including most SSDs. If your Mac has a CD/DVD drive built in, thereвЂ™s a very good chance that it can be swapped for an SSD.В There are millions of Macs with optical drives, including iMacs soldВ prior to late 2012, Mac minis sold prior to mid 2011, and 15вЂі MacBook Pros sold prior to late 2013.В Apple still sells non-Retina 13вЂіВ MacBook Pros with optical drives this model hasnвЂ™t been updated with new hardware in a long time. Which MacsВ Have Swappable Optical Drives? But you also lose CD/DVD reading and writing abilities - things fewer people care about these days - and youвЂ™ll need to set up your Mac to properly take advantage of the SSD. ItвЂ™s typicallyВ a little easier and less expensive to replace the SuperDrive than a stock hard drive, and youвЂ™ll always wind up with more internal storage than you started with. Swapping a SuperDrive for an SSD has a mix of pros and cons. TheВ reason was simple: put an SSD in your Mac instead of the old hard disk, and youвЂ™ll be blown away by the speed increases.В But as severalВ readers have noted, there is another way to add an SSD to your Mac: you can keep your old hard drive, and instead replace theВ MacвЂ™s CD/DVD optical drive, also known as aВ SuperDrive.

#2013 mac mini hard drive replacement series#

When I wrote a series of How-To guides showing how easy it was to swap old Mac hard disks for new solid state drives (SSDs), I focused on rawВ upgrades - slow mechanical drives for fast chip-based ones.