SSD in a Mini

screature · Dec 4th, 2009, 09:17 AM

Anyone here put an SSD in their Mini. If so what is your review? I am thinking about it, but for the amount of money involved, I am not sure if I want to be a trail blazer.

Andrew Pratt · Dec 4th, 2009, 12:52 PM

Your results shouldn't be any different then those of us that have installed them in our laptops. If you can deal with the lower storage capacity the speed gains are impressive.

screature · Dec 4th, 2009, 01:43 PM

	Quote:			Originally Posted by Andrew Pratt
	Your results shouldn't be any different then those of us that have installed them in our laptops. If you can deal with the lower storage capacity the speed gains are impressive.

I can definitely deal with the lower storage I don't ever store data on my boot drive, it is just for the system and software. What was your performance gain AP?

billwong · Dec 4th, 2009, 06:20 PM

I have a 128 Gb SSD in a Mac Mini. It's great for startup and application launches. Make sure you get one with decent read/write specs (most do now). I highly recommend it, but it is costly compared to higher capacity 7200 rpm drives. It depends on how much you value the increased speed and the silence.

Our 2 GHz Mac Mini starts up faster than our new iMac 21.5", 3.06 GHz which has a 1 Tb 7200 rpm drive. And it is super quiet.

One thing I noticed with a MacBook with a 7200 rpm drive was the vibrations that you can feel with your hands at the keyboard - not so on a Macbook Air with SSD.

Even my wife noticed the difference and asked why we got the slower computer (the new iMac) in the kitchen now instead of the old Mac Mini.

screature · Dec 4th, 2009, 10:20 PM

	Quote:			Originally Posted by billwong
	I have a 128 Gb SSD in a Mac Mini. It's great for startup and application launches. Make sure you get one with decent read/write specs (most do now). I highly recommend it, but it is costly compared to higher capacity 7200 rpm drives. It depends on how much you value the increased speed and the silence. Our 2 GHz Mac Mini starts up faster than our new iMac 21.5", 3.06 GHz which has a 1 Tb 7200 rpm drive. And it is super quiet. One thing I noticed with a MacBook with a 7200 rpm drive was the vibrations that you can feel with your hands at the keyboard - not so on a Macbook Air with SSD. Even my wife noticed the difference and asked why we got the slower computer (the new iMac) in the kitchen now instead of the old Mac Mini.

Thanks billwong. What specific SSD do you you have in your Mini?

billwong · Dec 5th, 2009, 01:11 AM

If I remember correctly, it is an OCZ Core Series V2 120 Gb SSD. I got it at Infonec.

There is now an OCZ Vertex series which is faster and has a "Mac version." Probably comes pre-formatted for a Mac.

screature · Dec 5th, 2009, 08:34 AM

Thanks billwong, the info is much appreciated.

Andrew Pratt · Dec 5th, 2009, 10:55 AM

The Vertex line is much faster then the core line so if you go OCZ (solid choice) get that one. Intels are still very good as well but were priced higher....can't say if that's still the case as its changing quickly and I got my SSD in spring.

Here's my XBench scores for my 2.16 GHz MB Pro.

Results 151.40
System Info
Xbench Version 1.3
System Version 10.6.2 (10C540)
Physical RAM 4096 MB
Model MacBookPro2,2
Drive Type OCZ-VERTEX 1370
CPU Test 151.87
GCD Loop 255.08 13.45 Mops/sec
Floating Point Basic 122.70 2.92 Gflop/sec
vecLib FFT 98.54 3.25 Gflop/sec
Floating Point Library 242.73 42.27 Mops/sec
Thread Test 162.86
Computation 167.99 3.40 Mops/sec, 4 threads
Lock Contention 158.03 6.80 Mlocks/sec, 4 threads
Memory Test 142.29
System 167.53
Allocate 331.20 1.22 Malloc/sec
Fill 130.40 6340.52 MB/sec
Copy 138.51 2860.87 MB/sec
Stream 123.66
Copy 116.31 2402.24 MB/sec
Scale 116.78 2412.73 MB/sec
Add 132.71 2827.03 MB/sec
Triad 130.71 2796.20 MB/sec
Quartz Graphics Test 162.25
Line 142.33 9.48 Klines/sec [50% alpha]
Rectangle 184.89 55.20 Krects/sec [50% alpha]
Circle 156.79 12.78 Kcircles/sec [50% alpha]
Bezier 164.58 4.15 Kbeziers/sec [50% alpha]
Text 168.68 10.55 Kchars/sec
OpenGL Graphics Test 197.67
Spinning Squares 197.67 250.76 frames/sec
User Interface Test 185.80
Elements 185.80 852.71 refresh/sec
Disk Test 101.24
Sequential 88.90
Uncached Write 112.64 69.16 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 57.60 32.59 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 71.46 20.91 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 209.98 105.54 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 117.57
Uncached Write 53.42 5.66 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 84.89 27.18 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 681.51 4.83 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 486.06 90.19 MB/sec [256K blocks]

Andrew Pratt · Dec 5th, 2009, 10:59 AM

Here's how that compares to a more modern MB Pro with a regular harddrive.

Xbench: Comparison

screature · Dec 5th, 2009, 11:48 AM

Thanks AP.

Dec 4th, 2009, 09:17 AM	#1
screature Honourable Citizen Join Date: May 2007 Location: Aylmer (Gatineau) across the river from Ottawa Posts: 7,412	SSD in a Mini Anyone here put an SSD in their Mini. If so what is your review? I am thinking about it, but for the amount of money involved, I am not sure if I want to be a trail blazer. __________________ Mac Pro Quad 2.66GHz Gen 1.1 MacIntel Mini 2009 Core 2 Duo 2.26GHZ MacIntel Mini 1.83GHz

Dec 4th, 2009, 12:52 PM	#2
Andrew Pratt IAMSTIG Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Winnipeg, MB Posts: 1,217	Your results shouldn't be any different then those of us that have installed them in our laptops. If you can deal with the lower storage capacity the speed gains are impressive. __________________ His: iMac 21.5" \| 3.06GHz \| 6GB RAM \| Snow Leopard \| iPhone4 Hers: iMac 20" \| 2.4GHz \| 4GB RAM \| Snow Leopard \| iPhone4 Ours: MacBook \| 1.83GHz \| 2GB RAM \| Snow Leopard \| AppleTV

Dec 4th, 2009, 06:20 PM	#4
billwong Full Citizen Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Toronto Posts: 201	I have a 128 Gb SSD in a Mac Mini. It's great for startup and application launches. Make sure you get one with decent read/write specs (most do now). I highly recommend it, but it is costly compared to higher capacity 7200 rpm drives. It depends on how much you value the increased speed and the silence. Our 2 GHz Mac Mini starts up faster than our new iMac 21.5", 3.06 GHz which has a 1 Tb 7200 rpm drive. And it is super quiet. One thing I noticed with a MacBook with a 7200 rpm drive was the vibrations that you can feel with your hands at the keyboard - not so on a Macbook Air with SSD. Even my wife noticed the difference and asked why we got the slower computer (the new iMac) in the kitchen now instead of the old Mac Mini. __________________ Sent from my iPad, iPhone 4, or some other web accessible appliance.

Dec 5th, 2009, 01:11 AM	#6
billwong Full Citizen Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Toronto Posts: 201	If I remember correctly, it is an OCZ Core Series V2 120 Gb SSD. I got it at Infonec. There is now an OCZ Vertex series which is faster and has a "Mac version." Probably comes pre-formatted for a Mac. __________________ Sent from my iPad, iPhone 4, or some other web accessible appliance.

Dec 5th, 2009, 08:34 AM	#7
screature Honourable Citizen Join Date: May 2007 Location: Aylmer (Gatineau) across the river from Ottawa Posts: 7,412	Thanks billwong, the info is much appreciated. __________________ Mac Pro Quad 2.66GHz Gen 1.1 MacIntel Mini 2009 Core 2 Duo 2.26GHZ MacIntel Mini 1.83GHz

Dec 5th, 2009, 10:55 AM	#8
Andrew Pratt IAMSTIG Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Winnipeg, MB Posts: 1,217	The Vertex line is much faster then the core line so if you go OCZ (solid choice) get that one. Intels are still very good as well but were priced higher....can't say if that's still the case as its changing quickly and I got my SSD in spring. Here's my XBench scores for my 2.16 GHz MB Pro. Results 151.40 System Info Xbench Version 1.3 System Version 10.6.2 (10C540) Physical RAM 4096 MB Model MacBookPro2,2 Drive Type OCZ-VERTEX 1370 CPU Test 151.87 GCD Loop 255.08 13.45 Mops/sec Floating Point Basic 122.70 2.92 Gflop/sec vecLib FFT 98.54 3.25 Gflop/sec Floating Point Library 242.73 42.27 Mops/sec Thread Test 162.86 Computation 167.99 3.40 Mops/sec, 4 threads Lock Contention 158.03 6.80 Mlocks/sec, 4 threads Memory Test 142.29 System 167.53 Allocate 331.20 1.22 Malloc/sec Fill 130.40 6340.52 MB/sec Copy 138.51 2860.87 MB/sec Stream 123.66 Copy 116.31 2402.24 MB/sec Scale 116.78 2412.73 MB/sec Add 132.71 2827.03 MB/sec Triad 130.71 2796.20 MB/sec Quartz Graphics Test 162.25 Line 142.33 9.48 Klines/sec [50% alpha] Rectangle 184.89 55.20 Krects/sec [50% alpha] Circle 156.79 12.78 Kcircles/sec [50% alpha] Bezier 164.58 4.15 Kbeziers/sec [50% alpha] Text 168.68 10.55 Kchars/sec OpenGL Graphics Test 197.67 Spinning Squares 197.67 250.76 frames/sec User Interface Test 185.80 Elements 185.80 852.71 refresh/sec Disk Test 101.24 Sequential 88.90 Uncached Write 112.64 69.16 MB/sec [4K blocks] Uncached Write 57.60 32.59 MB/sec [256K blocks] Uncached Read 71.46 20.91 MB/sec [4K blocks] Uncached Read 209.98 105.54 MB/sec [256K blocks] Random 117.57 Uncached Write 53.42 5.66 MB/sec [4K blocks] Uncached Write 84.89 27.18 MB/sec [256K blocks] Uncached Read 681.51 4.83 MB/sec [4K blocks] Uncached Read 486.06 90.19 MB/sec [256K blocks] __________________ His: iMac 21.5" \| 3.06GHz \| 6GB RAM \| Snow Leopard \| iPhone4 Hers: iMac 20" \| 2.4GHz \| 4GB RAM \| Snow Leopard \| iPhone4 Ours: MacBook \| 1.83GHz \| 2GB RAM \| Snow Leopard \| AppleTV

Dec 5th, 2009, 10:59 AM	#9
Andrew Pratt IAMSTIG Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Winnipeg, MB Posts: 1,217	Here's how that compares to a more modern MB Pro with a regular harddrive. Xbench: Comparison __________________ His: iMac 21.5" \| 3.06GHz \| 6GB RAM \| Snow Leopard \| iPhone4 Hers: iMac 20" \| 2.4GHz \| 4GB RAM \| Snow Leopard \| iPhone4 Ours: MacBook \| 1.83GHz \| 2GB RAM \| Snow Leopard \| AppleTV

Dec 5th, 2009, 11:48 AM	#10
screature Honourable Citizen Join Date: May 2007 Location: Aylmer (Gatineau) across the river from Ottawa Posts: 7,412	Thanks AP. __________________ Mac Pro Quad 2.66GHz Gen 1.1 MacIntel Mini 2009 Core 2 Duo 2.26GHZ MacIntel Mini 1.83GHz

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