Jump to content

SSD Upgrade for Mac mini

Go to solution Solved by BondiBlue,

I like the Samsung 870 EVO and the Crucial MX500. I've got a 250GB 870 EVO in my 2012 Mac mini Plex server (it's the boot drive with a separate 2TB drive for my Plex library). I've also got several Crucial MX500s installed in a variety of machines, and several have been running 24/7 for a very long time. The only issue I've ever had with the MX500 was a quirk when installing Windows to one of them when it was installed in a Dell Precision, but that ended up being the fault of the computer itself, not the drive. 

Hi all,

 

I am looking to upgrade the storage in my 2012 Mac mini.  I am going to be using it in a strange project that I am working on and I need them to be relatively reliable.  I only need 500GB drives.  I was thinking about getting the Western Digital SA500 but they are relatively expensive for only 500GB drives.  I was also looking at the Crucial MX500 but people have been reporting a high failure rate of the drives prematurely.  These machines will be spending a relatively long amount of time on each day, but will shut down each night.

 

Does anyone have any other suggestions? Thanks

If you need me to follow up on something, please quote or tag me.

Link to comment
https://linustechtips.com/topic/1504920-ssd-upgrade-for-mac-mini/
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

I like the Samsung 870 EVO and the Crucial MX500. I've got a 250GB 870 EVO in my 2012 Mac mini Plex server (it's the boot drive with a separate 2TB drive for my Plex library). I've also got several Crucial MX500s installed in a variety of machines, and several have been running 24/7 for a very long time. The only issue I've ever had with the MX500 was a quirk when installing Windows to one of them when it was installed in a Dell Precision, but that ended up being the fault of the computer itself, not the drive. 

Phobos: AMD Ryzen 7 2700, 16GB 3000MHz DDR4, ASRock B450 Steel Legend, 8GB Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070, 2GB Nvidia GeForce GT 1030, 1TB Samsung SSD 980, 450W Corsair CXM, Corsair Carbide 175R, Windows 10 Pro

 

Polaris: Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2, 32GB 1600MHz DDR3, ASRock X79 Extreme6, 12GB Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080, 6GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti, 1TB Crucial MX500, 750W Corsair RM750, Antec SX635, Windows 10 Pro

 

Pluto: Intel Core i7-2600, 32GB 1600MHz DDR3, ASUS P8Z68-V, 4GB XFX AMD Radeon RX 570, 8GB ASUS AMD Radeon RX 570, 1TB Samsung 860 EVO, 3TB Seagate BarraCuda, 750W EVGA BQ, Fractal Design Focus G, Windows 10 Pro for Workstations

 

York (NAS): Intel Core i5-2400, 16GB 1600MHz DDR3, HP Compaq OEM, 240GB Kingston V300 (boot), 3x2TB Seagate BarraCuda, 320W HP PSU, HP Compaq 6200 Pro, TrueNAS CORE (12.0)

Link to post
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, BondiBlue said:

I like the Samsung 870 EVO and the Crucial MX500.

+1 to both. 850, 860, 870 Evos and Crucial MX500s (and 300s before that) in a bunch of work and my own personal machines, no issues. I have had one personal 250GB 860 Evo fail but that seems to have been a fluke, not a consistent issue with that line (all mass produced hardware is prone to fluke failures). 

Gaming PC NAS Laptop Workstation

CPU: i5 12600KF 6P+4E Ryzen 7 3700X M4 SoC 4P+6E Xeon X5690 6c12t

Cooler: Noctua NH-D15S Wraith Stealth w/NF-A9 Passive Apple CPU Cooler

Motherboard: ASRock Z690 ITX/ax ASUS Pro B550M-C/CSM Apple J713AP Mac-F221BEC8 (Mac Pro 5,1)

RAM: 2x16GB 3600Mhz DDR4 2x16GB 2400MHz DDR4 24GB Micron LPDDR5 4x8GB 1333MHz ECC DDR3

GPU: Sapphire Pulse Radeon 9060 XT 16GB Radeon WX2100 M4 SoC 10C Radeon RX 5700

Storage: 1TB MP34 + 2TB P41 500GB SSD + 2x4TB IronWolf Pro in ZFS Mirror Apple AP0512Z 1TB Crucial MX500

ODD: LG WH14NS40 None LG GP65NB60 USB DVD Writer Don't know

PSU: EVGA 850W GM Silverstone SST-TX300 53.8Wh LiPo Battery Delta DPS-980BB

Case: Silverstone Sugo 14 Dell Inspiron 530S Mac16,12 chassis (13" MBA) 2009-2012 Mac Pro "Cheese Grater"

OS: Gentoo Linux TrueNAS Scale macOS 26 Tahoe Fedora Linux

 

Display: LG 27UK650-W (4K 60Hz IPS panel)

Mouse: EVGA X17

Keyboard: Corsair K55 RGB

 

Mobile/Work Devices: 14" M5P MacBook Pro (work) - iPhone 17 Pro - Apple Watch S11

 

Other Misc Devices: iPod Video (Gen 5.5E, iFlash Solo w/128GB SD Card, Rockbox), Nintendo Switch

 

Vehicles: 2002 Ford F150, 2003 Harley-Davidson Sportster 1200, 2022 Kawasaki KLR650, 1994 DR350SE

Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now

×