Mac Mini ready for software development!

crwdns2853023:0crwdne2853023:0

As a developer, several times a day I'm building our Java application on my Mac Mini. This takes about two or three minutes. Add running the tests and this time doubles with the factory installed Samsung hard drive.

If you do this about 10 times a day, having to wait 5 or 6 minutes for everything to build and run correct, this gets quite annoying. I wondered if an SSD would improve this process....

crwdns2853024:0crwdne2853024:0

The guides were excellent, both the online instruction movie and the iPad high resolution pictures.

I opened up the Mac Mini, removed all the necessary parts, and installed the second drive, in this case the OCZ Agility 3 120Gb SSD.

Of course, taking this apart is much harder, so this took some extra time. Working backwards from the instruction guide helps a lot, just slide back the images.

For some reason I could get the SSD and HD exactly on their original spot, so I had to use a bit more power for the screws to go in. I guess it had to do with the thin power cables near the power adapter.

First boot was a failure, no SSD was found. Opened up the Mac Mini again, checked the SATA-connectors. Reboot again, SSD was found, but the drive only had '33k' of available disk space.

Replaced the Agility 3 with a new SSD (OCZ Vertex 3 120Gb) from our local computer store and everything worked fine. Apparently the first drive was broken.

I used SuperDuper to clone the original HD to the SSD, and was ready to go. Now I have a blazing fast SSD in my Mac Mini, it takes about 1 minute and 30 seconds to run the build, the tests run in about a quarter of the time. The drive itself is about 8 times faster then the original one. Mac Mini ready for software development

crwdns2853025:0crwdne2853025:0

1) First check if the new drive (SSD or HD) is working correct and has no flaws. I didn't have any other PC or Mac to do so, but it would have saved me about three hours (including a trip to the local computer store).

2) Place the screws and parts in the order in which you took them out of you Mac Mini. This helps putting them back the right way.

Unfortunately you can't order only the SATA controller and screws. I already had the Torx screw driver set. Also the shipping costs we quite high to the Netherlands. It was about half the price of the Dual HD kit.

But, in the end, it was worth it ! Thanks iFixit!