Worth Upgrading Mac Mini to SSD?
 

As mentioned before, I switched over the home desktop computer from a G5 iMac to a new Mac mini w/ dual monitors. I bought the base Mac mini and it was kind of slow, with tons of disk caching, due to only 1GB DRAM (!).

I just upgraded the DRAM to 8GB, and the mini is much faster.

Here's the question - I have a 60GB SSD and could put that in the mini, moving the libraries to a USB external HDD (photos, music, etc).

Seems to me, I'd gain speed in launching/running apps (going from internal HDD to internal SSD), but I might lose speed in accessing libraries (going from internal drive to external USB).

Think the SSD is worth doing?

Usage is the basic web, iPhoto, iTunes, son's games, Office, Mail/Contacts - problem is, the family doesn't know how to close an app once done, so I'll come to the mini and find like 15 applications all open at once.

On the daughter's netbook, switching the HDD to a SSD added a ton of speed (maybe I should call it "responsiveness"), but that machine has only 2GB DRAM.

I could stick the SSD in the wife's MacBook instead.

We use SSDs in our laptops that go in the airplane. Most spinning drives stop working at 10,000 feet in an unpressurized airplane. The SSD boots up and shuts down WAY faster. It uses less electricity as well. We are running a Windows machine but hardware is hardware.

It's worth doing. I changed all my mobiles over to SSD this year, probably won't ever go back to a mechanical drive for my OS. I used Intel drives from Newegg, have been rock solid so far.

John,

absolutely.

I put an Intel X25 in my Mini, for the OS/Applications. [Also a NuRam 4GB chip in slot 1, so now it's got 5GB RAM.] It boots and launches Apps SO fast it's just incredible.

You kind of need to do the RAM and SSD at the same time, my computer was running into the ceiling with the SSD and 2GB RAM.

I have a normal 500GB drive that is always plugged into the computer, for larger data storage.

HTH!

You can get a data doubler, which takes the place of the optical drive on the Mac Mini, and place your second hard drive in there for your data. (Honestly, who uses CD's anymore, except for an OS installation?) You can then get an external enclosure for your slot-loading optical drive.

I'm planning on doing this to my Macbook Pro (the optical drive is busted and it is over two years old.) The SSD I plan on going with is from Other World Computing (OWC.)

60 is smallish, and that's the main downside of SSD -- capacity:cost ratio is still high.

What I would do (as a user of 5-7 programs on a continuous basis) is put the OS and apps on the SSD and keep document files on an external HD. (As Scott does.)