The Ultimate Mac mini: How To Install A Solid State Drive (SSD) – Install Guide

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been building the ultimate Mac mini. We’ve covered upgrading the RAM, SSD choices, and cloning the HDD, but today, we’re installing a speedy solid state drive! This will give you lightning fast boot times and better data transfer capabilities. Watch the video tutorial above to learn how to install a solid state drive in the 2012 Mac mini.

Here are the parts used in this series:

• Mac mini Intel Core i5 or Intel Core i7 (Used in this series)
• Kingston HyperX 16GB RAM Kit
• Kingston HyperX 240GB 3K SSD
• Kingston SSDNow V300 120GB SSD
• iFixit Logic Board Removal Tool
• iFixit Magnetic Project Mat
• iFixit Dual Drive Kit
• iFixit Pro Tech Toolkit

Of course, you don’t need these exact parts, but this will give you a good place to start looking if you’d like to follow along with the series. To put it into perspective, the Mac mini that we will be building totals out to $1,243 including all parts. If you wanted to order a Mac mini from Apple with roughly the same specifications (no performance difference, just dual 240GB SSDs) you’d have to shell out $1,899. That’s a difference of $656. Save yourself some money, buy the parts, and follow along. Thanks again and stay tuned for the next installment of Building The Ultimate Mac mini.