Once unthinkably huge 2TB and 4TB SSDs are now commonly available, too, albeit at eye-watering prices.With this week’s release of macOS High Sierra, Apple has officially made SSDs its preferred Mac storage solution, introducing the new APFS standard to further optimize SSD performance over Fusion and traditional hard drives. Replacing your old 500GB hard drive with a same-sized SSD from a reputable manufacturer costs only $150, while 1TB drives are under $330, each $100 less than only a couple of years ago. The SSD, as in the previous model, is a proprietary M.2 drive.Today, high-capacity SSDs are more affordable than ever. MacOS versions from Mojave and later support NVMe drives as boot device in MacBook Pro models released from late 2013 to 2015 and MacBook Air models from 2013 to 2017.The SSD used in the MacBook Pro with Retina 13' & 15' Late 2013 to Mid 2015 was updated by Apple and is not compatible with earlier models. All for much less than the price of a new Mac.Original Apple SSD’s for the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air are very expensive, especially compared to the price of standard NVMe SSD’s designed for Windows PC’s.Not all SSDs are equivalent in reliability and performance, but ones from top-tier chip companies are pretty incredible.Which Mac Models Can Be Internally Upgraded?Good news first: most older Macs and even some current Macs can be easily user-upgraded to include SSDs. With limited expertise and only three tools, I was able to swap out my 2011 iMac’s old hard drive for an SSD in roughly 30 minutes. Running cooler, quieter, and with superior energy efficiency than traditional hard drives, SSDs have fewer failures, and reputable manufacturers tend to warranty them for longer than their predecessors.For instance, Samsung’s consumer drives generally have 5-year warranties, and if you’re willing to pay more, its PRO series drives have 10-year warranties, eclipsing all but the most expensive enterprise-class desktop hard disks. The January 2008-vintage original MacBook Air was the first Mac with the option of a 64GB SSD (for a $1,300 premium over the laptop’s base price), and 1TB SSDs were going for roughly $4,000 — Apple didn’t even try to sell 1TB SSDs at that point.Nine years later, dramatically faster and smaller SSDs with the same capacities can be had for less than a tenth of those prices, so every current Mac either has an SSD by default or as an option. A Mac that once took over a minute to boot can now start working in seconds Macs built with SSDs can awaken from sleep instantly.Despite superior performance, high prices led Apple to slowly stagger solid state drive adoption across individual Mac product lines. Even without changing a Mac’s CPU, GPU, or RAM, replacing the hard drive with an internal SSD instantly leads to much faster macOS performance, app loading, restarting, and file accessing.
Apple Ssd Drivs For 2013 Pro Install The SSDI strongly recommend updating your Mac to the latest non-beta version of macOS it can run before beginning the backup process.Once you’ve swapped the drives, hold Command (⌘) and R down on the keyboard when first restarting your SSD-equipped Mac. You’ll see definite speed improvements for whatever files and apps you place on the SSD, though overall macOS performance won’t change unless you’re booting from the SSD itself.Before any hard disk to SSD swap, my advice is to run a complete Time Machine backup to an external drive — preferably one that’s connected with a cable rather than Wi-Fi — so all of your old hard drive’s contents will be ready to transfer over to the new SSD. Owners of the very latest MacBook and MacBook Pro models shouldn’t bother going further these laptops have hardwired SSDs that can’t be replaced, a trend that Apple may expand to future desktop Macs.If your Mac is one of the following models, it can probably be upgraded with an SSD.Mac mini: Up through late 2014 (current) models.Mac Pro: Up through late 2013 (current) modelsMacBook Air: Up through 2017 (current) modelsMacBook Pro: Up through mid-2015 models For Non-Upgradable Macs, Consider External SSDsIdeally, you’ll install the SSD inside your Mac, squeezing maximum performance out of its chips without needing to power an external device. But if your Mac can’t be internally upgraded, or you’re squeamish about opening up your computer, you can buy an external SSD and connect it to a USB 3 or Thunderbolt port. Apple continues to shrink its desktop and laptop machines, more tightly integrating the few remaining components inside, so you’ll want to follow an iFixit disassembly guide to safely open and close your machine.This will give you a completely fresh start, though your emails, app settings, and other files will need to be separately hunted down and brought over from your other hard drive.For users with plans to swap an optical drive for an SSD, keeping the SSD as a non-boot drive, nothing needs to be done to prep software beforehand. Achieve this after a Command-R boot by choosing Reinstall macOS from the macOS Utilities list, and selecting the new SSD as the destination for macOS. The restoring process will take hours, but you’ll come back to a fresh macOS install with everything pretty much as it was left on your old drive.Alternately, you can install a new copy of macOS on the drive, then install only the apps and files you want. Then restore directly from your Time Machine backup. If your Mac can run macOS High Sierra or later, choose APFS formatting for the SSD otherwise, choose Mac Extended + Journaled formatting.![]() ![]() IFixit has model-specific SuperDrive replacement guides for the 21.5-inch iMac ( late-2009, mid-2010, and mid-2011), 27-inch iMac ( late-2009, mid-2010, and mid-2011), and earlier 17-, 20-, and 24-inch models that are about as far back as you should consider for possible SSD swaps. OWC’s videos walk you through installation, too.Owners of SuperDrive-equipped iMacs also have the option of swapping the optical drive for an SSD. Other World Computing/OWC now sells the thermal sensor and all necessary tools in $40 iMac model-specific bundles, a better deal than choosing and buying the parts separately. IMac: Internal + External SSD OptionsI’ll leave the specific iMac opening instructions to the experts at iFixit (this guide works for pre-2012 27-inch iMacs), but it suffices to say that the iMac isn’t super difficult to upgrade – iFixit suggests less than an hour of total install time, and I personally took around half an hour in total.Before you begin, you’ll need several components: the SSD, a mounting bracket, an in-line digital thermal sensor, and a small collection of tools.For the SSD, I recommend Samsung’s 850 EVO series (250GB/$100 and up), and NewerTech’s AdaptaDrive mounting bracket ($15) to secure the drive inside your iMac. Mac make a windows 10 usb for bootcampIFixit’s guides correctly describe many upgrades to unibody (metal-topped) Mac minis as being “difficult.”This is the mid-2010 Mac mini guide, for which you’ll need a 2mm hex screwdriver, T6 and T8 Torx screwdrivers, a spudger, and a special Mac mini Logic Board Removal Tool, plus hours of disassembly and reassembly time. Mac mini: Internal + External SSD OptionsInternal SSD replacement for the 2010 to 2014 “unibody” Mac mini requires considerably more effort and skill than the iMac. Which will be forward-compatible with USB-C computers. Alternately, this $19 Nimitz hard drive caddy is designed to fit a variety of 2009-2011 iMacs.If you prefer to go with an external drive, I would recommend LaCie’s Rugged Thunderbolt + USB 3.0 SSD ($285/500GB) if you need a Thunderbolt interface, otherwise a much smaller and less expensive Samsung T5 USB 3.1 SSD ($200/500GB).
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