Here’s your best upgrade for an older computer

Conventional wisdom holds that the best upgrade for your money is to install more memory. And certainly, if you’re poking along with a wildly inadequate amount of RAM, that may still be true.

But I think it’s time to kick that advice to the curb. In 2015, the best upgrade for a PC or Mac is to swap out the traditional hard disk drive for a solid-state drive, or SSD. Even if you’ve got a modest amount of RAM, installing a drive that’s made out of flash memory instead of spinning magnetic platters is revelatory. In fact, if you’ve an inadequate amount of RAM, an SSD will still give you a better experience than installing more RAM alone.

Why? Because when Macs and Windows-based PCs don’t have enough RAM, they’ll create virtual memory – a kind of simulated RAM sometimes called a swap file – on their storage drives. If it’s a traditional hard drive, the computer slows down because disk storage is always slower than memory.

But if it’s an SSD, then the virtual memory exists on storage that is very similar to RAM. It’s not quite as fast, but it’s close. When a RAM starved computer works from virtual memory on an SSD, the performance hit isn’t as obvious. In fact, depending on what the computer is doing, you may not even notice it.

If you’ve got a lot of RAM, and your computer is still painfully slow at times, then an SSD definitely is good for what ails you. That’s the situation that befell me with a 2012 Mac Mini that I bought used last year. Its RAM was maxed out at 16 gigabytes, but it was still bogging down, even if there was still plenty of memory available to the system. Its 1-terabyte hard drive, with its pokey 5,400-RPM platter speeds, was the culprit.

I decided it was time to make the leap and upgrade the Mini to an SSD. If you haven’t checked in a while, prices for SSDs have come way down. I wound up buying a 500-gigabyte Samsung 850 EVO drive for $170 from Amazon, but since then the price has dropped to under $150.

• Previously: Upgrade time: I’m adding an SSD to my 2012 Mac Mini

My original plan was to add the Samsung SSD and make it a boot drive. I would either pair the SSD and the 1-TB hard drive into a Fusion Drive, but set them up as separate drives. But then I discovered that I had, on a shelf of spare parts, an older, 240-GB SSD. I decided to toss the hard drive completely and install both SSDs.

Now, with a desktop PC or most notebooks, this would be a relatively simple upgrade for the technically inclined. But the 2012 Mac Mini is a completely different beast, a complex assembly that is a challenge to attack. While installing RAM is a piece of cake – remove the circular “foot” from the Mini, and the memory mounts are right there – replacing a hard drive is a lot more involved. To add a second drive is an even more difficult endeavor.

But I’m always up for a geeky challenge. And so, on Sunday, I successfully disassembled the Mini, literally stripping it down to the case, removed the slow drive and replaced it with the SSDs. It took me about two hours, and there were more than a few harrowing moments, but I was successful. I’m writing this now on the computer, and it’s just as fast as the new MacBook Pro I bought earlier this year.

I’m not going to offer a detailed step-by-step of the process because others have already done so. Instead, I’ll refer you to this iFixit walkthrough, this Other World Computing manual [PDF] and this OWC video, all of which are excellent. But I can offer some tips to make the process easier in general.

My pain is your gain.

• Previously: Update: Giving the new SSD a test drive on the Mac Mini

Many of these suggestions will also apply to the process of installing an SSD in any personal computer, not just a 2012 Mac Mini. And you can see more details in the slideshow above.

Which drive should I get?

First, figure out two things: How much space your current drive has and how much is already taking up with data. On a Mac, you’d right-click on the drive in the Finder and choose Get Info. In Windows, right-click on the icon representing your hard drive and choose Properties. If you’ve got plenty of space remaining, you’re probably safe getting an SSD of similar size.

If you have a LOT of space remaining – say, you’ve used only 300 GB of a 1-TB drive – you may want to consider getting a smaller drive. It could save you substantial cash. While SSDs are a lot cheaper than they used to be, they are still more expensive than standard hard drives. As I mentioned, the 500-GB Samsung SSD is currently selling for under $150. A 1-TB SSD can run between $300 and $400. By contrast, a 7,200-RPM, 512-GB hard drive can cost well under $50.

You also need to look at how the drive connects to your system. Most notebooks use a SATA III connector – that’s what’s in the Mac Mini – but there are many different connection types. The Wirecutter – which, by the way, recommends the Samsung 850 EVO as the best drive to get – has a good roundup of different forms of SSDs.

Finally, if you are putting an SSD in a desktop PC that likely uses larger hard drive, you’ll need to get an adapter that fits into the drive slot for the PC’s case. Or, you may be able to use an SSD that fits into an expansion slot on the motherboard, depending on how new your computer is.

What tools will I need?

This depends on the complexity of the task. In some cases, all you may need is a small hex screwdriver. But some computers require special types of screwdrivers, such as those that fit into the star-shaped holes in Torx screws. You can buy a relatively inexpensive computer repair kit at stores like MicroCenter or Fry’s Electronics that include the tools most common for upgrade projects.

In some extreme cases, such as with the Mac Mini, there are special tools required. For example, the Mac Mini’s disassembly is made much easier by a U-shaped tool designed to serve as a handle for sliding the computer’s logic board out of the case. Other World Computing sells a toolkit just for working with the Mac Mini, and I can tell you that it’s worth every penny of its $27.50 cost.

There are few unusual items that may be helpful. Whenever I am taking apart a computer, I get a stack of small paper bathroom cups to hold the screws I remove. I label the cups with the name of the part where the screws lived – e.g, fan, cowling, heatsink, hard drive, etc. This makes it a lot easier to find the screws I need when it’s time to reassemble things.

I also recommend having a screw grabber handy. This is a pencil-shaped tool with a plunger at one end and a series of splines at the other. Push the plunger, the splines open and then close on whatever object you need to grab. This is a lifesaver when you drop a screw into a small space, or if you need to place a small screw in a tight location to get it started.

Finally, make sure you have lots of light and a big, open space on which to work, even for a small device. A magnifying glass may help – the Mac Mini required the removal and replacing of several tiny, delicate connectors. Several times, I used my iPhone’s flashlight to illuminate some dark nooks and crannies.

How long will it take?

In some cases, not long. In some notebooks, it’s a simple matter of removing a few screws, removing the drive and putting the new one in. In other cases, such as the Mac Mini, it can take a couple of hours. Regardless, I’d plan on spending a weekend afternoon on it. Don’t do it when you’re tired, hungry or feeling impatient.

How easy is it to reinstall the operating system, apps and data?

This depends on the computer and operating system. With the Mac Mini, I was able to put the Samsung SSD into an external USB drive enclosure, connect it to the computer and then install the operating system there. I could then boot from the external drive – it was a USB 3.0 enclosure, so the connection was very fast – to test it out, install software and copy data. When I put it into the Mac Mini permanently, it booted immediately.

You can also recover from a Time Machine backup, or from another third-party backup program. (Assuming, of course, that you’ve made a recent backup!) Or you can install OS X onto the bare drive once you’ve got it into your Mac. If you want to get back to your original setup, try using Carbon Copy Cloner.

With Windows, you’ll need to either reinstall from a backup, or install a fresh copy on the SSD. I’d recommend creating a Windows 10 boot disk or USB drive. I like these instructions from NDTV. You can also clone your current installation with Acronis Tru-Image HD.

When you’re done, you’ll be amazed at how much faster your computer will run. And if you have opted to start from scratch with a clean installation of your operating system, then add back just the apps you use regularly, it will feel as though you’ve bought a new computer, without necessarily spending that kind of money. In that sense, this really is the best upgrade a PC or Mac owner can make.