The cheap budget SSDs like the Crucial BX500 series will actually keep decreasing down to 40MB/s and even get stuck there for a long time. It has been several years since I ran those tests. IIRC from my own personal tests on the Crucial MX500 series the write cache fills up after about 45 seconds of non-stop sequential writes and will slow down from about 450MB/s to 250MB/s and stabilize there (unless I'm thinkng of the MX300 series). OWC used to make a cheap one as well (I think it was called 'N'), but I don't see is an option anymore.Īny SSD using TLC or QLC technology will have some ideosynchrasies and performance issues once the write cache has been filled.
The OWC Mercury Electra or OWC Mercury Extreme are also good options. The worst SSDs to purchase are the cheap budget economy models like the Crucial BX500 series. A Mac Mini 2012 only has a SATA III controller for a 2.5' SSD so the SSD speed will at most be somewhere between 450MB/s to 500MB/s under optimal conditions.
