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newb ?: sdxc card instead of 2nd drive?

LucasLand

LucasLand

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 6, 2002
756
92
New England
i noticed a lot of people install a 2nd HD in the mini. they also deal with having to install it without screwing up and/or trying to decide if it should be a an HD,fusion or ssd.

Whats wrong with just using the sdxc card slot? I believe i read these cards go up to 2 tb. it seems to me to be much easier to just use these cards since they come in different sizes and no need to open the mini.
 
P

paulrbeers

macrumors 68040
Dec 17, 2009
3,963
123
foofan said:
i noticed a lot of people install a 2nd HD in the mini. they also deal with having to install it without screwing up and/or trying to decide if it should be a an HD,fusion or ssd.

Whats wrong with just using the sdxc card slot? I believe i read these cards go up to 2 tb. it seems to me to be much easier to just use these cards since they come in different sizes and no need to open the mini.
Click to expand...

Speed. These cards are slow compared to a mechanical drive and no where near an SSD. Fine for some basic data storage but I wouldn't use it long term.
 
philipma1957

philipma1957

macrumors 603
Apr 13, 2010
6,366
251
Howell, New Jersey
paulrbeers said:
Speed. These cards are slow compared to a mechanical drive and no where near an SSD. Fine for some basic data storage but I wouldn't use it long term.
Click to expand...


you can get a fast one but the price is too high

the one below reads and writes about 140MB/s but it is 300 dollars and is small 64gb

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...GCTBNA1000_64GB_CompactFlash_Memory_Card.html

if you want that route of doing external the lacie rugged t-bolt is 256gbssd 4x the size and 3x the speed for 349



http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/901227-REG/LaCie_9000352_256GB_Rugged_USB3_Thunderbolt.html


comes with cables
 
P

paulrbeers

macrumors 68040
Dec 17, 2009
3,963
123
philipma1957 said:
you can get a fast one but the price is too high

the one below reads and writes about 140MB/s but it is 300 dollars and is small 64gb

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...GCTBNA1000_64GB_CompactFlash_Memory_Card.html

if you want that route of doing external the lacie rugged t-bolt is 256gbssd 4x the size and 3x the speed for 349



http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/901227-REG/LaCie_9000352_256GB_Rugged_USB3_Thunderbolt.html


comes with cables
Click to expand...

However, generally the SD card slot is "attached" to the computer via USB. I haven't looked at the 2012, but traditionally they are hooked to a USB 2.0 port which means they top out at about 32Mb/s regardless of the card speed. Not at home to check kind to see what the new ones are hooked to...

Edit: At least for the Macbook Pro, the SD Card is attached via the PCIE bus so then it would be a matter of how fast the card is. Although as pointed out fast SD cards are rediculously expensive.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1385807/
 
Last edited:
H

hasenpfeffer

macrumors newbie
Nov 28, 2012
27
3
paulrbeers said:
However, generally the SD card slot is "attached" to the computer via USB. I haven't looked at the 2012, but traditionally they are hooked to a USB 2.0 port which means they top out at about 32Mb/s regardless of the card speed. Not at home to check kind to see what the new ones are hooked to...

Edit: At least for the Macbook Pro, the SD Card is attached via the PCIE bus so then it would be a matter of how fast the card is. Although as pointed out fast SD cards are rediculously expensive.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1385807/
Click to expand...

Mac mini 2012,

Built in SD Card Reader:

Vendor ID: 0x14e4
Device ID: 0x16bc
Subsystem Vendor ID: 0x14e4
Subsystem ID: 0x0000
Revision: 0x0001
Link Width: x1
Link Speed: 2.5 GT/s

I'm thinking this also indicates it's attached to PCIe in the Mac mini 2012.
 
J

jpxdude

macrumors member
Oct 2, 2006
44
0
Found this from a quick google search:
Code: 
2.5 GT/s on PCI-Express = 250MB/s

This is how that's worked out... note 'b' = bits, 'B' = bytes, 8b = 1B.

2.5 GT/s = 2.5 Gb/s = 312.5 MB/s... then you've got 8b/10b overhead so 312.5 * 0.8 = 250 MB/s.

Not too shabby! :D
 
P

paulrbeers

macrumors 68040
Dec 17, 2009
3,963
123
hasenpfeffer said:
Mac mini 2012,

Built in SD Card Reader:

Vendor ID: 0x14e4
Device ID: 0x16bc
Subsystem Vendor ID: 0x14e4
Subsystem ID: 0x0000
Revision: 0x0001
Link Width: x1
Link Speed: 2.5 GT/s

I'm thinking this also indicates it's attached to PCIe in the Mac mini 2012.
Click to expand...

Yep looks like it is attached to a single PCIE lane same as the Macbook Pro. Very interesting. I still wouldn't use it for long term/bulk storage as it is just too expensive for what "little" performance you get (comparing to a normal SSD that is).
 
Giuly

Giuly

macrumors 68040
Oct 16, 2009
3,348
4
That depends whether you ask for timezone, state o
philipma1957 said:
if you want that route of doing external the lacie rugged t-bolt is 256gbssd 4x the size and 3x the speed for 349

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/901227-REG/LaCie_9000352_256GB_Rugged_USB3_Thunderbolt.html
Click to expand...
It's SATA-II, and not really future-proof. The Akitio Neutrino Thunderbolt Edition on the other hand is (the only bus-powered single 2.5" with) SATA 6Gbit/s and the drive is easily accessible, so it runs a OCZ Vector, the Intel 330 that's included or one of those Asian SSDs full speed.
Portable-Thunderbolt-Storage-Device-Launched-by-Akitio.jpg
 
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