I have recently purchased the Mac Mini M4 512GB - 16GB (to replace my mid-2014 MacBook Pro, which I am getting rid of), and like many, I now need to get a dock for additional ports. After researching many dock options, I’m leaning towards the Beelink Mate Mini A since it has the necessary ports I will need and the SSD options. In addition, my initial thoughts are to use one SSD for Time Machine backups, and the other SSD for general document, photo, and video storage. I will do some occasional photo editing with Lightroom. Currently, I am using a WD My Passport 2TB (2015) for my external storage for my MacBook Pro, and I have used approximately 500GB. In addition, I have a second WD Passport 1TB (2019), which I use for my Time Machine Backups; however, my MacBook Pro has had some issues recognizing the drive on occasion recently, so I don’t know if the drive is starting to fail or not. In my research, it seems like most of the users/reviewers are not using the pre-installed Crucial SSDs. Is there a reason people aren’t buying the Mate Mini A with the pre-installed SSDs for $279? It seems like a good value. Would I be making a mistake if I went this route? Or should I just buy the dock with no SSDs, and get Samsung SSD’s which many reviewers used, or WD_BLACK SN850X, which I’ve seen other users/reviewers put in the dock? And lastly, should I not even use one of the SSDs for Time Machine, and get an external HDD for that purpose, which I saw recommended in a video by MacMost Video? I do not want to spend unnecessarily, and I prefer not to overdo it. Any feedback is appreciated.
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Beelink Mate Mini A With Pre-Installed Crucial SSDs Questions
- Thread starter jdana24
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There is existing thread which might be helpful...
Thanks Bigwaff, I read this forum, but it didn't really address the information I was looking for regarding the pre-installed Crucial SSDs.
This is just a guess, but it could be that the price of that product is reduced due to Crucial's impending departure from the consumer market. Owner Micron states that they will continue to provide warranty coverage and support for Crucial products, but such promises don't always inspire confidence... thus leading to steep discounts with few buyers.
Beelink's effective price of $140 for going with the bundled Crucial SSD is a good deal. Crucial has been a good brand, their SSD perform well, and are generally well-regarded. However, given their exit from the market as someone else mentioned, there is a trade-off.
If you treat it as a 'if it works great, if not I will throw it away', it's probably fine and a solid $100 savings. If you want to get support, have the option to call the manufacturer, etc (pretty rare with an SSD in my experience), I would spend the $100 on another brand to have peace of mind over the next 5 years.
If I wanted battletested SSD, I would get the WD SN850X. However, my guess is the successor model, the WD SN8100, is similarly solid, will definitely perform better (not just peak, which won't matter even with TB5, but sustained write), will generate less heat, and won't cost that much more relatively speaking.
If just for TM and my backups weren't throttled by HDD speeds (still typically <200MB/sec) and I didn't actually restore files too often, I would go with an HDD for TM.
Then based on what you shared, I would use the new 2TB SSD as my external storage and use the existing 2TB My Passport (even though 2015) as the TM backup.
A 2015 is beyond life expectancy for an HDD but so is the 2019. If the 2015 is working better than the 2019, I would go with that over the 1TB HDD that's having unexplained disconnect issues for this situation. I have several 1TB HDD from the early teens running around here that I use like cartridges for archiving data. They work great despite >10 years old. I don't plan to buy more HDD but will use the ones that work until they don't. Of course I have copies all data on at least 2 devices at any given time.
Ideally your TM backup device is a few times larger than the data you want backed up so if you plan to fill the 2TB external storage 80-90%, then you do probably want a 4-8TB for TM. In which case a 4-8TB HDD will be much cheaper than a 4-8TB SSD, which is kind of overkill for that application assuming typical data usage.
I was thinking the same thing. With customer support being a thing of the past with a lot of brands, I decided to purchase the Mate Mini A without the Crucial SSDs. I figure I can always purchase Crucial SSDs at a later date; however, I'm leaning towards another brand that has a reputation for strong customer support if I ever need it.
Thanks for all of your input. It is good information, and I appreciate your perspective on TM backups and HDD storage. I just received my Mate Mini A today, so I will get it hooked up tomorrow. Additionally, I am getting my Mac Mini set up, along with my new Samsung G6 monitor. My 2019 HDD has been working as it should lately on the 2014 Macbook Pro, so at least I have access to my TM. I will look into the WD SN850X, and the WD SN 8100 as SSD options. Also, I will review my 2014 HDD, which stores all my photos, documents, and other files, to determine what I really need to keep versus discard. That way, I will really know what type of storage I need. Unfortunately, over the years, I've always meant to audit my photos and documents, but it has never made its way up the priority list. Now I have the time to do that. Plus, I have some cloud storage accounts that I can use as backups, along with Google Photos albums, which store a lot of my photos. Most likely, I'll get a 4-8TB HDD as you suggested, since I feel that both of the WD My Passport HDDs will fail at some point, and I don't want to be caught off guard.
I may look into that; however, in the near future, I will be using it as a computer in my garage and shop area.
Do you have a recommendation for a 4-8 TB HDD? In addition to my WD My Passport getting finicky, back around 2010, I had a Maxtor External Hard Drive die on me. Luckily, I had a second backup of everything that was on that drive, so I didn't lose any data. I guess I just have bad luck with external HDs.
HDD -- especially consumer-grade ones -- are a bit fragile and prone to dying. It's amazing (from an engineering perspective) they work at all and then they don't. They definitely don't travel well, which is where I usually see them fail.
Unfortunately I have no first hand knowledge of current HDD/manufacturers. The last ones I bought were IBM Ultrastar, which moved under Hitachi, Hitachi, which moved under WD, and WD Red. I've been fortunate that my old drives still work for my purposes.
WD's current external drives are highly rated and that's probably what I would buy if I had to buy one now. Seagate has been strong in the enterprise realm but not sure about consumer (where I think branded as Lacie for external).
Don't buy anything that uses "SMR" (i.e. doesn't explicitly reference CMR technology). Also I would go with with 5400rpm drives all else being equal since all else being equal they'll run cooler and you don't need the little bit of extra speed for backups/archives.
If I was selecting a drive to put in my own enclosure, I would probably go for an WD Ultrastar, WD Gold, or WD Red Pro (in decreasing order of cost...the WD Red Plus is probably also above average but it's warranty and rated MTBF are lower than the WD Red Pro which tells you something) even if no 5400rpm options exist in those lineups. A little bit overkill for this application but I am conservative when it comes to storage.
Then in general go with the rule that all your data should be in at least two places at any given time (e.g. SSD and HDD or two isolated HDD). I also tend to replace/retire any storage device at the first sign of trouble/unexplained behavior (clicking hard drives, suddenly noticeably slower performance, and of course warning/error messages from the OS [which tend to come too late...])
Thanks for the thorough explanation. It looks like the options you offer are fairly affordable given the amount of storage they offer. The HDDs I previously had both came in an enclosure when I purchased them. Since I've never had my own enclosure, do you have a brand/model you recommend?
The downside of preassembled drives (e.g. WD Elements Desktop) is you don't know what's inside and the downside of buying the components separately is that it is a little bit of an DIY engineering problem.
I don't have recent experience with enclosures for HDD. I currently use a Sabrent drive docking station though it's not great. There are some drawbacks of JMicron chipsets used in my version of it, which don't trip me up but that chipset did cause problems for this poster:
Then I believe ASMedia's chipsets are superior. Similarly, I've been impressed with Plugable's support in other areas and this may be a better option given it uses the ASMedia chipset:
Plugable USB 3.1 Gen 2 SATA Vertical Hard Drive Dock
Connect a 2.5'' or 3.5'' SATA SSD or HDD via USB-C or USB-A cable with the Plugable USB-C SATA Vertical Hard drive Dock for use with Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Granted, something in this form factor may be preferable for permanent attachment:
Even though that enclosure uses the JMicron chipset, OWC knows Macs and should provide good support.
Here is another traditional desktop option but with the ASMedia chipset:
Again, no direct experience with any of these. I'm just extrapolating from other datapoints and experience.
Thanks, I appreciate your input. I'll look into these options.The downside of preassembled drives (e.g. WD Elements Desktop) is you don't know what's inside and the downside of buying the components separately is that it is a little bit of an DIY engineering problem.
I don't have recent experience with enclosures for HDD. I currently use a Sabrent drive docking station though it's not great. There are some drawbacks of JMicron chipsets used in my version of it, which don't trip me up but that chipset did cause problems for this poster:
Then I believe ASMedia's chipsets are superior. Similarly, I've been impressed with Plugable's support in other areas and this may be a better option given it uses the ASMedia chipset:
Plugable USB 3.1 Gen 2 SATA Vertical Hard Drive Dock
Connect a 2.5'' or 3.5'' SATA SSD or HDD via USB-C or USB-A cable with the Plugable USB-C SATA Vertical Hard drive Dock for use with Windows, macOS, and Linux.plugable.com
Granted, something in this form factor may be preferable for permanent attachment:
Even though that enclosure uses the JMicron chipset, OWC knows Macs and should provide good support.
Here is another traditional desktop option but with the ASMedia chipset:
Again, no direct experience with any of these. I'm just extrapolating from other datapoints and experience.