This.
In my case, with a M4 Studio Max, 512GB internal, I wanted to keep the OS and apps on the internal drive and everything else elsewhere. With a TB 4/5 connection, you can maintain internal bus speeds to an external SSD. So my "work" drive is an external SSD, for Handbrake.
My ‘dyed in the wool’ thought initially, was that, if you wished for an efficient system, then speed parity between permanent peripherals and host-drive is paramount.
My base M4 Mini performed well enough with the 256GB internal, and a TB3 970 Evo at 1GB/sec, loading and dynamically streaming audio samples. No complaints - fastest performance I’d ever had. It was enough. Somewhere in the back of my mind was telling me that 180GB of data on that NVMe was not a lot - just too much for the 256GB internal drive.
Oh, I’d read plenty of warnings about internal drives wearing out prematurely, and people putting home folders on externals - blah blah. The internet can be so full of unhelpful innacurate opinions, and this clouded my thought process, when wanting to consider my own personal workload. I was then thinking generically - not specifically.
My base Mini 256GB would read at 2GB/sec, but my new external 990 NVMe could write at 3GB/sec.
Upgrading to a 512GB internal, would give me 3GB+ internal read/write. So that was my incentive to upgrade Mini M4 spec.
But hey, I realise now that I’m seldom going to do big, or even small, straight transfers anyway, so it didn’t really matter.
Downloads straight to the external are the way to go anyway, for any newer music samples.
Then I finally decided to go all in the box. Finally snapped out of the generic forum-fuelled horror-story mode, and realised it was actually right for me.
I only noticed the efficiency and parity today anyway, when transferring all my external stuff onto the internal for good.
But, without going for that speed-parity, I wouldn’t have upgraded to a bigger internal, and subsequently wouldn’t have considered working completely in the box.
I can honestly say that, chasing down that rabbit-hole of the fastest external - was an expensive exercise in indulgence, and retail therapy. But I’m happy it’s led me to this point - now using the Mini as a standalone machine. Funny route to take, and I’ll throw my hands up and admit that previously I’d have been dead against losing those fancy peripherals. But I’ll only take half the blame. The rest is down to reading so much crap from utter muppets, and their imaginary dead internal drives of doom.
But it just now seemed proper, and once I had the idea - I had to do it.
My situation is different from others though. I’ll mostly be reading from the internal, and maybe writing 60MB a day to it - using just one application.
But I thought others might be interested in my wacky process.
I believe air comes in through holes in the (metal) bottom. There's a wide block near the NVMe ssd and some others strung out near the SATA drive. Then I think there is a "blower style" 40mm fan to exit the air to the rear. I can't be very sure, though.
www.razer.com
