Extern NVME for Mac mini 4 - Thunderbolt or USB Type C ?

[oclaudiu]

Good evening,
I bought an enclosure for Mac mini M4 in which I put a Samsung 980 Pro NVME. The read/write speeds are 1000 Mb/s and 900 Mb/s. If I put it in a Thunderbolt, would I see any differences? I have virtual machines on it and they run very well, I don't really see any differences compared to the internal NVME in the Mac Mini. Basically, apart from the read/write rates on Thunderbolt which reach 40 Gb/s, are there any differences in latency?

 

[chabig]

I don't think you would see any difference in speed or latency. The advertised speed for Thunderbolt represents the amount of data that the bus can carry. It's like a big highway with many lanes. But your car (the SSD) doesn't go any faster on a six lane highway than it does on a two lane highway.

 

[joevt]

What speed do you get from the Mac mini international NVMe?

The Samsung 980 Pro should be able to achieve up to 7000 MB/s inside a PC.

If you put the NVMe into a Thunderbolt 3/4 enclosure or USB4 enclosure, then it can do 3000 MB/s instead of just 1000 MB/s.

If the Mac mini has M4 Pro which supports Thunderbolt 5, then you can get up to 6000 MB/s if you use a Thunderbolt 5 enclosure.

I don't think you'll see a big difference unless you're working with big files.

 

[oclaudiu]

From Mac Mini M4 internal NVME I get 3500 Mb/s read and 3000 Mb/s write. I think it's ok.

 

[Fishrrman]

What is the enclosure you bought (provide a URL if possible)?

The enclosure determines the speed, not the nvme drive inside it.

Is it USB3.1 gen2 ?
Is it thunderbolt ?
Something else ?

I'm thinking that with the Mini, IF it's a USB enclosure, you will see similar "USB speeds" (again depending on WHAT VERSION OF USB3) whether it's plugged into the front or rear ports.

 

[oclaudiu]

Is this enclosure :

Rack Extern M2. NVME SATA SSD Enclosure Excitat®, USB 3.2 Gen2, Adaptor NVMe la USB pentru 2230/2242/2260/2280 M.2 NVMe/SATA SSD De M-Key Sau M+B, Cu Cabluri USB C la C Si USB A la C, Aluminiu, Argint​

Rack Extern M2. NVME SATA SSD Enclosure Excitat®, USB 3.2 Gen2, Adaptor NVMe la USB pentru 2230/2242/2260/2280 M.2 NVMe/SATA SSD De M-Key Sau M+B, Cu Cabluri USB C la C Si USB A la C, Aluminiu, Argint - eMAG.ro

Cumpara Rack Extern M2. NVME SATA SSD Enclosure Excitat®, USB 3.2 Gen2, Adaptor NVMe la USB pentru 2230/2242/2260/2280 M.2 NVMe/SATA SSD De M-Key Sau M+B, Cu Cabluri USB C la C Si USB A la C, Aluminiu, Argint de la eMAG! Ai libertatea sa platesti in rate, beneficiezi de promotiile zilei...

www.emag.ro

 

[philipma1957]

how much is it in dollars i see 104lei

Wavlink 40Gbps M.2 NVME Enclosure PCI-E SSD Case NVMe External Case Thunderbolt | eBay

This Thunderbolt 3 M.2 SSD Enclosure facilitates easy connections for file backup, disk upgrades, cloning, data recovery, and storage expansion. It works over Thunderbolt 3 host interface. M.A.R.T is supported for steady and speedy transmission.

www.ebay.com

the one above should do 2500 speed which is better than your case
it is about 40 usd

thunderbolt 4 case should get you 2000-3500 speed.


note fast ebay search for thunderbolt 3-4 cases.

there are more than one under 90 usd which should be 2x the speed of your external.

 

[bzgnyc2]

Good evening,
I bought an enclosure for Mac mini M4 in which I put a Samsung 980 Pro NVME. The read/write speeds are 1000 Mb/s and 900 Mb/s. If I put it in a Thunderbolt, would I see any differences? I have virtual machines on it and they run very well, I don't really see any differences compared to the internal NVME in the Mac Mini.

It is likely then that your external enclosure is not the bottleneck for your work.

Basically, apart from the read/write rates on Thunderbolt which reach 40 Gb/s, are there any differences in latency?

Yes but likely immaterial for your situation.

I do encourage USB4/TB3/4/5 enclosures with NVMe drives for those buying new but I wouldn't replace a working and otherwise non-bottleneck I/O subsystem just to get benchmarks. Simply moving that NVMe to a USB4/TB3/4/5 enclosure will get you 2-4x read/write speeds on benchmarks. However, likely the result will feel about as fast as you get from running your VM on your internal drive. Which if your current external feels the same as your internal means you won't feel any difference for the work you are currently doing by upgrading your enclosure.

Stepping back, is there something your current setup isn't giving you? Maybe there is a bottleneck but it isn't here?

 

[oclaudiu]

No bottleneck . Everything work very very fast !

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:
re your reply 6 above...

It's a USB3.2 gen2 enclosure.
It should give you read speeds in the 900-925 range.
Doesn't matter whether it's plugged into a "USBc" port or a "thunderbolt" port.
If you're getting BETTER THAN 925MBps, then you're doing very well...