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External SSD enclosure

D

Dazza76

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 2, 2019
31
3
U.K
Hey Guys. Not sure if this is the right area but I'm after some ideas for external SSD enclosures that can be connected via the thunderbolt ports on the 2018 Mac mini. Ideally I'd like a desktop enclosure that could house several 2.5inch SSD's. Any suggestions would be most welcome.
 
How many SSDs and of what size(s)?

I have an OWC Thunderbay 4. Two HDDs and two 1GB SATA 2.5 SSDs. I had a couple of 3.5" drive sleds for the SSDs already since they were in a Mac Pro 2010.

It works well enough with the Thunderbay 4 firmware from beginning of this year. Had volume disconnect issues before that...rock solid now. Didn't bother benchmarking it...felt "fast enough" and was just happy to be able to continue using the drives. Fan is a little noisy, though.

I saw a 4-bay 2.5" SATA TB3 enclosure somewhere...
 
d.steve said:
How many SSDs and of what size(s)?

I have an OWC Thunderbay 4. Two HDDs and two 1GB SATA 2.5 SSDs. I had a couple of 3.5" drive sleds for the SSDs already since they were in a Mac Pro 2010.

It works well enough with the Thunderbay 4 firmware from beginning of this year. Had volume disconnect issues before that...rock solid now. Didn't bother benchmarking it...felt "fast enough" and was just happy to be able to continue using the drives. Fan is a little noisy, though.

I saw a 4-bay 2.5" SATA TB3 enclosure somewhere...
Click to expand...

I’d like the Thunderbay but it’s way to expensive for me. I’d only need something that could hold 2 x 1-2TB SSDs and connect via the thunderbolt port on the mini.
 
Ok, you mentioned thunderbolt so I was thinking you wanted a TB3 enclosure, but I realize you might have just meant that it needs to be USB-C.

A USB 3.1 Gen2 enclosure is a lot cheaper and at 10 Gbps is all you need for 2x SATA SSDs. Go with two single drive enclosures or any 2-bay USB 3.1 Gen2 enclosure.
 
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