Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

External SSD

T

tacman7

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 16, 2022
65
10
Hi, I use an external SSD with my m4 mini plain jane. It works fine and all but I'm going to be doing some video and audio work where I think I will need a faster drive. I was looking at things like this:
www.amazon.com

PHIXERO PSE Dock Stand for Mac mini M4 with 2TB NVMe SSD, 6-in-1 Aluminum Hub, 10Gbps USB-A, SD/TF Reader, Stand Docking Station for Mac mini M4/M4 Pro

Integrated M.2 NVMe SSD 2TB. Supports 10Gbps NVMe speeds for 1GB transfers in 1 second. Includes 2x USB-A (10Gbps), a SD/TF card reader, and a 3.5mm audio jack. Vertical design saves 45% desk space and improves cooling. Matches the Mac mini's aesthetic and ensures better heat...
www.amazon.com

That should be a faster drive? I was going to get an enclosure but I don't know what SSD to get.
Any help appreciated, Thanks
 
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
Hi,

the Mac Mini M4 has Thunderbolt 5 / 80Gbit/sec USB-C Ports.

The fastest Solution would be a TB5 Case with a WD SN 850x NVME inside that could give you 7.000Mb/sec Read and 5.900Mb/sec Write in the BeeLink Mate Mini with one NVME (Model B) for example.

I bought 2 Acasis TBU405Air Case for Just 59 Bucks (They Have Now Sale -14% 1 Item) with Thunderbolt 4 long time ago, and that makes solid 3.000Mb/sec also with a WD SN850x 4TB.

I have updated the Internal from 256GB Base MacMini M4 Model to 2TB with a SIENSNET Mac mini M4 SSD 2TB that makes 3.000Mb/sec Read and 4.800Mb/sec Write inside my Mac Mini M4.

Your Selection with USB3 10Gbit/sec makes if you are Lucky 950MB/sec and most of the non WD NVME are making Trouble, there could be an SSD Inside and while connected via 10Gbit/sec, it roughly makes 550Mb/sec.
In addition the 10Gbit/sec Case Chips are Known to unmount when Sleep with the Mac´s in General.
I had some and they had all that Problem if they Mount and Work.

You have to decide, but i would at least buy the Acasis TBU405Air and a WD SN850X NVME that is the best Cheap 100% Working Solution and in most cases should be enough Speed but it depends on your Project Size and Resolution. Faster is always good.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Alpha Centauri
Hi,

Only the m4pro has Thunderbolt 5, the mini m4 has Thunderbolt 4. The speed of Thunderbolt 4 and usb 4 is pretty much the same. With both ports you can get up to close to 4000 Mb/s.
 
  • Like
Reactions: T'hain Esh Kelch and drrich2
Yea I like the looks of the air, looks good.

What to put in it..

I have a evo 990 1TB I can put in it to try it, maybe.

Big price range in those, I need to look for a speed rating or something?

Thanks guys
 
I think I'm like this guy from that thread:
I would just get a thunderbolt enclosure and a good Gen4 NVME stick and be done with it

Looking at this one
www.amazon.com

Samsung 990 PRO SSD 2TB NVMe M.2 PCIe Gen4, M.2 2280 Internal Solid State Hard Drive, Seq. Read Speeds Up to 7,450 MB/s for High End Computing, Gaming, and Heavy Duty Workstations, MZ-V9P2T0B/AM

Reach max performance of PCIe® 4.0*. Experience longer- lasting, opponent blasting speed. The in-house controller's smart heat control delivers our best power efficiency while maintaining ferocious performance that always keeps you at the top of your game. *PCIe 4.0’s best theoretical sequential ...
www.amazon.com

Thanks
 
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
  • Like
Reactions: P K
genexx said:
You have to decide, but i would at least buy the Acasis TBU405Air and a WD SN850X NVME that is the best Cheap 100% Working Solution and in most cases should be enough Speed but it depends on your Project Size and Resolution. Faster is always good.
Click to expand...

I can also vouch for the Acasis enclosure. Easy to install an M.2 SSD inside, and it's plug and play from that point forward. I have a Samsung 990 Pro 2TB in mine, but I have yet to encounter a scenario where the transfer speed has become a bottleneck in my workflows.
 
tacman7 said:
I think I'm like this guy from that thread:
I would just get a thunderbolt enclosure and a good Gen4 NVME stick and be done with it

Looking at this one
www.amazon.com

Samsung 990 PRO SSD 2TB NVMe M.2 PCIe Gen4, M.2 2280 Internal Solid State Hard Drive, Seq. Read Speeds Up to 7,450 MB/s for High End Computing, Gaming, and Heavy Duty Workstations, MZ-V9P2T0B/AM

Reach max performance of PCIe® 4.0*. Experience longer- lasting, opponent blasting speed. The in-house controller's smart heat control delivers our best power efficiency while maintaining ferocious performance that always keeps you at the top of your game. *PCIe 4.0’s best theoretical sequential ...
www.amazon.com
Click to expand...

For an extra $40 I would go with the Samsung 9100 Pro over the 990 Pro. The 990 Pro is more than fast enough for USB4/TB4 (and even really TB5) but I understand Samsung has improved some other aspects with the 9100 Pro that may make it better over the long run. Otherwise I would probably go with the WD SN850X.
 
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
Basic75 said:
How warm or hot does it get?
Click to expand...
Bildschirmfoto 2025-10-20 um 12.18.54.jpg

If I stress the NVME with copying a Terabyte of data, it can reach a maximum temperature of 49 degrees Celsius.
That’s why I recommend the WD SN850X because it works with all PowerManagement Functions in MacOS.
You can measure the Wattage used by the NVME in an Enclosure with a simple Plug Watt Meter.
My old Crucial P5 constantly sucked 9 Watts, and that’s why it got hot.

Alpha Centauri said:
I have Acacias and OWC enclosures with my 990 Pro's and those SSD's do get hot. It doesn't bother me as have them plugged in only on schedules for DAS backups. If permanently tethered I would suggest your 990 with the OWC 1M2 enclosure.
Click to expand...
 
  • Like
Reactions: bzgnyc2 and Basic75
I tried the Acasis but I settled with the OWC 1M2 80G. It's a fantastic drive and I'd highly recommend it, alongside either a Samsung 990 Pro or a WD SN850X.

 
  • Like
Reactions: P K and Alpha Centauri
tacman7 said:
I think I'm like this guy from that thread:
I would just get a thunderbolt enclosure and a good Gen4 NVME stick and be done with it

Looking at this one
www.amazon.com

Samsung 990 PRO SSD 2TB NVMe M.2 PCIe Gen4, M.2 2280 Internal Solid State Hard Drive, Seq. Read Speeds Up to 7,450 MB/s for High End Computing, Gaming, and Heavy Duty Workstations, MZ-V9P2T0B/AM

Reach max performance of PCIe® 4.0*. Experience longer- lasting, opponent blasting speed. The in-house controller's smart heat control delivers our best power efficiency while maintaining ferocious performance that always keeps you at the top of your game. *PCIe 4.0’s best theoretical sequential ...
www.amazon.com

Thanks
Click to expand...
This is exactly how I backup to my M2 Pro mini. I use time machine for normal operation backups, I use the external for stuff that I want to transfer back and forth to my M2 MB Air.
 
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
I bought the OWC first and I like it so much there's no need for me to try the Acasis. Passive cooling is more to my liking and the performance is outstanding. I tried the SN850X in it first, these were the numbers.

1760985598436.png


I put a 990 Pro in it a couple of hours ago and broke the 6,000 mark.

990Pro.jpg


I'm going to keep the Samsung. They both max out around 118° F when writing hard, but what's more interesting to me is how warm the TB ports run. I hope mine aren't out of the norm for a MBP M4 Pro.

Temps.jpg
 
Last edited:
tacman7 said:
Does that apply to this one as well?

WD_BLACK 2TB SN8100​

Click to expand...
I have no idea, but would guess your chances are good, because the WD Chips are also used by Apple itself and most of the Third Party MacMini M4 Internal Upgrade SSD/NVME as my 2TB from Siensnet. (there are some produced with Toshiba Chips)

Here is an detailed Article from the Hackintosh community about this Topic that relates also to real Mac´s and maybe not updated for a while also the 7100 Model ist listed.

As i said, your chances are good:
www.tonymacx86.com

Choosing a Compatible NVMe SSD for your macOS Boot Drive

Introduction to NVMe Choices If you have any previous hackintosh experience, you'll know that a limited number of hardware components have native support in macOS. You can't buy just any graphics card and expect it to work. Only certain Broadcom models of Wifi/BT cards have native support etc...
www.tonymacx86.com www.tonymacx86.com
Ifti said:
I tried the Acasis but I settled with the OWC 1M2 80G. It's a fantastic drive and I'd highly recommend it, alongside either a Samsung 990 Pro or a WD SN850X.

Click to expand...
The OWC is a New this Year Thunderbolt 5 Enclosure with 80Gbit/sec versus the Thunderbolt3/4 40Gbit/sec JHL7440 Chipset from 2018 based Acasis TBU405AIR Enclosure. So yes if you have the Money and a TB5 Connector, but there are some TB5 on the Market while OWC is always very good with Mac compatibility.
Boppi said:
I bought the OWC first and I like it so much there's no need for me to try the Acasis. Passive cooling is more to my liking and the performance is outstanding. I tried the SN850X in it first, these were the numbers.

View attachment 2570421

I put a 990 Pro in it a couple of hours ago and broke the 6,000 mark.

View attachment 2570538

I'm going to keep the Samsung. They both max out around 118° F when writing hard, but what's more interesting to me is how warm the TB ports run. I hope mine aren't out of the norm for a MBP M4 Pro.

View attachment 2570431
Click to expand...


The WD SN850X makes solid 7.000Mb/sec Read and 5.900Mb/sec Write in the BeeLink Mate Mini Thunderbolt 5 80Gbit/sec Enclosure with one NVME (Model B) for example.

From: https://www.smartzone.de/beelink-mate-mini-test/ :

Beelink-Mate-Mini-TB-5-Speed.png
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: bzgnyc2
Almost half the speed of my internal setup in a 14 year old 2012 Mac Pro
macpro2012.png
 
VaZ said:
Almost half the speed of my internal setup in a 14 year old 2012 Mac Pro
View attachment 2570788
Click to expand...

Why These Numbers Are Physically Impossible

WD_BLACK SN850X Maximum Specs:

  • Read: ~7,300 MB/s
  • Write: ~6,600 MB/s
  • Interface: PCIe Gen4 x4
Mac Pro 2012 Hardware Limits:

  • PCIe 2.0 x16 slot: ~6,500 MB/s max (realistic)
  • PCIe 2.0 x4 slots: ~2,000 MB/s each
  • Total system bandwidth: ~10,500 MB/s maximum
  • DDR3 RAM: ~12,800 MB/s (dual channel) - still below the claimed 14,032 MB/s
The claimed numbers:

  • Read: 14,032 MB/s
  • Write: 11,487 MB/s

Conclusion​

These values are impossible. The Mac Pro 2012's PCIe 2.0 architecture cannot deliver 14 GB/s of bandwidth - not with a single SSD, not with RAID, not even from system RAM.

This is either:

  1. Benchmark error/bug (caching issue, miscalculation)
  2. Fake/manipulated screenshot
There's no hardware configuration in a Mac Pro 2012 that can physically achieve these numbers.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ignatius345 and Ifti
genexx said:
Why These Numbers Are Physically Impossible

WD_BLACK SN850X Maximum Specs:

  • Read: ~7,300 MB/s
  • Write: ~6,600 MB/s
  • Interface: PCIe Gen4 x4
Mac Pro 2012 Hardware Limits:

  • PCIe 2.0 x16 slot: ~6,500 MB/s max (realistic)
  • PCIe 2.0 x4 slots: ~2,000 MB/s each
  • Total system bandwidth: ~10,500 MB/s maximum
  • DDR3 RAM: ~12,800 MB/s (dual channel) - still below the claimed 14,032 MB/s
The claimed numbers:

  • Read: 14,032 MB/s
  • Write: 11,487 MB/s

Conclusion​

These values are impossible. The Mac Pro 2012's PCIe 2.0 architecture cannot deliver 14 GB/s of bandwidth - not with a single SSD, not with RAID, not even from system RAM.

This is either:

  1. Benchmark error/bug (caching issue, miscalculation)
  2. Fake/manipulated screenshot
There's no hardware configuration in a Mac Pro 2012 that can physically achieve these numbers.
Click to expand...
RAID ;)
 
  • Like
Reactions: DavidDoyle
I got the air model and it works fine with my 1TB stick, going to get a faster 2TB stick when I can

Thanks for all the help everyone!
 
  • Like
Reactions: bzgnyc2
tacman7 said:
Hi, I use an external SSD with my m4 mini plain jane. It works fine and all but I'm going to be doing some video and audio work where I think I will need a faster drive. I was looking at things like this:
www.amazon.com

PHIXERO PSE Dock Stand for Mac mini M4 with 2TB NVMe SSD, 6-in-1 Aluminum Hub, 10Gbps USB-A, SD/TF Reader, Stand Docking Station for Mac mini M4/M4 Pro

Integrated M.2 NVMe SSD 2TB. Supports 10Gbps NVMe speeds for 1GB transfers in 1 second. Includes 2x USB-A (10Gbps), a SD/TF card reader, and a 3.5mm audio jack. Vertical design saves 45% desk space and improves cooling. Matches the Mac mini's aesthetic and ensures better heat...
www.amazon.com

That should be a faster drive? I was going to get an enclosure but I don't know what SSD to get.
Any help appreciated, Thanks
Click to expand...
For what it's worth, I have this dock for my M4 Mac mini and edit off the 1TB NVMe SSD inside it - it's fine:

www.amazon.co.uk

UGREEN Mac Mini M4 Dock with 10Gbps NVMe SSD Enclosure (Up to 8TB), USB C Hub with with 3x USB-A 10Gbps, 2x USB-A 3.0, 2x USB-C 10Gbps, 170MB/s SD/TF, Dock & Stand for Mac Mini M4/M4 Pro

UGREEN Mac Mini M4 Dock with 10Gbps NVMe SSD Enclosure (Up to 8TB), USB C Hub with with 3x USB-A 10Gbps, 2x USB-A 3.0, 2x USB-C 10Gbps, 170MB/s SD/TF, Dock & Stand for Mac Mini M4/M4 Pro
www.amazon.co.uk
 
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back