External SSD

[tacman7]

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:

Phixero (2TB Storage) M4 Mac mini Dock, Aluminum unibody Design, 6-in-1 hub, 10Gbps USB-A, SD/TF Reader, Space-Saving Design, Non-Removable SSD

mac mini dock

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

 

[Bigwaff]

That hub/enclosure USB 10Gbps … that slow. Your mini got Thunderbolt 4 ports on the back… that fast.

 

[genexx]

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.

 

[Guenter]

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.

 

[tacman7]

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

 

[Fishrrman]

I'm thinking that you might be a good candidate for one of those INTERNAL m4 Mini SSD upgrades.

You'll have to research the details yourself. I'd look here first and read the entire thread:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/upgrading-m4-mac-mini-ssd-pre-soldered-2tb-chip-options.2446405/

 

[tacman7]

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

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

 

[dmccloud]

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.

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.

 

[bzgnyc2]

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

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

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.

 

[Basic75]

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.

How warm or hot does it get?

 

[Alpha Centauri]

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.

 

[genexx]

How warm or hot does it get?

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.

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.

 

[tacman7]

I recommend the WD SN850X because it works with all PowerManagement Functions in MacOS.

Does that apply to this one as well?

WD_BLACK 2TB SN8100​

 

[Ifti]

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.

 

[Rustyfan]

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

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

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.

 

[Boppi]

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.

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

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.

 

[genexx]

Does that apply to this one as well?

WD_BLACK 2TB SN8100​

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:

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

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.

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.

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

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/ :

 

[VaZ]

Almost half the speed of my internal setup in a 14 year old 2012 Mac Pro

 

[genexx]

Almost half the speed of my internal setup in a 14 year old 2012 Mac Pro
View attachment 2570788

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.

 

[VaZ]

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.

RAID

 

[VaZ]

You can delete your post now.

 

[godzfire]

RAID

You can delete your post now.

Or you could have said that off the bat because anyone looking at a 2012 model would wonder the same thing he did, and it's about singular enclosure types. It also honestly comes off as boasting and doesn't provide any help to the original question.

 

[tacman7]

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!

 

[pacmania1982]

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:

Phixero (2TB Storage) M4 Mac mini Dock, Aluminum unibody Design, 6-in-1 hub, 10Gbps USB-A, SD/TF Reader, Space-Saving Design, Non-Removable SSD

mac mini dock

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

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:

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