Fastest external SSD and interface/connector for both 2014 mini and M1 Mini?

[Doug0915]

What is the fastest interface and connector type (thunderbolt, USB) for use with external SSD that I can use for both my current 2014 Mac mini AND the new M1 Mac mini when/if I get it?

The goal is to get an SSD that can take as much advantage of the M1 Mini's USB4/Thunderbolt3 connectors while at the same time have the fastest speeds on the 2014 Mac mini (Any way to use the Thunderbolt 2 port?)

Thanks for the help!

 

[Stephen.R]

A tb3 ssd (so long as it’s not bus powered) should work with the 2014 mini via the tb3 to tb2 adapter Apple sells.

 

[Doug0915]

A tb3 ssd (so long as it’s not bus powered) should work with the 2014 mini via the tb3 to tb2 adapter Apple sells.

Thunderbolt 3 drives are pretty darn expensive (for 1TB it's like 400 bucks!).

Is there ANY way to adapt a USB 3.2 type-c drive to Thunderbolt 2?

I suppose I should check my expectations. USB 3.1 is 5GB. I suppose I could get a USB 3.2 drive (or wait for USB 4 SSDs) and use it on the Type-A connector (with an adaptor of course) on the 2014 and that is pretty cheap. Would an SSD using USB 3.1 at 5GB be slower than my fusion drive? Or faster?

 

[BeatCrazy]

Thunderbolt 3 drives are pretty darn expensive (for 1TB it's like 400 bucks!).

Is there ANY way to adapt a USB 3.2 type-c drive to Thunderbolt 2?

Not without using a dock ($$$).

 

[Stephen.R]

USB 3 (5Gbps) is going to top out around half a GB/sec in real world speeds, and that’s if the SSD can keep up.

cheap external SSDs are usually 2.5” SATA units, while they’re much faster than mechanical drives they’re nowhere near the speed of NVME drives, so usb3 speeds are probably not a huge bottleneck.

 

[xylitol]

I suppose I could get a USB 3.2 drive (or wait for USB 4 SSDs) and use it on the Type-A connector (with an adaptor of course) on the 2014 and that is pretty cheap.

If you buy say the Samsung T7, you don't need an adaptor, since usb-C to C and C to A cable are both included.

 

[jaytv111]

Thunderbolt 3 drives are pretty darn expensive (for 1TB it's like 400 bucks!).

Is there ANY way to adapt a USB 3.2 type-c drive to Thunderbolt 2?

I suppose I should check my expectations. USB 3.1 is 5GB. I suppose I could get a USB 3.2 drive (or wait for USB 4 SSDs) and use it on the Type-A connector (with an adaptor of course) on the 2014 and that is pretty cheap. Would an SSD using USB 3.1 at 5GB be slower than my fusion drive? Or faster?

Thunderbolt 2 can be converted to USB, but I think they don’t have 10 Gbits USB 3.1 gen 2 from TB2 adapters, so it’s no different than the built in USB 3.0 ports.

Just an FYI you don’t need adapters when going from USB-C to any USB host, you just need the right cable, which for a lot of SSDs they include USB-A to C and C to C cables so you could connect to any USB computer.

However, there are SSDs that are Thunderbolt only. Maybe your best bet for the older Mac is on older Thunderbolt 2 SSDs, which can be used with the Thunderbolt 2 Macs as well as Thunderbolt 3 Macs through the Apple TB2 to TB3 adapter. You can also go the other way, as the adapter is bidirectional, as in a TB3 SSD with the TB2 Macs. Do not, however, make the mistake of thinking that adapter should work with USB devices, as it is Thunderbolt protocol only. People have bought the Apple TB3 to TB2 adapter and thought it should work with DisplayPort monitors, or USB-C devices, or other things that aren’t strictly Thunderbolt, and then left bad reviews saying how it doesn’t work where it wasn’t designed to work.

Probably even more confusingly there are a new generation of Thunderbolt 3 devices that can be used with any USB host. They use what’s called Titan Ridge controllers, which support USB and Thunderbolt protocols, so those are fully universal and work with virtually any computer with USB or Thunderbolt. Those are probably gonna be the most expensive drives on the market.

If you’re fine with 5 Gbits speeds though, you should find any number of USB-C SSDs like Samsung T7. It includes the USB-C to A cable you need for the 2014 and you could use either USB-C to C for the M1 Mac Mini for 10 Gbits speeds, or C to A cable for 5 Gbits speeds because Apple’s USB A ports are only 5 Gbits (there are 10 Gbits USB A ports but Apple has never included one of those on any product of theirs).

If you still wanted the fastest for both then the Lacie Mobile SSD Pro is Titan Ridge and would work with Thunderbolt on both computers (through the Apple adapter for the 2014). In addition to also working with USB-only hosts, like most pre-Thunderbolt 3 Windows machines. But while it’s about twice the speed, it’s also twice the price over the T7.

 

[Doug0915]

Thunderbolt 2 can be converted to USB, but I think they don’t have 10 Gbits USB 3.1 gen 2 from TB2 adapters, so it’s no different than the built in USB 3.0 ports.

Just an FYI you don’t need adapters when going from USB-C to any USB host, you just need the right cable, which for a lot of SSDs they include USB-A to C and C to C cables so you could connect to any USB computer.

However, there are SSDs that are Thunderbolt only. Maybe your best bet for the older Mac is on older Thunderbolt 2 SSDs, which can be used with the Thunderbolt 2 Macs as well as Thunderbolt 3 Macs through the Apple TB2 to TB3 adapter. You can also go the other way, as the adapter is bidirectional, as in a TB3 SSD with the TB2 Macs. Do not, however, make the mistake of thinking that adapter should work with USB devices, as it is Thunderbolt protocol only. People have bought the Apple TB3 to TB2 adapter and thought it should work with DisplayPort monitors, or USB-C devices, or other things that aren’t strictly Thunderbolt, and then left bad reviews saying how it doesn’t work where it wasn’t designed to work.

Probably even more confusingly there are a new generation of Thunderbolt 3 devices that can be used with any USB host. They use what’s called Titan Ridge controllers, which support USB and Thunderbolt protocols, so those are fully universal and work with virtually any computer with USB or Thunderbolt. Those are probably gonna be the most expensive drives on the market.

If you’re fine with 5 Gbits speeds though, you should find any number of USB-C SSDs like Samsung T7. It includes the USB-C to A cable you need for the 2014 and you could use either USB-C to C for the M1 Mac Mini for 10 Gbits speeds, or C to A cable for 5 Gbits speeds because Apple’s USB A ports are only 5 Gbits (there are 10 Gbits USB A ports but Apple has never included one of those on any product of theirs).

If you still wanted the fastest for both then the is Titan Ridge and would work with Thunderbolt on both computers (through the Apple adapter for the 2014). In addition to also working with USB-only hosts, like most pre-Thunderbolt 3 Windows machines. But while it’s about twice the speed, it’s also twice the price over the T7.

Thanks. After looking at the prices of dedicated Thunderbolt I'm wondering if it's worth it.

Do you think it would be better to run off an external 5GB USB 3.1 Drive over the 1TB Fusion drive my Mini is currently running on?

 

[IowaLynn]

Split the fusion as someone mentioned and use SSD for system.

 

[jaytv111]

Thanks. After looking at the prices of dedicated Thunderbolt I'm wondering if it's worth it.

Do you think it would be better to run off an external 5GB USB 3.1 Drive over the 1TB Fusion drive my Mini is currently running on?

I can’t really say, it depends always on how you are using the drive. The Fusion drive is a caching system, and it speeds up only the cached files, but otherwise outside of cache it is only a regular HDD. So from that standpoint, a full SSD will be faster since all files will be on a SSD. But being limited to gen 1 USB speeds will limit the potential of the drive. The SSD within the system is hooked up to a full SATA interface or better and that will be faster than gen 1 USB, but the hard drive in the system would be slower than an SSD on gen 1 USB. So it’s a mixed bag and no way to know what is better and what isn’t from a distance. Usually people stick with the main drive as is and use the external drive for “scratch”, ie edit videos or documents and you could use it with any computer you want, and only copy files to the main drive if you need the speed boost because your main system drive is a full SSD (with internal NVMe interface).

 

[Doug0915]

Split the fusion as someone mentioned and use SSD for system.

When you say split, you mean move my home directory over to the external SSD?

 

[Boyd01]

Split the fusion as someone mentioned and use SSD for system.

FWIW, that's what I did on my 2014 2.8ghz/8gb Mini and this is what I get from the 128gb SSD

 

[Doug0915]

I can’t really say, it depends always on how you are using the drive. The Fusion drive is a caching system, and it speeds up only the cached files, but otherwise outside of cache it is only a regular HDD. So from that standpoint, a full SSD will be faster since all files will be on a SSD. But being limited to gen 1 USB speeds will limit the potential of the drive. The SSD within the system is hooked up to a full SATA interface or better and that will be faster than gen 1 USB, but the hard drive in the system would be slower than an SSD on gen 1 USB. So it’s a mixed bag and no way to know what is better and what isn’t from a distance. Usually people stick with the main drive as is and use the external drive for “scratch”, ie edit videos or documents and you could use it with any computer you want, and only copy files to the main drive if you need the speed boost because your main system drive is a full SSD (with internal NVMe interface).

So I did a black magic disk test between an old T5 and the Fusion drive. The Fusion drive was faster on reads which makes sense. I ended up ordering a T7 and will report the speed test back. I can also do a sysbench disk test since I have brew installed. I'll send back the results to this thread in case anybody is interested.

 

[Boyd01]

Here's a 2tb T7 on my 2018 Mini

Have not tried the T7 on my 2014 Mini, but this is what I get with the older Samsung T3

 

[Fishrrman]

My suggestion:

Get a USB3.1 gen2 drive.
Or... assemble one yourself (this is literally "a snap").

On the 2014 Mini, you should see read speeds around 420-430MBps.

On the M1 Mini, you should see read speeds up around 900-950MBps.

These are also cost-effective, vis-a-vis what you lay out for a thunderbolt drive AND the tbolt3-to-tbolt2 adapter you'd need for the 2014 Mini. MUCH more bang for the bucks.

 

[Boyd01]

When you say split, you mean move my home directory over to the external SSD?

The Fusion drive is actually a 1tb hard disk plus a 128gb SSD. They can be "split" using a terminal command, then the SSD can be re-formatted and you can install the operating system on it. This puts your home directory, applications, etc on the SSD. That is what I did, and I use an external SSD for everything else.

However, I only use my 2014 Mini as an iTunes server so I have almost nothing on the internal SSD, just the basic MacOS installation. I have a 4tb external SSD with my iTunes library.

 

[Doug0915]

My suggestion:

Get a USB3.1 gen2 drive.
Or... assemble one yourself (this is literally "a snap").

On the 2014 Mini, you should see read speeds around 420-430MBps.

On the M1 Mini, you should see read speeds up around 900-950MBps.

These are also cost-effective, vis-a-vis what you lay out for a thunderbolt drive AND the tbolt3-to-tbolt2 adapter you'd need for the 2014 Mini. MUCH more bang for the bucks.

yea, that's what I've figured. thanks for the help!

 

[swealpha]

can someone please explain why you guys keep saying we should buy a "USB3.1 gen2 external drive." when on apple.com it says that mini late 2014 only supports USB 3.0???

Thank you!! <3

 

[Ifti]

can someone please explain why you guys keep saying we should buy a "USB3.1 gen2 external drive." when on apple.com it says that mini late 2014 only supports USB 3.0???

Thank you!! <3

Because the OP wants it to be compatible with a new M1 Mini as well, so makes sense to get a faster USB3.1 Gen2 drive, which will still be compatible with the older system at a slower speed for the meantime, while being ready for use with the newer machine at a faster rate.

 

[swealpha]

Ohh i get it, so for me that only want a fast external ssd i can buy any USB 3.XX GenXX
they are all compatibly with the mini late 2014?


Amazing, thank you! I loosed so much time searhcing for a cheap external ssd.

 

[Ifti]

Getting a faster SSD just future proofs you for newer machines I guess.....but you pay extra for the faster speed too.....
Otherwise yes, you can purchase a cheaper USB3 Gen 1 drive if you wanted and it will work fine.

 

[IowaLynn]

I’d skip USB 3.1 and go with USB 3.2 gen 2

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