How Do I Cope With Mac mini M4 Dismal 256GB Storage?

[Gloor]

divide by 8 (not 10)

1 byte = 8 bits

Essentially take anything measured in Gigabits and divide by 10 to get Gigabytes.

So, 10Gigabit (per second) speed (in your case over ethernet) would be 1Gigabyte speed (per second). Now, do you truly have 10Gigabit ethernet cables in 100% of your ethernet setup?...and a 10Gigabit Switch? If not, you instantly slow down to the slowest link in the chain. Then factor in that you are not going to get 100% speed on any medium. Finally, whatever NAS drive you have connected to your 10Gigabit ethernet will need to operate at 10Gigabit speed (such as being NVMe). Then you have to figure in if you are working on large video file sizes as well as the resolution of the movies (4k vs 1080 vs 720 etc) which will all have input on how much speed you need for real-time video editing vs. choppy video editing while the software drags trying to read/write to the drive.

Now, factor in all above pieces to the puzzle as well as price tag(s) and actual setup and ask yourself if it's just easier, more reliable, and simpler to have an external hard drive such as the Sandisk 2TB Extreme Portable SSD for $150 that operates at 1Gigabyte (10Gigabit) speed via USB-C. There's a 4TB option, too, for $279. Both on Amazon.

Remember that your network (and therefore NAS drive performance) will be affected by any other traffic on the network.

Do the math and maybe it's just easier (and better) for you to return the Mini and buy a new one with much higher storage. I believe the storage internal to the Mini will be at least 2x faster than the very, very fast Sandisk I mentioned above since the 2022 Mini M2 operated at 27Gigabits per second (2.7Gigabytes per second which is more than 2x faster than the fastest external Sandisk USB). There was some wishy washy moves by Apple on the Mini M2's various configurations and people were getting much different drive performance...if I recall correctly the Mini M2 base's 256GB drive speed was crippled compared to the 1TB and 2TB.

There are some good suggestions on this thread about building your own external drive but I don't think you are looking for top-of-the-line drive performance (as well as building it yourself) otherwise you would have just plunked down the same amount of money when you bought from Apple and just got the larger drive.

My general answer: Return it and get the larger drive which will likely only be about $200 more than a USB-C setup, far faster than the USB-C, no external devices hanging around, and also leaves your USB-C ports open for future drives that will surely come down in price if/when you need them.

 

[magbarn]

After the surplus post-COVID hurting WD / Samsung’s bottom line, they and a few other NAND manufacturers got together to decrease production in hopes of price fixing, and it worked. That’s the gist of what I heard.

Unfortunately memory manufacturers have been a cartel for years. In fact several have been convicted of price fixing for some time, but the penalty is never severe enough to stop them from doing it again and again.

 

[paronga]

Does anyone know if the OWC Aura IV SSD that they have in their 1M2 external drive product have DRAM?

At this stage I think I’ll boot off the internal storage and just move my home folders to external. Still want a good drive in there though!

 

[Gloor]

What is the difference between Samsung 990 Pro and SAMSUNG T7 (except for speed). I've been using T7 for a while and I need new storage for the M4 Mini that I'll get soon so wonder if I should invest in the enclosure and get 990 Pro or there isn't much difference. The speed of T7 has been fine for me as I don't move much stuff around and in all honesty I've been booting from T7 on my 2017 MBP and I couldn't really notice any lag.

So, am I missing something or it's just that? (faster)

 

[EugW]

What is the difference between Samsung 990 Pro and SAMSUNG T7 (except for speed). I've been using T7 for a while and I need new storage for the M4 Mini that I'll get soon so wonder if I should invest in the enclosure and get 990 Pro or there isn't much difference. The speed of T7 has been fine for me as I don't move much stuff around and in all honesty I've been booting from T7 on my 2017 MBP and I couldn't really notice any lag.

So, am I missing something or it's just that? (faster)

T7 is DRAM-less and runs very cool, but runs much slower both for peak speeds and sustained speeds. Great for lots of type of usage, but not so much for high bandwidth uses. One problem for example is that with large sequential file transfers, like we're talking 100 GB write or something, it will start out fast, and then drop way, way down to under 350 MB/s. The Samsung 990 Pro is able to maintain speeds 4X that even for large file transfers.

However, the T7 Shield performs much better than the T7. If the T7 has largely been fine for your usage, but you think you need more storage, you could go up a tier and get the T7 Shield or the Crucial X9 Pro (not the plain X9). Those would be a nice upgrade for consistent speed. (The T9 and X10 Pro are not really appropriate for Mac users, because they are more expensive for higher speed, but we can't get that higher speed on Macs. The Samsung T9 and Crucial X10 Pro both use USB 3.2 gen 2x2 20 Gbps, but Macs are capped at 10 Mbps, so all that extra speed is lost.)

BTW, my M4 Mac mini boots and loads applications way, way faster from its internal drive than other machines ever did from the T7. I had the boot OS for my 2017 27" iMac Core i5 installed on a T5 and a T7 just for backups, and I can tell you it was much faster booting off the internal drive. IMO you're often doing yourself a disservice by booting off a T7. Get a sufficiently large internal SSD for the boot OS and your applications (eg. 512 GB), and then put other stuff on the external drive.

 

[Gloor]

Thank you for the explanation.

I think the T7 was fine on the 2017 model but the M4 will be slightly different. Most used apps will be on the internal (which I believe 256gb is plenty) and for rest like documents, photos etc. I'll have the external T7 Shield then.

I guess that would be the perfect combo. I'll leave the 990 Pro as it seems I won't benefit from the extra speeds.

Thank you so much for the input

P.s.: if on Black Friday the T9 is cheaper than T7 Shield then I assume I'll just get that as there is no harm having T9 even if I can't take advantage of the full speed, right?

T7 is DRAM-less and runs very cool, but runs much slower both for peak speeds and sustained speeds. Great for lots of type of usage, but not so much for high bandwidth uses. One problem for example is that with large sequential file transfers, like we're talking 100 GB write or something, it will start out fast, and then drop way, way down to under 350 MB/s. The Samsung 990 Pro is able to maintain speeds 4X that even for large file transfers.

However, the T7 Shield performs much better than the T7. If the T7 has largely been fine for your usage, but you think you need more storage, you could go up a tier and get the T7 Shield or the Crucial X9 Pro (not the plain X9). Those would be a nice upgrade for consistent speed. (The T9 and X10 Pro are not really appropriate for Mac users, because they are more expensive for higher speed, but we can't get that higher speed on Macs. The Samsung T9 and Crucial X10 Pro both use USB 3.2 gen 2x2 20 Gbps, but Macs are capped at 10 Mbps, so all that extra speed is lost.)

BTW, my M4 Mac mini boots and loads applications way, way faster from its internal drive than other machines ever did from the T7. I had the boot OS for my 2017 27" iMac Core i5 installed on a T5 and a T7 just for backups, and I can tell you it was much faster booting off the internal drive. IMO you're often doing yourself a disservice by booting off a T7. Get a sufficiently large internal SSD for the boot OS and your applications (eg. 512 GB), and then put other stuff on the external drive.

 

[EugW]

P.s.: if on Black Friday the T9 is cheaper than T7 Shield then I assume I'll just get that as there is no harm having T9 even if I can't take advantage of the full speed, right?

Where are you located? I see the 4 TB Samsung T9 is on sale right now in the US for $299.99.

I don't know all the specs and benchmarks for the T9, but I'm guessing it should probably perform roughly similarly to the T7 Shield on Macs.

 

[Gloor]

I'm in Canada so our sales are usually not as good as USA but I hope that I'll find some good deals for either T7 Shield or above. I aim for 2TB unless 4TB gets super duper great deal

Where are you located? I see the 4 TB Samsung T9 is on sale right now in the US for $299.99.

I don't know all the specs and benchmarks for the T9, but I'm guessing it should probably perform roughly similarly to the T7 Shield on Macs.

 

[EugW]

I'm in Canada so our sales are usually not as good as USA but I hope that I'll find some good deals for either T7 Shield or above. I aim for 2TB unless 4TB gets super duper great deal

I'm in Canada too. The 4 TB T9 is currently on sale for $460. The lowest it's ever been was $400 during Boxing Week. The T7 Shield is $500, but it's currently not on sale. I wonder if it will go on sale soon. Last year it was down to $270.

Personally I'm waiting for the 990 EVO Plus and 990 Pro to go on sale. I'm guessing the 990 Pro 4 TB could go on sale as soon as this weekend, judging by the 990 series price history. However, I'm not so confident about the 990 EVO Plus, because it's in short supply.

 

[magbarn]

Unless you're an ultimate tech neophyte, you're going to get much better performance assembling a TB4 enclosure like Acasis and just buying a WD SNX850/ Samsung 990Pro 2 or 4TB model. They do get a bit warm, but only if you're transferring hundreds of gigs at a time. I would avoid the USB C prebuilts like the T7 as they're slow for the money.

 

[ericinboston]

divide by 8 (not 10)

1 byte = 8 bits

I know, but that doesn't apply to this speed conversation. I am technically comparing the prefixes "Mega" vs. "Giga" which are a power of 10 apart. It could be a MegaWaterDroplet vs. a GigaWaterDroplet vs. a TeraWaterDroplet for all I care.

Don't even get me started with "the industry" that's been arguing for 30+ years over what 1000 bytes (or 1000KB) equals in regards to storage. Pure madness.

 

[Gloor]

Again, that is correct but I don't need the speed as I don't transfer a lot of data. I just need place for my documents and photos + some low size projects and for that the speed is more than enough. Think of it this way, my 2017 internal SSD has probably around 500mb read/write speed and that was never an issue so T7 with double that is already an upgrade.

Also, the M4 internal will be used for the apps etc. so the external is really for just the rest.

Unless you're an ultimate tech neophyte, you're going to get much better performance assembling a TB4 enclosure like Acasis and just buying a WD SNX850/ Samsung 990Pro 2 or 4TB model. They do get a bit warm, but only if you're transferring hundreds of gigs at a time. I would avoid the USB C prebuilts like the T7 as they're slow for the money.

 

[Gloor]

That is fine but if you are explaining something then use the correct data or at least mention it so you don't spread false information to others.

Yeah, all this 1024 etc. is annoying but as we grew up on it we kinda know what to expect

I know. But it's far easier to simply round up and divide by 10 so you can get quick answer of comparing mega vs. giga, etc. when talking about computer tech SPEED. I am technically comparing the prefixes "Mega" vs. "Giga" which are a power of 10 apart. It could be a MegaWaterDroplet vs. a GigaWaterDroplet vs. a TeraWaterDroplet for all I care.

Don't even get me started with "the industry" that's been arguing for 30+ years over what 1000 bytes (or 1000KB) equals in regards to storage. Pure madness.

 

[ericinboston]

That is fine but if you are explaining something then use the correct data or at least mention it so you don't spread false information to others.

Yeah, all this 1024 etc. is annoying but as we grew up on it we kinda know what to expect

I edited my post after you quoted it...it's a touchy subject and I/we in the know could write a book about it...but I stand by my "divide by 10" rule regarding speed conversions as discussed in my post.

 

[Gloor]

I like your rule, its simple but yeah, its better to be precise for others so they don't then walk around telling inaccurate info

I edited my post after you quoted it...it's a touchy subject but I stand by my "divide by 10" rule

 

[ericinboston]

I like your rule, its simple but yeah, its better to be precise for others so they don't then walk around telling inaccurate info

The problem is that 1)Nobody is going to quickly figure out what a large number divided by 8 is let alone a close estimate, 2)the drive and network manufacturers have mucked up this conversation for 30+ years, 3)people who may not be very technical don't always need to know the exact precise information regarding a possible solution to their question and building on #2, the different definitions of what the vendors are using for MB or KB or GB or TB are often already in base 10 (sadly).

I could complain about your use of "mb" vs. "MB" in your post:

Think of it this way, my 2017 internal SSD has probably around 500mb read/write speed and that was never an issue so T7 with double that is already an upgrade.

 

[Pagemakers]

T7 is DRAM-less and runs very cool, but runs much slower both for peak speeds and sustained speeds. Great for lots of type of usage, but not so much for high bandwidth uses. One problem for example is that with large sequential file transfers, like we're talking 100 GB write or something, it will start out fast, and then drop way, way down to under 350 MB/s. The Samsung 990 Pro is able to maintain speeds 4X that even for large file transfers.

However, the T7 Shield performs much better than the T7. If the T7 has largely been fine for your usage, but you think you need more storage, you could go up a tier and get the T7 Shield or the Crucial X9 Pro (not the plain X9). Those would be a nice upgrade for consistent speed. (The T9 and X10 Pro are not really appropriate for Mac users, because they are more expensive for higher speed, but we can't get that higher speed on Macs. The Samsung T9 and Crucial X10 Pro both use USB 3.2 gen 2x2 20 Gbps, but Macs are capped at 10 Mbps, so all that extra speed is lost.)

BTW, my M4 Mac mini boots and loads applications way, way faster from its internal drive than other machines ever did from the T7. I had the boot OS for my 2017 27" iMac Core i5 installed on a T5 and a T7 just for backups, and I can tell you it was much faster booting off the internal drive. IMO you're often doing yourself a disservice by booting off a T7. Get a sufficiently large internal SSD for the boot OS and your applications (eg. 512 GB), and then put other stuff on the external drive.

Very informative but why do you say the T7 Shield performs much better than the T7? The technical specs look almost identical apart from the casing.

 

[EugW]

Very informative but why do you say the T7 Shield performs much better than the T7? The technical specs look almost identical apart from the casing.

Benchmarks showed the Shield was faster in certain workloads. Mind you it’s possible they could have updated the T7 later to match.

 

[waloshin]

Does anyone know if the OWC Aura IV SSD that they have in their 1M2 external drive product have DRAM?

At this stage I think I’ll boot off the internal storage and just move my home folders to external. Still want a good drive in there though!

If you have not bought one yet get a Samsung 990 Pro or a Kingston KC3000 both are insanely fast and have dram.

 

[paronga]

If you have not bought one yet get a Samsung 990 Pro or a Kingston KC3000 both are insanely fast and have dram.

Thanks for the advice. I will. Looks to be a decent saving and longer warranty on the Samsung on Amazon. Will have to check local prices in Australia though which can sometimes be weird. The 4TB OWC 1m2 I can get now for $650 aud not on sale but a Samsung 990 pro can go for a lot more here!

 

[Pagemakers]

Can you recommend a 990 Pro enclosure?

 

[paronga]

Can you recommend a 990 Pro enclosure?

I’ll be going this one personally. It’s for my business/media computer and don’t want to get something off Ali express. OWC is a trusted brand and the reviews have all been excellent.

OWC 1m2 USB4/TB4 External enclosure:

OWC Express 1M2 Portable NVMe Thunderbolt (USB-C) SSD USB4 Ultra Fast External SSD Drive with Aluminum Heat Sink Enclosure (Enclosure Only)

OWC Express 1M2 Ultra-fast, compatible, and reliable portable USB4 NVMe SSD. Choose DIY or ready-to-run solutions. Built to maximize the incredible speed capabilities of USB4, the Express 1M2 is OWC’s fastest portable SSD. It offers the power of choice to either build a drive or select the conven...

www.amazon.com

 

[waloshin]

Can you recommend a 990 Pro enclosure?

100% OWC 1M2

 

[Pagemakers]

I see the OWC comes as 1TB or 0TB. I assume the 1TB includes the SSD. If this is the correct which option to pick?

1: OWC 1TB complete
2: OWC enclosure with 990 Pro

 

[Fishrrman]

Question:
"How Do I Cope With Mac mini M4 Dismal 256GB Storage?"

Answer:
Get a larger internal SSD to begin with.
(that was easy...!)