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

[Macalway]

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

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

Besides the point, obviously. This thread is for people who own or will get the base model TO SAVE MONEY. So the actual discussion here is about external drives, and how to use them

I'm waiting, perhaps illogically, for an internal upgrade. I don't know the technical details, but if some hacker can to this day-one, I'm thinking it's a possibility at least.

Does anyone have any further info on this?

 

[Chancha]

Besides the point, obviously. This thread is for people who own or will get the base model TO SAVE MONEY. So the actual discussion here is about external drives, and how to use them

I'm waiting, perhaps illogically, for an internal upgrade. I don't know the technical details, but if some hacker can to this day-one, I'm thinking it's a possibility at least.

Does anyone have any further info on this?

In China, solder business are already taking orders as we speak, and finished units are shipping out. This requires sending in your mini or being in driving distance to a shop that does this. There must be like 20 or more such shops across the country that I can see.

Then at least one electronics shop claims they are already making daughter boards by copying Apple's schematics. There are some price listed but no photos no video no proof yet.

All of these happen much more and much faster than what was done on the Mac Studio, probably due to the difference in demand. In China there was some government subsidised incentive / tax breaks for IT stuff for the last couple months, the deadline coincided with the Mac mini launch, so a CRAP load of people bought the base model.

 

[vertsix]

I picked up a Mac Mini M4 with all the excitement for fun, for my work desk, and also to run my Plex server. I currently have a Synology NAS running Plex but sometimes movie playback stutters.

The obvious solution to the mini's poor storage is an external hard drive. But what about using the NAS with 10gbe connection?

How would you handle storage?

I'm thinking of putting my photo library on the NAS (1tb), keep my documents folder on the mini synced with either One Drive or Synology Drive (50-100gb), and other projects like editing movies will either be Synology or external drives.

Will 10gbe be fast enough for editing movies (just home videos)? or should I just plan on external?

Any other tips to keep this small storage working for me? I was too cheap to upgrae the storage.

Return it.

 

[magbarn]

Besides the point, obviously. This thread is for people who own or will get the base model TO SAVE MONEY. So the actual discussion here is about external drives, and how to use them

I'm waiting, perhaps illogically, for an internal upgrade. I don't know the technical details, but if some hacker can to this day-one, I'm thinking it's a possibility at least.

Does anyone have any further info on this?

Yeah most of us on this thread don’t feel too generous to Apple by almost doubling the price of the mini for just $50 worth of 1TB of storage which is common everywhere else.

unless some 3rd party manufacture decides to sell the nand chips, it’s going to be slim pickings on the internal upgrade. We’ve had upgradable Mac studios for awhile and no one has made custom nands for it. Your only options are to find raw virgin nands on Ali express and solder them in.

 

[Macalway]

In China, solder business are already taking orders as we speak, and finished units are shipping out. This requires sending in your mini or being in driving distance to a shop that does this. There must be like 20 or more such shops across the country that I can see.

Then at least one electronics shop claims they are already making daughter boards by copying Apple's schematics. There are some price listed but no photos no video no proof yet.

All of these happen much more and much faster than what was done on the Mac Studio, probably due to the difference in demand. In China there was some government subsidised incentive / tax breaks for IT stuff for the last couple months, the deadline coincided with the Mac mini launch, so a CRAP load of people bought the base model.

Thanks, and this sounds promising. I get that it's more likely than with something like a Studio. Let's hope

 

[Chancha]

Thanks, and this sounds promising. I get that it's more likely than with something like a Studio. Let's hope

What I think will happen is that, if and when the daughter board card (soldered with new NANDs) do become a real product and is problem free, then these same people will start selling it overseas through Aliexpress. Probably in a month or two.

 

[Pagemakers]

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

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

I do get where you’re coming from for those of us about to purchase a new Mini.

I can get a 256GB Mini on Education for £499 + say £230 for 1TB OWC = £729

Or

1TB Mini for £879

Difference £150 and if VAT registered £125.

I’m wondering if for £125 I’d be better off going for a Mini with 1TB.

 

[MrGimper]

I do get where you’re coming from for those of us about to purchase a new Mini.

I can get a 256GB Mini on Education for £499 + say £230 for 1TB OWC = £729

Or

1TB Mini for £879

Difference £150 and if VAT registered £125.

I’m wondering if for £125 I’d be better off going for a Mini with 1TB.

I think this is what it boils down to. I just went for 1TB instead of sitting debating if 512GB would last and having to use up a port to run an external hot enclosure taking up desk space.

 

[paronga]

I’m looking to get a 4TB external what Apple doesn’t even offer on the base mini. In the next few years I’ll be adding another 8tb so saying increase the internal isn’t really helpful.

 

[Donka]

I do get where you’re coming from for those of us about to purchase a new Mini.

I can get a 256GB Mini on Education for £499 + say £230 for 1TB OWC = £729

Or

1TB Mini for £879

Difference £150 and if VAT registered £125.

I’m wondering if for £125 I’d be better off going for a Mini with 1TB.

You can get an OWC 1M2 enclosure and 2TB NVMe drive for £200. £700 combined for you vs £1299 from Apple with Edu discount.

 

[ravinder08]

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

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

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

 

[MrGimper]

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

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

I've been waiting for days for someone to just post this answer 🤣

 

[magbarn]

I do get where you’re coming from for those of us about to purchase a new Mini.

I can get a 256GB Mini on Education for £499 + say £230 for 1TB OWC = £729

Or

1TB Mini for £879

Difference £150 and if VAT registered £125.

I’m wondering if for £125 I’d be better off going for a Mini with 1TB.

Wow Either OWC and/or UK prices are horrible. That's 2-4TB external NVME PCIe 4.0/TB4 enclosure money here in the States.

 

[Pagemakers]

UK….

 

[magbarn]

Why are you limiting yourself to overpriced OWC? I've had the Acasis with a hotter running 4TB SN850X for over a year now and have transferred up to 1TB at a time without overheating.

 

[Macalway]

Like others have mentioned, it would be wise to shop around for the external solution, other wise you are going to needlessly pay more.

 

[Fishrrman]

If the external drive is going to be used for things that don't require the fastest speeds...

That is to say, if USB3.1 gen2 speeds (about 900+/- reads) are workable for you...

... then consider something like the Cruicial X9 drive.
I have one and it's very nice, compact and "fast enough" for general storage. In fact, I use it as the "test Sequoia boot drive" for my 2018 Mini. Barely gets warm at all during normal usage, even during a "high usage" software update procedure...

 

[marstan]

If the external drive is going to be used for things that don't require the fastest speeds...

That is to say, if USB3.1 gen2 speeds (about 900+/- reads) are workable for you...

... then consider something like the Cruicial X9 drive.
I have one and it's very nice, compact and "fast enough" for general storage. In fact, I use it as the "test Sequoia boot drive" for my 2018 Mini. Barely gets warm at all during normal usage, even during a "high usage" software update procedure...

That is right. Horses for courses. Match the performance to the use case and save money and resources.

I have ordered the OWC 1M2 (empty, of course; not paying those Apple-like prices for OWC's ssds) because it appears to have superior performance and heat management. I will be using it to offload virtual machines and other working media files which I prefer to run at the same speed as the internal drive on my M2 pro mini.

 

[mi7chy]

Upcoming Sabrent Thunderbolt 5 external storage preview and pre-order.

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

Besides the point, obviously. This thread is for people who own or will get the base model TO SAVE MONEY. So the actual discussion here is about external drives, and how to use them

I'm waiting, perhaps illogically, for an internal upgrade. I don't know the technical details, but if some hacker can to this day-one, I'm thinking it's a possibility at least.

Does anyone have any further info on this?

The board are on sales. Originally those were designed for the M1Pro and M2 replaceable SSD.
A local repair shop near my place has ordered a bunch of those boards and claimed to be able to do the upgrade.
For 2x 2TB NAND chips and the board, they offer to do the upgrade for around 400$, probably more expensive than the external SSD option, but pretty much cheaper than Apple official option.

 

[marstan]

View attachment 2452805
Why are you limiting yourself to overpriced OWC? I've had the Acasis with a hotter running 4TB SN850X for over a year now and have transferred up to 1TB at a time without overheating.

The ACASIS uses the JHL7440 chipset which is slower than the ASM2464P found in the OWC enclosure due to bandwidth (~18Gbs) reserved for DisplayPort and older USB protocols. It is still plenty fast (~2800 vs ~3100) but why not go for the faster chip? OWC costs a little bit more but not overpriced if you buy the bare enclosure. I have one on order and will populate with a 2TB Samsung 990 Pro.

 

[bdsmith63]

USB 4 / Thunderbolt 4 enclosures for NVMe drives are well under US$100 now. Buy that and a decent NVMe drive and you're set. Just make sure you're getting an enclosure well-designed for heat dissipation, because those enclosure chipsets and SSDs can run quite hot otherwise.

Or if that's too complicated, you can buy external USB 3.2 SSDs, like the Samsung T7 Shield or the Crucial X9 Pro. Those run quite cool and use way less power than the USB 4 / TB 4 SSDs, but are about 1/3rd the speed.

I'm not as familiar with the NVMe drives and enclosures, but I was looking at the Samsung T7 or the Crucial X9, however would like faster R/W speeds, the SanDisk Pro-G40 (4TB) seems to be very fast and efficient external SSD, with good pricing right now!

I've had good luck with SanDisk drives for many years, ---any thoughts? I would be using it on my Mac Studio M2 Ultra with Final Cut Pro projects?

 

[EugW]

I'm not as familiar with the NVMe drives and enclosures, but I was looking at the Samsung T7 or the Crucial X9, however would like faster R/W speeds, the SanDisk Pro-G40 (4TB) seems to be very fast and efficient external SSD, with good pricing right now!

I've had good luck with SanDisk drives for many years, ---any thoughts? I would be using it on my Mac Studio M2 Ultra with Final Cut Pro projects?

My understanding is the SanDisk Pro-G40 is basically a Thunderbolt 3 / USB 3 enclosure with a standard Western Digital NVMe SSD inside.

 

[Donka]

I've linked to a post I made this morning in another thread about the OWC 1M2 enclosure with a WD Black SN770 2TB drive...

#1,688

 

[marstan]

I've linked to a post I made this morning in another thread about the OWC 1M2 enclosure with a WD Black SN770 2TB drive...

#1,688

Ha. The OWC is a tad faster than the Apple internal drive. Looking forward to getting mine tomorrow.