My original optimism was subsequently dashed with further testing. No one should move their user folder to an external SSD if they use iCloud Drive.
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How Do I Cope With Mac mini M4 Dismal 256GB Storage?
- Thread starter sammyman
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I've added WaveLink USB4 PCIe MVMe SSD enclosure (ASM2464PM based - about $65 Amazon) with Orico 4TB SSD (about $200 Amazon); Read speed is +3000Mbps, Write +3100Mbps - both faster than stock internal SSD. I'm very tempted to add a second and RAID the two, which should put me over 5000Mbps (now waiting on second SSD to arrive to prove). Move all user files, library files and App directory to External drive, and change where users files are found. Improved my boot speed immediately. This method still has Apple AI enabled (I changed user directories location and app directories NOT Boot Drive designation).
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I consider that a feature honestly
(There’s a workaround also…has been posted about here)
Why if performance increased 50%? Not sure exact numbers yet, I saw this discussed when Mac Mini was released, I've been waiting to get hardware in place to try/test.
Because it drastically increases the risk of data loss, much more than even traditional RAID.
Also, if you have to ask why, then you probably shouldn’t be using it.
Sounds like you’re jumping to a conclusion without understanding the problem.
You say the problem is that playing movies from your Synology NAS sometimes stutters, and that faster storage will solve this problem. For starters, it’s playback of movies from the Synology to… what, exactly? To your television? To your Mac Mini? Most Synology NAS systems support 1 Gb/s Ethernet. You aren’t playing 1 Gb/s movies, so perhaps the problem is your network speed.
You could investigate two possible solutions: First, just use Ethernet instead of WiFi. Second, if you can’t use Ethernet, test your speed to the Synology and figure out how to make your WiFi faster: You could move the router, you could flip the Mac Mini upside down, you could try removing devices attached to the Mini to see if they’re causing interference, and relocate them with longer cables if needed.
Any of these solutions is a lot less complicated and expensive than replacing all of your storage.
That poster is using Plex. Often that means transcoding. If so, it might make more sense just to play the video file without transcoding (unless it's a crappy WiFi connection that is the cause).
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It depends. There are a number of factors to consider.
1. What are you editing? Higher resolutions/codecs require higher bandwidth
2. A single attached hard disk could be too slow depending on on (1)
3. The speed of a NAS is limited by the disk bandwidth. Multiply the # of disks x disk speed then subtract the speed of one disk for RAID 5. This is the theoretical maximum transfer rate. You may not be able to get that.
4. Speed is also limited by other activities on your Mac. I just ran BlackMagic on a Synology 8 x 16 TB and got an abysmal 107 MB/s both read and write. It may be related to my filesystem being bogged down by an MKV rip.
5. I haven't had stuttering issues with Plex servers even using a NAS with a weak cpu. Depends on the number of streams running of course.
I prefer QNAP to Synology due to their superior hardware. Some models have both thunderbolt and 10 GbE.
Yet Synology has way better software and tools.
I manage several Qnaps at work and wished we moved to Synology.
If you need lots and lots of storage, SSDs are simply too expensive. I am backed up for storage as well as Time Machine to a Synology NAS with 12TB of storage. Accessible anywhere there is Internet from your smartphone as well as computer. If you haven't bought the NAS yet, get one that can do 10GBE. Fast enough for mere mortals. Saving data is as simple as dragging your file/folder to a NAS folder on your desktop, or through Synology's DRIVE app on your phone.
I have an M1 Max Studio and it has an 8 TB WD Elements for Time Machine backup, an OWC 1M2 with 4 TB Samsung 990 Pro SSD, and an Orico USB 3.1 enclosure with a Crucial Gen 4 SSD. The I get 3,072 / 3,177 on the OWC and 500 / 1,532 on the Orico and I think that these are expected given the limitations of the devices. The 990 Pro is backed up while the Crucial isn't. Most of my stuff is on the OWC 1M2 and I can access it from Macs or Windows systems in the household. The Studio is hooked up to a GBE switch and a 2.5 GBE router so I need to upgrade cables and switch to get to 2.5 GBE on my desktops.
You could do the same thing with the M4 mini but I've read a lot of posts about external drives having problems with Gen 4 SSDs. The suspicion is that they use too much power. There seems to be a limitation if you are running highish power stuff off all three USB-C ports on the back. I've not had any issues at all with my external drives and the OWC has been running for several months and the Orico has been running since last fall. The Time Machine disk has been running for a few years but it's plugged into one of the USB-A ports.
You could do the same thing with the M4 mini but I've read a lot of posts about external drives having problems with Gen 4 SSDs. The suspicion is that they use too much power. There seems to be a limitation if you are running highish power stuff off all three USB-C ports on the back. I've not had any issues at all with my external drives and the OWC has been running for several months and the Orico has been running since last fall. The Time Machine disk has been running for a few years but it's plugged into one of the USB-A ports.
You bring up an interesting challenge if the draw for some external drives is too much. I would gather this constraint would go away if one used certain types of docks/hubs that were power assisted. Caldigit's Element comes to mind. With this one could hang a few drives without power challenges. Thoughts?
Yup. If you can find an enclosure with external power, that solves the problem. Or a dock that provides a guaranteed amount of power.
I have this issue with my portable monitor too. It will run off a USB-C port for signal and power but gets black screens from time to time. I plugged in the second USB-C port to wall power and that solved the black screen problem.
I have two USB 4 / Thunderbolt SSDs. They work fine both hanging off a single USB 4 / Thunderbolt 4 hub, but since I had an extra identical USB 4 / Thunderbolt 4 hub* I'm actually running each drive off its own hub (each with its own 60 W power). I don't connect them directly to the Mac. I set it up this way for a couple of reasons:
1. When I run these USB 4 drives off a hub, that means I have extra USB 4 ports of course. However, I also noticed they are seen as Thunderbolt drives, not USB 4 drives when connected this way. What's the difference? They run a bit cooler when recognized as Thunderbolt drives as compared to when recognized as USB 4 drives. Power draw is lower at idle. If I plug them in directly to the Mac, they are recognized as USB 4 drives and idle power is higher. Chipset is ASM2464PD.
2. Using two hubs instead of 1 means that the two drives don't compete with each other for bandwidth.
*I bought a Plugable hub and it started having problems and I eventually narrowed it down to a bad cable. It was under warranty, so I asked them for a new cable. However, after their initial assessment, they weren't completely sure it was the cable so they sent a whole new package include both a new cable and a new hub as well, plus the included accessories. It turns out it was indeed just the cable that was the problem so I bought a new cable and now have two fully functional hubs.
