Internal vs external SSD storage on the M2 Pro Mac Mini

[coolerkid]

Hey which enclosure and 4TB drive did you end up choosing, and do you know the read/write speeds?

I’m waiting on a Konyead USB4 enclosure and 2TB Samsung 980 Pro NVME drive, hoping to get >2500 MBps. Chose this to go with 1TB of internal storage, rather than spending far more on a larger internal capacity.

I got the ACASIS (https://a.co/d/g7EEIjb). I'm getting right around 2200-2300 read, 2500-2600 write. I believe a lot of the enclosures lie about their specs, but looks like you got a good one too.

 

[yezza]

I got the ACASIS (https://a.co/d/g7EEIjb). I'm getting right around 2200-2300 read, 2500-2600 write. I believe a lot of the enclosures lie about their specs, but looks like you got a good one too.

Nice, thanks. Fingers crossed this Konyead enclosure will work out well.

 

[Jwinnin]

Hi all. Thank you for this discussion. I am going to purchase a a Mac mini m2 for family use. It will replace a 2013 iMac with a 512 GB drive that has about 100 GB left on it. Most of the space I think is occupied by photos our individual iPhoto libraries, and I am sure that these libraries will continue to grow over time. I am thinking about getting a 256 or 512GB drive and supplement it with an external SSD. I am considering one of the SanDisk Extreme Portable drives.

Question: If our iPhoto libraries are stored on the external drive, does Mac OS maintain the permissions?

Thank you!

 

[Dochartaigh]

If I go the route of a smaller internal storage option and make the internal 1TB as opposed to 2TB and move my video work/library to external, I will need to keep the drive attached as the family watches the videos quite often through the Apple TV.

I just went through this myself as I got my Mac mini M2 Pro just last week... and I've kinda hit a roadblock storage wise. I personally think hard drive speed is THE most important thing anymore - especially if you work with large files like video files (plus, I'm just impatient, I also need to copy files super fast to move from the office to my home quickly). I even paid DOUBLE for the Mac mini M2 Pro over the base model because the drive in that can read/write roughly TWICE as fast as the base model can (unless you get base model with larger drive, but then once you add the ram I want and such I was getting too close to the M2 Pro Price again so I just got that – with base 512GB drive, planning on using an external drive when I need more space).

BUT, I did not know a couple things when I made that decision - in order to get a SUPER BLAZING FAST external drive (just to get one that is as fast as the internal drive is, that's all I want), that means I can't even use a plain old SATA SSD but need a M.2 size NVMe SSD)...

Problem with those is even the cheapest M.2 external drive enclosure with fancy/new-age Thunderbolt 4 (or 3 even) and/or USB 4 –for 40gbps read/write– is like $130 by itself (more like $160 for the one I want) + whatever M.2 drive you put in that enclosure (best balance of price, capacity, TBW longevity, DRAM and all that good stuff you want in a M.2 drive was $160 for a Samsung 2TB... and even that one is one generation back...)... so that's $320 right there... really not too far off from the $400 you were initially balking at (which IS pricy, I agree... but now doesn't look as bad to me...).

The second thing is Apple screwed us all with NOT using the USB standard from 2016? which most other modern nice-ish computers have been using for years: USB 3.2 Gen 2 2x2 (the 2x2 is the important part). That standard can do 20GBPS which is nearly what a new Mac mini can do with its internal drive and would probably be fine for ANY possible needs... and those external enclosures are as cheap as $40-something... but no, can't use that on any Apple computer so the only options are a ~$25 10GBPS cheap-o enclosure (too slow IMO), or the ~$160 ones - NO in between.

Anyway, the above might be overkill, but when I get a new computer I literally plan on it lasting me for like 8+ years old (the 2023 Mac mini I got replaced a 2012... I got 10+ years out of that one!!!) so I try to get the fastest of everything I can afford so it'll still be usable all those years in the future.

 

[icemantx]

I just went through this myself as I got my Mac mini M2 Pro just last week... and I've kinda hit a roadblock storage wise. I personally think hard drive speed is THE most important thing anymore - especially if you work with large files like video files (plus, I'm just impatient, I also need to copy files super fast to move from the office to my home quickly). I even paid DOUBLE for the Mac mini M2 Pro over the base model because the drive in that can read/write roughly TWICE as fast as the base model can (unless you get base model with larger drive, but then once you add the ram I want and such I was getting too close to the M2 Pro Price again so I just got that – with base 512GB drive, planning on using an external drive when I need more space).

BUT, I did not know a couple things when I made that decision - in order to get a SUPER BLAZING FAST external drive (just to get one that is as fast as the internal drive is, that's all I want), that means I can't even use a plain old SATA SSD but need a M.2 size NVMe SSD)...

Problem with those is even the cheapest M.2 external drive enclosure with fancy/new-age Thunderbolt 4 (or 3 even) and/or USB 4 –for 40gbps read/write– is like $130 by itself (more like $160 for the one I want) + whatever M.2 drive you put in that enclosure (best balance of price, capacity, TBW longevity, DRAM and all that good stuff you want in a M.2 drive was $160 for a Samsung 2TB... and even that one is one generation back...)... so that's $320 right there... really not too far off from the $400 you were initially balking at (which IS pricy, I agree... but now doesn't look as bad to me...).

The second thing is Apple screwed us all with NOT using the USB standard from 2016? which most other modern nice-ish computers have been using for years: USB 3.2 Gen 2 2x2 (the 2x2 is the important part). That standard can do 20GBPS which is nearly what a new Mac mini can do with its internal drive and would probably be fine for ANY possible needs... and those external enclosures are as cheap as $40-something... but no, can't use that on any Apple computer so the only options are a ~$25 10GBPS cheap-o enclosure (too slow IMO), or the ~$160 ones - NO in between.

Anyway, the above might be overkill, but when I get a new computer I literally plan on it lasting me for like 8+ years old (the 2023 Mac mini I got replaced a 2012... I got 10+ years out of that one!!!) so I try to get the fastest of everything I can afford so it'll still be usable all those years in the future.

I ended up with the M2 Pro Mac Mini with 2TB for similar justification that you mentioned.

 

[Fishrrman]

"If our iPhoto libraries are stored on the external drive, does Mac OS maintain the permissions?"

Permissions are determined by the account that CREATED the files, and not "where they are stored".

If you have a Photos library on your internal drive, and you then copy it to an external drive, it is still "YOUR library", because of permissions.

 

[JamesMay82]

I ended up with the M2 Pro Mac Mini with 2TB for similar justification that you mentioned.

good to know. I’m in the same use case as you with family videos. I keep mine in Final Cut but then we never watch them, so I moved them to Apple photos which makes me watch them more as theybget highlighted to me more via the photos of the day etc. I’ll def check Out the tv app and home sharing. How do you tag all the unedited videos? Do you use albums or playlists in the to app and if so do they appear on to app on your to?

im surprised there’s not more posts like this on the forum based how much data a family can create with videos and photos. I think our Christmas morning video is like 15 gigs alone which is in 4k which I know is overkill but I like to shoot the highest For future.

 

[KeepCalmPeople]

I have been seeing an issue with my USB-C external SSD (SanDisk Extreme 2TB) where MacOS thinks it was improperly ejected when it goes to sleep. Here is somebody who posted about it on Apple's discussion forum:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/254322044

Apparently this has been an issue for years. I have changed my setting in Energy Saver to prevent hard drives from going to sleep, and I'll see if it makes a difference.

Also, I wanted to make a local backup of my iPhone on my Mac mini and store it on the external drive. Apple doesn't make that easy. You have to create a symbolic link to redirect MacOS to the external drive for the backup folder.

 

[maverick100]

I don't have a mini; but I have a very large iTunes library (99% video); it is just short of 16tb. For almost 15 years I have moved the the iTunes and iPhoto library to external drives. It has worked very well. It took a while to learn how to make it work well. I am not concerned about speed; but about having it work well when using Apple TV on two different tvs. It works really well; Apple TV's are connected by WIFI; both can be streaming content from my 2017 iMac from drives connected by TH3 without any issues. I have 2-4 bay external thunderbolt 3 enclosures. The setup works well. just giving feed back on my system.

 

[JamesMay82]

I don't have a mini; but I have a very large iTunes library (99% video); it is just short of 16tb. For almost 15 years I have moved the the iTunes and iPhoto library to external drives. It has worked very well. It took a while to learn how to make it work well. I am not concerned about speed; but about having it work well when using Apple TV on two different tvs. It works really well; Apple TV's are connected by WIFI; both can be streaming content from my 2017 iMac from drives connected by TH3 without any issues. I have 2-4 bay external thunderbolt 3 enclosures. The setup works well. just giving feed back on my system.

My iTunes is the same as yours but I must admit I’ve abandoned the video portion of mine and just stream it all from the cloud on our tvs as opposed to keeping the hard drives updated and sharing to the the to. Have you thought of doing that?

 

[maverick100]

My iTunes is the same as yours but I must admit I’ve abandoned the video portion of mine and just stream it all from the cloud on our tvs as opposed to keeping the hard drives updated and sharing to the the to. Have you thought of doing that?

Back in the day when I started you could created Video playlists that you could transfer to iPhones and iPads. When iTunes went away and Apple TV app came along you can no longer create video play lists and move them to iPhone and iPads. You can still created those play lists for the Apple TV and play them on Apple TVs but not on iPhones and iPads. The biggest reason I don't stream to my Apple tV's is because up until a few months ago the internet provide by Xfinity for over 20 years was just worthless. We now have Google fiber which works really well. Also, for several months; if you bought a TV season (example NCIS) and you wanted to download each episode as it was released by Apple (OSX Ventura) would download that file as NLS; which resulted in files you could not even put in an Apple TV playlist. I would need to download the file Using Mojave. I would then transfer the file to my iTunes library. Also, for several years I would remove the DRM from every movie and tv episode. I can no longer find any software that will do that in Ventura, Mojave, or Monterey. If I purchase a movie or tv episode I should be able to move that file and us it anyway I want. No longer possible on a Mac.

 

[JamesMay82]

Back in the day when I started you could created Video playlists that you could transfer to iPhones and iPads. When iTunes went away and Apple TV app came along you can no longer create video play lists and move them to iPhone and iPads. You can still created those play lists for the Apple TV and play them on Apple TVs but not on iPhones and iPads. The biggest reason I don't stream to my Apple tV's is because up until a few months ago the internet provide by Xfinity for over 20 years was just worthless. We now have Google fiber which works really well. Also, for several months; if you bought a TV season (example NCIS) and you wanted to download each episode as it was released by Apple (OSX Ventura) would download that file as NLS; which resulted in files you could not even put in an Apple TV playlist. I would need to download the file Using Mojave. I would then transfer the file to my iTunes library. Also, for several years I would remove the DRM from every movie and tv episode. I can no longer find any software that will do that in Ventura, Mojave, or Monterey. If I purchase a movie or tv episode I should be able to move that file and us it anyway I want. No longer possible on a Mac.

I understand that but I’m misunderstanding why you don’t just stream it from icloud from your Apple tv connected in the living room now? i use to download all my purchases and then stream from the iMac to my livingroom but stopped once the iCloud was able to start streaming all the purchases Direct from the cloud. Plus i found it easier when it did because my wife could then watch easily. She always found it a hassle to remember to keep the iMac and iTunes switched on..

I must admit thought I don’t buy much digitally because almost all the stuff i watch has been on streaming platforms.

 

[maverick100]

I understand that but I’m misunderstanding why you don’t just stream it from icloud from your Apple tv connected in the living room now? i use to download all my purchases and then stream from the iMac to my livingroom but stopped once the iCloud was able to start streaming all the purchases Direct from the cloud. Plus i found it easier when it did because my wife could then watch easily. She always found it a hassle to remember to keep the iMac and iTunes switched on..

I must admit thought I don’t buy much digitally because almost all the stuff i watch has been on streaming platform

I understand that streaming is a great way to go.

 

[ovbacon]

All has been said but I'd thought I throw in my external drive experience for my mini M2. I think Apple's internal is way to expensive and there are good options all around. I got a ACASIS 40Gbps M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosure (TBU401E) with a Samsung 980 PRO 2T and it runs lightning fast.

 

[Spike77777]

I just ordered a NvMe M.2 1tb ssd and an enclosure. What format is preferred? My other External drives I formatted in ExFAT to keep it compatible with windows 10 usage. Any advantages to APFS or Mac OS Extended?

 

[ovbacon]

I just did APFS but I only deal with Mac's

 

[weaztek]

All has been said but I'd thought I throw in my external drive experience for my mini M2. I think Apple's internal is way to expensive and there are good options all around. I got a ACASIS 40Gbps M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosure (TBU401E) with a Samsung 980 PRO 2T and it runs lightning fast.

I'd be curious to see the metrics for the OEM SSD as well for comparison if you have time.

 

[ovbacon]

This is my mini

 

[ovbacon]

btw, the speeds I get with the Acasis/Samsung 980 Pro are absolutely not needed for basic storage requirements unless you intend to do heavy video or extremely large file transfers so often that the time saved is really important. If you make something that does half the speeds it will already be super fast.

 

[Spike77777]

All has been said but I'd thought I throw in my external drive experience for my mini M2. I think Apple's internal is way to expensive and there are good options all around. I got a ACASIS 40Gbps M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosure (TBU401E) with a Samsung 980 PRO 2T and it runs lightning fast.

Is the speed test being run on your external Acasis enclosure with the samsung 980 pro ssd?

 

[ovbacon]

In my post from April 13th up there the tests are from my Acasis (TBU401E) 40Gbps M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosure with a Samsung 980 Pro 2TB ssd. It tests in Blackmagic: steady at W:2800+ MB/s, R:2700+/- MB/s

The tests shown in my post from yesterday is testing the speed from the internal apple ssd which tests in Blackmagic: steady at W:3400+ MB/s, R:3000+/- MB/s.

 

[ovbacon]

And I just ordered two Qwiizlab M.2 NVMe and SATA External Enclosure, USB-C 10Gbps, SSD Rugged IP66 Dust and Water Resistant with a LEVEN JPS600 2TB PCIe 3D NAND NVMe Gen3x4 PCIe M.2 2280 SSD with Heat Sink. They will run lower speed but are intended as Back-up and boot drives. I have not received them yet but they should do W/R:800/1000+ MB/s. and for 1 of these enclosures and 2 TB drives you pay $108 +tax.... that is pretty darn cheap.

 

[MacDownunder]

I just moved from a MacPro 5,1 with lots of storage options and I had quite a few bays populated with HDDs and SSDs as well. I bought the base M2 Pro MacMini with only 512Gb SSD. I then bought a hagibis Dual Drive Hub which has SATA and M2 NVME as well as 3x USB3.1, SD / Micro SD Card Readers and 1 USB C port all on front.
My thought was to pull one NVME drive and a SATA SSD from MacPro and install into enclosure. All went well initially and I migrated from the NVME drive to the Mini in really quick time - around 10mins for 500 GB of files apps etc.
At this point was time to reconfigure NVME for "other" files and the SATA SSD for Time Machine. Copied files from NVME to SSD and then tried to reformat NVME and this failed (actually hung for more than 15 mins), tried again same issue. I pulled the NVME drive out and placed into cheap external case with USB C (size is fraction bigger than a full length NVME), plugged in formatted etc and works perfectly. And for those wondering yes I used both USB C Ports on back of Dock for power / Data overhead. I havent put the drive back inside as I was able to remove one of the dock USB-C cables and leave the external drive with NVME attached in another
Both devices rewake as expected from sleep and both perform fast enough for their purpose. Internal gets rounded to nearest 3300 read / 2900 write, external NVME (samsung 970) in USB-C enclosure 980 read / 900 write. I cannot test the SATA SSD as its a time machine location which is read only but gets around 500 when I was shuffling files around from memory. HTH some one make a decision.
As for Apple USB A1243 KB well thats a different story - one works on M2 PRO one doesnt but both work on my sons regular M2 Mini .... WTF ... I havent looked at the production dates on them as they may have different firmware who knows.

 

[ovbacon]

I just moved from a MacPro 5,1 with lots of storage options and I had quite a few bays populated with HDDs and SSDs as well. I bought the base M2 Pro MacMini with only 512Gb SSD. I then bought a hagibis Dual Drive Hub which has SATA and M2 NVME as well as 3x USB3.1, SD / Micro SD Card Readers and 1 USB C port all on front.
My thought was to pull one NVME drive and a SATA SSD from MacPro and install into enclosure. All went well initially and I migrated from the NVME drive to the Mini in really quick time - around 10mins for 500 GB of files apps etc.
At this point was time to reconfigure NVME for "other" files and the SATA SSD for Time Machine. Copied files from NVME to SSD and then tried to reformat NVME and this failed (actually hung for more than 15 mins), tried again same issue. I pulled the NVME drive out and placed into cheap external case with USB C (size is fraction bigger than a full length NVME), plugged in formatted etc and works perfectly. And for those wondering yes I used both USB C Ports on back of Dock for power / Data overhead. I havent put the drive back inside as I was able to remove one of the dock USB-C cables and leave the external drive with NVME attached in another
Both devices rewake as expected from sleep and both perform fast enough for their purpose. Internal gets rounded to nearest 3300 read / 2900 write, external NVME (samsung 970) in USB-C enclosure 980 read / 900 write. I cannot test the SATA SSD as its a time machine location which is read only but gets around 500 when I was shuffling files around from memory. HTH some one make a decision.
As for Apple USB A1243 KB well thats a different story - one works on M2 PRO one doesnt but both work on my sons regular M2 Mini .... WTF ... I havent looked at the production dates on them as they may have different firmware who knows.

Can you really break down what ssd's in exactly what enclosures have what speeds because I could not really make heads or tails from your post.

Your internal speeds are as expected but I am completely at a loss as to what you have externally. Personally I don't think estimating what file size transferred in what approximate time is a very good point (for instance, I just transferred a 25GB folder with HiRes photos from My backup drive to my desktop and it took a split second). Just post speed tests, in for instance blackmagic, om the exact speeds an external enclosure with what exact ssd in it gets.

So the info that would be helpful is: What enclosure with what ssd gets exactly what speeds.

 

[MacDownunder]

Can you really break down what ssd's in exactly what enclosures have what speeds because I could not really make heads or tails from your post.

Your internal speeds are as expected but I am completely at a loss as to what you have externally. Personally I don't think estimating what file size transferred in what approximate time is a very good point (for instance, I just transferred a 25GB folder with HiRes photos from My backup drive to my desktop and it took a split second). Just post speed tests, in for instance blackmagic, om the exact speeds an external enclosure with what exact ssd in it gets.

So the info that would be helpful is: What enclosure with what ssd gets exactly what speeds.

The SATA SSD is in this enclosure (samsung 840). Hagibis MacMini Dock/Hub

Hagibis USB-C Hub with Dual Hard Drive Enclosure, Type-C Docking Station for Mac Mini M2, Mac Studio M1 Max Ultra with 2.5inch SATA, M.2 NVMe NGFF, USB 3.1 Gen2, USB-C, SD/TF, 2 USB 3.0 (MC25 Pro)

Hagibis USB-C Hub with Dual Hard Drive Enclosure; Unique 2-in-1 design, USB-C Docking Station & Dual Hard Drive Enclosure; Designed for Mac Mini, Mac Studio and MacBook Pro

amzn.asia

I dont recommend this solution and would go the SATA version and spend extra on a dedicated enclosure for the second drive

The NVME is in a generic USB-C case from ebay - bought to set up an NVME drive for my wifes 27" 5K iMac to remove the stupid fusion drive it had so I had it in my collection of stuff.

M2 NVME SSD to Type-C 3.1 / USB 3.0 Portable External Drive Enclosure Case | eBay Australia

Support M.2 SSD, 22 30mm, 22 42mm, 22 60mm, 22 80mm solid state drives, (SSD hard drives are not included). 1 x SSD Enclosure. The aluminum alloy shell increases the heat dissipation area, which facilitates the heat dissipation of the hard disk during work and increases the life of the hard disk.

www.ebay.com.au

I understand you cannot use a data copy as a means of speed however when a drive is a time machine drive you cannot write to it anymore as they are set to read only, so Black Magic will not run on that device. Not sure when Apple changed this as it used to be able to be done - perhaps Ventura? However I digress, the speeds I was seeing were to show an indication of what it was doing and falls in line with what would be expected from an external enclosure with a SATA Based SSD. Further a folder containing a large number of files of varying sizes including lots of small files will copy often much slower than a folder of few files that are large, even if their total size is the same

The speeds I see are inline with what these devices suggest should be achievable, finally continuous runs on speed testing software will also show if your enclosures are sufficiently cooling the NVME drives as they will throttle when the get hot.

HTH