Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Is 4x External HDD too much connected to MAC ?

V

vim147

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 14, 2011
236
1
I have a 2011 Mac mini which I use as my daily. Its had upgrades ie RAM, SSD.
I have a lot of media files and I use PLEX for my movies.

Would having 4x 4TB WB HDD's connected to the MINI via powered USB be too much stress on the MINI ?
 
Could you put them into a 4 disk enclosure...?
Or do they need to be accessed at the same time.

You would save on USB ports then.
Not sure how the 2011 mini treats the ports, i.e. they may share bandwidth.
 
MarkC426 said:
Could you put them into a 4 disk enclosure...?
Or do they need to be accessed at the same time.

You would save on USB ports then.
Not sure how the 2011 mini treats the ports, i.e. they may share bandwidth.
Click to expand...
I already have 2x WB My book external drives so looking to add 2 more.

As I use Plex as my media player app, they may be times with It'll be accessed by multiple users in the house.
 
Multiple users simultaneously accessing a single 3.5" spinner for video streaming seems like a bad idea. On top of that you've got Plex on the 2011 Mini likely transcoding all the different streams at the same time. Have you even tried that yet?
 
BrianBaughn said:
Multiple users simultaneously accessing a single 3.5" spinner for video streaming seems like a bad idea. On top of that you've got Plex on the 2011 Mini likely transcoding all the different streams at the same time. Have you even tried that yet?
Click to expand...
I've tried streaming simultaneously 4 users from IPAD, iPhone, Amazon fire stick and Mac mini at 1080p and didn't notice any dropouts. most of the times it will only be 2 users simultaneously.
 
vim147 said:
Would having 4x 4TB WB HDD's connected to the MINI via powered USB be too much stress on the MINI ?
Click to expand...
I don't see it being an issue at all, with the exception of the 2011 Mini having USB2.0 ports. Not that this is really an issue either, unless you end up saturating the bandwidth on the ports, and even then, it might just be slower. Probably would never happen just from a few streams to Plex.

BrianBaughn said:
Multiple users simultaneously accessing a single 3.5" spinner for video streaming seems like a bad idea.
Click to expand...
I don't do it anymore, but I used to use a single 3.5" HDD for Plex without issue.

Currently, I am using my old Mac Pro, with two large HDDs in a SW RAID0 for my Plex media, a SSD for the OS, and a single large HDD to back up the SSD, Plex Media. I also keep a collection of old OS versions on the large single SSD for troubleshooting, using old SW, and the old Disk Utility app.

I plan on switching my Plex server to my M1 Mini when the high end Minis come out, and retiring the Mac Pro for just backing up my media server, troubleshooting, and old SW/OS access.
 
Juicy Box said:
Not that this is really an issue either, unless you end up saturating the bandwidth on the ports, and even then, it might just be slower. Probably would never happen just from a few streams to Plex.
Click to expand...
Another thought, if the USB2.0 speeds become an issue, you can try to find a cheap TB dock with USB3 ports.

While streaming should be fine on USB2.0 speeds, transferring new media, back ups, and many other things could really benefit from faster USB3 speeds.
 
I converted my 2012 quad Mini to a fileserver a couple years ago. Since it's headless, I connected four 5tb USB 3.0 hard drives that I already had to the USB ports. These are like the OP's hard drives, they have AC power bricks. Everything works fine. But this machine is only used for archival storage and as a time machine destination.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back