M1 Mini - USB 3 connection...

[cosmichobo]

G'day,

Probably a stupid question, but...

I have an "Icy Box" SATA 4 bay USB 3 hard drive tower. The cable that came with it looks like this:

I have been using it with my 2012 Mac mini, which doesn't have USB3, so - I just had it in one of the 4 USBA ports.

I have just purchased a 2020 M1 Mac mini 16/512. It has 2 x Thunderbolt/USB4 ports, and 2 USB A ports.

I need 1 USB4 port for my 2nd Apple Cinema HD Display.

Can I plug the Icy Box into the other USB 4 /thunderbolt port, and will it be faster than the USB A port?

Like this?

The Icy Box has not been a great buy... drives randomly dis-mount and need to restart the box to get them to mount again... so longer term will look for a Thunderbolt 4 bay enclosure... but fiscally a $10 cable for some speed boost would be good for now.

cheers

cosmic

 

[cosmichobo]

I just checked the specs on Apple's site... and see that they specify that the Thunderbolt ports suit USB 3, so guessing that answers my question.

 

[Bigwaff]

Can I plug the Icy Box into the other USB 4 /thunderbolt port, and will it be faster than the USB A port?

Depends on specs of the enclosure. Some of the Icy Box/Dock 4-bay enclosures are USB 3.0 5Gbps, which means using the TB port won’t be any faster. What the specs of yours?

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Generally yes but as #3 says, that doesn't automatically mean it will be any faster.

USB jacks are generally backwards compatible, so no danger in plugging it in and seeing if it works.

If you run short of jacks and/or need more traditional USB ports, there are abundant hubs that can be plugged in to expand your connection options.

 

[theluggage]

but fiscally a $10 cable for some speed boost would be good for now.

You should get a significant speed-up - vs. the USB 2 on your old Mac - just using USB-A and getting “5Gbps” USB 3.0 speed.

Even *if* the enclosure supports 10Gbps, *and* you are running SSDs rather than mechanical HDs then you’re going to see diminishing returns going from 5 to 10 Gbps - so it’s probably not worth the bother. SATA tops out at 6Gbps anyway, and mechanical HDs rarely get close to that.

Should still work fine with the C to A adapter, though, but if you’re going that route in the hope of getting 10Gbps get an adapter that at least advertises USB 3.1g2 (10Gbps) compatibility - that one just says 3.0 (might work with 10G, might not).

 

[ivnj]

Um... Mac mini 2012 def had USB 3.0. 2011 had 2.0 only. And maybe below. Don't remember when 2.0 started. But 2012 had 3.0 for sure.