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Mac Mini 2018 Accessories

Y

ysvsr1

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 23, 2013
92
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Hi everyone, today I placed an order for mac mini i5/8gb/256. Right now I am using mac mini 2014 model. I am new to usb-c connections. So please excuse me for these dumb questions. I did some research and there are too many products available to utilize usb-c ports. My present setup is apple keyboard and logitech mx master mouse connected via Bluetooth. 3 usb western digital portable hard drives are connected to my 2014 mac mini. My lg monitor is connected with hdmi cable.

i noticed that latest mac mini comes with 2 usb ports and 4 usb c ports. How can I connect my western digitial 4 tb hard drives to usb-c ports. Can you recomment good accessories for this purpose?
 
There are lots of cheaper ones though:


Screenshot 2019-02-16 at 19.16.07.png
 
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ysvsr1 said:
Hi everyone, today I placed an order for mac mini i5/8gb/256. Right now I am using mac mini 2014 model. I am new to usb-c connections. So please excuse me for these dumb questions. I did some research and there are too many products available to utilize usb-c ports. My present setup is apple keyboard and logitech mx master mouse connected via Bluetooth. 3 usb western digital portable hard drives are connected to my 2014 mac mini. My lg monitor is connected with hdmi cable.

i noticed that latest mac mini comes with 2 usb ports and 4 usb c ports. How can I connect my western digitial 4 tb hard drives to usb-c ports. Can you recomment good accessories for this purpose?
Click to expand...


You could buy the expensive apple adapter. I have one in my bag that I never use anymore. Instead I got the right cable and no dongle and a much better solution.

I have 2 WD spinners that I use for time machine on my 2017 MBP and 2018 Mac Mini. See the WD 2TB using the blue one.

A must have for spinners and TB3 or USB-C


Screen Shot 2019-02-16 at 8.03.39 PM.png IMG_1483.jpeg
 
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F-Train said:
There are lots of cheaper ones though:


View attachment 822208
Click to expand...
IngerMan said:
You could buy the expensive apple adapter. I have one in my bag that I never use anymore. Instead I got the right cable and no dongle and a much better solution.

I have 2 WD spinners that I use for time machine on my 2017 MBP and 2018 Mac Mini. See the WD 2TB using the blue one.

A must have for spinners and TB3 or USB-C


View attachment 822218 View attachment 822219
Click to expand...

Thank you very much.
 
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IngerMan said:
You are welcome. I have dongles from my 2016 MBP, Its 2019 just get the right cable. They are out there.
Click to expand...

I agree. I placed an order for amazon basics cables like the ones showed in your pics for 8$ each. My primary use is plex media storage. I hope performance will be good.
 
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If you have several usb3 hard drives, star tech make a TB3 to USB3.1 (mix of 5gbps and 10gbps) hub.

They also should have type-c to whatever female port type your drives have (if the cables are removable).
 
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I use the CalDigit TB3 dock. It takes one TB3 port from your Mini, and in turn provides an additional TB3 port, two USB-C ports (one Gen1 @ 5GBs and one Gen2 @ 10GBs), plus 4 USB-A Gen 1 ports (5GBs). Also a Gigabit network port, audio in and out, an SD card slot, a full-sized Displayport, and a Digital Optical port. This saves the Mini's 3 other TB3 ports for true TB3 accessories (eGPU, etc).
 
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Stephen.R said:
If you have several usb3 hard drives, star tech make a TB3 to USB3.1 (mix of 5gbps and 10gbps) hub.

They also should have type-c to whatever female port type your drives have (if the cables are removable).
Click to expand...
HenryAZ said:
I use the CalDigit TB3 dock. It takes one TB3 port from your Mini, and in turn provides an additional TB3 port, two USB-C ports (one Gen1 @ 5GBs and one Gen2 @ 10GBs), plus 4 USB-A Gen 1 ports (5GBs). Also a Gigabit network port, audio in and out, an SD card slot, a full-sized Displayport, and a Digital Optical port. This saves the Mini's 3 other TB3 ports for true TB3 accessories (eGPU, etc).
Click to expand...

Please share the product links in amazon? Thank you.
 
HenryAZ said:
I use the CalDigit TB3 dock. It takes one TB3 port from your Mini, and in turn provides an additional TB3 port, two USB-C ports (one Gen1 @ 5GBs and one Gen2 @ 10GBs), plus 4 USB-A Gen 1 ports (5GBs). Also a Gigabit network port, audio in and out, an SD card slot, a full-sized Displayport, and a Digital Optical port. This saves the Mini's 3 other TB3 ports for true TB3 accessories (eGPU, etc).
Click to expand...

I also use the CalDigit TB3 dock. A bit pricey, but a wonderful piece of hardware.
 
I have a TB2 Dock from OWC that works great. Kept the dock because the 3M maximum TB2 cable length is a bonus.
 
Wow..they are expensive. I am wondering what is the difference between these expensive port hubs and the cheap anker one?
 
ysvsr1 said:
Wow..they are expensive. I am wondering what is the difference between these expensive port hubs and the cheap anker one?
Click to expand...

  • Multi-channel USB 3.1 hub controller with independent, dedicated ports sharing 20Gbps bandwidth
  • Connect up to four high-performance USB devices with one USB-A (10Gbps), one USB-C (10Gbps) and two USB-A (5Gbps) ports
VS

  • SuperSpeed Data: Transfer movies and music in seconds with 5 Gbps transfer speeds.

I do like that StarTech but yes it is costly. Since you don't have your Mini yet you might want to get it setup and really see what you need. With the 6 ports ;2 USB-A and 4 TB3 offers a lot of options.

My self, I am using the 2 USBA's plus 3 TB3's on the MM, And my monitor has 4 USBA's the 2 in the back are being used and the 2 on the side are open. I also have a Das Keyboard that has 2 USB-A 3.0 that I continually forget about.
 
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I have about 20 devices hanging off my 2018 mini. basic monitor and 55 4k tv. 2 keyboards 2 trackpads, 3 external drives including a raid5 array and tb2 dock. USB-c is a good move overall.
 
ysvsr1 said:
Wow..they are expensive. I am wondering what is the difference between these expensive port hubs and the cheap anker one?
Click to expand...
The startech “hub” uses thunderbolt3 upstream (to the computer) and splits out 2x10Gbps and 2x5Gbps for USB, while also providing a downstream Thunderbolt 3 port.

The other thing is literally just a USB hub, with 5Gbps shared between all the ports.
 
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