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icemantx

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 16, 2009
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I have a late 2014 27” iMac i5 with the HDD swapped for a 2TB crucial SSD. Now that the M2 Pro Mac Mini is out, I am debating finally upgrading being that there is no 27” iMac coming anytime soon.

Having said all that, the storage prices on the Mac Mini are awful. $1200 to go to a 4TB SSD is a lot of money and nearly the cost of the base Mac Mini M2 Pro.

In my current setup, 1TB of my 1.6TB of use is for iMovie video files (yes, I am not a pro and do not use Final Cut or Adobe Premier). My videos are mostly of family so those are very important which could make the extra internal cost worth it.

Thoughts? Would you go for the 4TB of internal storage or 1 or 2 TB internal and some kind of external SSD solution?
 
Thoughts? Would you go for the 4TB of internal storage or 1 or 2 TB internal and some kind of external SSD solution?
For mine I stayed with the base storage config (512GB on the M2 Pro). It's plenty for the OS and Apps. For everything else, I'm ready with a 4TB NVMe SSD ($350) and an OWC Envoy Express Enclosure ($70) that will be connected via Thunderbolt 3. Everything was a bit cheaper around Black Friday but prices have gone up a bit since then.
 
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I buy minis with 512GB SSDs and attach external storage based on need for speed and size. Mini is easy - it does not move around like MBP, so NAS, external Hard drive, or external SSD in appropriate enclosures work very well. Much cheaper and flexible - when purpose of the mini changes, I can change type/size of storage as needed.
 
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For mine I stayed with the base storage config (512GB on the M2 Pro). It's plenty for the OS and Apps. For everything else, I'm ready with a 4TB NVMe SSD ($350) and an OWC Envoy Express Enclosure ($70) that will be connected via Thunderbolt 3. Everything was a bit cheaper around Black Friday but prices have gone up a bit since then.
Do you notice any performance hits with external storage vs internal for either reading or writing?
 
Do you notice any performance hits with external storage vs internal for either reading or writing?
I don't notice any speed difference with it connected to my 2017 iMac (vs the iMac's internal 512GB SSD). However, the Envoy Express enclosure is limited with its Thunderbolt interface to 1553MB/s — so it won't benchmark as fast as internal storage. That's still incredibly fast. I did a 20GB file duplication on it and was expecting a copy progress bar to pop up, but none did. The duplicate file appeared instantaneously.
 
.... I did a 20GB file duplication on it and was expecting a copy progress bar to pop up, but none did. The duplicate file appeared instantaneously.
Actually, if this is APFS external disk, then duplications takes no time on any speed disk - no duplication is involved at all, no read and no write. APFS simply creates second record to the same data and treats it as separate file. So on any drive (internal or external) this takes no observable time.
I assume if this would be ExFAT or other system, it would mean something as the system would create a second copy of the file, that is read and write content.
 
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Consider one of those Mac Mini docks (around US $100) that can hold a SATA SSD and M.2 NVMe SSD. Get at least USB 3.1 speeds which will be fast enough for 4K 30FPS video edits.

A Samsung 870 QVO SATA SSD is US $360 or $180 for 4TB and 2TB. NVMe SSDs are around the same price.

2 SSDs is good since one can be used as backup.

Just note that the Mac Mini docks may need additional power, or they may use up both TB ports (for power and data transfer). There are models that use one TB port but has to be connected to external power.
 
I ordered a OWC Envoy Pro FX (1000 GB). An advantage is that it can automatically switch between Thunderbolt 3 and USB 3.2, and doesn't require a separate external power source. Stays relatively cool under heavy loads and is super fast (especially for audio/video, for example as a scratch disk). For backup and longterm storage I have a slower 5TB HD.
 
OP wrote:
"In my current setup, 1TB of my 1.6TB of use is for iMovie video files (yes, I am not a pro and do not use Final Cut or Adobe Premier). My videos are mostly of family so those are very important which could make the extra internal cost worth it.
Thoughts?"


You asked for thoughts.
These are mine.

You are using up a huge amount of space (on the internal drive) for essentially "nothing".

That is to say, there's no reason these (large) video files couldn't be stored "externally" (on a USB3 SSD or even a platter-based drive).

You would be WASTING YOUR MONEY (shouting intentional) on 4tb of internal storage. Paying a lot for storage that you don't really need.

I'd suggest a Samsung t7 SSD (2tb) and either a second SSD or perhaps a 2tb USB3 external HDD.
Then, I'd designate the t7 as my "video archives", and move all the video files (with the possible exception of "work-in-progress") to the archive.
Then, I'd use either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper to "clone" the t7 archive to the SECOND external drive as a backup.

Now you have both an external archive and A BACKUP (an exact copy) of the archive.

I'd get 2tb of storage on the new Mini, and seeing as how you're currently using about .6tb (non-video) right now, the 2tb would provide plenty of "room for growth" over the working lifespan of the new Mini.
 
I'm also using the Envoy Express on my M1 Mini, with a 2TB nVME module. Yeah the self-powered enclosure is the bottleneck, with 1500GB/s read and write. But for just about all use cases except for regular massive file transfers, it's a moot point. Access time is what matters. A Samsung T7 shield regularly goes on sale for $149 for the 2TB version and that would be fantastic as an external storage option. That's actually what I'm using for my Steam library on my Windows gaming PC.
 
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