My Mac Mini 2018 is running entirely on external TB3 SSD. Perfectly.

[russell_314]

What if the CPU fails. Should I disable turbo boost? Can I underclock it? What if one of the capacitors fail. Should I open the case and put a fan on it? No no I might accidentally spill something on it. Maybe I should get a waterproof case for it?

My point is every time you do something on your computer, restart it, leaving it idle, running a program, or whatever it wears a little bit. Posting this comment took a little life out of my Mac mini! Posting this comment took a little life out of me because even humans wear and we have a limited lifespan. I'm not saying abuse your computer or body but for example you shouldn't lay in bed 24/7 to make your joints last longer. I dust mine every so often with canned air, I even keep it off the desk to avoid scratching the bottom (Maybe OCD), I have a surge protector and UPS to avoid problems with a power outage or surge. I take care of it but I still use it. In less than ten years it will be completely obsolete so no matter what it won't have a useful purpose other than nostalgia. Now if you have the $$$$ buy one and keep it sealed in the package. In ten to twenty years it'll likely increase in value.

 

[adamk77]

 

 

[elandy]

I have my ideal setup now: A Mac Mini i5 (2018) running with everything on an external Thunderbolt 3 SSD 512GB.
Everything very smooth. Getting SSD speeds of around 1700/1700 (read/write).
No hitches. Easy setup.
I did this to avoid worry about wearing out the internal SSD before I am ready to buy a new Mac (I keep my hardware for a long time). If anyone has any questions I'm happy to oblige...

If I use an external thunderbolt 3 drive as my boot drive, will the computer work as fast as using the internal SSD to boot from? I need to do this because I am looking for a used 2018 model, i7 and some available have only a 128gb internal drive which is too small for me.
Thank you and I like your reasons for using an external drive

 

[jimthing]

If I use an external thunderbolt 3 drive as my boot drive, will the computer work as fast as using the internal SSD to boot from? I need to do this because I am looking for a used 2018 model, i7 and some available have only a 128gb internal drive which is too small for me.
Thank you and I like your reasons for using an external drive

Yes, provided it's one of the fast external SSDs, typically using NVMe.
But they cost quite a bit more than slower ones.

I bought a 2TB MM2018 back then, as the larger the internal drive size, the faster the internal SSD also is. So likely more cost effective to just wait for a used 1/2TB machine.

 

[Fishrrman]

elandy --

You can boot from thunderbolt, but I'd really encourage you to find a Mini with a built-in SSD that is either 512gb or 256gb.

Things will go better if you boot/run from the internal SSD on these.
If 256/512 is "too small" for everything, keep your "large libraries", etc., on an external USB3 SSD.