I am considering getting M1 mini soon. My current computer is mac pro 5.1 with 4 internal drive bays for extra storage, cloning, Time Machine etc etc. What are the best ways to organize external drives without causing a big cable mess?
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Organizing External Storage with mac mini
- Thread starter krishnaM
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Thanks for replying. The OWC enclosures use Thunderbolt 3 connection to connect SATA drives in RAID, which is expensive and not use full potential of Thunderbolt thorough put (like Samsung X5). Their nvme enclosure uses proprietary drives and requires 4 nvme drives in RAID to get the Thunderbolt speed. I may get the Akito Node if I want external nvme drives but for sata ssd I'll get some thing simple like https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-Dupl...07CSG4XM4/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8
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Do you need thunderbolt speed ?
Will you *work* on these external drives ?
If no, an Ethernet NAS can perfectly do the job.
If yes, I‘d say take a Thunderbolt 3 NAS from QNAP, with either full SATA SSD + 2 NVME caching drive, or NVME + mechanical HDDs if higher storage capacity is required.
Will you *work* on these external drives ?
If no, an Ethernet NAS can perfectly do the job.
If yes, I‘d say take a Thunderbolt 3 NAS from QNAP, with either full SATA SSD + 2 NVME caching drive, or NVME + mechanical HDDs if higher storage capacity is required.
Thanks for the suggestion. I'll look into that option but I don't think I need a NAS (I never used one). I may get Thunderbolt 3 external nvme enclosure (Akito Node or similar) for high speed storage. There are multiple smaller portable thunderbolt nvme enclosures at Amazon but I think they all have poor cooling option and may kill the ssd. I also need multiple other drives for backup (cloning, Time Machine or extra storage)and for that I can use SATA ssd drives in that Sabrent ssd bay for simplicity.
After reading this thread https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...m-2-enclosures-pci-e-expansion-boxes.2263763/ I learned that pcie expansion boxes aren't useful for nvme ssd as I hoped. I think I'll get M1 with 512G hard drive and Samsung T7.
I've made a similar switch and understand the issue. The trick for me was to buy a small side table that was a little shorter and just let the external drives drop neatly over the side. Goodbye clutter with a cheap, easy solution. Five external drives connected and other peripherals. Before this it was a dreadful mess on the main desk.
I came from a Mac Pro 5.1 with 4 internal drives as well and have used a OWC ‘ThunderBay 4-Bay Storage Enclosure with Dual Thunderbolt 3 Ports’ in JBOD mode (not RAID) for the last 12 months attached to my Mac mini with no dramas.
I use the mini’s internal drive as a boot drive and to store my apps. Everything else is off the ThunderBay with 2 x WD HHDs and 2 x SSDs (1 x SSD does CCC duties and 1 x HDD does Time Machine duties). And yes, I also do an external backup before anyone asks
It all just works!
eshop.macsales.com
I use the mini’s internal drive as a boot drive and to store my apps. Everything else is off the ThunderBay with 2 x WD HHDs and 2 x SSDs (1 x SSD does CCC duties and 1 x HDD does Time Machine duties). And yes, I also do an external backup before anyone asks
It all just works!
OWC ThunderBay 4-Drive Storage Enclosure with Thunderbolt 3
Now with the unbelievable performance of Thunderbolt 3 with up to 1550MB/s sustained performance, it's the ultimate workhorse external storage solution.
eshop.macsales.com
Watching this thread... cos am also considering the M1 Mac Mini + some kind of mass storage box, but also want to save my Pioneer BluRay.
What applications do you plan to use that require full thunderbolt speeds? Rather than focusing on the technology, what applications, exactly, are you going to use? The number of apps that can use full thunderbolt speeds is small.
QNAP has NAS units which have both 10 Gbe and Thunderbolt ports. You can get ~1550 MB/s read on a 5 disk RAID 5 QNAP.
What, exactly, are you planning to store? SSDs are generally not the best for storage, although there are exceptions for boot drives and environmental conditions. Too expensive, can have 10x less TBW than a HD (extreme case).
I had a whole bunch of various external drives. Finally consolidated them into one OWC thunderbolt 8. 5 drives setup as SoftRaid CCC backup, 3 JBOD drives: 2 drives for 2 TM backups, one for a CCC bootable clone.
Be very careful with the enclosure you chose. Check reviews to ensure that they have excellent support, and their are no issues, such as unexpected rejects. Saving money on an enclosure with poor support can be a waste of money and cause a lot of pain.
OWC ThunderBay 4 mini RAID Four-Bay External Thunderbolt 3 Storage Enclosure
Professional Grade 4-Drive HDD and/or SSD Thunderbolt 3 Enclosure For Mac and Windows PC. Buy Now!
If you picked up something like that - can it operate simply as a mass external storage box, that you can keep everything formatted as Mac native, and not need to use foreign formats?
Not sure I understand you question. It is a drive bay.You can format the disks anyway that you want if used as JBOD. OWC enclosures also support SoftRaid. [I have an earlier version of the unit].
NAS drive format does not matter. NAS is mounted to your Mac using smb, nfs or some similar protocol. Drive format on NAS is not important. NAS is little dedicated computer which provides the drive services.
And before you ask, you can use Time Machine through smb protocol now.
100% how I would go if I was building my currently Mac Mini today:
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I just drooled over this link. I wish I had a spare $600.OWC ThunderBay 4 mini RAID Four-Bay External Thunderbolt 3 Storage Enclosure
Professional Grade 4-Drive HDD and/or SSD Thunderbolt 3 Enclosure For Mac and Windows PC. Buy Now!www.macfixit.com.au
If you picked up something like that - can it operate simply as a mass external storage box, that you can keep everything formatted as Mac native, and not need to use foreign formats?
LOL
Not saying I could afford it! Actually hoping to find a NAS / external bay enclosure on eBay 2nd hand for a lot less if/when the time comes.
Thanks for the reply.
I just had concerns about using non Apple disk formatting after losing a lot of data that was on a WD Cloud NAS about 7 years ago. That's why I was a bit put off about a NAS in general RE changing from a MacPro to a Mini.
Depends. Apple has a lot of filesystem extended attributes which are not supported by native NAS file systems so they get lost in transfers. Time Machine may preserve them, but I haven't found NAS TM backups to be useable.
I stopped caring about NAS when I started using Plex. Saved a bunch in cost on my enclosures but still got me where I wanted to be.
That said, the Thunderbolt connection on an enclosure is so enticing...