What external ssd drive is best for a M1 Mac mini?

[Yoshiii33524]

Hello,

What external ssd is best to use with the M1 Mac mini, sata3 ssd or a NVME? Should I go USB 3.1 or type C for the connection? Will it be fast?

 

[Digitalguy]

I think you need some clarifications.
There is SATA vs NVME for the storage speed, but there is also another, more important, bottleneck, the USB speed.
Excluding USB 2.0, you have 4 speeds
5Gb/s, also called gen 1 (regardless of 3.0, 3.1, 3.2)
10Gb/s, also called gen 2 (again regardless of the rest)
20Gb/s, also called gen 2x2
40Gb/s, that is Thunderbolt / USB 4.

Gen 1 is going to slightly bottleneck even a SATA SSD (which is 6Gb/s), gen 2 will give you double the bandwidth, but will bottleneck most NVME drives (which usual run faster that 10Gb/s)
2X2 is very rare and I don't think it's even supported by the Mac
USB 4 / Thunderbolt is the fastest but way more expensive.
I think the best value for money is gen 2 drives.

Mind you, M1/2, for some reason, will reduce the speed of both gen 1 and gen 2 by about 25% compared to Intel Macs / Windows.
Thunderbolt / USB 4 is not slower on M1 instead.

 

[pshufd]

I have old Gen 1 Innotek enclosures for SATA3 drives and use one of them with a Crucial 2 TB SSD hooked up to my M1 mini as a NAS. It is good enough for our purposes. I have an NVMe internal drive on a Windows desktop that I also use as a NAS but I'm trying to retire that desktop.

 

[theorist9]

@Digitalguy gave an excellent summary of the various standards.

Just a couple of added points:

1) Digitalguy pointed out the USB ports on the Mac aren't full speed. If so, a workaround for that would be to get something like an OWC Thunderbolt 4 hub, and attach the drive to one of the 3 downstream TB4 ports it provides (Pluggable and CalDigit also makes these, but they're more expensive).

2) Some of the new 20 Gbps USB Gen 2x2 drives are almost the same price as the 10 Gbps Gen 2 drives. Now you might think there's no reason to spend a few extra dollars for Gen 2x2, b/c on the Mac you're only going to get 10 Gbps max anyways.

But: While the latter (10 GBps max) is true, the former (no reason to get 2x2) may not be. That's because, while you won't get the 20 GBps sequential read/write speeds for larger files, there are many operations that don't come close to 10 Gbps, but which are much faster on the Gen 2x2 drives than on Gen 2 and Gen 1. Here's just one example from Anandtech's DAS (storage) suite, comparing a Gen 2x2 (top) with a Gen 1 (bottom). You can see that, even with a 10 Gbps (=1250 MBps) ceiling, you are still able to take full advantage of the Gen 2x2 drive's added capability for this operation.

At least it seems that way in theory, based on this and other benchmarks. If anyone would like to let me know otherwise, please do so.

 

[gogogo2]

TB3 case easily get 2000M/s write speed.

 

[Digitalguy]

@Digitalguy gave an excellent summary of the various standards.

Just a couple of added points:

1) Digitalguy pointed out the USB ports on the Mac aren't full speed. If so, a workaround for that would be to get something like an OWC Thunderbolt 4 hub, and attach the drive to one of the 3 downstream TB4 ports it provides (Pluggable and CalDigit also makes these, but they're more expensive).

I have seen some videos about this, but I have the OWC Thunderbolt 4 hub and I actually get lower speeds there, around 100MB/s lower than by plugging it directly into the Mac (600-700 instead of 700-800). I have tried with both a 1TB T7 and a 4TB Extreme pro (both gen 2). So no improvement from the TB4 hub, on the contrary...
I also tried a SATA SSD and similar story, on the hub it's 350, and on the Mac it's 370.
I did many black magic runs every time to make sure it was not a one-off issue

 

[Digitalguy]

While I am at it let me tell an interesting story. I needed 8TB for my Mac mini but it was not an option (and still isn't) so I decided to get 1TB and go external storage. As of now I have 4 SSDs connected, a 4TB one and 3 1TB ones, which with the internal 1TB is 8TB. If that was an option, the 8TB upgrade is $2400 (on both the Macbook pro and the Mac Studio). I only spent around 530 for the 7TB external storage (granted, plus 186 for the OWB TB4 hub, but that is also used for other things). Granted I got all the storage cheap on sale for things like black friday, cyber monday etc. But still, even including the TB4 hub it's a third of the cost, and the speed is still plenty.

 

[gradi]

Tell us what your definition of 'best' is for your use.

 

[theorist9]

I have seen some videos about this, but I have the OWC Thunderbolt 4 hub and I actually get lower speeds there, around 100MB/s lower than by plugging it directly into the Mac (600-700 instead of 700-800). I have tried with both a 1TB T7 and a 4TB Extreme pro (both gen 2). So no improvement from the TB4 hub, on the contrary...
I also tried a SATA SSD and similar story, on the hub it's 350, and on the Mac it's 370.
I did many black magic runs every time to make sure it was not a one-off issue

By 'direct plug into the Mac', I assume you're referring to the Mini's 5 Gbps USB-A Gen 1 ports (since those are the slow ports we were trying to workaround by plugging into a TB4 hub). And for those you're reporting 700-800 MBps with a direct connection. But 700–800 MBps = 5.6–6.4 Gbps, which actually exceeds Gen 1's 5 Gbps maximum. So I'm wondering if there is a measurement error in the app you're using that makes it unreliable for these tests (or maybe it's unrealiable absolutely, but still reliable comparatively)...

I.e., it seems you're saying:
Mac Mini USB-A Gen 1 ports (direct): 700–800 MBps = 5.6–6.4 Gbps
OWC TB4 ports: 600-700 MBps = 4.8–5.6 Gbps

For comparison, what speeds do you see when the T7 and Extreme Pro are plugged directly into the Mini's TB4 ports? Since you saw no speed reduction there, you should see the same ~1000 Gbps max everyone else reports when the Extreme Pro is plugged into a TB3/4 port. If so, I'm wondering if the reduced speeds you see with the OWC Hub's TB ports are specific to it (i.e., would another TB hub perform better)? Have you contacted OWC about this?

And just for fun, I'm curious what speeds you get with the OWC Hub's USB 3.2 Gen 2 port

 

[theorist9]

As of now I have 4 SSDs connected, a 4TB one and 3 1TB ones, which with the internal 1TB is 8TB. If that was an option, the 8TB upgrade is $2400 (on both the Macbook pro and the Mac Studio). I only spent around 530 for the 7TB external storage (granted, plus 186 for the OWB TB4 hub, but that is also used for other things). Granted I got all the storage cheap on sale for things like black friday, cyber monday etc. But still, even including the TB4 hub it's a third of the cost, and the speed is still plenty.

$530 for a 4 TB Extreme Pro V2 plus three 1 TB T7's is an extraordinary deal. I've been tracking AZ's pricing on the 4 TB Extreme Pro V2 on camelcamelcamel, and the lowest they report since Oct 2021 is $480 (last month on AZ Prime Day); for the T7 it's $107. So that would be 480 + 3 x 107 = $801. Where did you manage to find those for so little?

 

[theorist9]

For ~$450-$600 you could roll your own moderate-speed (~2500 MBps) 4 TB Thunderbolt 3 drive that's about as fast as the $900 Samsung X5:

Enclosures:

Acasis 40Gbps M.2 NVMe USB 4 Thunderbolt 3/4 SSD Enclosure

Lightning-Speed Data Transfer ACASIS 40Gbps Nvme Enclosure, with blazing speed up to 40Gbps has you covered, offering the ultimate combination of speed, performance, and versatility. Transfer speed up to 40Gbps (varies by host device and SSD), transferring 2.5G large file in 1 second, even...

www.acasis.com

Fledging Shell Thunder SSD Enclosure (0GB) with Active Cooling - PCIe NVMe Portable External Enclosure m3

Fledging Shell Thunder SSD Enclosure (0GB) with Active Cooling - PCIe NVMe Portable External Enclosure m3

www.amazon.com

[some say the above enclosure is noisy]

Budget 4 TB NVME drives:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1710669-REG/crucial_ct4000p3pssd8_4tb_p3_plus_nvme.html

Western Digital 4TB WD Red SN700 NVMe Internal Solid State Drive SSD for NAS Devices - Gen3 PCIe, M.2 2280, Up to 3,400 MB/s - WDS400T1R0C

Tackle extreme workloads in high-intensity NAS environments with the fast-caching WD Red SN700 NVMe SSD. This powerful drive is engineered to support 24/7 environments, always-on applications with the ultimate in reliability and endurance. Its robust system responsiveness and exceptional I/O perf...

www.amazon.com

INLAND 4TB Performance Plus NVMe Internal Gaming SSD Solid State Drive Optimized for PS5 - Gen4 PCIe, M.2 2280, DRAM Cache, 176-Layer TLC 3D NAND Flash, Up to 7200MB/s

INLAND 4TB Performance Plus NVMe Internal Gaming SSD Solid State Drive Optimized for PS5 - Gen4 PCIe, M.2 2280, DRAM Cache, 176-Layer TLC 3D NAND Flash, Up to 7200MB/s

www.amazon.com

There's also a TB3 enclosure from OWC, but it's limited to ~1500 MB/s

OWC Envoy Express Thunderbolt 3 Enclosure for NVMe M.2 SSD

World’s first Thunderbolt certified bus-powered ‘add your own drive' enclosure. History-Making DIY Pocket-Sized Storage Solution While small in stature, the OWC Envoy Express is big news. For the first time ever in the history of Thunderbolt, you can buy a bus-powered Thunderbolt certified enclos...

www.amazon.com

 

[Bodhitree]

Tell us what your definition of 'best' is for your use.

This is the thing. I wouldn’t go around spending money on an expensive / ultra-fast drive setup if you don’t need it. I bought a standard Samsung T7 2 TB drive a few months ago and it gives me about 1 GB/sec, which is plenty for what i use it for.

 

[Digitalguy]

By 'direct plug into the Mac', I assume you're referring to the Mini's 5 Gbps USB-A Gen 1 ports (since those are the slow ports we were trying to workaround by plugging into a TB4 hub). And for those you're reporting 700-800 MBps with a direct connection. But 700–800 MBps = 5.6–6.4 Gbps, which actually exceeds Gen 1's 5 Gbps maximum. So I'm wondering if there is a measurement error in the app you're using that makes it unreliable for these tests (or maybe it's unrealiable absolutely, but still reliable comparatively)...

I.e., it seems you're saying:
Mac Mini USB-A Gen 1 ports (direct): 700–800 MBps = 5.6–6.4 Gbps
OWC TB4 ports: 600-700 MBps = 4.8–5.6 Gbps

For comparison, what speeds do you see when the T7 and Extreme Pro are plugged directly into the Mini's TB4 ports? Since you saw no speed reduction there, you should see the same ~1000 Gbps max everyone else reports when the Extreme Pro is plugged into a TB3/4 port. If so, I'm wondering if the reduced speeds you see with the OWC Hub's TB ports are specific to it (i.e., would another TB hub perform better)? Have you contacted OWC about this?

And just for fun, I'm curious what speeds you get with the OWC Hub's USB 3.2 Gen 2 port

Lots of (wrong) assumptions here. So let me try to be very clear.
All the tests with Blackmagic disk speed (which is the most used software for Macs) were done on the Thunderbolt ports of the M1 Mac and OWC. The only time I used the USB A was for the SATA drive
By the way the USB A ports on the Mac Mini are gen 2, not gen 1, so they should be no bottleneck anyway.
And the cables were the original cables coming with the drive, so they are not to blame either.
So I would assume nothing in my test was unreliable.

PS there is no way that the gen 2 SSDs run at full speed on the M1, they do on Windows devices or Intel Macs, not on M1. Maybe some TB4 dock can increase the speed to some extent thanks to a different controller, but not the OWC TB4 Hub, which actually decreases the speed.

 

[Digitalguy]

$530 for a 4 TB Extreme Pro V2 plus three 1 TB T7's is an extraordinary deal. I've been tracking AZ's pricing on the 4 TB Extreme Pro V2 on camelcamelcamel, and the lowest they report since Oct 2021 is $480 (last month on AZ Prime Day); for the T7 it's $107. So that would be 480 + 3 x 107 = $801. Where did you manage to find those for so little?

I got the 4TB extreme 2 (the gen 2 one, not the 2X2 one, they look identical, but one is 2X2, the other is not) on sale for 362, and the 1TB for 55 to 59 each (it's not dollars, it's Swiss francs but they are essential 1:1). The Samsung drives were on sale + Samsung 30 bucks cashback (so double savings)

 

[theorist9]

I got the 4TB extreme 2 (the gen 2 one, not the 2X2 one, they look identical, but one is 2X2, the other is not) on sale for 362, and the 1TB for 55 to 59 each (it's not dollars, it's Swiss francs but they are essential 1:1). The Samsung drives were on sale + Samsung 30 bucks cashback (so double savings)

Ah! When you wrote you had the gen 2 Extreme Pro, I thought you meant the 2nd generation of the Extreme Pro, i.e., the Extreme Pro V2. But what you meant is that you had the Extreme Pro with 2nd generation USB, which is the first generation of the Extreme Pro. Now it makes sense -- the first gen (original) Extreme Pro would have been substantially less expensive. Still, a great deal on that, and likewiseon those T7's!

 

[theorist9]

Lots of (wrong) assumptions here. So let me try to be very clear.
All the tests with Blackmagic disk speed (which is the most used software for Macs) were done on the Thunderbolt ports of the M1 Mac and OWC. The only time I used the USB A was for the SATA drive
By the way the USB A ports on the Mac Mini are gen 2, not gen 1, so they should be no bottleneck anyway.
And the cables were the original cables coming with the drive, so they are not to blame either.
So I would assume nothing in my test was unreliable.

PS there is no way that the gen 2 SSDs run at full speed on the M1, they do on Windows devices or Intel Macs, not on M1. Maybe some TB4 dock can increase the speed to some extent thanks to a different controller, but not the OWC TB4 Hub, which actually decreases the speed.

I think I see the confusion. These sorts of complex discussions are much easier in person...

By the way the USB A ports on the Mac Mini are gen 2, not gen 1, so they should be no bottleneck anyway.

Actually, the USB A ports on the Mac Mini (both M1 and Intel) are gen 1. Here's a screenshot from Apple's product page:

And when you wrote this,

Mind you, M1/2, for some reason, will reduce the speed of both gen 1 and gen 2 by about 25% compared to Intel Macs / Windows.
Thunderbolt / USB 4 is not slower on M1 instead.

I thought you meant the gen 1/gen2 USB-A ports on M1 Macs were reduced in speed relative to the specs, but the TB4 ports weren't. [But in fact, you weren't referring to the configuration of the ports, you were referring to the configuration of the attached drives.]

[Also, it turns out no Macs, including the Studio, offer USB-A with gen 2.]

Thus, when I suggested a workaround of using a TB4 dock (I added the suggestion of the dock, under the assumption that the OP might have his TB4 ports filled driving monitors), I meant a workaround to avoid the reduced-speed USB-A gen 1 ports. But when you said you found no gain from the TB4 dock, I now understand you didn't mean no gain vs. a direct USB-A connection, you meant no gain vs. a direct TB4. Whew!

 

[Digitalguy]

I think I see the confusion. These sorts of complex discussions are much easier in person...

Actually, the USB A ports on the Mac Mini (both M1 and Intel) are gen 1. Here's a screenshot from Apple's product page:
View attachment 2046001
And when you wrote this,

I thought you meant the gen 1/gen2 USB-A ports on M1 Macs were reduced in speed relative to the specs, but the TB4 ports weren't. [But in fact, you weren't referring to the configuration of the ports, you were referring to the configuration of the attached drives.]

[Also, it turns out no Macs, including the Studio, offer USB-A with gen 2.]

Thus, when I suggested a workaround of using a TB4 dock (I added the suggestion of the dock, under the assumption that the OP might have his TB4 ports filled driving monitors), I meant a workaround to avoid the reduced-speed USB-A gen 1 ports. But when you said you found no gain from the TB4 dock, I now understand you didn't mean no gain vs. a direct USB-A connection, you meant no gain vs. a direct TB4. Whew!

Yeah thanks for taking the time to clarify this. And yes, you are right, the A on the M1 Mini as gen 1, it's on the OWC that they are gen 2, but they are still slower than the A on the mini with my SATA SSD.
Yes, indeed, I meant the SSDs run slower on Apple Silicon than with Intel. I guess the controllers in the Apple Silicon Macs cannot take advantage of the full speed of (non-thunderbolt) SSDs, both gen 1 and gen 2.
As for the Sandisk it's actually a little different than you said, I checked and mine is indeed V2, but not the pro
Check here: https://www.anandtech.com/show/1612...2-gen-2x2-sandisk-extreme-pro-portable-ssd-v2

 

[Yoshiii33524]

I think I see the confusion. These sorts of complex discussions are much easier in person...

Actually, the USB A ports on the Mac Mini (both M1 and Intel) are gen 1. Here's a screenshot from Apple's product page:
View attachment 2046001
And when you wrote this,

I thought you meant the gen 1/gen2 USB-A ports on M1 Macs were reduced in speed relative to the specs, but the TB4 ports weren't. [But in fact, you weren't referring to the configuration of the ports, you were referring to the configuration of the attached drives.]

[Also, it turns out no Macs, including the Studio, offer USB-A with gen 2.]

Thus, when I suggested a workaround of using a TB4 dock (I added the suggestion of the dock, under the assumption that the OP might have his TB4 ports filled driving monitors), I meant a workaround to avoid the reduced-speed USB-A gen 1 ports. But when you said you found no gain from the TB4 dock, I now understand you didn't mean no gain vs. a direct USB-A connection, you meant no gain vs. a direct TB4. Whew!

Yeah thanks for taking the time to clarify this. And yes, you are right, the A on the M1 Mini as gen 1, it's on the OWC that they are gen 2, but they are still slower than the A on the mini with my SATA SSD.
Yes, indeed, I meant the SSDs run slower on Apple Silicon than with Intel. I guess the controllers in the Apple Silicon Macs cannot take advantage of the full speed of (non-thunderbolt) SSDs, both gen 1 and gen 2.
As for the Sandisk it's actually a little different than you said, I checked and mine is indeed V2, but not the pro
Check here: https://www.anandtech.com/show/1612...2-gen-2x2-sandisk-extreme-pro-portable-ssd-v2

Thanks everyone,

So if I use the type A ports on the M1 Mac mini, the speed even with a SSD with usb 3.1 A connection will be slower than 5GB/s? Also if I use the TB4 ports to connect a NVME type ssd with TB4 connection, it will get reduced speeds of less than 10GB/s ?

Why is Apple so not good with amount of ssd size you get with buying their Macs and even with the ports you get less speed. Not good.

 

[EugW]

If you're looking at USB pricing (and don't want to deal with the heat from high speed Thunderbolt SSDs), then one of the best drives IMO is the Samsung T7 Shield. It gets sustained transfer rates of around 1 GB/s.

Samsung T7 Shield Portable SSD Review: Tough and Consistent Portable Storage (Updated)

Samsung’s T7 Shield brings reliability for content capture

www.tomshardware.com

As you can see here, the Samsung T7 Shield holds its own against the Samsung X5 Thunderbolt SSD.

Plus the Samsung (and other name brand) pre-built drives don't have the power issues that some of DIY Thunderbolt and DIY USB drives have.

 

[jwahaus]

Thanks everyone,

So if I use the type A ports on the M1 Mac mini, the speed even with a SSD with usb 3.1 A connection will be slower than 5GB/s? Also if I use the TB4 ports to connect a NVME type ssd with TB4 connection, it will get reduced speeds of less than 10GB/s ?

Why is Apple so not good with amount of ssd size you get with buying their Macs and even with the ports you get less speed. Not good.

The BUS speed on the Mini's type A ports is 5Gb/sec (note gigibit non gigibyte) so the max theoretical speed for any device connected would be around 500MB/sec (actual speeds will be less).
The type C ports support 10Gb/sec BUS speed so it's possible to get double the speed (if the device is capable)

The internal SSD's are super fast (and super expensive) so you're getting what you pay for.

 

[theorist9]

So if I use the type A ports on the M1 Mac mini, the speed even with a SSD with usb 3.1 A connection will be slower than 5GB/s?

We'll need to ask @Digitalguy if he could test the speed of his drives when using the USB A port.

Also if I use the TB4 ports to connect a NVME type ssd with TB4 connection, it will get reduced speeds of less than 10GB/s ?

No, in that case you don't get a reduced speed with the Mac. About the fastest you can get with an NVME TB4 external drive is ~2500 MBps, with both AS and Intel devices. Specifically:

Digitalguy tested USB 3.2 drives plugged into the Mini's TB4. With those, he gets a max of 700–800 MBps = 5.6–6.4 Gbps. That is reduced relative to Intel. However, if you were to take a fast NVME drive, and put it in one of the fastest available TB4 enclosures (or buy one of the fastest ready-build TB4 drives, e.g., the Samsung X5), you could get up to ~2500 MBps. In summary thus far:

PORT-------- DRIVE----------- SPEED
USB 3.1 ---- USB 3.2----- ?
TB4 ----- USB 3.2 ----- 700-800 MBps*
TB4 ----- NVME/TB4----- UP TO ~2500 MBps**

*This is specifically for the AS Macs; Intel devices (both Windows and Macs) are faster.

**Table of NVME drive speeds in Acasis TB4 enclosure. With the 980 Pro, the Intel and AS Macs perform the same (within testing variabilty):

Acasis 40Gbps M.2 NVMe USB 4 Thunderbolt 3/4 SSD Enclosure

Lightning-Speed Data Transfer ACASIS 40Gbps Nvme Enclosure, with blazing speed up to 40Gbps has you covered, offering the ultimate combination of speed, performance, and versatility. Transfer speed up to 40Gbps (varies by host device and SSD), transferring 2.5G large file in 1 second, even...

www.acasis.com

 

[EugW]

What speeds do you see if you plug your T7 and Extreme drives directly into those 5 Gbps USB-A ports? That would be the least expensive option for someone who's used up all their TB ports but has a USB-A available.

I will interject here to say that in 2022, there is no reason to get the T7 (aside from aesthetics). The T7 Shield is the same price or less than the T7, but is much, much faster. The T7 Shield also includes a rubberized exterior for better impact protection.

It’s possible some of the newer T7 models have been updated to include the better internals of the T7 Shield but so far I have seen no evidence of this online.

 

[theorist9]

If you're looking at USB pricing (and don't want to deal with the heat from high speed Thunderbolt SSDs), then one of the best drives IMO is the Samsung T7 Shield. It gets sustained transfer rates of around 1 GB/s.

The Samsung drive is a solid choice. But recall what Digitalguy found: If you are plugging a USB 3.2 drive (like the T7) into the AS Mac's TB4 ports, you don't get the 1000 MBps shown in the chart. Specifically on AS, that's knocked down to 700-800 MBps.

 

[jwahaus]

The Samsung drive is a solid choice. But recall what Digitalguy found: If you are plugging a USB 3.2 drive (like the T7) into the AS Mac's TB4 ports, you don't get the 1000 MBps shown in the chart. Specifically on AS, that's knocked down to 700-800 MBps.

I have 3 Samsung T7's (2TB) The original, the T7 Touch, and the T7 Shield. When connected to a M1 or M1Pro Mac I'm getting around 750MB/sec when attached to a Type C connector. One of them came with a Type A to Type C cable and with that one I was only getting around 350MB/sec until I replaced its cable with a Type C to Type C.

Even though its not as fast as when connected to Intel machines, it's plenty fast for most uses. File saves are very quick.

 

[theorist9]

I have 3 Samsung T7's (2TB) The original, the T7 Touch, and the T7 Shield. When connected to a M1 or M1Pro Mac I'm getting around 750MB/sec when attached to a Type C connector. One of them came with a Type A to Type C cable and with that one I was only getting around 350MB/sec until I replaced its cable with a Type C to Type C.

Cool, you're getting the same speeds as digitalguy for the TB4 port -> USB 3.2 drive. Did you also find a speed difference between Intel and AS when the T7 is connected to the USB A port?

Updating the table based on your report .

PORT-------- DRIVE----------- SPEED
USB 3.1 ---- USB 3.2----- 350 MBps
TB4 ----- USB 3.2 ----- 700-800 MBps [for AS Macs -- Intel devices are faster]
TB4 ----- NVME/TB4----- UP TO ~2500 MBps

Even though its not as fast as when connected to Intel machines, it's plenty fast for most uses. File saves are very quick.

Have you tried using the T7 with Time Machine? Backing up is probably fast, but I find Time Machine is slow when you want to access past files, even when read off my fast internal drive.