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Sep 11, 2014
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I’m curious to see what people are using with their Mini’s and what base storage people have.

I’ve just ordered the 128gb variant and I’m researching external SSD solutions for it.

So what’s your set up and how do you like it?
 
Not Mac Mini but faced the same question with an iMac. Went 1TB internal for booting and personal files then 2TB SSD over USB C + 2x12TB HDD’s in RAID 1 for all data.
 
I went with the 2TB Intel 660p
So far I'm liking it pretty good...

I have the Samsung 970 EVO Plus in my gaming pc, it’s a beast. What enclosure do you use to maximise your benefit of the higher speeds? Most enclosures I’m looking at aren’t fast enough.
 
I have 1 TB SSD internal with a 1 TB OWC Envoy Pro EX TB 3 for CCC bootable backups. 1 OWC 480 Envoy Pro EX TB3 used exclusively for a Parallels Win 10 VM. Bought both over the holiday sales + open box.

How do I like them? Both are VERY fast. :cool:

Had a real problem with them randomly un-mounting for no apparent reason. Solved it by following the Mac Rumors forums suggestion to turn off the wireless capability and voila, no more problems. Weird.
 
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At the moment only 256GB internal (SSD), I have a 128GB 3.0 USB Kingston pendrive and soon I may go for a USB C to SATA3 adapter.
We all agree that 128GB is insufficient and that 256GB is the minimum acceptable after it depends on the use of each person.
 
I have the Samsung 970 EVO Plus in my gaming pc, it’s a beast. What enclosure do you use to maximise your benefit of the higher speeds? Most enclosures I’m looking at aren’t fast enough.

I got the ElecGear shown in the article:
Meant to also add that I got the 512GB internal storage on the mini and use the external 2TB SSD for my photo library.
 
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2018 Mini with i7 -- for longevity.

16gb RAM -- because 8gb "just isn't enough" when you consider that 1536mb of it is used for the video RAM.

512gb SSD -- large enough to keep all my "usually-accessed" files at-hand (in 4 partitions).

I connect external storage when needed, but ONLY when "needed" (it's not normally connected).

No hubs, etc.
 
Im using 2 dual msata to usb c 10gbs enclosures with 4 500gb Samsung ssd's , works well for me. 1 has OS X data , 1 windows games, 1 windows 10 vm and 1 linux vm.
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I got the ElecGear shown in the article:
Meant to also add that I got the 512GB internal storage on the mini and use the external 2TB SSD for my photo library.

you will need a TB3 enclosure to max out a 970.
 
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I use a 2012 mini, does that count? It has two 2TB SSDs inside and I love it.
When it does die, I will get a 2018 or a (hopefully) subsequent mini. My plan is to get 256 or 512gb internally from apple and dangle a couple of larger SSDs externally. Performance is less than a concern to me than storage.
My last MacBook Air had only 128gb and that was a nightmare for me.
 
Currently I have the 512GB internal SSD and a 1TB external Samsung T5 (for games, movies, photos).

Looking to add a 8TB - 12TB WD spinner to a LaCie d2 Quadra I recently acquired and utilize it via TB (with a TB3 to TB2 adapter) to achieve more space than I will ever need.
 
2018 Mini with 512gb internal

2014 Mini 500GB WD Black NVME

Not including the 4 12 TB WD Thunderbolt Duos DAS connected- not SSD's
 
So what’s your set up and how do you like it?

I've got a hexcore i7 BTO with 8 GB RAM and a 500GB internal SSD. I'll be able to expand the memory if 8GB starts to feel like a pinch, but I don't have the same option on the internal SSD, so I bumped that up one notch when I ordered it.

I'm also using an external SSD in a cheap SATA III housing for bulk(-ish) storage. It's not the fastest-of-the-fastest, but I'm not doing video editing or anything else that has to absolutely bla-a-aze.

I've also got an always-on headless 2010-era dual core I put an 500GB SSD into to use as my iTunes library, and I hung a 1GB external SSD off it to use as a Time Machine target. And I have a 2012-era quad core I've put a 500GB SSD into, but haven't yet found a sustained use for.
 
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I have a 2018 with 256GB, and a Samsung X5 500GB hanging off it. Also a Samsung 860 EVO (500GB) in a USB C enclosure that will soon be hosting my CCC backups when I get around to setting it up.

Also have a lacie rugged mini I use as part of my backup strategy for time machine... but the long term plan is that it gets stored in the safe or off-site and I only have SSDs hooked up to this machine - a 1GB T7 will probably be in order when it is released - for photo storage.


Also have a 2014 mm in the lounge, with a bunch of hds hanging off it. Bought 2nd hand/refurbished from someone who put a 240GB SSD in there. It's not a great one, but it seems to work fine so I'm not rushing to upgrade. Storage needs on the machine itself are minimal, it mostly serves as a headless file server.
 
I have 1TB internal on my 2018 Mini.
Attached Samsung T5 2TB for photo storage.
Also have a Sandisk 2TB for backups using CCC.
 
512 gb internal
512 gb Sandisk external for document etc. storage
2 gb Sandisk tb external for backups
 
Since it's soldered in, I went with 1 tb. It just holds system files and simple documents, and that fills the drive about halfway. All my media is on an external TB3 drive.
 
I have a 128GB internal that is effectively unused. My boot drive is a 1TB AData XPG SX8200 Pro in a TEKW Rapide Thunderbolt enclosure from which I removed the small, existing drive. It has worked very well for me.

My set up has a 3.2 GHz i7, 32 GB RAM, and an external Radeon RX580.
 
2018 Mini with i7 -- for longevity.

16gb RAM -- because 8gb "just isn't enough" when you consider that 1536mb of it is used for the video RAM.

512gb SSD -- large enough to keep all my "usually-accessed" files at-hand (in 4 partitions).

I connect external storage when needed, but ONLY when "needed" (it's not normally connected).

No hubs, etc.
No Time Machine drive?
 
I’m curious to see what people are using with their Mini’s and what base storage people have.

I’ve just ordered the 128gb variant and I’m researching external SSD solutions for it.

So what’s your set up and how do you like it?
I've got the 1TB internal, a crucial 1 TB NVME m.2 in a Wavlink TB3 enclosure for external sound storage, a Samsung T5 1 TB to back up the crucial, and a T5 500GB for Time Machine. Use CCC to backup the external SSD.
 
Glockwork wrote:
"No Time Machine drive?"

No. of course not.
I've never used tm and NEVER will use it.

I use ONLY "cloned backups", and have them scattered around all over the place, along with various other drives.
 
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i3 - 128 gb- 32 ram

2TB in a thunderbolt enclosure running Mac OS. The 128 internal runs windows 10. Write speed 1950, Read: 2450 which is faster than the internal ssd

enclosure cost $125 and the Inland SSD cost $228. ran smooth for the last 6 months.

1TB crucial SSD connected for time machine because I like silence.

saved money this way and can always repurpose the SSD
 
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