What ports will the next Mac Mini have? (looking for the best external drive)

[Silly John Fatty]

Hi peeps,

I was going to buy the Mac Mini M1, but it's not available with the configuration I want (32 GB of memory), so I'm waiting for the next Mac Mini, and basically, I need to buy an external hard drive now, because I'm going out of space, and since I want it to be compatible with my future Mac Mini, I'm wondering what ports that Mac Mini might have.

What do you guys think will it have, and what is currently the best? I suppose it's thunderbolt, right?

I'm no expert, but apparently Thunderbolt and USB 4 are the same, right? Or are they just the same port but with different capabilities, depending on what you connect to it?

On the US Apple page of the current Mac Mini, it says:

• Thunderbolt 3 (up to 40Gb/s)
• USB 4 (up to 40Gb/s)
• USB 3.1 Gen 2 (up to 10Gb/s)

On my European Apple page of the same model, however, it only lists:

• Thunderbolt 3 (bis zu 40 Gbit/s)
• USB 3.1 Gen 2 (bis zu 10 Gbit/s)
• Thunderbolt 2, HDMI, DVI und VGA mit entsprechenden Adaptern (separat erhältlich)

Eventhough it shows the the same picture on both websites and states "USB 4" there.

Can anyone enlighten me?

And what do you think is will the next generation Mini have? I need it to be as fast as possible. Right now I have a Mac Pro 5,1. I'll be using it with this machine until the new Mini comes out.


Thanks community

 

[fastlanephil]

You might be better off just adding compatible storage to your Mac Pro and wait until you are ready to buy the Mac Mini before you look into external storage options.

I would post your question on the Mac Pro forum. Also the second sticky thread on that forum looks like a good place to start.

 

[elvisimprsntr]

Instead of directly connected external storage, have you considered a NAS?

I have several NAS systems running enterprise class open source https://www.truenas.com

 

[dazey]

I have been doing this exercise too. I am looking at 8TB of SSD storage. There are a few things to look at, not only what you use to connect the drives to the machine but more importantly the expensive storage bit.

For ultimate performance you would buy NvME SSD drives. While I read things saying that the price is basically the same today(vs SATA), I do not find this to be the case for 4TB drives. I am looking at ultimatly ending up with two 4TB SATA Samsung 870 EVO drives. These will end up in a 2012 Mac mini as internal drives(in the interim). Eventually, I would expect to take them to a new gen mini in a dual drive enclosure. As they are storage drives, I have decided I don't require NVME performance and have gone EVO for longest life.

If you wanted to do similar, you can get incredibly cheap SATA-USB3 cables and then get a enclosure to suit the new mini later.

If you wanted smaller storage and are more focused on speed there are dual M2 drive enclosures available suitable for NvME drives.

 

[Silly John Fatty]

You might be better off just adding compatible storage to your Mac Pro and wait until you are ready to buy the Mac Mini before you look into external storage options.

I would post your question on the Mac Pro forum. Also the second sticky thread on that forum looks like a good place to start.

The thing is that I am planing to replace the Pro with a Mini, so in the long term, the storage that would be compatible with my MP might not be the best with a Mini.

Instead of directly connected external storage, have you considered a NAS?

I have several NAS systems running enterprise class open source https://www.truenas.com

I don’t understand what this is. Are these servers? This is a cloud service, right?

I have been doing this exercise too. I am looking at 8TB of SSD storage. There are a few things to look at, not only what you use to connect the drives to the machine but more importantly the expensive storage bit.

For ultimate performance you would buy NvME SSD drives. While I read things saying that the price is basically the same today(vs SATA), I do not find this to be the case for 4TB drives. I am looking at ultimatly ending up with two 4TB SATA Samsung 870 EVO drives. These will end up in a 2012 Mac mini as internal drives(in the interim). Eventually, I would expect to take them to a new gen mini in a dual drive enclosure. As they are storage drives, I have decided I don't require NVME performance and have gone EVO for longest life.

If you wanted to do similar, you can get incredibly cheap SATA-USB3 cables and then get a enclosure to suit the new mini later.

If you wanted smaller storage and are more focused on speed there are dual M2 drive enclosures available suitable for NvME drives.

I would probably go with SSDs as well. I have to admit, I’m not very tech savvy and haven’t followed computer-related stuff for quite a bit, but I remember once reading that several SATA drives connected with PCIe could be super fast. When you would connect them, it would basically create more speed, or something like that.

I don’t know if that works for SSDs too.

How exactly do you want to put these in a Mac Mini by the way? Just in some hard drive enclose I guess? Because you wrote you want them as internal drives for the Mini.

Ideally, I’d like something as fast as possible, although it is also for storage. But it will most likely be mixed used (archived things + big things like libraries etc. used daily).

 

[elvisimprsntr]

I don’t understand what this is. Are these servers? This is a cloud service, right?

Network Attached Storage (NAS)

TrueNAS is enterprise class open source NAS SW which runs on almost any x86 HW. So if you have an old PC you can repurpose it as a NAS running TrueNAS or purchase a new NAS appliance.

 

[macdos]

Your external drives will have way less throughput than any interface that will be available.

I have an 8 TB LaCie TB3 that is performing well, and a 16 TB SATA in an Icybox USB3 for backup. Soon time to upgrade the LaCie to 16 TB as well.

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

Hi peeps,

I was going to buy the Mac Mini M1, but it's not available with the configuration I want (32 GB of memory), so I'm waiting for the next Mac Mini, and basically, I need to buy an external hard drive now, because I'm going out of space, and since I want it to be compatible with my future Mac Mini, I'm wondering what ports that Mac Mini might have.

What do you guys think will it have, and what is currently the best? I suppose it's thunderbolt, right?

I'm no expert, but apparently Thunderbolt and USB 4 are the same, right? Or are they just the same port but with different capabilities, depending on what you connect to it?

On the US Apple page of the current Mac Mini, it says:

• Thunderbolt 3 (up to 40Gb/s)
• USB 4 (up to 40Gb/s)
• USB 3.1 Gen 2 (up to 10Gb/s)

On my European Apple page of the same model, however, it only lists:

• Thunderbolt 3 (bis zu 40 Gbit/s)
• USB 3.1 Gen 2 (bis zu 10 Gbit/s)
• Thunderbolt 2, HDMI, DVI und VGA mit entsprechenden Adaptern (separat erhältlich)

Eventhough it shows the the same picture on both websites and states "USB 4" there.

Can anyone enlighten me?

if you notice the headline for each of those things you quote, you will see they are what the Thunderbolt ports support. They are the exact same machines, they just forgot the USB4 line on the german translation, but it Is mentioned in the
headline.

Thunderbolt 4 supports USB4, but not the other way around. TB4, which is what these and all future machines will have, is better than USB4. They do use the same connector.

And what do you think is will the next generation Mini have? I need it to be as fast as possible. Right now I have a Mac Pro 5,1. I'll be using it with this machine until the new Mini comes out.

Most likely the exact same ports. If you need the fastest, get a Thunderbolt 4 (If such peripherials are even on the market), or Thunderbolt 3 Peripherial. Neither Thunderbolt nor USB is going away.

 

[tdar]

I know that it’s not popular but a Apple Silicon Mac doesn’t work like what we had before. It’s not designed to use external drives. The entire speed increase is because the storage is on package. If one must have storage that isn’t built in, then the only thing I can recommend is a NAS. Get your new Mac with a 10 gig eithernet port and use a very fast NAS.

 

[Neodym]

External Thunderbolt cases or drives are usually (often significantly) more expensive than their USB counterparts. For pure storage you don’t usually need the extra features of Thunderbolt and can go with USB3/4.

Unless you have upgraded your MacPro with a USB card, though, you’d be limited to USB2 speeds on that machine.

Thus a NAS box could be an alternative, as the MacPro already offers Gigabit Ethernet and the Mini will even offer 10Gb as option. However, the required cables and routers for >1Gb Ethernet are still prohibitively expensive for home use. But if you’re satisfied with “only” 1Gbit speed, that could be a viable solution.

As chances are that the new Minis could be released in spring, I would probably try to wait it out and buy new drives together with the mini when it becomes available. If even those 2-3 months of waiting are too long (due to your current space constraints), I’d get an inexpensive 1TB drive now (to tide you over) and then go all-in with the new machine.

If you insist on getting only the best and got money to burn, you could opt for an internal 4TB SSD (perhaps Apple will even offer an 8TB option) in your new mini, which will probably be faster than any external drive currently on the market.

 

[Neodym]

I know that it’s not popular but a Apple Silicon Mac doesn’t work like what we had before. It’s not designed to use external drives. The entire speed increase is because the storage is on package. If one must have storage that isn’t built in, then the only thing I can recommend is a NAS. Get your new Mac with a 10 gig eithernet port and use a very fast NAS.

Actually most modern Apple computers are especially meant to use external drives, as they are not internally upgradeable anymore and the offered standard storage capacities are very small by today’s standards.

And when you point out the speed, I’m not sure if recommending a 10Gb/s NAS over a 40Gb/s USB/TB drive is the right thing (not even considering the bigger overhead and latency of Ethernet). Besides, 10Gb is still very expensive for private use, hence you’d realistically be looking at a 1Gb/s NAS vs 40Gb/s DAS …

 

[tdar]

Actually most modern Apple computers are especially meant to use external drives, as they are not internally upgradeable anymore and the offered standard storage capacities are very small by today’s standards.

And when you point out the speed, I’m not sure if recommending a 10Gb/s NAS over a 40Gb/s USB/TB drive is the right thing (not even considering the bigger overhead and latency of Ethernet). Besides, 10Gb is still very expensive for private use, hence you’d realistically be looking at a 1Gb/s NAS vs 40Gb/s DAS …

Not the Apple Silicon concept! Apple expects storage, to be local and on package. That’s why they offer capacities up to 8 TB. They believe your working storage should be very fast, and on package. you can still maintain a secondary level of storage, that’s off device and networked. For most Apple traditional workloads, a secondary level of storage connected by a 10 Gb network, is much faster than what users need. I’ve been saying this now for over a year. Apple Silicon, it’s a totally new paradigm. Apple doesn’t expect it to work like traditional PC‘s have worked before. They have reimagined it in a completely new way. I totally understand that people have a hard time with that. They wanted it to be like What they’ve always known before. But it’s not what they’ve known before. It’s a whole new thing, that’s designed to work in a whole new way. I am certain, that from Apple‘s perspective, you were supposed to erase all of your past expectations. And see this new thing as what it is. A totally completely new way to do things.

 

[Fishrrman]

"Not the Apple Silicon concept! Apple expects storage, to be local and on package."

This is nonsense, plain and simple.
(nothing more to say)

 

[Neodym]

Apple doesn’t expect it to work like traditional PC‘s have worked before. They have reimagined it in a completely new way. I totally understand that people have a hard time with that. They wanted it to be like What they’ve always known before. But it’s not what they’ve known before. It’s a whole new thing, that’s designed to work in a whole new way. I am certain, that from Apple‘s perspective, you were supposed to erase all of your past expectations. And see this new thing as what it is. A totally completely new way to do things.

You are a young person, obviously. 40 years ago this “totally new way of things” (having everything together in one package) had already been introduced by Homecomputers like the C64 and the Amiga. Only that the technology wasn’t as advanced as today, so the “package” had the size of a full-blown motherboard.

Apple also does not do this only because it is faster (well, it actually has some advantages), but at least as big is the intention of upselling people to higher configurations and nudging them to buy a whole new computer (at a higher margin for Apple) instead of diy-upgrading the existing one.

Apple isn’t a charity, but one of the most valuable companies on the planet. They didn’t become that without reason …

 

[tdar]

You are a young person, obviously. 40 years ago this “totally new way of things” (having everything together in one package) had already been introduced by Homecomputers like the C64 and the Amiga. Only that the technology wasn’t as advanced as today, so the “package” had the size of a full-blown motherboard.

Apple also does not do this only because it is faster (well, it actually has some advantages), but at least as big is the intention of upselling people to higher configurations and nudging them to buy a whole new computer (at a higher margin for Apple) instead of diy-upgrading the existing one.

Apple isn’t a charity, but one of the most valuable companies on the planet. They didn’t become that without reason …

Well given that I am 60 years old now…

 

[Neodym]

Well given that I am 60 years old now…

… you should know better than praising Apple for inventing something new, which is actually known for decades. It’s hard to not know about those Homecomputers of the 80’s for someone your age!

 

[scottrngr]

You didn't say what you are using your current computer for, and what kind of files you currently store. Are you just going to use it for backups, or video editing? The cheapest and easiest route is to get a USB external drive, and then get a USB C adapter cable when you get your Mini.

CableCreation 1FT USB C to Micro B Cable,10Gbps Speed External Hard Drive Braided,USB 3.1 Type C to Micro B Work for iPhone 15,16,Seagate WD Westgate My Passport,MacBook Pro/Air, iPad/Tablet,Black

www.amazon.com

 

[dazey]

How exactly do you want to put these in a Mac Mini by the way? Just in some hard drive enclose I guess? Because you wrote you want them as internal drives for the Mini.

litteraly inside the Mac mini. The 2012 (and earlier) Mac mini’s have space for 2x2.5” drives and two sata connections. The server versions actually had two drives from the factory. The regular ones you have to buy a second cable for the second drive. So old drive out, 2 new Ssds in

if I ever get a M1 max/m2 mini, the drives will moved into an external dual drive enclosure with an appropriate interface for the new machine

 

[Silly John Fatty]

Thanks for all your replies guys.

I think I will in fact wait for the next Mac Mini to come out and see what connections it has, although like some said it will be USB4/Thunderbolt (thanks also for clarifiying the difference by the way). And in the mean time, I’ll just buy a 1TB SATA drive for my Mac Pro. They don’t cost much anyway and have plenty of space.

As for what’s best when I get the new Mini, I’ll have to look deeper into that and also into what NAS is exactly. Basically, I’m a fan of keeping things for a long time, so when I get that Mini, I’ll be happy if I could have it for 10 years. So ultimately, I’ll be looking at maximum speed, maximum safety, maximum durability, maximum reliability…

 

[Neodym]

I’ll have to look deeper into that and also into what NAS is exactly.

NAS = Network Attached Storage, DAS = Directly Attached Storage.

A DAS is basically a harddrive, which you connect to a computer via an expansion port such as USB, FireWire, Thunderbolt.

A NAS is - oversimplified - a harddrive box, connected via Ethernet. Normally there is a dedicated operating system on board as well, allowing for things like e.g. user and access rights management, as a NAS can be used from multiple computers (and users) concurrently. And the OS handles the internal drive management, as many NAS‘s can take more than just one internal drive and distribute data among those to increase speed and/or data consistency.

Better NAS‘s even allow to install add-ons, so you could have a PLEX server, a torrent client or other tools residing on your NAS, running independently of a full-fledged computer. If you want to do some research, QNAP and Synology are among the market leaders for this kind of tech.

 

[weaztek]

I think I will in fact wait for the next Mac Mini to come out and see what connections it has, although like some said it will be USB4/Thunderbolt (thanks also for clarifiying the difference by the way).

That's a good idea, but I fully expect it to be USB compliant so don't worry about this too much. Just be sure all the hubs, cables and drives are fast.

And in the mean time, I’ll just buy a 1TB SATA drive for my Mac Pro. They don’t cost much anyway and have plenty of space.

I wouldn't be afraid to buy a larger drive than that. The difference in price between a 1TB and 4TB is not that much. Edit: I thought you meant a SATA HDD.

I mix and match drives on my Mini. I have an external NVMe SSD (TB cable) for stuff that needs speed to work on, and a few 3-8 TB ext. HDDs for archiving-it's fast enough for music/movies, text docs that need updating, etc.

Here's some Blackmagic (app) benchmarks for my drives:
Int. 256GB SSD: 1200MB/s write, 2680 MB/s read
Ext. TB3 512GB SSD: 920MB/s write and 1377MB/s read.
Ext. 3TB HDD on USB 3.1 dock 117 MB/s, 120 MB/s read.

 

[MikeDr206]

So, consensus is not to expect FireWire 400 ports? What about 800? /s

 

[Neodym]

So, consensus is not to expect FireWire 400 ports? What about 800? /s

Who knows? With Apple riding the retro wave lately, perhaps Thunderbolt 5 will be renamed to FireWire S80000?! ?

 

[Deep Dish]

NAS = Network Attached Storage, DAS = Directly Attached Storage.

A DAS is basically a harddrive, which you connect to a computer via an expansion port such as USB, FireWire, Thunderbolt.

A NAS is - oversimplified - a harddrive box, connected via Ethernet. Normally there is a dedicated operating system on board as well, allowing for things like e.g. user and access rights management, as a NAS can be used from multiple computers (and users) concurrently. And the OS handles the internal drive management, as many NAS‘s can take more than just one internal drive and distribute data among those to increase speed and/or data consistency.

Better NAS‘s even allow to install add-ons, so you could have a PLEX server, a torrent client or other tools residing on your NAS, running independently of a full-fledged computer. If you want to do some research, QNAP and Synology are among the market leaders for this kind of tech.

I've been using a Synology NAS for about 5 years for long-term backups, but I lost all patience with it as my day to day external storage. I even hardwired my MBP to my router that the NAS is connected to, and the transfer speeds were still awful. I'd prefer to not have to use USB hard drives, but I'm not super tech savvy and I can't for the life of me figure out how to make it transfer faster. It currently takes me 15-20 min for a 2.5 GB file to transfer.

 

[4GBiPodNano]

Thanks for all your replies guys.

I think I will in fact wait for the next Mac Mini to come out and see what connections it has, although like some said it will be USB4/Thunderbolt (thanks also for clarifiying the difference by the way). And in the mean time, I’ll just buy a 1TB SATA drive for my Mac Pro. They don’t cost much anyway and have plenty of space.

As for what’s best when I get the new Mini, I’ll have to look deeper into that and also into what NAS is exactly. Basically, I’m a fan of keeping things for a long time, so when I get that Mini, I’ll be happy if I could have it for 10 years. So ultimately, I’ll be looking at maximum speed, maximum safety, maximum durability, maximum reliability…

I've been using a Synology NAS for about 5 years for long-term backups, but I lost all patience with it as my day to day external storage. I even hardwired my MBP to my router that the NAS is connected to, and the transfer speeds were still awful. I'd prefer to not have to use USB hard drives, but I'm not super tech savvy and I can't for the life of me figure out how to make it transfer faster. It currently takes me 15-20 min for a 2.5 GB file to transfer.

Related to the NAS discussion... I'm both waiting on the Mini update AND an update to the Synology DS920+ 4-bay NAS.

@Silly John Fatty - I'm choosing a NAS because it can hold multiple NAS-specific hard drives that should be reliable to run all day and the computer/OS of the NAS can also help you setup RAID/redundancy options. With the Synology-specific "DiskStation Manager" software I'm especially interested in having it auto backup to a cloud service like Backblaze. I'm trying to move away from my backup workflow with separate USB drives and Carbon Copy Cloner.

Like @Deep Dish mentioned, without the right connection, transfers might be much slower than other directly connected drives. According to this video, there seems to be a way to connect a NAS 10GbE port to the Mini 10GbE port directly if the NAS has multiple ethernet ports. I'm waiting on an upgrade to the DS920+ in hopes that the new version will have one or more 10GbE connections. (I work with photo and video files so I need it to be fast!)

That said, a NAS system is more expensive and more complicated so it could be overkill for what you want and need. ?