It's been almost 20 years since I purchased and WD products. Burned me bad on a hard drive from the past and I've never forgotten it. Samsung/Seagate ALL THE WAY for me. WD really shows you what kind of a company they are when you need them and they utterly fail and in fact, just made a horrible situation even that much worse. NEVER EVER AGAIN!
I stopped before the 2 minute mark knowing I’m not the audience for this video. I’m a pro photographer so reliable internal storage from my MacBook Pro is worth the extra money but if you don’t depend on your hard drive professionally and don’t have priceless memories to store then this could an option for you. Oh and iCloud storage is the icing on the cake, don’t be left without it. I have a Windows laptop also but only for two specific softwares that I use it for so my internal hard drive is more than enough for that plus I can access my iCloud files from it also so that’s another bonus.
Great info! I added a 1TB Samsung SATA III 6 Gb/s SSD with a USB 3.0 enclosure back in 2019 when I bought my M1 Mac Mini. I only use it for storing music files so speed is not important. After 5 years it still works perfectly and I avoided the outrageous Apple memory tax.
The problem with more than 1 SSD enclosures/NAS is that they don't give all 4 PCIe lanes to each M.2 SSD. For example, this QNAP TBS-h574TX provides PCIe Gen3 x2 for each SSD slot. It means that any single SSD speed in the best-case scenario could be around 750 MB/s x 2. But in real life it will be around 1000 MB/s - basically operational speed of the 10 Gigabit Ethernet Port or 10Gb USB-C. And there is no reason to use RAID to increase speed since limitation is not in SSD or PCIe but in the Ethernet Port. So, it's enough to buy old PCIe 3 SSD. All PCIe 4 SSD cards are overkill.
While lane count and generation is the ultimate bandwidth governor it isn’t the only factor. Gen4 nvmes most of the time have newer better performing controllers. Premium tier drives will have Dram cache greatly improving random read/write performance along with larger SLC caches which will maintain full speed for longer while increasing TBWs. Most TLC read/write speeds plummet to 5-700MB/s so lane count stops being a factor anyways. 2x gen3 lanes will see 1500s not 750MB/s. Another benefit of raid 0 is it effectively multiplies SLC cache capacities. My 4x enclosure acts like a single drive with 2.4GB of SLC cache. Even if the drives drop down to TLC speeds individually their combined speeds are still enough to saturate a thunderbolt connection. The unit you mentioned has 10 pcie lanes. RAID 5 with 5 drives will have more lanes available than the 4X available to one drive. All of your assumptions are simply incorrect.
Man... I skip your video several times (just put it in Watch later for a while but YT keeps showing, so I watch 😆). Now this is unlocking my mind. For the one who looking for a way to connect multiple NVME on Mac (like me) The cost of multiple enclosure is wild 😖(And I just found out that no enclosure can put duo NVME into the same) It's also shocked me that even Thunderbolt 4 can't use full speed to any NVME which is a shame 😑
I have a 2023 M2 Mac Mini 16 GB Ram, 256GB SSD. I went with a WD SN770 1 TB and a Acasis TBU401. Fast! REAL FAST!...But Hot, REAL HOT! I tried adding Heatsinks, just too darn hot. Being an Old timey Field Engineer working on Computers when Dinosaurs walked the earth, I understand well how heat can rob electronic equipment of life and data. I ended up ditching the Acasis and going with a Qwiizlab hub. It took the WD SN770 with no data loss, plus gave me additional USB Ports that I found out I really needed for MIDI Controllers, Cameras, and other peripherals. It's slower, cooling running, but way faster than the storage in internal storage in my old 2012 Mac Mini. I'm happy.
I just place the enclosure on top of the Mac Mini and let the heat transfer from the enclosure to the Mini. No issue the past 2yrs. I don’t know about the fan’s longevity though. Is it replaceable and how loud is it?
Outstanding video! If you haven't already done it, could you make a video showing how to make an external SSD my boot disk? And I mean everything. The operating system, applications, all folders and files, the whole kit and caboodle. Thank you for your time and consideration.
I just bought a Mac2. With the help of my genius step son, I installed a 1TB crucial chip. I also use multiple SSD, 1TB external drives for storage. I have a dozen 1TB drive formatted in NTSB I will be systematically transferring it , one at a time, to reformatted devices more compatible with both formats working together
And just to add to what is being said below, I have had MacBook pros since the beginning of their existence and Apple computers before that; NONE of their hard drives have EVER failed, so I really don't care what their warranties say. On top of that, when anything goes wrong, they do their best to fix it for you and for free if they can. Hard to beat with any other maker!!
I basically selected an external SSD, then made that my boot up. And I use Time Machine weekly on ALL drives. I might loose a tiny bit of speed….unsure. But I know I was able to expand my iMac and Mac Mini to 2TB for way less than ANYTHING Apple offered.
Thanks for the info.. saved me time on research. FYI... Don't format using EX-FAT. It will crash every time u copy/paste to the drive. Use it as a dedicated drive for MAC storage only.
I will say there is added value for the Apple storage for laptops because you can move around easier without the added effort of a dangling storage device attached. Plus external enclosures will never be as fast as the internal storage. Maybe that’s not a big deal to everyone but it is important to compare cost for the speed. You have to look into good TB4 enclosures to get decent speeds and then the price gap gets a lot smaller. Even then at best it’s 3,000MB/S vs the internal that can go up to 6,000 MB/S. While everyone may not need that speed it’s important to factor that into the cost. The internal storage is more expensive because it does provide the maximum speed and is not bottlenecked. I will also point out storage rarely fails on Mac’s. The same can not be said of external drives which can either fail or slow down with age. I have owned name brand SSDs that started off at 500MB/S and after two years slowed down to 150MB/S. Not all flash storage is created equally. Not all enclosures are created equally either and can sometimes fail and lose data. You are adding two new failure points to your computer. The SSD and the enclosure. The internal storage tends to be very robust and built to last a really long time without slowing down. This is the pro level of flash storage and not the average version. External storage is great and for a desktop Mac it’s probably a good way to go if one is ok with the slower speeds. For a portable Mac however there is value in always having everything with you no matter where you take your laptop. Plus over the lifespan of the computer the extra couple hundred bucks likely will not mean much. It’s initial sticker shock but when you have it it is worth it. The point of a laptop is it can move around and be used anywhere. At a cafe, on the couch, in bed, on the toilet, on the bus/train, on a movie set, even while walking or standing in a hallway. Not being held back by messing around to plug and unplug an external drive which can also be dangerous is convenient.
Sometimes "not the best choice" is the best choice, so even with all you are saying, it's still not worth spending that amount of money, for example, as a music producer, you need at least 4tb of storage to get a lot of sample library, so you are telling me i should spend the crazy amount of money needed to get that ? So having a slower ssd still better than spending 1k for 4tb
@ kind of depends if you move that computer around a lot. A sample library isn’t as drive speed needy and it does not need to live on the system drive. An external drive can be just as fast or at least fast enough now for a sample library. Unless you absolutely need to work on music in odd locations and envy where dangling an external drive would be cumbersome. I’m more of a fan of keeping videos and sound sample libraries in an external drive anyway so it’s much easier to move around to other systems. Let’s say your Mac needs to go in for repairs and you have a secondary system around or somehow get a loaner or temporary system. It takes seconds to move that sample drive to the new system. Lots of fields use backups like video, photography and so forth. The same could be true for computers. Get a secondary $599 Mac Mini as an emergency backup just in case. Then move that 4 TB sample drive to it as needed. I have often in the past had two computers. A desktop that was more powerful and a laptop to move around with. Having external drives for video and design projects was critical to move back and forth as needed. It was also nice to have that laptop as a backup just in case.
Thanks for this video but I really need to say this out loud: As much as I love MacOS to me there's no rationale where apple can justify the current entry storage/memory prices. In 2012 I had an external storage solution via a thunderbolt in my Mac Mini due to my line of work - despite having 2 internal drives, one external Time Machine and 16gb memory. All custom upgrades, bought the drives, bought the memory and boom, the Mac mini lasted for 10 years and still works as a support machine. Marvelous era where things were upgradable and gave us a long term perspective. I then moved to an iMac 2020 mainly due to the screen and the aging HD4000 of the Mac mini - was only able to upgrade the memory. It pains me to see that in 2024 apple continues to regress, no matter the performance increase of the latest and greatest we are at this point where 8gb/256gb is still the base offering (and no possible upgrades). Even the 16/512 configuration shouldn't even be an option in the "pro" line. Oh and if anything fails "paperweight" mode activated! Love turning into hate...
Really nice step by step explanations. Tnx. for sharing as I am currently looking for a speedy and durable external thunderbolt 4 drive for my brand new Mac Mini M4 (the base model). Keep up the good work man .
The acasis thunderbolt nvme external enclosure is the best balance between price and performance - it consistently delivers 2800 megabytes/second in both read and write, when used with the included, or an actual thunderbolt 4 cable… the cable makes a huge difference!
Most of the decent external enclosures do like 2800MB/s... works fine for standard Macs, or even Mini M4 it seems. But my Mac Studio Max does about 4000MB/s R/W and caches 1GB writes (or bigger, but not 8GB). So I have an NVME external "storage disk", booting from such a disk would reduce my Mac Studio's performance, and also that of a Mini M4 Pro.
@ not so, necessarily… the M4 pro (and max) introduce Thunderbolt 5 to the Mac lineup… so, upgrade to a thunderbolt 5 nvme chassis, and a 6000 mb/second or better ssd nvme, and you get the raw speed of thunderbolt 5 - twice that of thunderbolt 4! Enclosures/chassis are available from Acasis and OWC already…
@@mortenthorpe indeed... but for budget you can get the same speed in an enclosure for base M4. If that woudl have TB5.... you could boot from a faster external SSD (like you could/can) on TB2 Macbooks, where you can place an SSD/faster SSD inside but still get bottlenecked by PCIE 2.0X4... or use a TB3=>TB2 external and get better speeds. It's not just a coincidence or little saving on cost that the base model has TB4 and not TB5.
I have the ACASIS TBU 401 Pro (40gbps) which was an upgrade from my SABRENT EC-SNVE (10gbps), moved from PCI Gen 3x4 to Gen 4... and 2TB.. way faster in benchmarks (800mbps -> 2800mbps), but honestly I don't notice any speed difference, in any day to day things, from 4k video editing to large projects for programming. Another item to point out, fill up that drive then benchmark, those write speeds tank even with only 1/2 filled up. I was sometimes getting write speeds of 100mbps when having 900GB of 1000GB.
Most of the decent external enclosures do like 2800MB/s... works fine for standard Macs, or even Mini M4 it seems. But my Mac Studio Max does about 4000MB/s R/W and caches 1GB writes (or bigger, but not 8GB). So I have an NVME external "storage disk", booting from such a disk would reduce my Mac Studio's performance, and also that of a Mini M4 Pro. That Mac Studio came standard with 512GB and I opted for 64GB memory to run some things faster. :) I have an Orico NVME case (I can take that with me), and a Trebleet Mac Mini thunderbolt dock (has pcie3.0 and does 2800MB/s, plus adds more ports). That's for local storage.
Another option people don’t often know about is using an SD card that sits flush with the edge of the Mac. The speed is terrible of course but you can also get a 1TB card and it works great for zero maintenance Time Machine (after an epically long first run) or stuff that doesn’t need high speed.
I tried that, and it snapped off. I destroyed the socket trying to get it out. OK, I was using one from a different Mac - that didn't fit flush, but it worked - until I hit it.
You could show how to relocate the user’s home folder to the external. Also might be useful to show what happens if you try to boot without the external connected and the home folder missing.
Right. This hints at a stumbling block for Mac users and external storage, which is that the Apple ecosystem, which includes iCloud and specifications for where other cloud storage (i.e. Dropbox) is located, and how the Mac OS handles file links, is not designed to work with external storage devices. Yes of course power users familiar with the command line and mounting drives, etc., can easily work around the Mac OS, but I bet most people are not that skilled.
@ yes, but why would you do that? It would be fun and interesting to configure your system that way, but what good is that doing for you on a day to day basis?
One thing affecting performance is the cable. Not all USB-C cables are created equal and often they are not clearly marked to indicate their abilities. Some are barely good enough to charge your phone and others will drive a monitor and multiple SSDs attached to a hub. It's important to match the cable with the drive's capabilities, and not simply connect a new enclosure with a cable that you may already have connected to your computer.
You gave polar opposite specs. First NVMe can be faster than internal. Second you said max external rates are about 3gig/sec. Ive done lots of testing and the 3g/sec is correct. However, my internal 1TB on my M2 Mini pro is 5500 to 6500 g/s. So externals are not faster . However, in daily use, maybe would not see much difference.
You have to make sure that any of these enclosures support trim. Sata drives are not supported by trim on a Mac. They might work all right for storage, but if you're doing constant transferring of data the SSD will slow down considerably within a few months. Giving the terminal a command to support trim does not guarantee trim is supported.
Are you bringing up the negatives as well? Is the information as cryptographically protected as internal solution? How does low internal storage affect resale value? and so on...
Just tested my M2 Mac Studio Ultra's 1TB internal using Black Magic; I got 6320.8 MB/s Write, and 5200 MB/s Read, which seems worth the money to me. I also use an external set of solid-state RAIDs with RAID 0 across four and eight drives over TB4, and can't match that internal speed.
That’s exactly what he left out of the video. You can’t match the internal speed, even with TB5 you will “only” get about 6000MB/s on a single drive. You would get more with RAID 0 or a two port configuration but that gets expensive fast. This is why Apple charges a premium for their internal storage. It is still more than it should be based on other available PCI5.0 drives but it’s not the drastic difference this video makes it out to be if the speed difference is taken into account.
@@bacon.dumpling for the pro's and up that is correct; The M2 Mini's and the Mini M4 are slower it seems, so on a budget, you better get a base model + a decent TB NVME that does 2800MB/s (the fastest ones get up to 3000-3100MB/s but run very hot. So, without access to faster enclosures there's no point. OWC's TB5 Envoy sets you back 400$, that's 2/3 of M4pro upgrade price but 1/2 price of M4 upgrade doubling SSD speed. I have swapped spinners in white Macbooks for SSD's and have booted NVME's over TB3=>TB2 adapters on more recent macbooks. And that is very noticeable (from startup over youtube loads to Photoshopping). Oh... maybe that's why the base M4's have TB4 ports... :((
Thanks for the video. Very informative. Could you do an evaluation of the various mac mini hub where you could put in a nvme and sata SSD. Which brand gives you the best bang for the buck and which ones has the best transfer rate? Many thanks.
Got the base M2 Mac Mini 256gb for Web and App development...got the OWC Express 1M2 USB4 on the way. Going to use it with a 1TB NVME I already have and make it the main drive. Velcro the enclosure to the top of the mac mini. Tuck it behind the monitor out of sight...Not paying Apple hundreds for 1TB...
The Thuderbolt port gives 40 Gbits/sec (4,000 MBytes/sec). Some of the docks have multi- M.2's, SATA ports, 10GBe network, Display ports, Audio ports, Lots of USB's, Card readers, and a lot more.
No one mentioned this, well, I managed to snag one of these babies for cheap, Seagate Firecuda Gaming Dock, added a fast M.2 4TB SSD used the internal builtin 4TB for real time Time Machine backups on my 2TB Mac Mini M1
Can you make an update on this with Apple Intelligence? I read it is not supported in external drives but then some say it is supported in their Thunderbolt enclosures.
Exactly what I did - Brought the Mac Mini M2 Pro with 16 gigs and 512gb ssd, then brought 2 X 2 TB ssd's and put them in external usb4/thunderbolt4 enclosures then modded ( told ) the programs too use the external ssd's " sorted " Saved 100's £/$ on this solution ......
Hi great info and no waffle but what about TRIM. It was never possible to make TRIM work with external USB drives - only Thunderbolt. Is that still the case?
Just got an Acasis and a WD 2tb for my MacBook thanks to one of your old vids 👍🏼 Amazon prime day had a decent sale on them. Sort of wish I had shelled out an extra $100 for the 4tb, but this gives me plenty of space for now
I’m going to get the WD BLACK 1TB SN850X, which enclosure is recommended if I want to bring it with me on photo trips. Something more rugged than something that is always connected to the Mac mini.
@@mychannel9161 you can still do it on the M series systems. the install procedure is the same as the Intel, but you need to select the external as your default disk from within macOS and not the bootloader. I currently have working bootable macOS installations on both the internal and external drives of my M1 MacBook Pro. Just head into macOS System Settings > General > Startup Disk and choose which drive you want to boot from next reboot.
what is missing is how to make the symbolic links, best practices... one would still need a minimum of 512GB.... the user folder, app folder, and the hidden system folder fills up fast, not to mention iTunes backups, etc.
Is it possible to use the external ssd to install and run the apps we need on the MacBook ? Or the main idea of the external disk is only for files / documents ?
So… On the brand new Mac mini what level of internal storage should I go for? 256 or 512? Or something else? I understand that I should have at least two chips to have faster hard drive speed.
we have a 256gb m1, we really regret it because we're having to constantly delete "lost by apple" local files. We use it for ios development and the sims take up a lot of memory. ( we did also have it fail in its first year, so AFTER the fact we got external time-machine setup...). At least the 8gb question has gone for ram...
@@timothylowe8327 I just did that two days ago Acasis enclosure and got the 2TB WD SN850x all for under 200 bucks maybe even less if you go for a cheaper drive and my base M4 Mac mini boots just as fast as its internal 256GB chip and all programs open and close fast since the base model has the same 16GB RAM as the 512GB model.
So, is there not an option to get full performance from my WD Black. I get over 7,500 MB/s (tested) write speed. If I go Mac route, I'm losing performance?
Hi mate how's things? I worked with you years ago on a wedding not sure if you remember. I'm having massive issues with my external hardrive and wondered if you can help. Apple can't seem to figure it out and you probably know more than them about drives
What sucks is that some things, like iCloud Drive has to be on the system disk. Plz correct me if that has changed. Any Thunderbolt 5 storage devices/hubs?
I have that same Sabiant Enclosure and works great but neither Samsung Magician can see the SSD in it & neither can WD_Dashboard. I have a 2TB WD SSD C:\Drive 1 TB 870 EVO and 2 1TB ssd's in enclosuers for 5 TB total.
When you say “(usb 4 is) faster than thunderbolt”… you are clueless ! It is not only about the speed of the interface 10, 20, 40 gigabits per second, it is about blocking versus asynchronous transfer … USB is a bus-technology, it uses blocking transfers - reads in one direction, waits for read/write in the opposite direction, and then sends data the opposite way. Thunderbolt is asynchronous, it can send data in both directions at the same time. Thunderbolt is thus not a bus technology.
@@mortenthorpe I'm not clueless, I have a degree in computer science. The new USB 4 enclosures are in fact significantly faster than the previous thunderbolt nvme enclosures on the market.
@@definingslawek4731 you having your CS degree or not, doesn’t in either case have anything to do with the fact that you did not know about the bus technology of USB, and the asynchronous nature of thunderbolt… which is fair enough… but at least admit it, instead of changing your statement to “faster than previous thunderbolt”, which for the technology difference between usb and thunderbolt, and for the use in question (storage) is still not necessarily true… depends if you only read and only write in a test, but this is (dependent on the operating system), not a valid test case in many cases. Most file-transfers (all should), are validated as they are transferred, forcing data transfer to occur in both directions, so USB will be slower. A blocking bus at 40 gbps may be faster in use than a 10gbps thunderbolt, and it may not. In my own testing the NVME Acasis thunderbolt 40 gbps enclosure provides 2800 mbps read and write consistently and the same provides around 930/950 mbps using a usb-4 cable. This is the real world difference between thunderbolt and usb of same generations
There's actually zero issues with the base models SSD transfer rate as previous models as the latest strip down tests have discovered here...The other thing we’ve learned is that the base Mac Mini’s module has two 128GB NAND chips instead of a single 256GB one, which means we don’t expect to see a performance bottleneck compared to the previously released base model M-Series Macs. Apple returned to two 128GB chips on the M3 MacBook Air released last April.
I’m disappointed that you didn’t test the 1st gen acasis tb3 enclosure. I’ve been using it for around 2yrs and the read/write speed on a gen3 WD 1tb green is the exactly same speed as the “newer controller” Acasis with the bells and whistles.
I need at least 2tb drive. I was thinking about buying a crucial x9 pro. Is there any reason why one of these options would be better? I already have 6tb nas for backup so I jus need more space to work on?
Hi Lauri, thanks for the video. How about the Satechi M.2 Enclosure 40Gbps. Do you know if it is any good and how does that one compare to the ones you mentioned on L3? Thanks!
The advantage of internal drives is the lower latency. USB / Thunderbolt connections have overhead which most impacts latency - not bandwidth. Things tend to run faster on internal drives even when those drives are tested to have lower bandwidth. This is because the majority of read / write calls are to small files which are more impacted by latency. So that internal drive is still desirable and one should definitely run their OS from the internal drive. External drives are best suited for larger data files where high bandwidth is desirable and higher latency will not be noticed. Or better yet - Apple, include M.2 slots in your Macs!!!
Please stop using MB/s for comparing storage performance as it doesn’t tell a lot about storage speed, just throughput. IOPS and latency are more important to your user experience. Throughput only limits you when using large amounts of data.
Hi! I'm wondering, if i'd like to use a docking station, like the acasis witch has the m2 ssd holder, and also usb A ports and DPs or hdmis, does it effect the speed? I mean, if i use the ssd, and 2 monitor and the usbA ports at the same time, would it effect the ssd's speed vie thunderbolt 4?
@tomdfrog. I would use cloud storage for your particular needs. This suggested option is not expensive and, providers often keep several copies to provide resilience for you at no cost. Additionally, if you have "an event" at your abode then all your data is safe in the cloud, for easy retrieval...
thats all well and dandy but the more storage you have on the mac itself the faster your computer will run and read and write theres no point having base storage on a mac only to have it running at subpar speeds !
but Apple Intelligence is not compatible if you use any of the external drives you show if you boot up from these. That makes upgrading your internal storage to at least a one terabyte essential.
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I have velcro'd an external 2TB SSD to the lid of my Mac. It works very well 🙂
I have two of the sandisk 2tb's velcro'd to my case as well, works really well for DIT work in the field.
But they fail…
So confused
@@nancycy9039 I have heard that before, I haven’t had that issue yet, been running it for about a year
@@nancycy9039 Have you formatted them to an Apple format? It's the safest.
It's been almost 20 years since I purchased and WD products. Burned me bad on a hard drive from the past and I've never forgotten it. Samsung/Seagate ALL THE WAY for me. WD really shows you what kind of a company they are when you need them and they utterly fail and in fact, just made a horrible situation even that much worse. NEVER EVER AGAIN!
we all think the same about whatever brand when the first storage device fails, the truth is ALL of them fail, learned the hard way to keep back ups.
This has been the best explanation of have seen on UA-cam. Thanks for all the work.
I stopped before the 2 minute mark knowing I’m not the audience for this video. I’m a pro photographer so reliable internal storage from my MacBook Pro is worth the extra money but if you don’t depend on your hard drive professionally and don’t have priceless memories to store then this could an option for you. Oh and iCloud storage is the icing on the cake, don’t be left without it. I have a Windows laptop also but only for two specific softwares that I use it for so my internal hard drive is more than enough for that plus I can access my iCloud files from it also so that’s another bonus.
Great info! I added a 1TB Samsung SATA III 6 Gb/s SSD with a USB 3.0 enclosure back in 2019 when I bought my M1 Mac Mini. I only use it for storing music files so speed is not important. After 5 years it still works perfectly and I avoided the outrageous Apple memory tax.
The problem with more than 1 SSD enclosures/NAS is that they don't give all 4 PCIe lanes to each M.2 SSD. For example, this QNAP TBS-h574TX provides PCIe Gen3 x2 for each SSD slot. It means that any single SSD speed in the best-case scenario could be around 750 MB/s x 2. But in real life it will be around 1000 MB/s - basically operational speed of the 10 Gigabit Ethernet Port or 10Gb USB-C. And there is no reason to use RAID to increase speed since limitation is not in SSD or PCIe but in the Ethernet Port. So, it's enough to buy old PCIe 3 SSD. All PCIe 4 SSD cards are overkill.
Apart from random read and write, but who can tell the difference?
Which makes no difference when you have 2+ SSDs installed.
While lane count and generation is the ultimate bandwidth governor it isn’t the only factor. Gen4 nvmes most of the time have newer better performing controllers. Premium tier drives will have Dram cache greatly improving random read/write performance along with larger SLC caches which will maintain full speed for longer while increasing TBWs. Most TLC read/write speeds plummet to 5-700MB/s so lane count stops being a factor anyways. 2x gen3 lanes will see 1500s not 750MB/s. Another benefit of raid 0 is it effectively multiplies SLC cache capacities. My 4x enclosure acts like a single drive with 2.4GB of SLC cache. Even if the drives drop down to TLC speeds individually their combined speeds are still enough to saturate a thunderbolt connection. The unit you mentioned has 10 pcie lanes. RAID 5 with 5 drives will have more lanes available than the 4X available to one drive. All of your assumptions are simply incorrect.
Agreed. I can get two going when the other two have a usbC or A plugged in but if I try for 3 it’s no deal.
RAIDING high end PCIE STORAGE is limited by its OS kernel. This is is very clear on 100GB NICs and even on 25GB nics in some instances @theTechNotice
Man... I skip your video several times (just put it in Watch later for a while but YT keeps showing, so I watch 😆). Now this is unlocking my mind.
For the one who looking for a way to connect multiple NVME on Mac (like me)
The cost of multiple enclosure is wild 😖(And I just found out that no enclosure can put duo NVME into the same)
It's also shocked me that even Thunderbolt 4 can't use full speed to any NVME which is a shame 😑
I have a 2023 M2 Mac Mini 16 GB Ram, 256GB SSD. I went with a WD SN770 1 TB and a Acasis TBU401. Fast! REAL FAST!...But Hot, REAL HOT! I tried adding Heatsinks, just too darn hot. Being an Old timey Field Engineer working on Computers when Dinosaurs walked the earth, I understand well how heat can rob electronic equipment of life and data. I ended up ditching the Acasis and going with a Qwiizlab hub. It took the WD SN770 with no data loss, plus gave me additional USB Ports that I found out I really needed for MIDI Controllers, Cameras, and other peripherals. It's slower, cooling running, but way faster than the storage in internal storage in my old 2012 Mac Mini. I'm happy.
remember budyy whenever you buy nvme enclosure go with fan version 401 pro have fan version only few dollers more expensive but it works
@@vinodkumarsingh1973 Thanks! I didn't realize there was a model with a fan.🤗
I just place the enclosure on top of the Mac Mini and let the heat transfer from the enclosure to the Mini. No issue the past 2yrs. I don’t know about the fan’s longevity though. Is it replaceable and how loud is it?
@@iChaseCorals fan is just silent fan is bldc moter it long last than ssd
@@iChaseCorals I have 10 years old pc i3 4th gen and 8gb ram cpu fan and cabinet still working from past 1 decade
Good breakdown.....over 21:00 for buy an external HD..... Whatever the Best deal on sale is and you'll probably never notice the difference on speed.
Outstanding video! If you haven't already done it, could you make a video showing how to make an external SSD my boot disk? And I mean everything. The operating system, applications, all folders and files, the whole kit and caboodle. Thank you for your time and consideration.
I just bought a Mac2. With the help of my genius step son, I installed a 1TB crucial chip. I also use multiple SSD, 1TB external drives for storage. I have a dozen 1TB drive formatted in NTSB I will be systematically transferring it , one at a time, to reformatted devices more compatible with both formats working together
No, no, it's not like you're paying 200 USD for 512GB, you have to pay 200USD for only 256GB more... That's soo overpriced...
I understand you can keep working files for most applications on external storage? But can you install applications on external storage on Mac?
And just to add to what is being said below, I have had MacBook pros since the beginning of their existence and Apple computers before that; NONE of their hard drives have EVER failed, so I really don't care what their warranties say. On top of that, when anything goes wrong, they do their best to fix it for you and for free if they can. Hard to beat with any other maker!!
My 2013 air drive failed... after 6 years on daily use. It was a simple enough HD swap though.
I basically selected an external SSD, then made that my boot up. And I use Time Machine weekly on ALL drives. I might loose a tiny bit of speed….unsure. But I know I was able to expand my iMac and Mac Mini to 2TB for way less than ANYTHING Apple offered.
There we go!
What sort of workload do you use it for ? Does this mean the swap ends up on the external ?
With OSX installed on the external nvme SSD, my mid 2010 iMac ran everything including swap on the external drive.
Thanks for the info.. saved me time on research. FYI... Don't format using EX-FAT. It will crash every time u copy/paste to the drive. Use it as a dedicated drive for MAC storage only.
This is exactly what I was looking for!
This might be a useful series of videos as prices change and new products come out.
Could you make an updated one for what works well with the m4 mac mini?
That would PHENOMENAL SIBCE I JUST SNAGGED that 579$ USD One on amazon
Basically all of them would work
wait a bit. The m4 mac mini has a replacable ssd module, aftermarket options will drop within the month.
@zaks7 thank you for the information
@@zaks7 They are properarity and not interchangeable so I don't think you can change it in an easy way.
I will say there is added value for the Apple storage for laptops because you can move around easier without the added effort of a dangling storage device attached.
Plus external enclosures will never be as fast as the internal storage. Maybe that’s not a big deal to everyone but it is important to compare cost for the speed. You have to look into good TB4 enclosures to get decent speeds and then the price gap gets a lot smaller. Even then at best it’s 3,000MB/S vs the internal that can go up to 6,000 MB/S. While everyone may not need that speed it’s important to factor that into the cost. The internal storage is more expensive because it does provide the maximum speed and is not bottlenecked.
I will also point out storage rarely fails on Mac’s. The same can not be said of external drives which can either fail or slow down with age. I have owned name brand SSDs that started off at 500MB/S and after two years slowed down to 150MB/S. Not all flash storage is created equally. Not all enclosures are created equally either and can sometimes fail and lose data.
You are adding two new failure points to your computer. The SSD and the enclosure. The internal storage tends to be very robust and built to last a really long time without slowing down. This is the pro level of flash storage and not the average version.
External storage is great and for a desktop Mac it’s probably a good way to go if one is ok with the slower speeds. For a portable Mac however there is value in always having everything with you no matter where you take your laptop.
Plus over the lifespan of the computer the extra couple hundred bucks likely will not mean much. It’s initial sticker shock but when you have it it is worth it. The point of a laptop is it can move around and be used anywhere. At a cafe, on the couch, in bed, on the toilet, on the bus/train, on a movie set, even while walking or standing in a hallway. Not being held back by messing around to plug and unplug an external drive which can also be dangerous is convenient.
Your post is spot on!
With mac mini reduced size 512gb you kind of force to use external
Sometimes "not the best choice" is the best choice, so even with all you are saying, it's still not worth spending that amount of money, for example, as a music producer, you need at least 4tb of storage to get a lot of sample library, so you are telling me i should spend the crazy amount of money needed to get that ? So having a slower ssd still better than spending 1k for 4tb
@ kind of depends if you move that computer around a lot. A sample library isn’t as drive speed needy and it does not need to live on the system drive. An external drive can be just as fast or at least fast enough now for a sample library.
Unless you absolutely need to work on music in odd locations and envy where dangling an external drive would be cumbersome.
I’m more of a fan of keeping videos and sound sample libraries in an external drive anyway so it’s much easier to move around to other systems. Let’s say your Mac needs to go in for repairs and you have a secondary system around or somehow get a loaner or temporary system. It takes seconds to move that sample drive to the new system.
Lots of fields use backups like video, photography and so forth. The same could be true for computers. Get a secondary $599 Mac Mini as an emergency backup just in case. Then move that 4 TB sample drive to it as needed.
I have often in the past had two computers. A desktop that was more powerful and a laptop to move around with. Having external drives for video and design projects was critical to move back and forth as needed. It was also nice to have that laptop as a backup just in case.
Thanks for this video but I really need to say this out loud: As much as I love MacOS to me there's no rationale where apple can justify the current entry storage/memory prices. In 2012 I had an external storage solution via a thunderbolt in my Mac Mini due to my line of work - despite having 2 internal drives, one external Time Machine and 16gb memory. All custom upgrades, bought the drives, bought the memory and boom, the Mac mini lasted for 10 years and still works as a support machine. Marvelous era where things were upgradable and gave us a long term perspective. I then moved to an iMac 2020 mainly due to the screen and the aging HD4000 of the Mac mini - was only able to upgrade the memory. It pains me to see that in 2024 apple continues to regress, no matter the performance increase of the latest and greatest we are at this point where 8gb/256gb is still the base offering (and no possible upgrades). Even the 16/512 configuration shouldn't even be an option in the "pro" line. Oh and if anything fails "paperweight" mode activated! Love turning into hate...
I absolutely agree! These some storage prices are ridiculous!
Thats why i cant go with their products. It sucks you dry!
It’s a choice? You have it.
Really nice step by step explanations. Tnx. for sharing as I am currently looking for a speedy and durable external thunderbolt 4 drive for my brand new Mac Mini M4 (the base model). Keep up the good work man .
The acasis thunderbolt nvme external enclosure is the best balance between price and performance - it consistently delivers 2800 megabytes/second in both read and write, when used with the included, or an actual thunderbolt 4 cable… the cable makes a huge difference!
Most of the decent external enclosures do like 2800MB/s... works fine for standard Macs, or even Mini M4 it seems. But my Mac Studio Max does about 4000MB/s R/W and caches 1GB writes (or bigger, but not 8GB). So I have an NVME external "storage disk", booting from such a disk would reduce my Mac Studio's performance, and also that of a Mini M4 Pro.
@ not so, necessarily… the M4 pro (and max) introduce Thunderbolt 5 to the Mac lineup… so, upgrade to a thunderbolt 5 nvme chassis, and a 6000 mb/second or better ssd nvme, and you get the raw speed of thunderbolt 5 - twice that of thunderbolt 4! Enclosures/chassis are available from Acasis and OWC already…
@@mortenthorpe indeed... but for budget you can get the same speed in an enclosure for base M4. If that woudl have TB5.... you could boot from a faster external SSD (like you could/can) on TB2 Macbooks, where you can place an SSD/faster SSD inside but still get bottlenecked by PCIE 2.0X4... or use a TB3=>TB2 external and get better speeds. It's not just a coincidence or little saving on cost that the base model has TB4 and not TB5.
Can I install and use my programs and games into an external drive?
I have the ACASIS TBU 401 Pro (40gbps) which was an upgrade from my SABRENT EC-SNVE (10gbps), moved from PCI Gen 3x4 to Gen 4... and 2TB.. way faster in benchmarks (800mbps -> 2800mbps), but honestly I don't notice any speed difference, in any day to day things, from 4k video editing to large projects for programming. Another item to point out, fill up that drive then benchmark, those write speeds tank even with only 1/2 filled up. I was sometimes getting write speeds of 100mbps when having 900GB of 1000GB.
Most of the decent external enclosures do like 2800MB/s... works fine for standard Macs, or even Mini M4 it seems. But my Mac Studio Max does about 4000MB/s R/W and caches 1GB writes (or bigger, but not 8GB). So I have an NVME external "storage disk", booting from such a disk would reduce my Mac Studio's performance, and also that of a Mini M4 Pro. That Mac Studio came standard with 512GB and I opted for 64GB memory to run some things faster. :) I have an Orico NVME case (I can take that with me), and a Trebleet Mac Mini thunderbolt dock (has pcie3.0 and does 2800MB/s, plus adds more ports). That's for local storage.
I got the Ugreen case with a P44 Pro and it transfers at 7000MB's love it.
This should have been on the other guys channel, but it is here. Thank you.
Another option people don’t often know about is using an SD card that sits flush with the edge of the Mac. The speed is terrible of course but you can also get a 1TB card and it works great for zero maintenance Time Machine (after an epically long first run) or stuff that doesn’t need high speed.
I tried that, and it snapped off. I destroyed the socket trying to get it out. OK, I was using one from a different Mac - that didn't fit flush, but it worked - until I hit it.
You could show how to relocate the user’s home folder to the external. Also might be useful to show what happens if you try to boot without the external connected and the home folder missing.
What error does it give you when this happens, is it an Apple Logo to Restore screen?
@@JesusKnocks. Not sure haven't tried it
Right. This hints at a stumbling block for Mac users and external storage, which is that the Apple ecosystem, which includes iCloud and specifications for where other cloud storage (i.e. Dropbox) is located, and how the Mac OS handles file links, is not designed to work with external storage devices. Yes of course power users familiar with the command line and mounting drives, etc., can easily work around the Mac OS, but I bet most people are not that skilled.
@@richardbryanesqcould you not install the whole os on the external drive and plug and play it between devices, booting from it like a usb key ?
@ yes, but why would you do that? It would be fun and interesting to configure your system that way, but what good is that doing for you on a day to day basis?
One thing affecting performance is the cable. Not all USB-C cables are created equal and often they are not clearly marked to indicate their abilities. Some are barely good enough to charge your phone and others will drive a monitor and multiple SSDs attached to a hub. It's important to match the cable with the drive's capabilities, and not simply connect a new enclosure with a cable that you may already have connected to your computer.
Nice work man! Can you do a speed comparison between the mac studio internal and these externals? Thanks.
Outstanding video! Thank you!
Tech Notice Out Here COOKING With the contents🔥💯...
Gotta a be ;)
You gave polar opposite specs. First NVMe can be faster than internal. Second you said max external rates are about 3gig/sec. Ive done lots of testing and the 3g/sec is correct. However, my internal 1TB on my M2 Mini pro is 5500 to 6500 g/s. So externals are not faster . However, in daily use, maybe would not see much difference.
You have to make sure that any of these enclosures support trim. Sata drives are not supported by trim on a Mac. They might work all right for storage, but if you're doing constant transferring of data the SSD will slow down considerably within a few months. Giving the terminal a command to support trim does not guarantee trim is supported.
Wow!!! I am a windows user but this info is super valuable since i have old HDD drives laying around that i can reuse! Thank u so much!
You're most welcome!
Are you bringing up the negatives as well? Is the information as cryptographically protected as internal solution? How does low internal storage affect resale value? and so on...
Just tested my M2 Mac Studio Ultra's 1TB internal using Black Magic; I got 6320.8 MB/s Write, and 5200 MB/s Read, which seems worth the money to me. I also use an external set of solid-state RAIDs with RAID 0 across four and eight drives over TB4, and can't match that internal speed.
Thunderbolt 5 should fix this in a year or 2.
That’s exactly what he left out of the video. You can’t match the internal speed, even with TB5 you will “only” get about 6000MB/s on a single drive. You would get more with RAID 0 or a two port configuration but that gets expensive fast. This is why Apple charges a premium for their internal storage. It is still more than it should be based on other available PCI5.0 drives but it’s not the drastic difference this video makes it out to be if the speed difference is taken into account.
@@bacon.dumpling for the pro's and up that is correct; The M2 Mini's and the Mini M4 are slower it seems, so on a budget, you better get a base model + a decent TB NVME that does 2800MB/s (the fastest ones get up to 3000-3100MB/s but run very hot. So, without access to faster enclosures there's no point. OWC's TB5 Envoy sets you back 400$, that's 2/3 of M4pro upgrade price but 1/2 price of M4 upgrade doubling SSD speed. I have swapped spinners in white Macbooks for SSD's and have booted NVME's over TB3=>TB2 adapters on more recent macbooks. And that is very noticeable (from startup over youtube loads to Photoshopping). Oh... maybe that's why the base M4's have TB4 ports... :((
Thanks for the video. Very informative. Could you do an evaluation of the various mac mini hub where you could put in a nvme and sata SSD. Which brand gives you the best bang for the buck and which ones has the best transfer rate? Many thanks.
Got the base M2 Mac Mini 256gb for Web and App development...got the OWC Express 1M2 USB4 on the way. Going to use it with a 1TB NVME I already have and make it the main drive. Velcro the enclosure to the top of the mac mini. Tuck it behind the monitor out of sight...Not paying Apple hundreds for 1TB...
How do you back up these external drives?
You are really really good with your content
Does trim work? Does the external drive stay mounted when logged out?
The Thuderbolt port gives 40 Gbits/sec (4,000 MBytes/sec). Some of the docks have multi- M.2's, SATA ports, 10GBe network, Display ports, Audio ports, Lots of USB's, Card readers, and a lot more.
The t shirt bro is very elegant. Cant find it online. Where the hell you get that?
No one mentioned this, well, I managed to snag one of these babies for cheap, Seagate Firecuda Gaming Dock, added a fast M.2 4TB SSD used the internal builtin 4TB for real time Time Machine backups on my 2TB Mac Mini M1
Can you make an update on this with Apple Intelligence? I read it is not supported in external drives but then some say it is supported in their Thunderbolt enclosures.
Exactly what I did - Brought the Mac Mini M2 Pro with 16 gigs and 512gb ssd, then brought 2 X 2 TB ssd's and put them in external usb4/thunderbolt4 enclosures then modded ( told ) the programs too use the external ssd's " sorted " Saved 100's £/$ on this solution ......
there we go! :)
Can you recommend an 8TB SSD?
Hi great info and no waffle but what about TRIM. It was never possible to make TRIM work with external USB drives - only Thunderbolt. Is that still the case?
Just got an Acasis and a WD 2tb for my MacBook thanks to one of your old vids 👍🏼 Amazon prime day had a decent sale on them. Sort of wish I had shelled out an extra $100 for the 4tb, but this gives me plenty of space for now
👍
Does yours work? I got it too and I find it rubbish
Is there one enclosure that also has 10Gbe as well as 2 nvme?
I’m going to get the WD BLACK 1TB SN850X, which enclosure is recommended if I want to bring it with me on photo trips.
Something more rugged than something that is always connected to the Mac mini.
The Qwiizlab enclosure is US. How much duty to pay on these importing to UK?
awesome! Thanks for this videos. With the new M4 Mac minis that's exactly what I was looking for.
You can order the nands for the mac mini m4 and boost it permanently
Very good and details video. Recommended!
I learned so much with this video, thank you !
You gotta find a way to counterattack Apple's RAM-SSD scam in one or the other! Way to go!
love the video how do you get the MAC MINI to run off the outside drive?
you can't. only intel based macs were capable of this
@@mychannel9161 you can still do it on the M series systems. the install procedure is the same as the Intel, but you need to select the external as your default disk from within macOS and not the bootloader. I currently have working bootable macOS installations on both the internal and external drives of my M1 MacBook Pro. Just head into macOS System Settings > General > Startup Disk and choose which drive you want to boot from next reboot.
what is missing is how to make the symbolic links, best practices... one would still need a minimum of 512GB.... the user folder, app folder, and the hidden system folder fills up fast, not to mention iTunes backups, etc.
Is it possible to use the external ssd to install and run the apps we need on the MacBook ? Or the main idea of the external disk is only for files / documents ?
You can run apps etc, even the os if you like
@ how can I install the apps ?
So… On the brand new Mac mini what level of internal storage should I go for? 256 or 512? Or something else? I understand that I should have at least two chips to have faster hard drive speed.
we have a 256gb m1, we really regret it because we're having to constantly delete "lost by apple" local files. We use it for ios development and the sims take up a lot of memory.
( we did also have it fail in its first year, so AFTER the fact we got external time-machine setup...). At least the 8gb question has gone for ram...
I'd say go for base 256GB M4 Mac mini and buy one of those enclosures he mentioned and throw in a reliable SSD and use that as your boot drive.
@@ratukaminaI'm going to do that.
@@timothylowe8327 I just did that two days ago Acasis enclosure and got the 2TB WD SN850x all for under 200 bucks maybe even less if you go for a cheaper drive and my base M4 Mac mini boots just as fast as its internal 256GB chip and all programs open and close fast since the base model has the same 16GB RAM as the 512GB model.
Apple prices are stupidly offensive
I dont see anyone complaining about Nvidia prices
than just don't buy it
That's hella comprehensive video, great job and thank you!
Any restrictions to plug two 40gb/s enclosure to a Mac Studio and use them side by side?
I do know you can only plug one tb4 enclosure device on a m2 MacBook Air into the port as if you connect two it only recognises one
So, is there not an option to get full performance from my WD Black. I get over 7,500 MB/s (tested) write speed. If I go Mac route, I'm losing performance?
Hi mate how's things? I worked with you years ago on a wedding not sure if you remember. I'm having massive issues with my external hardrive and wondered if you can help. Apple can't seem to figure it out and you probably know more than them about drives
Hi bro, i need to know where u get ur shirt from. I'm sorry even though the focus is on storage and SSD HAHA
What sucks is that some things, like iCloud Drive has to be on the system disk.
Plz correct me if that has changed.
Any Thunderbolt 5 storage devices/hubs?
Install OS on external drive?
excelente video lo felicito, aprendí mucho y voy a escoger lo mejor, saludos desde Colombia 😉
I use an Acasis TB4 external case with a Samsung EVO Pro to run my wife's iMac the drive is faster than the internal storage
Lauri over here saving me that much money I can afford to pay my child support again! Baby momma nails be getting done soon
WTF? Forget about your nails take care of your kids.
😂 good one!
I have that same Sabiant Enclosure and works great but neither Samsung Magician can see the SSD in it & neither can WD_Dashboard. I have a 2TB WD SSD C:\Drive 1 TB 870 EVO and 2 1TB ssd's in enclosuers for 5 TB total.
Can u move applications and swap to external drive?
I'm glad the USB 4 enclosures are available now, they're cheaper than the thunderbolt devices were and are faster.
When you say “(usb 4 is) faster than thunderbolt”… you are clueless ! It is not only about the speed of the interface 10, 20, 40 gigabits per second, it is about blocking versus asynchronous transfer … USB is a bus-technology, it uses blocking transfers - reads in one direction, waits for read/write in the opposite direction, and then sends data the opposite way. Thunderbolt is asynchronous, it can send data in both directions at the same time. Thunderbolt is thus not a bus technology.
@@mortenthorpe I'm not clueless, I have a degree in computer science. The new USB 4 enclosures are in fact significantly faster than the previous thunderbolt nvme enclosures on the market.
@@definingslawek4731 you having your CS degree or not, doesn’t in either case have anything to do with the fact that you did not know about the bus technology of USB, and the asynchronous nature of thunderbolt… which is fair enough… but at least admit it, instead of changing your statement to “faster than previous thunderbolt”, which for the technology difference between usb and thunderbolt, and for the use in question (storage) is still not necessarily true… depends if you only read and only write in a test, but this is (dependent on the operating system), not a valid test case in many cases. Most file-transfers (all should), are validated as they are transferred, forcing data transfer to occur in both directions, so USB will be slower. A blocking bus at 40 gbps may be faster in use than a 10gbps thunderbolt, and it may not. In my own testing the NVME Acasis thunderbolt 40 gbps enclosure provides 2800 mbps read and write consistently and the same provides around 930/950 mbps using a usb-4 cable. This is the real world difference between thunderbolt and usb of same generations
@@mortenthorpe7
There's actually zero issues with the base models SSD transfer rate as previous models as the latest strip down tests have discovered here...The other thing we’ve learned is that the base Mac Mini’s module has two 128GB NAND chips instead of a single 256GB one, which means we don’t expect to see a performance bottleneck compared to the previously released base model M-Series Macs. Apple returned to two 128GB chips on the M3 MacBook Air released last April.
problem with this approach mocos still fills up your default drive with cahes etc, so in simple this isn't gonna cut it, minimum 1t is a must
I’m disappointed that you didn’t test the 1st gen acasis tb3 enclosure. I’ve been using it for around 2yrs and the read/write speed on a gen3 WD 1tb green is the exactly same speed as the “newer controller” Acasis with the bells and whistles.
LOOK AT THE TEENY FAN I WANT IT
I need at least 2tb drive. I was thinking about buying a crucial x9 pro. Is there any reason why one of these options would be better? I already have 6tb nas for backup so I jus need more space to work on?
Will I be able to have steam and all of my steam games onto it and will it work properly?
You are heaven sent!!! Very impressive and informative channel!
Hi Lauri, thanks for the video. How about the Satechi M.2 Enclosure 40Gbps. Do you know if it is any good and how does that one compare to the ones you mentioned on L3? Thanks!
The advantage of internal drives is the lower latency. USB / Thunderbolt connections have overhead which most impacts latency - not bandwidth. Things tend to run faster on internal drives even when those drives are tested to have lower bandwidth. This is because the majority of read / write calls are to small files which are more impacted by latency.
So that internal drive is still desirable and one should definitely run their OS from the internal drive. External drives are best suited for larger data files where high bandwidth is desirable and higher latency will not be noticed. Or better yet - Apple, include M.2 slots in your Macs!!!
The nas is for group work and for raid storage
Do Thunderbolt 5 enclosure for M4 Pro Mac mini
Please stop using MB/s for comparing storage performance as it doesn’t tell a lot about storage speed, just throughput. IOPS and latency are more important to your user experience. Throughput only limits you when using large amounts of data.
Thanks Lauri.
Question regarding format, does exFAT support SSD TRIM?
Hi! I'm wondering, if i'd like to use a docking station, like the acasis witch has the m2 ssd holder, and also usb A ports and DPs or hdmis, does it effect the speed? I mean, if i use the ssd, and 2 monitor and the usbA ports at the same time, would it effect the ssd's speed vie thunderbolt 4?
Great video, very thorough, some of these options I wasn’t away of.❤
Sucks the Blue only comes in puny sizes. I do not need the storage for lots of writes. I want the storage for mostly static files.
@tomdfrog. I would use cloud storage for your particular needs. This suggested option is not expensive and, providers often keep several copies to provide resilience for you at no cost. Additionally, if you have "an event" at your abode then all your data is safe in the cloud, for easy retrieval...
To me a Mac is about a "clean desk". One power cord and that's it. Yes I am willing to pay more for that.
The chair - can somebody tell me what the chair is, please? :)
thats all well and dandy but the more storage you have on the mac itself the faster your computer will run and read and write
theres no point having base storage on a mac only to have it running at subpar speeds !
What about battery drain when using an external ssd?
is the mac internal ssd at least better in qd1 or IOs ?
Subscribed
Esternal memory in Thunderbolt 5 ?
Will the WD Black sn 850x nvme ssd drive and qwizelab es40ur enclosure work with my new IMac M4 all in one computer ?
but Apple Intelligence is not compatible if you use any of the external drives you show if you boot up from these. That makes upgrading your internal storage to at least a one terabyte essential.