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Anyone experience with M.2 SSD in Mac mini ?
- Thread starter Meindert
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If you look on an Amazon site, you should be able to find something. If you can't order from a particular Amazon site, you can get product names/models and read reviews. Search for "M2 to sata enclosure". Something like the following (I have no experience with it):
https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-2-5-Inch-Aluminum-Enclosure-EC-M2SA/dp/B01N6PMZLW
You should get a product which is meant to permanently house the SSD vs. one which is used to temporarily hold the SSD for data transfer.
Just be aware of the following:
1) You need a M.2 SATA SSD (not PCIe-NVMe or PCIe-AHCI) SSD.
2) It's very unlikely that Apple will use M.2 SATA in future products.
3) In general M.2 SATA isn't any faster than regular SATA although there may be some models where a feature is available with M.2 that isn't with regular SATA.
https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-2-5-Inch-Aluminum-Enclosure-EC-M2SA/dp/B01N6PMZLW
You should get a product which is meant to permanently house the SSD vs. one which is used to temporarily hold the SSD for data transfer.
Just be aware of the following:
1) You need a M.2 SATA SSD (not PCIe-NVMe or PCIe-AHCI) SSD.
2) It's very unlikely that Apple will use M.2 SATA in future products.
3) In general M.2 SATA isn't any faster than regular SATA although there may be some models where a feature is available with M.2 that isn't with regular SATA.
I forgot to mention - make sure you get something no taller than 7mm (the Sabrent is 7mm).
By your comments, you're probably thinking about PCIe NVMe/AHCI which also uses the M.2 connector. These can be several times faster than SATA but cannot be used in the Mini. You can put a PCIe NVMe SSD in a Thunderbolt enclosure but with the 2011 Mini, it will be less than twice as fast and cost quite a bit of money (plus it will require use of the DisplayPort/Thunderbolt connector).
By your comments, you're probably thinking about PCIe NVMe/AHCI which also uses the M.2 connector. These can be several times faster than SATA but cannot be used in the Mini. You can put a PCIe NVMe SSD in a Thunderbolt enclosure but with the 2011 Mini, it will be less than twice as fast and cost quite a bit of money (plus it will require use of the DisplayPort/Thunderbolt connector).
M.2 Sata SSD is not faster than 2.5" Sata SSD which mostly cheaper than M.2 Sata.
Since your Mini only support Sata Connector why don't you use 2.5" SSD instead?
Since your Mini only support Sata Connector why don't you use 2.5" SSD instead?
Plus it's cheaper buying a 2.5" drive compared to an M.2 SSD and a SATA adapter. I don't understand why you'd want to use an M.2 drive unless you had one laying around.
I need it as fast as possible because of CAD/CAM and and FINAL CUT Video editing both needing a bit of power but what I read here makes that I will put in the max RAM (now 12GB will upgrade to 16GB) and get perhaps an extra SSD.
Because I am new to both Mac and this forum I want to thank people who advised me and helped.
Thank you to all
Meindert
Because I am new to both Mac and this forum I want to thank people who advised me and helped.
Thank you to all
Meindert
put a standard 2.5" 7mm SATA SSD in there, your mini does not support newer interfaces directly. you wont get the speed of an M2 unless you hackintosh a NUC
I have also fantastic support from Apple and it may be that there is something wrong with one of my memory banks and Yes I will go for an extra SSD and wait what the tech guys at Apple say based on the error report. I have to say that the response here and also at Apple is something that makes me regret that I waited so long changing to Apple.......
Meindert
Meindert