I really need to upgrade storage of my Mac Mini M1

[rui no onna]

How about a simple M.2 NVME 1 or 2 TB drive in a USB-C enclosure? OR a TB enclosure? I have an inexpensive Intel 1TB NVME in a simple enclosure - about a little over $!00. Tried a 2TB Samsung and it worked well.

Last I checked, NVMe enclosures were ~$30-40 and 1TB NVMe ~$100 on sale. At those prices, you're better off getting the Samsung T7 1TB for ~$150.

I guess the 1st question should've been how full is the 3TB HDD? Also, will the new storage be used in addition to the 3TB HDD or will it replace it?

 

[rui no onna]

For sure. I think most 4K blu-rays are like ~75Mb/s? and the maximum is 144Mb/s. And most people aren't streaming full-fat 4k rips around their house anyhow.

Lol, I actually do this. I tend to skip the extra languages though so that saves quite a bit of space and bandwidth.

 

[Mr Screech]

You don't need speed or a lot of I/O.
If you want quiet, get the cheapest SSD.
If you can handle the sound of a HDD, get something like a Western Digital Mybook external USB 3 disk, about $200 for 10TB.

 

[Sovon Halder]

Thank you guys for commenting.​

That is a huge difference.....but what is the use case that the OP actually needs? I got the impression it was simply storage of general files and media stuff to watch whenever.....that type of usage does NOT need 1250MB/s.

The OP said he was looking at a Samsung T7 2TB in the 1st post, which in the UK is £272......a 8TB WD My Cloud NAS is currently £200 on Amazon.
Based on the 1st post description of typical usage....the NAS would more than meet the needs.

How about a simple M.2 NVME 1 or 2 TB drive in a USB-C enclosure? OR a TB enclosure? I have an inexpensive Intel 1TB NVME in a simple enclosure - about a little over $!00. Tried a 2TB Samsung and it worked well.

Last I checked, NVMe enclosures were ~$30-40 and 1TB NVMe ~$100 on sale. At those prices, you're better off getting the Samsung T7 1TB for ~$150.

I guess the 1st question should've been how full is the 3TB HDD? Also, will the new storage be used in addition to the 3TB HDD or will it replace it?

Apologies. I should have explained it better. I'll try. My ONLY goal is to make it so, that it feels like I have 1 or 2TB of storage, not just meagre 256GB. Replicating the quality/speed of internal storage as minimally as possible till my budget permits. Since Apple won't let me do that internally, the only way for me is using something outside that will be attached permanently. It was never possible to stick an ssd outside with my MBP with tape but, I can now do that on my mac mini cause it's a desktop. I won't store large size files or games or final cut projects on it but I might need the headroom to do so from time to time.

I can't use HDD because of the sound. The 3TB hdd I have right now is practically free but I still won't use that because of the mechanical sound. I might sell it on OLX or give it to my brother. And I don't know anything about NAS - setup, maintenance. Also not sure about the speed over wireless.

My concern was if it's damaging to an SSD to be connected AT ALL TIMES. And what on earth should I choose given there is a plethora of things to choose from, sata ssd, nvme ssd, m.2, PCIE whatnot. And then I have to choose the perfect enclosure for the optimum speed. Apologies but I've never purchased any ssd so far, let alone enclosures. I felt confused between warranty, longevity, bang for buck and speed of various custom configured enclosure+nvme/sata/m.2 ssd. For a designer's brain, the T2 seemed like the easiest thing to manage.

I'll update the opening post.

 

[rui no onna]

Apologies. I should have explained it better. I'll try. My ONLY goal is to make it so, that it feels like I have 1 or 2TB of storage, not just meagre 256GB. Replicating the quality/speed of internal storage as minimally as possible till my budget permits. Since Apple won't let me do that internally, the only way for me is using something outside that will be attached permanently. It was never possible to stick an ssd outside with my MBP with tape but, I can now do that on my mac mini cause it's a desktop. I won't store large size files or games or final cut projects on it but I might need the headroom to do so from time to time.

I can't use HDD because of the sound. The 3TB hdd I have right now is practically free but I still won't use that because of the mechanical sound. I might sell it on OLX or give it to my brother. And I don't know anything about NAS - setup, maintenance. Also not sure about the speed over wireless.

My concern was if it's damaging to an SSD to be connected AT ALL TIMES. And what on earth should I choose given there is a plethora of things to choose from, sata ssd, nvme ssd, m.2, PCIE whatnot. And then I have to choose the perfect enclosure for the optimum speed. Apologies but I've never purchased any ssd so far, let alone enclosures. I felt confused between warranty, longevity, bang for buck and speed of various custom configured enclosure+nvme/sata/m.2 ssd. For a designer's brain, the T2 seemed like the easiest thing to manage.

I'll update the opening post.

The simplest choice is the Samsung T7. With current sales, it only costs maybe $10-20 more than DIY solutions if that.

As for damage, only issue is possibly heat. Otherwise, these things should last for a long time. I don't know if TRIM is supported via USB-C on macOS so it might be a good idea to over-provision.

Personally, I have older generation Samsung 830 and 840 series SSDs (2.5" SATA III with simple cable adapter) used as semi-permanently connected USB3 external storage for years and they're still fine.

 

[Sovon Halder]

+ = 12300 INR (~168$)​

Crucial P1 1TB 3D NAND NVMe PCIe M.2 SSD - CT1000P1SSD8
ORICO Transparent Tool-Free USB3.1 Type-C Gen2 10Gbps to M.2 SSD Enclosure
.
.
.


Samsung T7 1TB = 10999 INR (~150$)

This is the price for the items I could find in India. Although if I understood correctly, the T7 would be slower in speed compared to the crucial nvme ssd and in future I could upgrade the enclosure to something more than 10gbps bandwidth to unlock the full ssd potential.

Are there any common issues that people face while using custom SSDs, like throttling after a certain speed, heating issues etc? Also are the complications and efforts to make custom ssds actually worth it, when talking about the long run, maybe 6-8 years?

 

[trifid]

I recommend going with this:

• Samsung SSD 860 EVO 2TB 2.5 Inch - $207 USD
• 2.5 USB 3 enclosure (like this) - $8.99 USD

You insert the SSD drive inside the enclosure and then connect it via USB3.

You can leave it on 24/7, it's perfect fine and safe, the SSD is extremely cool, no noise, no heat.

I have a Mac Mini with this, and I leave it on all day, no issues.

With regards to what you want of just having a single drive, you can kind of do this by making the external SSD your bootable drive (this means you need to either re-install the OS on the external drive, or clone your existing drive to the external).

Another option is keeping the OS in the internal drive, and put your user folder in the external drive. Check out this guide if you go this route: https://www.lifewire.com/move-macs-home-folder-new-location-2260157

Note that SATA III isn't as fast as PCIe M.2, but it's still AMAZINGLY fast, so fast that you won't really notice much difference.

 

[hobowankenobi]

SSDs nowadays have very high endurance. No worry to have here. But again, the most reliable storage you could ever get is internal storage and not relying on external USB bus and connection.

Samsung, Crucial, Intel, Western ... all good brands. I personally prefer Crucial (Micron) since it's a high quality product, American company, and 5 years warranty. I have two which are 9 years old, 24/7 usage in RAID 0 setup as main system drive in a server and it's still flawless.

I thought Micron fabbed in Taiwan? Quality stuff...just pointing that out. I would agree that the SSD market is fairly mature, and would be OK with any of the top brands. Samsung for sure.

OP: For SSDs, the biggest limiting factor is the number of writes, not just uptime as one might assume with a spinning HD. So... the number of hours idle should not be a big worry. In fact, power cycle counts are often monitored, so stops and starts may be a better wear indicator than the total number of hours.

 

[trifid]

Are there any common issues that people face while using custom SSDs, like throttling after a certain speed, heating issues etc? Also are the complications and efforts to make custom ssds actually worth it, when talking about the long run, maybe 6-8 years?

No 'real world' issues at all, at least not so different from HDDs, at some point these drives can die, whether SSD or HDD, but most SSDs have a 3-5 year warranty by default, which is a lot more than typical HDDs.

 

[hobowankenobi]

View attachment 1704081 + View attachment 1704079 = 12300 INR (~168$)​

Crucial P1 1TB 3D NAND NVMe PCIe M.2 SSD - CT1000P1SSD8
ORICO Transparent Tool-Free USB3.1 Type-C Gen2 10Gbps to M.2 SSD Enclosure
.
.
.

View attachment 1704080
Samsung T7 1TB = 10999 INR (~150$)

This is the price for the items I could find in India. Although if I understood correctly, the T7 would be slower in speed compared to the crucial nvme ssd and in future I could upgrade the enclosure to something more than 10gbps bandwidth to unlock the full ssd potential.

Are there any common issues that people face while using custom SSDs, like throttling after a certain speed, heating issues etc? Also are the complications and efforts to make custom ssds actually worth it, when talking about the long run, maybe 6-8 years?

I am unaware of any substantial difference. Maybe others have some stats or info, but I would be happy with either.

I have used several of the T7 models, no heat issues at all.

As for performance...coming from a spinning HD, either will be such a nice improvement, I would expect any normal user would happy. If you are shoveling really large files often, then, OK, faster is better. I would expect the M2 is faster, but can't say. The question is: Is the difference meaningful for daily use?

 

[FlyingTexan]

Any ssd will play your torrents just get a nas and call it a day

 

[rui no onna]

View attachment 1704081 + View attachment 1704079 = 12300 INR (~168$)​

Crucial P1 1TB 3D NAND NVMe PCIe M.2 SSD - CT1000P1SSD8
ORICO Transparent Tool-Free USB3.1 Type-C Gen2 10Gbps to M.2 SSD Enclosure
.
.
.

View attachment 1704080
Samsung T7 1TB = 10999 INR (~150$)

This is the price for the items I could find in India. Although if I understood correctly, the T7 would be slower in speed compared to the crucial nvme ssd and in future I could upgrade the enclosure to something more than 10gbps bandwidth to unlock the full ssd potential.

Are there any common issues that people face while using custom SSDs, like throttling after a certain speed, heating issues etc? Also are the complications and efforts to make custom ssds actually worth it, when talking about the long run, maybe 6-8 years?

That Crucial P1 has QLC NAND so I'd definitely get the Samsung T7 instead.

 

[Sovon Halder]

That Crucial P1 has QLC NAND so I'd definitely get the Samsung T7 instead.

Can you explain in terms that I will understand?

 

[Sovon Halder]

• Samsung SSD 860 EVO 2TB 2.5 Inch - $207 USD
• 2.5 USB 3 enclosure (like this) - $8.99 USD

Not available in India in anywhere near the price. However Samsung 870 QVO 2TB SATA 2.5" Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) (MZ-77Q2T0BW) costs 18000 INR (~240USD). Enclosure is a bit costlier too. Soo many choices.

 

[rui no onna]

Can you explain in terms that I will understand?

QLC NAND is slower and has lower endurance (like 1/3 of 3D TLC NAND). The SSD controller employs techniques for fast burst performance (DRAM caching, pseudo-SLC cache, etc). However, once you exceed the cache or when the SSDs fill up, then sustained sequential can drop off to HDD level.

Not available in India in anywhere near the price. However Samsung 870 QVO 2TB SATA 2.5" Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) (MZ-77Q2T0BW) costs 18000 INR (~240USD). Enclosure is a bit costlier too. Soo many choices.

That's QLC as well so I'd avoid that, too. Once you run out of cache, that drops down to 80MB/s for 1TB and 160MB/s for 2/4/8TB.

If you're considering SATA III SSDs, then (in no particular order):
WD Blue 3D
Crucial MX500
Samsung 860 EVO

 

[skoops]

It's been 6 days and already I've got a warning "storage almost full".

You bought the wrong mac model.

There is NO external TB/USB4 SSD option, that will give you the same performance as the internal unified NAND chips present in your SoC M1.

The closest you will ever get is an external usb 3.1/4 NVME enclosure with the fastest nvme drive you can afford.

 

[Sovon Halder]

That's QLC as well so I'd avoid that, too. Once you run out of cache, that drops down to 80MB/s for 1TB and 160MB/s for 2/4/8TB.

The T7 does not do that? I mean, drops down the speed to a far lower rate than 1000MBPS after its cache is full?

 

[hobowankenobi]

Good review here to better understand specs and real-world performance for the Crucial option. While the cache is a thing...it is not a deal-breaker for normal use. I would lean towards the Samsung...but mainly for a longer life potential.

 

[matrix07]

My NAS drive is connected via gigabit ethernet to a 24 port gigabit switch in my home network...and the NAS, the switch, along with a bunch of other networking stuff (2 x Rpi 4, Philips Hue bridge, Tado heating bridge, Ubiquiti cloud key)....these are all in the attic of my house...access via a loft hatch in a bedroom and climb a set of ladders to get to them.
They are fit and forget things to be honest....once set up, I very rarely need to go up there. lol. Will need to go up when I want to install the next 10TB disk though.

As for speeds....the NAS is connected to the switch via gigabit ethernet, and so is my 2018 Mac Mini (that Mac mini is in my living room) and I have never done any kind of speed tests on the NAS (never needed to), but for giggles I just copied a 25GB film from the NAS drive to my 2018 Mac Mini and it took 3 minutes 25 seconds.....to which I have NO clue if that is fast or not???? as this is not how I use my NAS....I opened word or excel files saved on the NAS drive and they opened in the blink of an eye, so quick enough for me anyway.

Could you point me to a beginner guide of how to setup such a network server (could I call it that?)?

 

[rui no onna]

The T7 does not do that? I mean, drops down the speed to a far lower rate than 1000MBPS after its cache is full?

The T7 still drops down after you go past the pseudo-SLC cache. From a review I found though, it's still able to maintain 550-600 MB/s when that happens. The higher minimum performance is thanks to its faster 3D TLC NAND.

USB 3.2 Gen 2 Portable SSDs Roundup - Featuring the Samsung T7 Touch and the SanDisk Extreme Pro

www.anandtech.com

Good review here to better understand specs and real-world performance for the Crucial option. While the cache is a thing...it is not a deal-breaker for normal use. I would lean towards the Samsung...but mainly for a longer life potential.

The thing with QLC NAND SSDs though is again, lower endurance, it's not much cheaper than TLC options and it's more expensive per GB compared to HDDs for mass storage.

It's OK for bursty workloads like running the operating system and applications but why bother when I can get a much better TLC NVMe SSD for $10-20 more?

If I have to suffer through 80-160 MB/s when copying videos anyway, I'd rather pay $100 for a 5TB portable HDD than $200 for just 2TB. The 2.5" WD portable HDDs I use aren't silent but they're plenty quiet enough for me.

Again, I highly recommend a tiered approach. Say a ~1TB SSD for smaller, frequently accessed or changed files. Larger HDD for videos and the like.

Could you point me to a beginner guide of how to setup such a network server (could I call it that?)?

I expect he has whole house wiring for ethernet. For that, you probably want professionals to do it for you.

 

[pshufd]

I got Crucial P5s for my desktop build (System is 1 TB and the data is 2 TBs). I was wondering what the differences were between that and the cheaper Crucial options. They really fly in actual use.

My "NAS" is just my Windows desktop and it's basically just setting up a network share. My iOS and macOS devices and desktops can easily access it.

 

[mj_]

My concern was if it's damaging to an SSD to be connected AT ALL TIMES. And what on earth should I choose given there is a plethora of things to choose from, sata ssd, nvme ssd, m.2, PCIE whatnot. And then I have to choose the perfect enclosure for the optimum speed. Apologies but I've never purchased any ssd so far, let alone enclosures. I felt confused between warranty, longevity, bang for buck and speed of various custom configured enclosure+nvme/sata/m.2 ssd. For a designer's brain, the T2 seemed like the easiest thing to manage.

Are there any common issues that people face while using custom SSDs, like throttling after a certain speed, heating issues etc? Also are the complications and efforts to make custom ssds actually worth it, when talking about the long run, maybe 6-8 years?

Seriously, you worry too much. Modern SSDs will take much more abuse than their first and second generation predecessors. Heck, around 2013/2014 I converted somewhat recent but due to policy changes no longer required dual-processor Intel Xeon servers with 24x 2.5-inch drive bays into high-performance 10 Gbps iSCSI storages by adding Intel 10 Gbe NICs and 24x Samsung 850 SSDs. Not 850 Pros, mind you, but regular consumer-grade 850s. I've had eight of those servers in total running 24/7 for more than six years, the last of which was only decommissioned less than two weeks ago. Over the last seven years those storages were the main VMware storages for factories running and producing goods 24/7 with constant reads and writes, sometimes hosting as many as 30 VMs simultaneously. Of these 192 SSDs only a single one had to be replaced very early on into the project because it was behaving somewhat flaky.

Attaching an external SSD such as Samsung's T7 to your Mac Mini permanently won't cause any issues.

 

[pldelisle]

I thought Micron fabbed in Taiwan?

Micron is a ?? company, but fabs might be in Taiwan and Mexico.

 

[malcky77]

Could you point me to a beginner guide of how to setup such a network server (could I call it that?)?

I don't want to change the subject of this thread from the OP, but will run down what I have as it might be of use to the OP as well.

So, I am in the UK and have virgin media with a 350meg down, 36meg upload package.....the virgin supplied router is configured to MODEM only mode so I can use my own router of choice....and the set up goes as follows:

Virgin cable enters the house into my living room and connects to the router/now a modem. (on ground level)
Cat6 ethernet then comes from the modem to my router (Ubiquiti USG Pro) wan port. (this is in the living room too)
Cat6 ethernet from the router Lan port goes back out my living room exterior wall, cable tied to the drainage pipes and then enters the roof/attic space and connects to a 24 port gigabit ethernet switch (Ubiquiti USW-24-POE).
The switch then provides power to 3 camera's, 2 x Rpi4, 2 x Ubiquiti wifi access points and a Ubiquiti Cloud Key Gen 2.
The switch then has 3 ethernet runs to each of the 3 bedrooms below the attic, for xbox ones, PS5, Apple TV 4K, desktop computers & smart TV's.
The switch also has another 2 ethernet runs to a 4th bedroom on the ground level for another xbox and a smart TV.
Then another ethernet run goes back into my living room (the opposite side from where the virgin modem sits) and connects to and powers a 8 port switch (Ubiquiti US-8)....for ethernet access for a 2018 Mac mini, AV receiver, Apple TV 4K, Smart TV and an Xbox.
Other items that are connected to the switch and live in the attic too are the Philips Hue bridge for the smart lighting, and a Tado heating bridge for the smart heating, The NAS drive also lives in the attic and is a WD EX4100, which is a 4 bay NAS drive that currently has 2 x 10TB WD red drives in there, so 2 spare bays still.....This NAS is used as my Plex media storage for the entire house and for friends to view from their own homes too.

This probably sounds complicated to read, but is easy to manage. lol.

 

[pshufd]

I ran a CAT5 from the basement to the living room 20 years ago. It was a royal PITA and took about five hours but it was a great investment. Wired performance is really great. So two wireless routers, one in the living room and one in the basement. But several PCs are hooked up via Ethernet. We used a PowerLine Ethernet solution to the second floor for one PC. In general, WiFi is fine for mobile devices but this PC, for some reason, didn't do well with WiFi.

I think that the OP question was more about how to set up a NAS. I would just take whatever spare hardware I had and put something together. Ideally, the router would have a built-in printer/shared disk port.