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tom29786

macrumors member
Original poster
I have a 2014 mac mini with the 2.6 and 8 gigs of ram with a 1t hard drive, and when running on that hard drive my internet tx is 702. When I run the same mini on an external hard drive a crucial 240, it runs faster 1053. What make it faster?

Tom
 
I have a 2014 mac mini with the 2.6 and 8 gigs of ram with a 1t hard drive, and when running on that hard drive my internet tx is 702. When I run the same mini on an external hard drive a crucial 240, it runs faster 1053. What make it faster?

Well, given that neither hard drives nor SSDs have any effect whatsoever on internet transmission speeds, my guess is that there is some other factor at play here. :)

Can I ask, what are you using to measure network speed here? I'm kind of guessing that you're using one of those browser-based speed-measuring websites. I know that some of them work by uploading and downloading a sequence of files, and can therefore end up measuring your combined network and file handling speed, rather than network speed alone...
 
Well, given that neither hard drives nor SSDs have any effect whatsoever on internet transmission speeds, my guess is that there is some other factor at play here. :)

Can I ask, what are you using to measure network speed here? I'm kind of guessing that you're using one of those browser-based speed-measuring websites. I know that some of them work by uploading and downloading a sequence of files, and can therefore end up measuring your combined network and file handling speed, rather than network speed alone...
I am simply pressing Option on the keyboard amd clicking on the wifi icon next to the date. top right, thanks for your reply
Tom
 
I'd recommend that you boot and run from the external SSD -ALL THE TIME-.

It's going to be FAR faster than running from the internal drive!
 
I am simply pressing Option on the keyboard amd clicking on the wifi icon next to the date.

Ah! There's a few more bits of information in there, that might prove enlightening as to what is causing the difference. First, you could check the value of "PHY Mode", to make sure that the Wifi hardware is using the same connection mechanism in both cases. Second, the "RSSi" and "Noise" values could show whether there may be an issue with interference when the internal HD is running. Finally, the "Channel" indicator (if you're using a single channel) might change depending on how your wireless router is negotiating setup with the Mac, and different channels might suffer different amounts of interference...
 
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Second, the "RSSi" and "Noise" values could show whether there may be an issue with interference when the internal HD is running.

I was thinking the same thing. With it booted to an external drive, the internal would not be running and in theory that might result in less inference and a faster connection speed.
 
fwiw, your actual "internet speed" will be likely much lower anyways. as far i understand it your tx rate shows you only your theoretical speed between your mac and your (wireless) router. Your actually speed to the internet will be limited by your ISP, and probably be <=100Mbps. I guess what i am saying, i wouldn't worry about it... just my 2 cents.
 
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