Mac mini 2014 SSD

[Ice Dragon]

I think this may have been asked before but I'll ask again just to be sure. Has the SSD in the Mac mini been updated? While the speeds for the PCIe SSD are very fast, they are only about half of the speeds in the 13" rMBP.

 

[Celerondon]

I think this may have been asked before but I'll ask again just to be sure. Has the SSD in the Mac mini been updated? While the speeds for the PCIe SSD are very fast, they are only about half of the speeds in the 13" rMBP.

These two threads may contain the answer you seek, young Ice Dragon. Factors like PCIe lanes (2 vs 4), PCIe versions, and SSD size all affect the performance of these storage systems. According to the numbers the 2014 mini probably should be slower that the 13" rMBP. Let me know what you think after reading this material.

Mac mini (late 2014) 1.0 TB SSD: how many PCIe lanes?

mbp retina: 500gb vs 1tb ssd

 

[treekram]

It is the 2 vs. 4 PCIe lanes. I recall a thread here where somebody took the PCIe SSD from a 2015 MBP and put it into the 2014 Mini and it was nowhere near as fast as it was in the MBP. The MBP is PCIe 3, the Mini is probably PCIe 2, but theoretically, a PCIe 2 4-lane should get the speeds that the MBP SSD does. (PCIe 3 is backwards compatible with PCIe 2.)

 

[Celerondon]

It is the 2 vs. 4 PCIe lanes. I recall a thread here where somebody took the PCIe SSD from a 2015 MBP and put it into the 2014 Mini and it was nowhere near as fast as it was in the MBP. The MBP is PCIe 3, the Mini is probably PCIe 2, but theoretically, a PCIe 2 4-lane should get the speeds that the MBP SSD does. (PCIe 3 is backwards compatible with PCIe 2.)

Right!

So it seems that the 2014 mini has a 2-lane PCIe 2 path available for storage, correct? That explains the data transfer numbers. The PCIe storage on the 2014 minis is superior to SATA but not as quick as the faster versions of the interface.

 

[Fishrrman]

Apple has introduced some kind of improvement to the PCIe interface on the new MacBooks. This GREATLY speeds up transfer rates. I remember reading about it (may have been right here), but don't recall the specific name that was used.

This accounts for the speed difference.

I will -guess- that the next generation of Minis will also see a good boost in transfer speeds...

 

[Ice Dragon]

Okay so the same SSD from the rMBP in the mini resulted in slower speeds, got it. Yeah I mean I know the current one is very fast and it's 3x as faster (read/write) than my current Samsung 470 in my 2011 Mac mini but I guess it'll remain to be seen whether we get a new mini sooner rather than later.