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Mac mini 2019 and thunderbolt 3 storage

S

Sim3D

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 11, 2019
1
0
Has anybody done tests on multiple 2019 Mac minis with thunderbolt 3 networked up to something like the OWC Thunderblade I would love to see speed tests done from either AJA or Blackmagic speed test with both full thunderbolt connections to multiple Macs or 10gbe network.
Also based on this can anybody recommend the best solution for connecting 16 Mac minis to an ultrafast storage all are fairly close together, we have a cluster of 4 desks then a gap of 1600mm then another 4 desks and its this gap that has me doubting whether I could span that length with a thunderbolt network.
 
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Whilst can “network” with thunderbolt that is point to point. It isn’t like Ethernet where plug into a switch and plug multiple devices in.

Best solution currently would be to buy the Mac mini’s with the 10gbe upgrade fitted then use a 10gbe switch to link the Mac and a fast 10gbe storage solution.

Of course if already bought the Mac without then would have to look at a tb3 10gbe nice solution to do this.
 
To do it right, you would want 10G. Yes, new Mini would do the trick if configured with the 10G NIC. If you have older TB2 minis, you would need something like this for each Mac. Keep in mind that all network gear needs to be 10G capable between work stations and server (switches, cabling, etc).

If you go this route, you would need the server to support 10G plus enough I/O throughput to multiple users...otherwise, the server would be the throughput bottleneck; multiple users hitting it hard would saturate it, effectively limiting performance.

Hard to know exactly how much performance you will need.....but it will be pricey.

Another option would be iSCSI....as it does not have the packet overhead of a file level protocol. Here's some info to use a Synology NAS as iSCSI storage for Macs, using the Global Connect initiator.

Some good numbers here comparing using a mid-grade NAS: iSCSI vs traditional file server, and here for larger enterprise grade option.

No matter what, you will need very fast storage to use all the bandwidth of 10G. Areca stuff is a good bang for the buck, if you want to plug into a TB Mac for connected storage.
 
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