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Mac Mini and external hard drive

Cave Man said:
The limiting factor is the spinning hard drive, not the USB3 connection. I even installed the Yosemite DP on an external USB3/SSD and it was perfectly fine for booting and using Yosemite.
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okay heres a good example.

i think usb 2 and usb 3 is perfectly great for 1 hard disk only per port.
but once you start wanting to put them in a hub forget about it

average hard disk = 3.5 watts
usb 2 = 2.5 watts
usb 3 = 4.5 watts
firewire with thunderbolt adapter = 45 watts

if you want to connect two hard disks to 1 usb port , using a windows machine forget about it. your cheap mr usb man that you got from my coke rewards won't even power the drives. with a mac you might not have to worry about it because of their non standard usb ports


unless you use a powered usb hub. but prepare to do some shopping to find out what power that hub puts out

thats the biggest thing that pisses me off abut usb, is that i can't go to fry's electronics anymore and buy a usb enclosure with its own power supply, because everyone in the world thinks every single person is either using a usb hard disk that is rated for 3.5 watts and only using 1 drive per usb port

all i want to say is its sad that firewire has died. because one firewire port can power 12 hard disks without needing hubs or special self powered enclosures
 
Meister said:
What benefits would a thunderbolt drive bring over usb3?
Aren't those outrageously expensive?
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thunderbolt is 10 to 20 gigabit , 9.9 watts and can daisy chain 6 devices
there are limits to cable lengths.
thunderbolt can drive external video cards.
the actual thunderbolt cables are very expensive.


usb 3 is 5 gigabit, 4.5 watts and can daisy chain more but has lower power output.

apple however uses usb ports capable of delivering 10.5 watts if the device asks for it.

however, it does not look like your average run of the mill hard drive enclosure is capable of asking for apple's extra current. that is a propietary technology unique to apple and some phone and cellular hotspot chargers.



usb is cheaper and more common

with usb 3 you have enough power to power 1 hard disk per port and thats about it any more then 1 hard disk and you will either need self powered hard drives or you will need a self powered hub.

with thunderbolt you can power almost 3 hard disks without needing an external power supply
 
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rigormortis said:
thunderbolt is 10 to 20 gigabit , 9.9 watts and can daisy chain 6 devices
there are limits to cable lengths.
thunderbolt can drive external video cards.
the actual thunderbolt cables are very expensive.


usb 3 is 5 gigabit, 4.5 watts and can daisy chain more but has lower power output.

apple however uses usb ports capable of delivering 10.5 watts if the device asks for it.

however, it does not look like your average run of the mill hard drive enclosure is capable of asking for apple's extra current. that is a propietary technology unique to apple and some phone and cellular hotspot chargers.



usb is cheaper and more common

with usb 3 you have enough power to power 1 hard disk per port and thats about it any more then 1 hard disk and you will either need self powered hard drives or you will need a self powered hub.

with thunderbolt you can power almost 3 hard disks without needing an external power supply
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I am aware of this. I am the proud owner of a 1.5m thunderbolt cable that cost me €40. :p

But the OP just wants to hook up an external drive and the mini has 3 usb3 ports.
I think a thunderbolt external is a rather pointless and expensive solution for him.
 
rigormortis said:
i think usb 2 and usb 3 is perfectly great for 1 hard disk only per port. but once you start wanting to put them in a hub forget about it
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I suppose that's true, but it's probably unusual for most people. My HP display has its own USB2 hub (4 powered ports) so one my Mini's USB3 ports goes to it. I have my printer and iPhone/iPad connected to the display USB2 ports. So, I still have 3 free USB ports on my Mini. The FW800 has two drives in daisy chain, a 4 TB media drive and a 3 TB Time Machine drive. But even those could be run from USB2 since they don't require a lot of bandwidth.

all i want to say is its sad that firewire has died.
Click to expand...

I agree. FW was great.

because one firewire port can power 12 hard disks without needing hubs or special self powered enclosures
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I've never been able to connect more than two 2.5" FW800 drives to my Mini without having to resort to a power supply for the third drive. These were standard notebook hard disks.

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Meister said:
But the OP just wants to hook up an external drive and the mini has 3 usb3 ports.
Click to expand...

Actually, 4 USB3 ports.
 
I have a wd mycloud is this a good way to save files its a nas drive with timemachine as im looking also for the best set up for external storage when my mac mini arrives end of this month.
 
Currently there are just a few external boxes in the market that support UASP, BTW.
 
for this said:
Currently there are just a few external boxes in the market that support UASP, BTW.
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StarTech, Inatec, Thermatake, Vantec, Sabrent, Mediasonic, they are about as rare as cats at a fishery and as cheap as $15-25 .....Amazon :rolleyes:
 
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Even adding Plugable into the list, I would still call it "just a few". ;)

Until the widely available like WD's Elements have it...
 
for this said:
Even adding Plugable into the list, I would still call it "just a few". ;)

Until the widely available like WD's Elements have it...
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As it stands UASP really only speeds up solid state storage throughput and will make little difference in a current spinning drive's bottleneck , so no, you might have a wait for WD's Elements to have it :D.
 
I use a WD My Passport 2TB USB 3.0 partitioned into two for Time Machine and Backing works spot on with my Mac and is plenty quick.
 
adonis3k said:
I use a WD My Passport 2TB USB 3.0 partitioned into two for Time Machine and Backing works spot on with my Mac and is plenty quick.
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As always quick is relative; I'm sure it's fine as a data backup. If you want to see how slow it really is try using it as a boot drive.

I honestly can't tell much difference using an external SSD in a UASP enclosure from the internal SSD.
 
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