MP 1,1-5,1 Migrating from 5,1 to Thunderbolt Mac: Hard Drive access solutions?

[GoJohnGo]

I've been thinking about migrating from my 5,1 to the new Mac Mini M4, but still face the the same dilemma I had when the Silicon Minis first came out: how to access all the hard drives sitting in my 5,1? I still have multiple hard drives from 3TB-8TB that I want to continue to have access to. I'm wondering how to house them in a way that is transparent, fast, and doesn’t take too much energy.
I don’t run RAID, have not used a NAS, don't need access for multiple computers beyond what's already built in with file sharing, and am fine with standard Time Machine backups. Most of my storage is photos, music, and some video. I do expect to attach an NVMe drive for my most-used files, but I still want access to all I have.

Options I see:
1. Use existing Mac Pro as a server via Gigabit Ethernet
Pros:
Free
Native MacOS disk tools work
Cons:
Energy hog compared to alternatives
Gigabit Ethernet’s a bottleneck - slower than Hard Drives
Potentially no way to sleep when Mac sleeps

2. Use existing Mac Pro connected via Target Disk Mode
Pros:
Almost Free
Native MacOS disk tools work; all controlled by host Mac
No network traffic (more secure?)
Cons:
Energy hog compared to alternatives
A bottleneck; 20% slower than Gigabit Ethernet
Need to buy FireWire 800 <-> Thunderbolt cable
Uncertain whether it will mirror sleep of host Mac
May not work
From https://support.apple.com/en-nz/guide/mac-help/mchlp1443/15.0/mac/15.0
"Note: If either of the computers has macOS 11 or later installed, you must connect the two computers using a Thunderbolt cable.” - I don’t know if that means that both ends of the cable need to be Thunderbolt.

3. Get a dedicated Thunderbolt multi-drive housing (such as this OWC Thunderbay):
https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/thunderbay-flex-8/thunderbolt-3
Pros:
Native MacOS disk tools work; all controlled by host Mac
No network traffic (more secure?)
No bandwidth limitations for hard drives
Future expandability
Cons:
Pricy
Only Thunderbolt 3 (shouldn't be an issue for hard drives)
Uncertain whether it will mirror sleep of host Mac

4. Get a NAS (Synology?)
Pros:
Low Energy usage compared to Mac Pro
Cons:
Pricy
Ethernet’s a bottleneck
Potentially no way to sleep when Mac sleeps
Possible conflicts with native MacOS - Can I still boot, use Disk Utility, TechTool Pro, Carbon Copy Cloner, etc. with a NAS?

5. Consolidate my multiple drives onto a couple of new big drives and get a cheaper 2 by NAS
Pros:
Low Energy usage compared to Mac Pro
Cons:
Pricy, but not as pricy as a larger NAS
Ethernet’s a bottleneck
Potentially no way to sleep when Mac sleeps
Possible conflicts with native MacOS - Can I still boot, use Disk Utility, TechTool Pro, Carbon Copy Cloner, etc. with a NAS?

6. Upgrade to 10Gb Ethernet between Mini and Hard Drives (either on NAS or 5,1)
Pros:
This would remove the Ethernet bottleneck con for the above options
Cons:
Still pricy

7. Use existing Mac Pro connected via TitanRidge Thunderbolt card
Pros:
Native MacOS disk tools work; all controlled by host Mac
No network traffic (better performance, more secure?)
No bandwidth limitations for hard drives
Cons:
Pricy
Potentially flaky from reports I've read
Energy hog compared to alternatives
Uncertain whether it will mirror sleep of host Mac

Perhaps there are other options I haven’t considered as well. Curious to hear what you've done; I know I'm not the first person to face this.

 

[Bigwaff]

I've been thinking about migrating from my 5,1 to the new Mac Mini M4, but still face the the same dilemma I had when the Silicon Minis first came out: how to access all the hard drives sitting in my 5,1?

Maybe you need something like this?

USB 3.2 3.5" SATA Hard Drive Tray-Less Docking Station

USB 3.2 Type-C port with up to 10Gbps transfer speed. 4 x SATA 6Gbps 3.5” hard drive bays. High-quality aluminum for optimal heat dissipation and structural integrity. Hot-swappable with four independent on/off power switches. Fully tray-less design with a key lock to prevent accidental bay opening.

sabrent.com

 

[GoJohnGo]

Maybe you need something like this?

USB 3.2 3.5" SATA Hard Drive Tray-Less Docking Station

USB 3.2 Type-C port with up to 10Gbps transfer speed. 4 x SATA 6Gbps 3.5” hard drive bays. High-quality aluminum for optimal heat dissipation and structural integrity. Hot-swappable with four independent on/off power switches. Fully tray-less design with a key lock to prevent accidental bay opening.

sabrent.com

Thanks for the idea. At that price point, I'd probably go with the OWC Mercury Elite Pro Quad or the OWC ThunderBay 4. Both eliminate the Ethernet bottleneck, with the ThunderBay 4 adding some Thunderbolt connectivity.

 

[mattspace]

3. Get a dedicated Thunderbolt multi-drive housing (such as this OWC Thunderbay):
https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/thunderbay-flex-8/thunderbolt-3
Pros:
Native MacOS disk tools work; all controlled by host Mac
No network traffic (more secure?)
No bandwidth limitations for hard drives
Future expandability

As an alternative, just get an inexpensive / temporary USB multibay JBOD disk tower for your spinning hard drives, and then get something thunderbolt based for SSD storage when you figure out what you're actually going to need.

I use a non-RAID Icy Box (8 bay tower), they're not perfect, but they're good enough, given the alternatives are MUCH more expensive, and NAS really has some limitations that you don't discover until you start using it.

I wouldn't capture video to it, but I have a bunch of legacy spinners, and sata ssds in adapters. It spins down and goes to sleep when my mac sleeps, wakes when it wakes, and is pretty stable...

...except on USB via a hub when it would drop all the drives while trying to read a particular set of files from one drive to back up to a different external drive on the same hub. Now It's connected to a TB3 port using a type c to usb3 cable, which is more stable except on power cycles where it needs a plug / unplug event, but that rarely happens more frequently than than every couple of months.

It doesn't actually hot swap on macOS - plugging a drive in uncleanly unmounts every drive, so you have to unmount everything in it first - you may as well unmount, power down, plug in, power up.

If you want to spend proper money, Terramaster makes a thunderbolt version of the same sort of thing (D8-332).

Thunderbolt networking is a bag of hurt - basically everything thunderbolt is a bag of hurt, because it's a stupid technology. Primarily, having a mac connected via thunderbolt as a networking connection can stop your main mac from sleeping. Thunderbolt will keep waking it as soon as it goes into sleep mode.