External storage for new Mac Mini M1

[wonder]

I'm gonna be trying out this new Mac Mini M1 and would love some suggestions regarding storage.

I have SSD drives in my Mac Pro bays. I'm debating on using those and just getting some sort of dock/chassis and putting the drives in there and connecting that to my Mac Mini ... OR ... getting new drives.

I come from the days of SATA drives when you kept different drives for sessions, VI's, OS, etc.

Is this still the case with these new fast drives?
Should I keep 2 different drives? 1 for sessions and 1 for VI library?

Also ... the connector on the Mac Mini M1 is Thunderbolt 3. If I get a "Thunderbolt 3" drive from, say, OWC, is that actual drive faster than an SSD? Or is it just an SSD drive with a Thunderbolt connector?

Does anyone have any suggestions on external storage?

The M1 I got only has a 256 GB internal drive so I need to keep EVERYTHING on external storage.

[Michael Canavan]

It's not that important anymore with SSDs to keep things on separate drives.

You're external enclosures 100% matter in terms of this.
I've had USB3 drive enclosures that bottlenecked throughput. So there are only maybe three or so enclosures that handle faster than 1000mbs. Most 2.5" drives are not much faster than 600mbs, but it's important to make sure that the enclosure can handle that. We've has quite a few iterations of USB 3, 3.1, 4 etc. so some drives are specced to lower speeds than your drive can do.

There are M.2 drives that can handle faster speeds in external enclosures, and OWC does sell an enclosure they claim 2800mbs from.

[mikehalloran]

Not all so-called TB3 external drives are the same. Look at the speed. If not rated 2800 or faster, they’re USB 3.1. True TB3 externals won’t be as fast as the internal storage on an M1, iMac Pro or other newer Mac that uses multiple SSDs in a Raid0 configuration but it’s more than fast enough.

USB-C is a port only, not a protocol.

The M1 are sporting TB4 ports. TB4 allows multiple TB3 devices to be accessed through a TB4 hub; TB3 hubs only extended the host port for one TB3 device.

There is no practical reason for and many reasons against using separate drives for everything. This wasn’t true on the G4 and earlier but has been true since the G5 and SATA.

I’m using SATA III SSDs over TB (Apple TB2-3 adapter; discontinued OWC TB drive dock) for my VIs and archive. Though the max speed is the same as USB 3, the connection is absolutely rock solid which I can’t say for USB 3. These work fine but sometimes I have to reindex SampleTank—takes less time on my System drive so I moved that over.

Apple Music & Movies can be moved to an external to free up space on your System drive without using an alias or simlink — really easy. Apple has support docs on this.

[wonder]

Not all so-called TB3 external drives are the same. Look at the speed. If not rated 2800 or faster, they’re USB 3.1. True TB3 externals won’t be as fast as the internal storage on an M1, iMac Pro or other newer Mac that uses multiple SSDs in a Raid0 configuration but it’s more than fast enough.

USB-C is a port only, not a protocol.

The M1 are sporting TB4 ports. TB4 allows multiple TB3 devices to be accessed through a TB4 hub; TB3 hubs only extended the host port for one TB3 device.

There is no practical reason for and many reasons against using separate drives for everything. This wasn’t true on the G4 and earlier but has been true since the G5 and SATA.

I’m using SATA III SSDs over TB (Apple TB2-3 adapter; discontinued OWC TB drive dock) for my VIs and archive. Though the max speed is the same as USB 3, the connection is absolutely rock solid which I can’t say for USB 3. These work fine but sometimes I have to reindex SampleTank—takes less time on my System drive so I moved that over.

Apple Music & Movies can be moved to an external to free up space on your System drive without using an alias or simlink — really easy. Apple has support docs on this.

Always super helpful, Mike. Thanks so much!

I was looking for enclosures and found this
https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/TB3IVKIT000/

I just noticed it's Thunderbolt 3. I can't really find any TB4 enclosures.

[mikehalloran]

It’s not TB3. It’s USB 3.1

“ Up to 1550MB/s sustained performance”

A true TB3 drive containing a single NVMe 3 x4 blade will be rated 2800 or so. Because of the 4 lane limitation of TB3, multiple NVM3 3 x4 blades in a single RAID0 enclosure will combine capacity but will be a bit slower. RAID math involves loss.

No such thing as a TB4 enclosure unless it has a built in hub. TB4 can handle multiple TB3 drives; a TB3 hub can only handle one—the rest are USB.

How much external storage do you want (should always be more than you need, of course)?

[wonder]

It’s not TB3. It’s USB 3.1

“ Up to 1550MB/s sustained performance”

A true TB3 drive containing a single NVMe 3 x4 blade will be rated 2800 or so. Because of the 4 lane limitation of TB3, multiple NVM3 3 x4 blades in a single RAID0 enclosure will combine capacity but will be a bit slower. RAID math involves loss.

No such thing as a TB4 enclosure unless it has a built in hub. TB4 can handle multiple TB3 drives; a TB3 hub can only handle one—the rest are USB.

How much external storage do you want (should always be more than you need, of course)?

At the moment, I have…

Internal Mac Pro bays
OS Drive: 512 GB Solid State SATA
VI's drive: 2 TB Solid State SATA
Session Drive (audio projects): 1 TB Solid State SATA
Video Projects: 2 TB SATA (spinning)

External Connection
Video RAID: 2 TB SATA (spinning) RAID connected to eSATA PCI card

and a few other random backup drives.

[wonder]

I'm adjusting to the new way of thinking that I don't need 4 drives (1 for sessions, 1 for VI's, etc etc).


I'm guessing around 4 TB might be good to hold my VI libraries and sessions? But obviously I'd want to get a HUGE backup drive to backup all of it in case of disaster.

[wonder]

@Mike

This seems like it has fast transfer speeds and the ability for growth with 8 total slots.

https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/TB38JBKIT0O/

[mikehalloran]

@Mike

This seems like it has fast transfer speeds and the ability for growth with 8 total slots.

https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/TB38JBKIT0O/

Because of the 4 lane limitation and RAID 0 math, actual TB 3 speeds aren't going to happen — but it will be fast. You could throw 4 x 2TB MX500 SATA III SSDs configured RAID 0 for 8TB storage plus a couple 14TB HDDs for Time Machine and still have 2 bays open.

This, on the other hand, is an actual 4TB TB3 drive.
https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/TB3ENVP40/
More of these as you need them hooked up to a true TB4 dock is as fast as it gets right now. There are 8TB NVMe blades out there but reliability is an issue due to the heat those give off (Bob Ludwig and I have been in touch about these—if he can't make them work, that's enough for me right now).

For Time Machine, you can throw a couple of monster HDDs into one of these. You might get lucky and find the discontinued TB2 version of this on eBay like I did (my VI/Sample drives mentioned earlier). TM will alternate between the two drives hourly.
https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/TCDRVDCK/

Since speed is not an issue with Time Machine, you can load one of these up with a pair of HDDs for Time Machine. Seagate NAS rated drives are less expensive than WD Reds but both have heavier bearings. I prefer 5400 speed drives because they run cooler and last longer.
https://shop.westerndigital.com/product ... 00NCH-NESN

They support TM but not JBOD so best to use them at the RAID 1 default — both drives written simultaneously every hour. They connect over Ethernet letting you put them anywhere the noise won't bother you. Yes, HDDs are quieter but you can still hear them.