Adding storage to a Mac Mini and maybe some other questions..

[Skynet5]

Can someone recommend a decent way to extend the storage of a Mac mini.

My other half wants to add 4TB of storage for her obsessively large music collection she wants to rip to lossless.

She has looked at a brand called OWC mini stack STX.

Looks like it would do the job but seems expensive and we’re unsure if this is the right plan.

We have a networked RAID, but as she processes the CD and wants to update and move around etc she really wants a scratch space to get it all right and before moving to the NAS. Which I’m sure will be batched.

Some sort of fast attached storage would be better in the workflow we believe as the NAS is currently accessed via WiFi, but even if we go with a cabled connection…which would be hard and involve power line due to location of NAS and where she does this work…

Thoughts?

We’re not 100% sure on all our requirements so depending on input I’ll ask her to give me replies.

Thanks in advance…

 

[Minstadave]

Can someone recommend a decent way to extend the storage of a Mac mini.

My other half wants to add 4TB of storage for her obsessively large music collection she wants to rip to lossless.

She has looked at a brand called OWC mini stack STX.

Looks like it would do the job but seems expensive and we’re unsure if this is the right plan.

We have a networked RAID, but as she processes the CD and wants to update and move around etc she really wants a scratch space to get it all right and before moving to the NAS. Which I’m sure will be batched.

Some sort of fast attached storage would be better in the workflow we believe as the NAS is currently accessed via WiFi, but even if we go with a cabled connection…which would be hard and involve power line due to location of NAS and where she does this work…

Thoughts?

We’re not 100% sure on all our requirements so depending on input I’ll ask her to give me replies.

Thanks in advance…

I'd just slap a cheap 4TB NVME into a USB enclosure.

 

[Raymond Lin]

OWC mini stack STX for music that she has the original CD, therefore back up...

I would just get a 10gb/s enclosure for like £10 and then a 4TB NVME for £250.

 

[Feek]

Yeah, a 10Gb/s caddy will be perfectly fine for this usage.

 

[Skynet5]

Thanks I think we’re thinking the same.

Any recommendations on a solid 4TB nvme?

She mentioned that some sort of powered hub would be good so she can connect more devices, cd drives etc for burning.

I think that is the other reason OWC came up as it has the built in ports, but I note they are thunderbolt and therefore quite pricy and unlikely really to be of benefit as we’re not connecting a load of devices that need mass data transfer rates. Also it seems to reduce the bandwidth of the connected drive too.

Just looks at thunderbolt crazy speeds right? 40/80 Gbps …

 

[Raymond Lin]

Thanks I think we’re thinking the same.

Any recommendations on a solid 4TB nvme?

She mentioned that some sort of powered hub would be good so she can connect more devices, cd drives etc for burning.

I think that is the other reason OWC came up as it has the built in ports, but I note they are thunderbolt and therefore quite pricy and unlikely really to be of benefit as we’re not connecting a load of devices that need mass data transfer rates.

Just looks at thunderbolt crazy speeds right? 40/80 Gbps …

You don't need fast NVME, it will be bottlenecked by the 10gb/s of the enclosure and 10gb/s is more than fast enough for playing music, or even transferring music/files.

Why do you need more ports? it's connected to the Mac mini which itself has ports? How does she planning to play her music?

Anyway, even a gen 3 nvme will be more than fast enough. Get a TLC drive instead of QLC for longevity and it will be MORE than enough for your purpose. Any of the well known brand like WD, Crucial, Seagate etc would be fine. Remember that you will be bottleneck by the enclosure, it would be pointless getting a drive that can do like 7000gb/s. Even gen 3 at like 4000gb/s is way too fast for it.

 

[eldergeek]

You don't need fast NVME, it will be bottlenecked by the 10gb/s of the enclosure and 10gb/s is more than fast enough for playing music, or even transferring music/files.

Why do you need more ports? it's connected to the Mac mini which itself has ports? How does she planning to play her music?

Anyway, even a gen 3 nvme will be more than fast enough. Get a TLC drive instead of QLC for longevity and it will be MORE than enough for your purpose. Any of the well known brand like WD, Crucial, Seagate etc would be fine. Remember that you will be bottleneck by the enclosure, it would be pointless getting a drive that can do like 7000gb/s. Even gen 3 at like 4000gb/s is way too fast for it.

I've been waiting to pull the trigger to see the progress of the NAND modules that the grey market are looking at offering - iBoff seems pretty convinced they can make it feasible, so with that being the case...I'm half tempted to pick up a mac mini with more ram for the sake of longevity and pay a little extra to iBoff for the moduie.

 

[nlel1975]

I've got a Crucial X6 2TB Portable SSD to attach to my Mac Mini when I get it, its not as fast as an NVME but still fast enough. Has a USB type-C connection. Here's the benchmark...

Cost me £101.31 on 11th December 2022. Its faster than those SATA SSDs.