The Best External SSDs for the M4 Mac Mini
The Best External SSDs for the M4 Mac Mini
If you get the M4 Mac mini you will probably need some external storage because the internal drives are so expensive for such little storage. In this video we go through all my favorite SSDs and which ones I recommend the most for different users. Between USB, Thunderbolt, and USB4 Drives, all the options are here and by the end of this video you will understand which drive is the right one for you.
Samsung T7: https://geni.us/x76bt2W
Crucial X9 Pro https://geni.us/Aci9J
Oyen U34 Bolt: https://geni.us/LJrAc
Pro G40 SSD: https://geni.us/2qzBS
Satechi USB 4 Enclosure: https://geni.us/4qPELMx
WD Black NVME: https://geni.us/rPvMjBW
Samsung 990 pro: https://geni.us/PYo64
Pro Blade Station: https://geni.us/lW7tQ
Pro Blade Mag: https://geni.us/qPQVdAd
M4 Mac Mini: https://geni.us/DG20v
M4 Pro Mac Mini: https://geni.us/gWmz1fb
My other favorite M4 Mac Mini Accessories: https://youtu.be/NahM1aB2J7U
My Desk Setup: https://youtu.be/SHwuN9fRk40
Shot with this Gear:
Lumix S5II X: https://geni.us/MlSL158
35mm F1.8: https://geni.us/lumix35
Audio Interface: https://geni.us/bUQNA
Microphone: https://geni.us/Qu5kSCk
Kondor Blue Pro Blade Top Handle: https://geni.us/bH2eAGL
Half Cage: https://geni.us/WAVqiy
My Full Video Making Kit: https://adamtalks.tech/gear
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Is it me or does the stuff in 1:30 is the same stuff being said in 3:00 mark ?
For the Crucial X9 Pro, I saw two versions: one normal and other for Mac (more expensive). Any important difference besides the formatting?
Can I buy the regular X9 PRO and format for Mac?
Great video! I’m planning to buy the Crucial X10 Pro, but I want to use it on both my Windows laptop and Mac Mini (majority of the time it’ll stay plugged into my Mac Mini M4). Could you recommend the best file format to use for frequent file transfers between both systems?
Looking at getting the X9 for my Mac mini, what’s the difference between that and X10, X10 looks to be two times faster?
Great info and I bought the U34 bolt after watching your video. Question about format. Oyen format their drive in HFS+ from the factory. They told me this was because apple hasn’t release the necessary documents for repair tools on APFS. There is no speed difference between the 2 format. Being able to get repaired sounds very important to me, but nowhere else I saw people mentioned this. The internet verdict was "use HFS+ only if you have an old Mac. otherwise go with the new APFS". So is the repair thing not actually a big deal? The only downside for HFS+ on newer Mac I could find is not compatible with time machine. That is totally OK for a video editing drive. So I wonder if I’m missing something or HFS+ is the better way to go.
How important is it to use cables that are marked TB4 compared to any standard usb c cables to get the maximum speed?
What’s with the different angles? Doesn’t add to the video, this isn’t a movie.
First yay!
Great tips Adam. Do you have a recommendation for a drive for storing my media for Plex? Music and movies. I want to be able to transfer at a decent speed and have the drive on 24/7.
Arhh I see. so Mac doesnt support 20Gbps drives (20Gbps controller chips)
So its either 10Gbps or 40Gbps on Mac’s, unless you have T5 sockets?
That would make sense, as I do have 20Gbps drives fitted with PCI gen4 NVMe drives 7.5K MB., and the only thunderbolt device I got.. was my two Porsche books, but I think they are using Thunderbolt3 single lane?, as I dont see much gain over the fx 10Gbps drives, its still around 1000MB read and write..
Got a Mac Mini M4 now, and got two T4 40Gbps enclosures in transit, so time will tell.
They come down in price a lot. the same drives that cost +100 bucks, when I got the 20GBps drive (35€) numerous years back.. are now around the same 35€ with new controller chips.. so limits at 8TB drives, not 4TB..
Excellent! This is what I was looking for. I’m planing to buy the base M4 Mac Mini, and I was wondering if I should upgrade to 512GB or just buy an external SSD
I just purchased the Kondor Pro Blade handle. So I probably just stick with that for a while and just get the big bad boy for 4 slots of Pro Blades and leave that installed for the Mac Mini once I get that next.
Any recommendations for something much larger, say 8TB? Need something to transfer my video files to as my 18TB OWC mini stack HDD is failing. Thanks for any help.
Even though it’s for the Mac Mini M4 Pro and is for thunderbolt 5 I would go for the brand new OWC Envoy 5 Ultra-Portable SSD. It’s just faster than anything out there at the moment. Also when using it with thunderbolt 4.
do you find the problade station to overheat and eject regularly?
My crucial x9 pro failed after 3 months
Excellent video. What drives did you say Mac users should avoid or not get the max performance from? Thank you.
wow I didn’t know Michael Scofield used to review tech gadgets before he got into prison breaks
Dopo tante ricerche ho preso un Acasis 40gbps con ventola (silenziosissimo) abbinando un 990pro 4tb
I bought the M4 Pro base model as it came with 512 storage and 24 gig of RAM. That was cheaper effectively than upspecking a base M4 from Apple and it has the better processor and TB5, so for me it was a good choice. The OWC Ultra TB5 enclosure first run sold out pretty quickly and pre-orders won’t arrive until late Jan early February to the States, (I am in NZ). It’s tempting to get one and take advantage of the TB5 but yes expensive. Thus the question is SSD or M.2 in an enclosure. Good buying tip re enclosures and speed depending on which M.2 you get to go in it. Thinking of the Samsung 990 Pro but seems there might be a firmware issue and loss of life % pretty quickly although that may have been resolved by now, but you don’t know what stock the retailer has and what firmware it comes with. So Im still in two minds, maybe a Kingston 3000. I like the flexibility of having an enclosure and the Unitek USB4 Pro touts 40GBs speed and is cheap plus has additional vertical height which might enable an M.2 with heatsink. What do you think? Oh and my old iMac mid 2010 with 20Gb Ram an internal SSD I put in and a new HDD extended its life but its High Sierra and USB 2 so whatever external solution I get for the new M4 Pro Mini is going to be night and day to what Im used to!
I bought 256gb version and it is really small. Is there a way to point default system folders like documents, images, download to external disk ?
Excellent video. Didn’t try to push the fastest, most expensive drive like other tubers. He’s what you need – here’s what you get. .
Boom. Samsung T7 is good for me. Thank you.
Thank you for uploading this as I had no idea where to start with SSDs for the Mac Mini 😅! You explained things thoroughly yet simply enough for anyone to understand. Thanks again!!
You seem to be also a musician, is there some reason you don’t comment on just audio use or would the slower drives work fine ?
I dont do video editing or anything major, just internet surfing with the occasional gaming (rarely) and some family photos I save, which would you recommend and is the install the same as for example with the sabrent thunderbolt?
I got a 2TB Crucial T500 NVME with an ‘Inatek’ 40Gps enclose for about $200 all in, runs at over 3000. It’s very fast. Always warm/ hot but it seems they run like that on Thunderbolt 4 on Mac. Runs as fast as internal SSD memory bought with Mac Mini. So get something like this if shifting home folder or app install off the main drive.
Satechi USB4 enclosure and Samsung 990 PRO 4TB NVMe (read 3600, write 3800) – total 350 euro
If I were to decide between Crucial X9 Pro and Samsung T7, which is better since they are almost the same price on amazon right now?
Also for Crucial X9 Pro, there is a normal one and a Mac version. Which one would you suggest?
I bought a local brand prebuilt SSD with this advertised Interface: USB C 3.2 Gen 2×2. Supposed to have max speed of 20Gbps, however I am only getting slightly under 10Gbps. Tried it with different port of Mac Mini M4, different cable as well (that support 40Gbps). Then I googled, found a reddit post that says, Mac Mini Thunderbolt for does not support USB 3.2 2×2… welp.
This whole USB 3.1, 3.2, 3.2 Gen 2, 3.2 Gen 2×2, Thunderbolt are driving me nuts.