If you don’t know how to buy a Mac mini at a low price, read this:Lower than the education discount! Changing the positioning to receive national subsidies across regions, 3581 won the M4 version of Mac mini
In this Double 11,AppleThe newly launched M4 version of Mac mini has become one of the most popular computer hosts with the addition of national subsidies and platform discounts. However, Apple's hard drive and memory are made of "gold". Unlike the memory packaged in the CPU, whether it is by replacing the built-in storage particles or external hard drives, capacity anxiety can be solved to a certain extent.
In this video, we will see how the read and write speeds change by connecting mechanical hard drives, solid-state drives, and NAS, and under different hard drive formats. Unfortunately, I don't have a hard drive enclosure that supports Thunderbolt 4, so I can't run at a high speed of two or three gigabits.
In the second part of the video, I will simply use PR to edit a 4K video shot by DJI action4, about 10G, on different external hard drives to see how smooth it is.
Finally, I will talk about my current usage of hard drive space, hoping to be helpful to friends who are concerned about hard drive size.
OK, let's get started:
1. Different types of hard drive speeds
1. M4 version Mac mini speed
In the new version of Mac mini, the solid-state drive has been changed from single-sided particles to double-sided particles of the M1 version, and the speed has also been doubled. The read and write speeds are both above 2000M.
2. Mechanical hard disk hardness
This mechanical hard drive has a capacity of 4TB and was identified as a bad drive by QNAP and was not allowed to be used. So I put it in a hard drive box and temporarily transferred the files. The interface is USB 3.0 with a speed of 5Gbps.
The read and write speed of a mechanical hard drive is between 80M and 200M, so the data of writing 162M and reading 85M seems normal.
3. SSD speed
An external SSD is probably the most common way to expand storage. The read and write speeds are related to the hard disk enclosure protocol, the SSD itself, the data cable, and the computer interface. The front two interfaces of the M4 version of the Mac mini are USB 3.0, with a speed of 10Gbps; the rear three interfaces are Thunderbolt 4, compatible with USB4, with a speed of 40Gbps. Therefore, you can choose to connect the front or rear interface according to the situation of your SSD.
It should be noted that due to the confusion of USB protocols, there is a USB3.2 gen2✖️2 hard disk enclosure with a speed of 20Gbps. Mac mini is not compatible and can only read at 10Gbps. I am such a big loser. I spent money but the speed is not up to par.
In addition, regarding the Thunderbolt 4 interface of Mac mini, there is a saying that in the 40Gbps bandwidth, 18G is reserved for video transmission and 22G is for data transmission. Therefore, even if a Thunderbolt 4 hard drive is used, the read and write speed is only about 2200M. If this is true, then a 10Gbps hard drive enclosure that costs a few dozen yuan may be the most cost-effective choice. Friends who have the conditions can verify it.
As mentioned earlier, my hard drive enclosure has a speed of 20Gbps, the solid state drive is SanDisk's Extreme High Speed, and the data cable is USB4. The read and write speed is around 900M. (APFS format)
However, different hard drive formats will also affect the speed of the solid-state drive.
If it is in ExFat format, the writing speed will reach 1100~1200M.
If it is NTFS format, the read and write speed is only about 700M.
Regarding APFS, ExFat and NTFS, the simple differences are as follows:
APFS: Apple's proprietary, supports software installation; if you want to use it in Windows, the easiest way is to use SMB sharing;
ExFat: Mac/Windows can read and write directly, but there is no log, and lost files cannot be recovered;
NTFS: commonly used in Windows, Mac can also read and write through paid software such as Tuxera;
If you want to learn more, you can search the concept of hard disk cluster. The default hard disk cluster of APFS and NTFS is 4K, while that of ExFat is 128K. This means that if there are a large number of files smaller than 128K on your hard disk, the capacity of the ExFat hard disk may be several times larger than the other two. Therefore, when using the ExFat format, you can customize the size of the hard disk cluster based on your own file storage situation.
So, which format do you want to use? You can choose it according to your needs.
As for my personal opinion, data security takes precedence over read and write speed.
4. NAS hard drive speed
After connecting to NAS, the hard disk read and write speed is also related to many factors. For example, whether the hard disk type is a mechanical hard disk or a solid-state hard disk, whether there is a solid-state hard disk as a cache, whether the connection method is wired or wireless, whether the network cable is a Category 5 or Category 6 cable, the performance of the wireless router, etc. It is difficult to generalize.
My NAS is QNAP 951N, which has weak performance and is mainly used for entertainment. It mainly has 5 mechanical hard disks, two SATA SSD slots are used for system and program, and two SSD slots are used as read-only cache disks (it seems to make little difference whether it is used or not). In addition, due to the wiring in my home, Mac mini and NAS can only be connected wirelessly. The router is Linksys E9450, which is more stable.
First, I tested the speed of connecting via SMB sharing: the read and write speeds were between 70 and 85M.
Then I tried the speed of mounting sparse disk images in the NAS: This screenshot is not very representative, and the continuous test in the video will be a bit faster, but with greater fluctuations.
If you don't know how to create a sparse disk image, you can read this article:[Mac mini] Hard disk expansion pitfall: lightly use SMB/iSCSl/WebDav mounting method” Due to the CND relationship, the pictures in the blog are messed up. You can search the official account: Are there any interesting articles with the same name?
After using disk imaging, you can not only adjust the capacity at any time, but also install software. However, the speed and experience are average, so it is not recommended.
2. 4K video editing: Smooth experience of different hard drives
I've said before that I don't have any requirements for video editing. I just want to do some simple editing, adjust the speed, add transitions and subtitles, and reduce the noise of the sound. It's not very intense, so it's not difficult, let alone demanding.
The video used this time is a 4K video shot by DJI Action4, which is about 11G in size and lasts for 12 minutes.
Watch the video for the specific process. The conclusion is: the external SSD is very smooth, while the mechanical hard disk and NAS are very slow. Since the device and connection method I use are clearly described, I don't plan to optimize it at the moment, so I'll just use it as it is.
But I have edited videos on NAS before, and I don’t know why it is so slow this time. I think it is because of 4K video. After all, I used to shoot 1080P with my phone, and the difference is too big.
3. Is 256G enough?
Is 256G enough? Definitely not! But it is still OK...
For those of us who want to buy the basic M4 Mac mini, we will definitely be concerned about whether the 256GB hard disk space is enough. For my machine, which is only used for writing documents and simple video editing, after migrating the data, I can save about 60GB of space, and only 20-30GB of space is left for storing some data. Behind the Mac mini, there is actually a NAS and 2TB of iCloud space available at any time, as well as a flexible and mobile 1TB SSD hard disk box.
For people who use Mac mini, connecting various hard drives is the norm. For those who just bought a Mac, it should also be the norm to set aside a budget for purchasing a hard drive.
If you don't want to import and export files back and forth, you can consider installing the macOS system on an external hard drive. Generally speaking, a 10Gbps interface will work. But if you don't want to waste the performance of Thunderbolt 4, then a Thunderbolt 4 hard drive box plus a high-speed SSD will cost you nearly a thousand yuan more, so please consider it carefully.
So, this brings us back to the question when we unboxed it: Is Mac mini worth it?
Most people who think that Mac mini is cost-effective do so because they already have a large number of supporting equipment. In addition to 4K monitors, keyboards and mice, and expansion docks, they may also have high-speed networks, high-performance routers, Thunderbolt hard drives, NAS, and so on.
Eventually you will find:
The smaller the Mac, the more accessories it will need.
Well, if you find it useful, please follow it.
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