Replacing a Mac Mini

[cavebear2118]

I've been having problems. My Mac Mini was getting slower ans some apps were failing last year, so I bought a new one, not noting it had little memory and was probly intnded to be a Cloud machine. And it came with Catalina, which killed most of my apps. I reverted to an older Mac Mini.

Now that one is failing. Things just aren't working. Digging into the weeds, I discovered I was using a 2011 Mac Mini (my, how time flies). So time to get back to modern times (kicking and screaming). But the new ones (and cost is no great problem) come with Big Sur and I read of problems with that.

I'm not a heavy user. I'm retired and do mostly blogs, email, and some spreadsheets and word. I do have 18,000 photos, though. So I wonder what you think about Mac mini (M1, 2020) with Big Sur and 1 TB storage and 16GB memory and vs the Mac mini (2018) with Catalina and the same.

 

[MartyByrde]

Sorry to hear about your issues. I have a late 2018 Mac Mini, with 8 gig of Ram and a 256 gig SSD. Right now I am happily running the latest version of Catalina, OS 10.15.7 (also have an early 2017 MacBook Air with 8 gig of Ram and a 252 gig SSD, and also using Catalina on it). I do use a good amount of third party software.

I use my Mac Mini most of the time, mainly for EMails, browsing, some simple spreadsheets and "word" documents (I use LibreOffice for those tasks, and it works very well), Quicken, and sometimes I will launch VLC to watch a movie or TV series. I also have a good amount of photos, but nowhere near as many as you have. I do, though, have a lot of movies and TV series.

I store most of my "documents" on an external SSD (and especially all the movies and TV series; they take up a good amount of space). Both of my Macs are "lean, mean, and clean". In fact, on my Mac Mini, I am only using about 78 gig of the 256 gig of space.

Right now, yes, Big Sur has issues. But that's true for any new release of a Mac OS. It usually takes a couple of versions before it stabilizes. I have yet to move to Big Sur, for that reason. Also, I still have 4 critical third party applications that are not yet compatible with Big Sur. Finally, there is nothing "earth shattering" in Big Sur that I must have.

Need some more information:

1. I assume you Mac Mini model is a 2011, correct? (I previously had a late 2012 model, and it ran fine. One thing I did, though, was to replace the slow, 5400 rpm 1 TB HDD it came with with a fast 256 gig SSD. Sure made a HUGE difference!). Please also state how much memory it has, the size of the internal device, and the "type" of that internal device, ie, Hard Disk Drive (HDD) or Solid State Drive (SSD).
2. How much free space do you have on that internal device?
3. What exact version of the Mac OS are you running on it (Catalina is not supported on your 2011 Mac Mini)?
4. Do you use a lot of third party software (apparently you use Word and Excel)?
5. This is critical: are you making backups to an external device?
6. Do you perform any disk cleanup/maintenance/repairs on you Mini?

Myself, I am "eyeing" both the M1 MacBook Airs and the M1 Mac Mini. In fact, I am watching the M1 Air closely, as that is the first one i would go with. The issues with it right now, though, are 1) status of Big Sur, and 2) third party software compatibility with the M1 chip. But hopefully those issues will get resolved.

 

[cavebear2118]

1. I am on a 2011 Mac Mini High Sierra, version 10.13.6. It has a 2.7 GHz Intel Core i7, 8 GB 1333 MHz DDR3, AMD Radeon HD 6630M 256 MB graphics card, and the About My Mac says "
Model Name: Mac mini
Model Identifier: Macmini5,2
Processor Name: Intel Core i7
Processor Speed: 2.7 GHz
Number of Processors: 1
Total Number of Cores: 2
L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB
L3 Cache: 4 MB
Memory: 8 GB
Boot ROM Version: 135.0.0.0.0
SMC Version (system): 1.75f0

2. I am using about 333GB of a 1TB SSD.

3. High Sierra. I tried Catalina last year and it ruined me on a newer Mac Mini. I had to go back to the 2011 to function.

4. I use Word and Excel for the better features. I did a LOT or Excel and Word and Access work before I retired. Page and Numbers kinna suck. I can make greeting cards on Excel. Probably something better avalable, but you do what you know. Card maker suggestions?

5. I have a 4 GB My Passport for backups to Time Machine and 2 GB Seagate for odd jobs. If it wasn't for the Seagate to back-migrate last year, I would have lost everything. Time Machine on My Passport wouldn't restore or migrate. I've done that before, so it was a surprise.

6. I am currently using free Avira for A/V. I intend to move to paid MacAfee or Norton with a new Mac Mini. I use Disk Utilties. I've used other downloaded disk scanners on occasion and that may have been a mistake, but they came from sites that seemed trustable.

7. You didn't ask, but I am really a desktop user. I have some sort of Mac Laptop, but only use it to visit friend's blogs while I watch TV. It isn't connected to the Mac Mini but goes throught the same router. I'm used to a big monitor and sitting at a desk, LOL!

 

[MartyByrde]

My late 2012 Mac that I previously owned has similar specifications:

Mac mini "Core i7" 2.6 (Late 2012) Specs (Late 2012, BTO/CTO, Macmini6,2, A1347, 2570): EveryMac.com

Technical specifications for the Mac mini "Core i7" 2.6 (Late 2012). Dates sold, processor type, memory info, hard drive details, price and more.

everymac.com

But as I mentioned, shortly after I got it, I replaced the (slow) 1 TB 5400 rpm HDD with a Samsung 840 Pro 256 gig SSD.

Similarly, it looks like this is your Mac:

Mac mini "Core i7" 2.7 (Mid-2011) Specs (Mid-2011, BTO/CTO, Macmini5,2, A1347, 2442): EveryMac.com

Technical specifications for the Mac mini "Core i7" 2.7 (Mid-2011). Dates sold, processor type, memory info, hard drive details, price and more.

everymac.com

However, what about the 500 gig HDD it came with? Did you install the 1 TB SSD yourself?

Now, using "only" 336 Gig of the 1 TB of space on the SSD is actually quite good, as you then have 664 gig of free space (assuming the SSD is not partitioned). Not sure why everything is so sluggish.

Wonder why you skipped Mojave and tried to install Catalina? I also visit another Mac discussion site, and number of users there swear by Mojave. I have always moved from one Mac OS to the next, via a clean, fresh installation. So, my recent progression has been El Capitan to Sierra to High Sierra to Mojave to Catalina. Again, has always been smooth, with no issues.

One definite issue is that 4 TB (you said 4 GB, but I suspect you meant 4 TB) Passport drive. Sounds like it is going bad. You need to consider replacing it. When you use Time Machine, do you do incremental backups? If so, are incremental backups really necessary for your use of your machine? My tasks are similar to yours, but I use SuperDuper! to make a backup/clone bootable backup. And I do my backups for each of my Macs once a week, with the new backup replacing the old one. But if you have a specific need for doing incremental backups, that's fine.

Not sure why you need virus software running in the background, That could be a reason for the poor performance of your machine. I have Clam XAV installed on each of my Macs, but I do not have it running in the background. As long as you are careful and don't visit nefarious sites (and of course don't click "bad" EMails), you should be fine.

Onyx is an excellent freeware disk cleanup/maintenance program. It is free, has been around a number of years, is rock solid, and has numerous positive reviews. I have been using it religiously for a number of years, and would not be without it. Here is a link to their site:

Titanium Software | Operating System Utilities for Mac - OnyX

OnyX is a multifunction utility that you can use to verify the startup disk and the structure of its system files; run tasks of cleaning and computer maintenance; configure some hidden parameters of many Apple applications; and more.

www.titanium-software.fr

As you can see, there is a specific version fo each Mac OS.

The other software I use is the excellent commercial program Tech Tool Pro. Like Onyx, it has been around a number of years, is rock solid, and has numerous positive reviews. And again, I have been using it for a number of years, and depend on it. Here is a link for it:

Techtool Pro 18

Techtool Pro is Mac utility software for maintaining and troubleshooting your Mac, including drive repair, RAM testing, and more.

www.micromat.com

Finally, I make a concerted effort to do a good amount of disk cleanup on my own. A prime candidate for this is deleted EMails. When you delete an EMail, it is not permanently removed rom your machine. Usually an additional step is necessary. That step varies from one program to the next. I use Thunderbird (an excellent free EMail client), and it's easy to do it. I actually do such a task just about every time I launch Thunderbird to check my EMail, as I get either EMails that are junk, or ones that I agreed to receive (usually from organizations like Costco, Best Buy, Newegg, etc.), but actually do not need. I get rid of them immediately. (Given that you use Word and Excel do you use Outlook? If you do, there is a way to do it with that program. In fact, I used to use Office 2016, but one time Outlook created some real issues for me, and that is when I switched to Thunderbird and LIbreOffice).

Lastly, are there any files, folders, etc. on your internal SSD that you can rid of, and/or store them on an external device? As I mentioned, I keep very few files, folders, etc. that are "data based", ie, "Word" documents, Spreadsheets, etc. The bulk of such items are stored on an external SSD. And of course that includes the large collection of Movies and TV Series that I have.

 

[cavebear2118]

Wow! Thanks for all the great advice and links. I will go through them point by point tomorrow (I'm starving; I REALLY need to eat). Um, yes I meant 4 TB. I started with Commodore and 16KB meant something then. I forget the advancements sometimes.

I never changed a hardware part in my life. I can fix a lawn mower, but a little Mac Mini seems untouchable.

I uploaded Catalina because it sounded good at the time, and most of my apps died. And I couldn't revert. So I restored an older Mac Mini I am on now. I need to check all the litter. I have this one "old", one "new" and one called "newer". The room is a mess. I need to sort all the stuff out.

Again, thanks for the help!

 

[MartyByrde]

Wow! Thanks for all the great advice and links. I will go through them point by point tomorrow (I'm starving; I REALLY need to eat). Um, yes I meant 4 TB. I started with Commodore and 16KB meant something then. I forget the advancements sometimes.

I never changed a hardware part in my life. I can fix a lawn mower, but a little Mac Mini seems untouchable.

I uploaded Catalina because it sounded good at the time, and most of my apps died. And I couldn't revert. So I restored an older Mac Mini I am on now. I need to check all the litter. I have this one "old", one "new" and one called "newer". The room is a mess. I need to sort all the stuff out.

Again, thanks for the help!

Eat and get some strength!

Glad I could help. I know it is a lot. I wonder when you purchased the machine, did you choose a "BTO" process, ie, Build to Order, and thus selected the 1 TB SSD? Sounds like that's what you did.

Now, starting with Catalina, 32 bit applications are no longer supported. So, if you have/had any, that's why they did not work. One thing that needs to be done prior to moving/upgrading the OS is to insure that all your third party applications are compatible. In the 32 bit case, you would have needed to see if there was a 64 bit equivalent available. Some companies did offer such software. Quicken is a prime example. I had been using Quicken 2007 for many years, and it has always been a stellar performer. But when Catalina came along, I needed to upgrade, and Quicken 2016 was available.

Let me know if you need any further help. And maybe we might start doing this by private message. These posts (especially mine!) are taking up an awful lot of real estate!

 

[cavebear2118]

I tend to customize when I buy. That doesn't mean I know what everything means at first, but I'm decent at learning. Eventually, I know what the storage and Ran, etc mean for long enough to fit my needs.

The 32 vs 64 bit thing is one of my stumbling blocks. I know what they mean, but apps are sometimes vague about that. And I tried to upgrade to Mojave but the screen said it was not compatible with my 2011 Mac Mini. I assume newer O/Ss would be the same.

I think it is time to bite the bullet and get a newer Mac Mini and new apps. I expect it will be a few difficult days of changing, and a week of learning. But I can't stay in 2011.

As to private messaging, I would rather keep it public in hopes that this helps some other user. And I probably don't actually have many further questions.

Thank you so much for your help and advice.

 

[MartyByrde]

Yeah, Mojave cannot be installed on your 2011 Mac Mini. nor any other more recent version of the Mac OS. High Sierra is the last one that can run on it.

So, what Mac Mini model do you plan on purchasing? If it's the new M1 model, remember that 1) it comes with Big Sur, which is not that stable yet, and 2) thee are few apps that are compatible with the M1 chip.

You might want to consider a late 2018 model like I have, or something similar. It can support Catalina and Big Sur, and for Catalina, just about all third party applications are compatible with it. Also, it will support at least 4 or 5 versions of the Mac OS after Big Sur.

 

[cavebear2118]

I ordered a Mac Mini 2020 M1, 1 TB 16GB and I arranged to have my Photos moved to the Cloud (I think). I may regret it. But it isn't due to be shipped until Jan 13, so I can change my mind.

I decided to go all in. I think sometimes you just have to go for the new and get used to it. But my router will take 2 cables, so I won't be uplugging the current 2011 Mac until I get a feel for the new one. If Big Sur is a disaster, I can unconnect it and wait a few months. But the 2011 Mac apps are falling apart unsupported so badly, I need to move forward.

I liked the idea of the designed-for-Mac M1. I'm kind of dedicated to Mac, so I don't have much choice in the long run. Meanwhile, I can play with 2 Macs.

Migrations are painful sometimes. But everything is on the My Passport as Time Machine and I will copy it to the Seagate as well.

But as I said, nothing will happen for a month, and Big Sur should stabilize by then I hope. We'll see.

 

[MartyByrde]

Wonder why you had issues with your Time Machine backup? And how do you know if it will work on the Seagate drive? (By the way, please provide as much detail as possible about the Seagate drive). You might want to consider using another backup program. And if you do not need to make incremental backups, I can recommend an excellent, free one for you. Do you need to do incremental backups?

Given that your new Mini will not arrive until January 13th, there is a good chance Big Sur could be more stable by then. As it is, V11.1 will be released very shortly, and possibly there will be a V11.2 by the time you get your Mini. however, there is still the issue of how many third party products are compatible with Big Sur on M1 Macs. This site can help with that:

Application Compatibility Table — RoaringApps

Crowd-sourced application compatibility for macOS, iOS and Windows.

roaringapps.com

If you click on "Filters", then within "Only Show", select Apple Silicon, and also within "status: ", click on Works fine, you'll see the current list of applications that work with M1 Macs.

But you still have to take care of any 32 bit applications you have, as they will not run at all. To see which of your applications are 32 bit, lok at this link:

How to check if your Mac’s software is 32- or 64-bit

If you plan to use macOS beyond Mojave, you need to upgrade any 32-bit apps on your Mac to 64-bit. Hereu2019s how to check for 32-bit apps on your Mac.

www.macworld.com

I've used the Go64 app referred to in that link, and it works fine. Of course, as I mentioned above, I took care os that 32 bit "business" before I moved to Catalina (ie, while still using High Sierra).

 

[cavebear2118]

Well, I DID change my mind. I spent nearly 6 hours reading up on the M1 vs Intel 5 and 7 chips, 8 vs 16 Ram, 3rd party apps vs dedicated Apple apps, and Mojave vs Catalina vs Big Sur. I didn't change my mind about 1 TB storage. I chatted online with an Apple tech. He said my new choice would NOT come with Big Sur, but could be either Mojave or Catalina. I guess I'll have to accept that.

I'm not a high-power user. No fast video games or sending large graphics or doing media development. My storage is more important than speed. I don't do Zoom or real-time video.

So after assuring myself (in my head if not in reality). I settled on:

Mac mini
Hardware

• 3.0GHz 6‑core 8th‑generation Intel Core i5 (Turbo Boost up to 4.1GHz)
• 8GB 2666MHz DDR4
• Intel UHD Graphics 630
• 1TB SSD storage
• Gigabit Ethernet (10/100/1000BASE-T Gigabit Ethernet using RJ-45 connector)
• Accessory Kit (whatever that is).
• 2018 model Mac Mini
• 4 Thunderbolt plugs (cables ordered elsewhere)
• Will arrive in 10-14 days (the 1TB SSD made it a "special order")

Well, I really like to keep original photos at full size along with the processed and reduced-size ones.

Also, I have received a Canon Color imageCLASS MF644Cdw Wireless Color Laser All-In-One Printer (damn thing weighs a ton). I don't use a printer often, but when I do, I use it a lot. The inkjet cartridges were costing a fortune drying out every 6 months. Toner lasts 4 years.

So I cancelled the Mac Mini M1 order. When I got confirmation from Apple, I ordered the new configuration. I couldn't find it that way at any site I trusted at the general price. Amazon won't discuss model year and seems to hate 1 TB SSDs and new models. B&H was more expensive. And, for once, I didn't go for a "renewed" computer.

When I get it all set up and migrated, I will post about the specs (some are uncertain) and success.

Thank you again for all the advice and help. You asked good questions and made good suggestions.

 

[cavebear2118]

Wonder why you had issues with your Time Machine backup? And how do you know if it will work on the Seagate drive? (By the way, please provide as much detail as possible about the Seagate drive). You might want to consider using another backup program. And if you do not need to make incremental backups, I can recommend an excellent, free one for you. Do you need to do incremental backups?

Given that your new Mini will not arrive until January 13th, there is a good chance Big Sur could be more stable by then. As it is, V11.1 will be released very shortly, and possibly there will be a V11.2 by the time you get your Mini. however, there is still the issue of how many third party products are compatible with Big Sur on M1 Macs. This site can help with that:

Application Compatibility Table — RoaringApps

Crowd-sourced application compatibility for macOS, iOS and Windows.

roaringapps.com

If you click on "Filters", then within "Only Show", select Apple Silicon, and also within "status: ", click on Works fine, you'll see the current list of applications that work with M1 Macs.

But you still have to take care of any 32 bit applications you have, as they will not run at all. To see which of your applications are 32 bit, lok at this link:

How to check if your Mac’s software is 32- or 64-bit

If you plan to use macOS beyond Mojave, you need to upgrade any 32-bit apps on your Mac to 64-bit. Hereu2019s how to check for 32-bit apps on your Mac.

www.macworld.com

I've used the Go64 app referred to in that link, and it works fine. Of course, as I mentioned above, I took care os that 32 bit "business" before I moved to Catalina (ie, while still using High Sierra).

 

[cavebear2118]

Missed answering a couple parts of your post. The Seagate is for temporary storage and currently disconnected.. My Time Machine is on a 4GB My Passport. The My Passport seems to be working fine.

I probably don't need incremental backup, but I didn't know there was another way. I take a lot of pictures, but only process them once a week. I use Apple email, but they are stored on AOL (long sad story) so I can always get at them there if the Apple ones are lost. I use Time Machine "because it is there and automatic" and I really never searched for better. Once a week would be fine. Suggestions?

In fact, I've been thinking of disconnecting it a week at a time in case of ransomware attacks and only hooking it back up when things seem OK.

Sorry is this is getting off-topic...

With the new computer, I expect to have to make a lot of upgrades and choose some new apps. Sad as it is, old apps fade away ad better ones arrive. I switched for iPhotoes to Photos last week. I don't love it, but I'll get used to it I suppose. It doesn't seem either "easier" or "better" but iPhotos isn't supported anymore. I like 3rd party apps , too. Office 365 has Word and Excel and they are better than Pages and Numbers. And I bet there are other good apps I never thought to look for. I need to adjust to 64 bit apps.

But I'll get into that on the Software Forum after I get the new computer up and running...

 

[MartyByrde]

OK, you actually will get the exact same late 2018 Mac Mini that I have, except for the additional storage. As I mentioned, mine has a 256 gig SSD.

At least for me, the machine works real well, easily satisfies my "need for speed", and is rock solid. Previously, the late 2012 Mac Mini I owned had a Core i7 processor, and I felt that possibly I would see a drop off in performance. But that's not the case it all. Very, very pleased with mine.

When I purchased it back in February from Best Buy, it came with Mojave. But since I do my backups with SuperDuper!, it was a piece of cake to do a clean, fresh installation of Catalina, and then migrate/copy all my files, folders, apps, settings, etc. from that backup. As I mentioned, I am now on V10.15.7 of Catalina, and it works fine.

As for backups, since you only need to do it once a week, I can easily, and without any hesitation, recommend SuperDuper!:

SuperDuper!

Just click on where it says "Download Now!" (there's a linkable word download below that). The free version works fine, but I actually purchased it after using it free for about a year, mainly to support Dave Nanian, the developer of it. (I actually have never used any of the additional features that come with the paid version).

It is a solid, reliable program, and I've been using it for more than 4 years. Right now, as you can see, that latest version is compatible with the last 6 versions of the Mac OS, including Catalina (and Mojave). Besides being rock solid, the beauty of it is that such backups are bootable, that is, you can boot you machine from it. That one feature alone makes it so worthwhile! I cannot tell you how easy it makes it to do a clean, fresh installation of either a new Mac OS, or "within" the same Mac OS.

Also, when I do the weekly back up for each of my Macs, I just let it replace the one from the prior week. Always has worked for me.

Compatibility with Big Sur will, I am certain, come soon. But it has been challenging for Dave (there is a similar program called Carbon Copy Cloner that has the same features. It is, though, not free, and even updates cost money. SuperDuper! has always been free, including updates).

As for your external drives, how much space are you using on the 4 TB Passport device? Also, when you get your Mac Mini, do you plan on partitioning it, or will you just leave it as is, ie, have all of the "less than 1 TB" space available for your processing?

Finally, as for 32 bit versus 64 bit software, I believe Office 365 is 64-bit. I use LIbreOffice, and it is a solid performer also. The equivalent Word (called Writer Document) and Excel (called Calc Spreadsheet) modules are easy to use, and have more than enough compatible format abilities to read and write equivalent Word and Excel formats. It does not have an EMail client (Outlook) like the various Office suites have. I used to use Office 2016, but Outlook 2016 really "screwed" me once, and it was at that time when I switched to LibreOffice, and also the excellent freeware EMail client Thunderbird. I am a "happy camper" with that setup.

As for Apple's Mail program, hopefully it works fine for you. Myself, no matter which Mac discussion sites I visit (I visit two others besides Mac-Help), I consistently see users have issues with Apple's Mail program. And it happens with any version. Hence, I have always avoided it. Same with Safari. I use Brave, although Firefox (which I previously used) seems to be getting faster and faster.

Whew! OK, that's enough for now. Sorry for the long post. And best of all, congratulations! You will really like your new Mac Mini.

 

[cavebear2118]

Thanks for the reply.

I want additional memory for the 18000+ pictures of Cats/Home/Garden I use in the blog. I have them processed, shrunken and filtered about 200KB for posts, but it is SO easier to scroll through them at original size in Photo. I could probably downsize them there, but extra storage is cheap compared to time, sometimes. I save my processed photos to a personal folder for actual daily use (year/month/day). I'm using 369 GB storage, and don't want to get to 50% (bad experiences).

What I read about Intel 5 and 7 suggests it will have little affect on me. So I went with Intel 5 and saved $200. I also went with 8GB Ram because most of what I do is ON my Computer rather than online.

It's hard not to desire "the most" in everything" isn't it? But I did. But why buy what you don't need?

I have made a note to look at SuperDuper when the new one arrives. I don't want to mess what is barely working until then, LOL! But really, SuperDuper sounds great and I've seen lots of other people who love it. And, yeah, I will be happy to pay to support good apps.

One thing I should mention. My only other computer "device" is a Mac laptop I only use for visiting blogs while watching cable TV and it is not connected to my desktop other than sharing the router. Makes life simpler. I don't even have a smartphone. I searched last night "why should I have a smartphone?" and none of the reasons applied. I'm Apple's nightmare user, LOL!

I'm wary of new apps. I tried the iCloud and spent an hour getting off it. I got trapped into Firefoxes Beta program and spent days finally deleting the whole app and them reinstalling an older version (shutting down and restarting works wonders sometimes and is an often over-looked solution to problems). Macs are so easy to keep running forever.

I could more easily hunt my own food than partion a hard drive and manage it. There are some things I just don't "get" at all. I get the concept, but messing with my hard drive has NEVER brought me joy.

Glad to hear that Office 365 is 64 bit. I love it. I make greeting cards in Excel (the graphics manipulations are often overlooked) and I have friends who send me drafts of stories to review and critique requiring Word (Page doesn't manage text and graphics at the same time).

I AM concerned about email. I have it from AOL via Verizon. Its a hot mess. But so many sites have my email as "user" and so many scatterred friends have my current email, it would be hard to change. I don't use apps like Contacts. I actually love Apple email, Havibg 3 accounts is easy. But AOL HATES it and every few months I have to spend a couple phone hours when they mess with it, And naturally, I tend to be on the computer late at night and the techs speak my language as ther 2nd or 3rd. No offence, they speak mine 70% and I speak their's 0%. I need to keep more normal EST hours,

I don't know "Brave" (I just looked it up though), I've been using DuckDuckGo.

Thank you SO much for all the advice. I think I know 80% more than I did last month about this stuff. If you ever want to know stuff about cats, gardening, or woodworking, just let me know.

Mark

 

[MartyByrde]

Thanks for the reply. Appreciate how informative it is.

I do like your statement "It's hard not to desire "the most" in everything" isn't it? But I did. But why buy what you don't need?". Could not agree more. I do understand why you went with a 1 TB SSD. Myself, my "hobby" activities are Movies and TV series. Yours is photos. I am positive you have an absolute need to access those right away, and thus would have them on your internal SSD. Myself, I don't need instant access, and hence that is why I store them on two separate partitions on my new 1 TB Samsung T7 SSD I recently purchased. Also, I can plug that drive into either of our Roku Ultra devices, and watch them on either of our TVs.

Regarding RAM, your own processing, and On Line, for On Line, if you are just browsing and reading/processing EMails, 8 gig should be enough. But if either you keep a lot of web pages open at the same time, need to run multiple programs simultaneously, or running very "intense" software, then more Ram is just about a necessity. Fortunately, both you and I can easily upgrade the amount of Ram we have.

Glad you are OK with Apple's Mail program. I believe Outlook came with your Office 365 package, and if it did, have you ever considered using it? Although I did have issues later on with Outlook 2016, 98% of the time it worked flawlessly. And based on what I have read on other sites, most folks are happy with it.

The only other thing you might want to consider is another external device. The reason I say that is I have 2 external Samsung 850 Pro 512 gig SSDs enclosed in nice, Orico Enclosures. I have 3 partitions on each one. Two of them are for my SuperDuper! backups for each of my Macs (the other partition contains miscellaneous items). When I need to boot either of my Macs from their respective SuperDuper! backups, it is definitely much faster than when I used to do it when I had external Hard Disk drives. I'm willing to bet the rotational speed of your 4 TB Passport drive is at most 7200 rpm, but it could be as slow as 5400 rpm.

I recently purchased this 1 TB Samsung T7 External SSD for $160 (including tax) from Newegg:

Portable SSD T7 USB 3.2 1TB (Gray) Memory & Storage - MU-PC1T0T/AM | Samsung US

Discover the latest features and innovations available in the Portable SSD T7 USB 3.2 1TB (Gray). Find the perfect Memory & Storage for you!

www.samsung.com

It is really small. I have 3 partitions on it: one of them is when I will (soon) test Big Sur, with a size of 145 gig (probably too much). The other 2 contain all my movies on one, and all my TV series on another. Each of those are about 420 gig each (but still have a lot of space left). If you did purchase one (and try and sell your Passport drive), 1 TB would be enough to accommodate a SuperDuper! backup of your internal device (you mentioned that you are using about 370 gig).

Anyway, just an idea. Not saying your Passport drive won't work, although if is getting "old", it will eventually go bad. SSDs last a lot longer.