Suggestion for External Storage for Mac Mini Pro (Qwiizlab failed me)

[Burgerb]

Hi Everyone,

I have a Qwiizlab USB C Hub with a SAMSUNG 870 EVO 4TB 2.5 Inch SATA III Internal SSD drive to store my Lightroom and Apple Photos and some other documents. However the Qwiizlab caused me only problems. First it stopped detecting SD Cards and now it can't find the SSD Drive any-longer.

As an interim solution, I have my SSD Drive connected via a SABRENT USB 3.1SATA Hard Drive Adapter. It works but looks strange as it has no enclosure and is just connected to the cable.

I'm looking for a more permanent solution. I saw recommendations for the SAMSUNG T7 Shield at one point. Is that still a good option?

On the other hand I don't need a portable external hard drive - but just something that goes well with my Mac Mini... that's why I liked the Qwiizlab because it has the same form factor as the Mac Mini. What are the external drive that come in a desktop version? Or, are the portable drives what people are using now even when it's for desktop usage only?

I'm willing to spend some money on it , but I don't need the fastet (ie. NVMe) but something super reliable that acts almost like an internal drive.

Any suggestions or guidance is appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[MacsBug]

If you want something that has the same form factor as the mini you might want to take a look at either the Santechi Hub with SSD Enclosure (https://satechi.net/products/stand-hub-for-mac-mini-with-ssd-enclosure), or the OWC MiniStack STX (https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/owc-ministack-stx).

I would stay away from the Samsung T7 series. Ihave had problems with then throttling when they get warm.

If you do want a new SSD similar to the Shield, I am a big fan of the Oyen Digital Hellix SSD's (https://oyendigital.com/hard-drives/store/M2-P8.html). The Helix enclosure is a heatsink that keeps the internal drive cooler.

 

[TonyAguila]

Hi Everyone,

I have a Qwiizlab USB C Hub with a SAMSUNG 870 EVO 4TB 2.5 Inch SATA III Internal SSD drive to store my Lightroom and Apple Photos and some other documents. However the Qwiizlab caused me only problems. First it stopped detecting SD Cards and now it can't find the SSD Drive any-longer.

As an interim solution, I have my SSD Drive connected via a SABRENT USB 3.1SATA Hard Drive Adapter. It works but looks strange as it has no enclosure and is just connected to the cable.

I'm looking for a more permanent solution. I saw recommendations for the SAMSUNG T7 Shield at one point. Is that still a good option?

On the other hand I don't need a portable external hard drive - but just something that goes well with my Mac Mini... that's why I liked the Qwiizlab because it has the same form factor as the Mac Mini. What are the external drive that come in a desktop version? Or, are the portable drives what people are using now even when it's for desktop usage only?

I'm willing to spend some money on it , but I don't need the fastet (ie. NVMe) but something super reliable that acts almost like an internal drive.

Any suggestions or guidance is appreciated.

Thanks!

What model exactly is your Mac mini? I just want to know if you have Thunderbolt 3 or 4. I would steer you away from the Samsung T7 Shield, or the SanDisk counterpart, unless you plan to play catch with it, or run it under water. The “shield” prevents it from naturally dissipating the higher temperatures that NVMe modules operate in. Instead, I suggest the tool-free version of the Acasis Thunderbolt NVMe enclosure. Take a close look at the WD_BLACK SN850X NVMe module. The 2- and 4-terabyte sizes are very fairly priced (I have two of the 4-TB modules since they do not yet have the 8 terabyte. Sabrent has the 8-terabyte but I haven’t had experience with Sabrent, regardless of the reviews about it.)

I don’t know if the newer Mac mini is staying cool because my intel 2018 mini always overheated to the point where I had to place bags of frozen peas over it. The Studio is perfectly cool all the time and I have my NVMe enclosures on top of it. Super fast! Trim is fully supported.

 

[Burgerb]

If you want something that has the same form factor as the mini you might want to take a look at either the Santechi Hub with SSD Enclosure (https://satechi.net/products/stand-hub-for-mac-mini-with-ssd-enclosure), or the OWC MiniStack STX (https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/owc-ministack-stx).

I would stay away from the Samsung T7 series. Ihave had problems with then throttling when they get warm.

If you do want a new SSD similar to the Shield, I am a big fan of the Oyen Digital Hellix SSD's (https://oyendigital.com/hard-drives/store/M2-P8.html). The Helix enclosure is a heatsink that keeps the internal drive cooler.

Thank you so much for the response! I looked into the Satechi Hub. I didn't select that one because it only has an NVMe enclosure. However it looks like all the other Mac Mini Hubs from Qwiizlab or Hagibis - all look the same and probably come from the same factory. After my experience with Qwiizlab I better stay away from these types of Hub.
The OWN MiniStack looks fantastic. It pricey but I guess you have to spend on quality equipment. They Oyen looks great as well. Thank you for the suggestion!

 

[Burgerb]

What model exactly is your Mac mini? I just want to know if you have Thunderbolt 3 or 4. I would steer you away from the Samsung T7 Shield, or the SanDisk counterpart, unless you plan to play catch with it, or run it under water. The “shield” prevents it from naturally dissipating the higher temperatures that NVMe modules operate in. Instead, I suggest the tool-free version of the Acasis Thunderbolt NVMe enclosure. Take a close look at the WD_BLACK SN850X NVMe module. The 2- and 4-terabyte sizes are very fairly priced (I have two of the 4-TB modules since they do not yet have the 8 terabyte. Sabrent has the 8-terabyte but I haven’t had experience with Sabrent, regardless of the reviews about it.)

I don’t know if the newer Mac mini is staying cool because my intel 2018 mini always overheated to the point where I had to place bags of frozen peas over it. The Studio is perfectly cool all the time and I have my NVMe enclosures on top of it. Super fast! Trim is fully supported.

Hi Tony - I was hoping for your response as I read the many responses from you regarding storage solutions. I have the 2023 MacMini M2 Pro with 1TB internal SSD and 32GB of RAM. That should be Thunderbolt 4 I assume?
Thank you for the warning regarding the T7 Shield! The WD_BLACK SN850X NVMe looks great. Do you have an opinion on the OWC MiniStack STX recommended by MacBugs? I like the MacMini form factor and I assume the build quality to be high. It's pricey but should be worth it I think?

 

[TonyAguila]

Hi Tony - I was hoping for your response as I read the many responses from you regarding storage solutions. I have the 2023 MacMini M2 Pro with 1TB internal SSD and 32GB of RAM. That should be Thunderbolt 4 I assume?
Thank you for the warning regarding the T7 Shield! The WD_BLACK SN850X NVMe looks great. Do you have an opinion on the OWC MiniStack STX recommended by MacBugs? I like the MacMini form factor and I assume the build quality to be high. It's pricey but should be worth it I think?

I’m not all that fond of Mac Sales (OWC), in spite of all the money I had spent on their goods. I know that the Mini Stack is cool, but you should consider this item,

Amazon.com

It just came out, so you can expect the price to come down soon. In addition to being Thunderbolt 4, it also has a built-in slot for an NVMe chip, so you can assemble your own external NVMe drive without purchasing a separate enclosure. If you can afford the 4-TB WD SN850X, it’s the best product right now for what you need.

 

[Burgerb]

Interesting. Is there a reason you don't like the OWC devices? The Sonnet dock looks great - although I don't need all the ports. Like the speaker ports. The internal SSD slot is nice. The Hubs from Caldigit don't have that.

 

[TonyAguila]

Interesting. Is there a reason you don't like the OWC devices? The Sonnet dock looks great - although I don't need all the ports. Like the speaker ports. The internal SSD slot is nice. The Hubs from Caldigit don't have that.

OWC used to be my #1 source but a number of faulty items, mainly SATA SSD drives, started failing on me, badly. That’s when I pretty much depended on market brands like Samsung for SSDs and mainly followed trends reported by BackBlaze on hard drive reliability for my choice of hard drive brands and sizes. (Aside: I have stayed with 8-TB hard drives for TM backups, but lately, the reliability of 12-TB drives have achieved pretty much the same as the eights, so I know which ones to get the next time I upgrade.)

The reason for my rave about the Sonnet Echo 20 is that the price alone of the Acasis NVMe enclosure (I’m partial to) is around $140 and I can’t recommend anything else, so the enclosure built into the Echo is basically half the value of the whole thing, even if I have to give up a little bit of speed.

Here are the speed test results of the Studio’s internal 2-TB drive compared with the Western Digital 4-TB.

And people wonder how Apple manages to achieve those speeds in their Macs…

The WD SN880X is about half the speed of the Apple drive because the latter is composed of two SSD chips which act together to achieve a Raid-0-like performance. The WD does gain in performance in the other sequences. This also illustrates the slow performance of entry-level Macs that come with single SSD chips.

 

[Burgerb]

Sorry for the late reply. Wanted to thank you for the info on this. I have to do some thinking. I really like the form factor of the OWC - maybe I just buy the enclosure and buy some good performing HardDrives and NVMe chip separately?

By the way - I did not know that BackBlaze provides these hard drive reliability numbers. That's really helpfull.

 

[TonyAguila]

Sorry for the late reply. Wanted to thank you for the info on this. I have to do some thinking. I really like the form factor of the OWC - maybe I just buy the enclosure and buy some good performing HardDrives and NVMe chip separately?

By the way - I did not know that BackBlaze provides these hard drive reliability numbers. That's really helpfull.

Yes, I had always been basing my buying decisions for hard drives on BackBlaze reports and for more than a decade, the reliability statistics of the larger drives did not improve for drives over eight terabytes, until the last time I checked. I try to replace hard drives after about three years of constant use and so my next purchase (it’s due) is for a couple of Seagate IronWolf 12TB NAS drives. For my setup, eight terabytes can retain 12–15 months of Time Machine history, so I hope to get closer to two years’ history from the 12s.