It ’s exciting as a Mac user to live on in a time when you could purchase an M2 Mac mini at the start toll of $ 599 that ’s vastly quicker than nearly any computer you might have antecedently owned except certain eminent - ending M1 Macs . But the problem is n’t the foundation cost . It might seem reasonable to jump off from 8 GB to 16 GB of RAM for an extra $ 200 . But if you want to jumpstart from the baseline 256 GB SSD – inadequate for 2023 … or even 2018 – you could pay off a bundle .
Apple charges $ 200 , $ 400 , and $ 800 to shift upwards to 512 GB , 1 TB , and 2 TB , severally . While those are even increment , they ’re far above the prices paid in the mart . There ’s no path to crack up an M - series Mac mini , Mac Studio , or iMac to add more retention or storage , so what you choose for RAM is what you ’re stick with . But is that the case with an SSD ?
Many Mac mini drug user could do well enough with a 256 gigabit or 512 GB SSD and induct their redundant money in an external Thunderbolt 3 or 4 drive enclosing with an NVMe SSD ride . With either Thunderbolt 3 or 4 , a mid - range NVMe SSD can execute within the 40Gbps constraints of those Thunderbolt versions . See our round up of theBest external SSD for Mac 2023 .
External SSDs are an affordable stprage option for your Mac.
Most of Apple ’s Macs use chip in their SSDds that extend roughly 3 to 6GBps of throughput – Apple claim the Mac Studio can even hit 7.4GBps in some configurations . Mid - range of mountains NVMe SSDs can hit about 3GBps , matching that lower - end performance . you could grease one’s palms a faster NVMe , but Thunderbolt 4 will throttle performance to around 4GBps or so .
international SSDs are an affordable stprage option for your Mac .
( Drive fastness are usually measured in byte per minute , or Bps or B / s , instead of like connection and connection throughput , which is bit per indorsement , or bits per second or b / s. Thunderbolt 3 and 4 offer 40Gbps of throughput in each management at the same time , which , after smash and datum reserved for video , is about 4GBps . )
External SSDs are an affordable stprage option for your Mac.
It ’s deserving call out the 2023 M2 Mac miniskirt ’s 256 GB configuration , too : Apple used a individual SSD chip , halve carrying into action to closer to 1.5GBps compared to the 512 GB model and other similar Macs . Thus an external 3GBps NVMe will give youbetterresults .
A 2 TB , 2.8GBps NVMe Thunderbolt 4 / USB4 compatible drivefrom Other World Computing costs $ 369 – less than half of Apple ’s rise fee for a 256 GB Mac mini , double the throughput , and you get the 256 GB drive in the Mac mini to bang . ( Literally : you could bring up off it . )
I can speak from experience , using an external 1 TB Thunderbolt drive with an NVMe SSD as my Mac inauguration volume . I could have choose to apply the internal 256 GB SSD on my M1 Mac mini and locate the Photos Library and other storage booklet and libraries on the outside cause . But I opted to keep everything in one place . ( I did eventually have toadd an external SSD to hold my Photos Library , however . )
This Mac 911 article is in response to a question submitted by Macworld referee Greg .
Ask Mac 911
We ’ve compiled a list of the questions we get asked most often , along with solution and link to column : learn our super FAQ to see if your question is covered . If not , we ’re always bet for newfangled problems to solve ! netmail yours tomac911@macworld.com , including screen captures as appropriate and whether you want your full name used . Not every interrogation will be answered , we do n’t answer to email , and we can not put up lineal troubleshooting advice .
