[geeks] Q about USB 3.0 vs Thunderbolt interface on Mac Mini

[Mark Benson]

On 17/12/2015 21:37, hike wrote:
> If you still have the stock 5400RPM hard drive in your Mac Mini, you might
> use the USB3 drive for the OS and boot drive.  Stuff all the files on the
> internal or use it as a Carbon Copy backup, etc.
>
> My Mac Mini will boot faster on the USB3 drive than the original Apple
> internal drive.  Quite a nice speed up.

Used to run this set-up with a SSD but eventually cracked open the Mini 
and stuffed the SSD on the SATA bus. It wasn't the speed, it was the 
fact USB bus wasn't 100% stable and if it crashed the whole computer 
used to brick and require a reboot.

> You can also swap the original, 5400RPM HDD for a 7200RPM, a hybrid, or a
> solid state to gain speed for all the disk ops.

I *highly* recommend putting a decent speed SSD in the Modern i-series 
Minis. Mine *flies* with the a 128GB SSD in it.

> If you plan to keep the > Mac Mini a long time, an internal upgrade would mean that you would only
> have to swap it out once.  MacSales may have a bracket for 2 hard drives.
> If so, you could create your own fusion drive or keep everything internal.

You have to be REALLY careful here. There are 2 considerations with the 
internal mounts in a Mini. One is heat. This shouldn't be a massive 
issue with a modern SSD plus the 5400rpom hard drive. The other is the 
wiring harness that connects the drive to the logic board. There are 2 
different ones for the upper and lower drive. Some Minis had the drive 
fitted in the upper bay, some in the lower from the factory apparently, 
meaning it can be a crap shoot as to which cable you need. At leas 
that's what I read. I ended up just straight swapping the 1TB 5400rpm 
for a SSD and dropping the HDD in an external case to act as Time 
Machine storage.

It's a very powerful setup, and it's super quiet :)

-- 

Mark