What 1TB M.2 SATA SSD for Mac Mini M2?

[russellsnr]

Hi, want to buy 1TB extra storage for a Mac Mini M2 , looking at the WD Blue SA510 M.2 Sata ssd this seems to be popular but what I am not sure of is the fitting as they all seem to have different types
Thank you, Russ.

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[Musicman]

Er, you want to put it inside?

On Apple Silicon Macs like the Mac Mini, the internal storage is soldered on board and cannot be upgraded.

You’ll need an external drive. You could buy one off the shelf or you roll your own with somehing like that and an appropriate USB or Thunderbolt enclosure,

 

[Snapsh0t]

There are only two variants for data M.2. An NVMe drive will have slot to the right (or bottom) of the connector, known at the M key, as shown in your pic of the SN570. A sata drive will have a slot on the left (or top), the B key, plus an M key, as shown in your other pic. Generally speaking SATA M.2 will work in NVMe M.2 slots but not the reverse and the lack of a B key stops an NVMe drive from being fitted in a SATA slot. However SATA M.2 is all but dead now as it has no advantages over NVMe and there's just no point in buying a SATA M.2 drive unless the socket only has a B key.

Note that these are general points as I'm not a Mac user so take note of what @Musicman says.

 

[russellsnr]

Er, you want to put it inside?

On Apple Silicon Macs like the Mac Mini, the internal storage is soldered on board and cannot be upgraded.

You’ll need an external drive. You could buy one off the shelf or you roll your own with somehing like that and an appropriate USB or Thunderbolt enclosure,

Sorry a Satechi Type-C stand and hub that I will be using, Thank you.

 

[Musicman]

Sorry a Satechi Type-C stand and hub that I will be using, Thank you.

Ah, presumably the version with a built in M.2 slot? That would make a lot more sense.

Stand & Hub for Mac Mini with SSD Enclosure

satechi.net

Yes, I think it should work in there. The enclosure‘s connection to the Mac only supports USB at 5Gbps, so that will be a bottleneck for speed, but it is tidy and convenient.

For about the same money as the SN510,, though, you could get a Crucial X8 which uses USB 3.2 at 10Gbps, but it all depends what your use case and priorities are.

 

[russellsnr]

Ah, presumably the version with a built in M.2 slot? That would make a lot more sense.

Stand & Hub for Mac Mini with SSD Enclosure

satechi.net

Yes, I think it should work in there. The enclosure‘s connection to the Mac only supports USB at 5Gbps, so that will be a bottleneck for speed, but it is tidy and convenient.

For about the same money as the SN510,, though, you could get a Crucial X8 which uses USB 3.2 at 10Gbps, but it all depends what your use case and priorities are.

Thank you, purchased Integral 1 TB M.2 lll 2280 ssd only for image storage so speed not a top priority. Thanks again.

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