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    #16
    Sorry yeah that was a very mealy-mouthed way of asking a question - it's more to do with how people are connecting them. Are they sitting with an external drive permanently connected with their media on?

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      #17
      Yeah you can do. Loads of options for external drives and the sky is the limit for read/write speed, since the Mac mini has Thunderbolt 4 ports which are about as quick as it gets for external drives. Ultimately it's a desktop, so shouldn't be much of a hardship to keep an external drive permanently connected.

      How much storage do you need?

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        #18
        I had a 2009 Macbook Pro which ran brilliantly for about 11 years. In fact, it still runs pretty well but the OS can no longer be updated. I lost count of how many "work" Lenovo laptops it saw off, best computer I'd ever owned. I don't consider myself an Apple fanboy, but I definitely wouldn't want anything else now. I replaced it last year with a MacBook Air M1 which has been absolutely perfect so far.
        Last edited by Colin; 19-01-2023, 16:42.

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          #19
          Originally posted by wakka View Post
          How much storage do you need?
          Not huge amounts, but 3TB would probably be sensible? I note that the Apple store seems to like the LaCie drives. Aside from making me think of Final Fantasy XIII, they're also bigger than the actual system!

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            #20
            Yeah those massive LaCies will probably be overkill, I think they're usually about 6 or 8TB at least.

            With a requirement of 3TB I would definitely avoid excessively upgrading the internal storage of the machine, and would instead keep the internal to ~512GB or a max of 1TB. It just gets ridiculously expensive otherwise.

            I actually don't use that much storage myself so other people can probably weigh in with better suggestions, but these are a few options.

            4TB of hard drive storage for £128 from LaCie in a smaller case:

            Get a great deal on a LaCie 4TB Mobile Drive USB-C + USB 3.0 Portable External Hard Drive for PC and Mac (Moon Silver) as well as thousands of products at Ebuyer!


            2TB of hard drive storage for £84, this G-DRIVE label is the one that videographers and filmmaker types I know use:



            2TB of SSD storage for £215, this is SSD which is obv more modern than hard drive:



            EDIT: Btw all of these will jack straight into the USB-C ports on the back of the Mac mini.
            Last edited by wakka; 20-01-2023, 11:08.

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              #21
              I've got 2 smaller Porsche Design LaCie 4TB drives hooked up to my Mac mini. One for Music and the other for backups. They have a complimentary colour scheme and make a nice a wee shelf for the mini to sit on.

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                #22
                I used to use Lacie drives for my Macs in the early 2000s with no issues.
                However I bought an external Lacie HD about 5 years ago and it failed within a few weeks and then the replacement did the same within weeks so have avoided them ever since. Don't think the quality control is there anymore.

                I use WD & Seagate mechanical drives and SanDisk SSD's now and generally not had any issues with them.

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                  #23
                  Originally posted by doodledude View Post
                  I used to use Lacie drives for my Macs in the early 2000s with no issues.
                  However I bought an external Lacie HD about 5 years ago and it failed within a few weeks and then the replacement did the same within weeks so have avoided them ever since. Don't think the quality control is there anymore.

                  I use WD & Seagate mechanical drives and SanDisk SSD's now and generally not had any issues with them.
                  It should be noted that LaCie use Seagate drives after being acquired by Seagate in 2014. Seagate don't have the best reputation for reliability, I like to stick with WD & SanDisk too. WD being the parent company of SanDisk.
                  Last edited by speedlolita; 20-01-2023, 11:57.

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                    #24
                    Originally posted by speedlolita View Post
                    It should be noted that LaCie use Seagate drivers after being acquired by Seagate in 2014. Seagate don't have the best reputation for reliability, I like to stick with WD & SanDisk too. WD being the parent company of SanDisk.
                    That's good info. That explains why when I was trying to find G-DRIVE ones earlier to give fuse a link, I saw they were now branded Sandisk. This confused me as the older models I have seen were always Western Digital branded. But I see they're actually the same company.

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                      #25
                      LG direct have stuck the price of their 27" 5K monitor up from £900 to £1150. I guess they're enjoying the wave of new prospective Mac Mini users! I've found somewhere else still stocking at the £900 price point but still wondering whether to get it now. What with this reward points jumble I'm having to work through, it could be up to a week until I can order the computer, and it's going to be via Amazon rather than direct from Apple, and the current quote there is 1-2 months for shipping... I'm not sure if this lead time means the price drops again on the monitor, or if it potentially peaks even more.

                      On the plus side, the M2 Minis seem to be landing well with reviewers.

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                        #26
                        M2 Pro Mini is showing delivery by this Friday on Amazon for me? Might be worth checking again:

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                          #27
                          I’m going to order a M2 mini with 16GB RAM and the 512GB SSD. That should last me a long time. I’d like the Pro for the prospect of a 4K 120 desktop and the extra ports but can’t justify the extra outlay.

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                            #28


                            A few weeks until it arrives. First new computer I’ve bought for myself in a long time and it looks exactly like the old one!
                            Last edited by CMcK; 30-01-2023, 08:00.

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                              #29
                              Slick, hope to be with you in M2 Mini club v shortly!

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                                #30
                                New mini arrived a week early! Took about 40 minutes to transfer everything to the new machine. All up and running now, tunes on. So good to have a 60Hz desktop again although the HDR seems a bit bright so I’ve turned that off for now. It’s very slick in operation responds to everything so quickly it’s like using iOS.
                                Need to see if I can repurpose the old mini. Got way too many old computers lying around the place as it is.

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