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

[hike]

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.

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.  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.

HTH

On Thu, Dec 17, 2015 at 9:32 AM, Lionel Peterson <lionel4287 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Hello all,
>
> Yesterday I was at my local big box retailer looking for an external drive
> for
> my Mac Mini. Being a fairly recent model it has both USB 3.0 and
> Thunderbolt
> interfaces, but I wasn't sure if there was an actual benefit to having a
> spinning HD on the faster Thunderbolt interface - thoughts?
>
> I have no need for 'exceptional' speed, but when I looked at the transfer
> specs on the two interfaces both seemed to be much faster than the actual
> data
> transfer speed of the SATA interface, which itself is much faster than a
> single HD spindle can throw data out of the disc platter.
>
> I was only looking for a single-drive device, so would there have been any
> benefit to spending significantly more on a thunderbolt interface expansion
> drive or was I correct in getting a USB 3.0 drive and expecting similar
> real-world performance?
>
> This post [0] confirms my suspicions, but I'm curious about your thoughts
> on
> this...
>
> Thanks,
>
> Lionel
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