Why doesn't Apple specifcy NAND flash SSD configuration/speed

apple never really been a company who threw too many technical terms at users, suppose they feel it confuses some non tech users, same deal with their m1 m2 cpu lines does not have the cpu frequency listed

Yes, it would be nice to have solid figures when deciding the SSD size. But maybe the logistics make this hard.

In the past the rule of thumb seemed to be the bigger the drive, the faster it was. I wonder if that still applies.

Sequential write performance between the SSD sizes in the Mac mini 2018:

128GB -> ~0.6 GB/s

256GB -> ~1.3 GB/s

512GB -> ~1.9 GB/s

1&2TB -> ~2.6 GB/s

Reads are all > 2 GB/s (2TB 2.6 GB/s).

https://www.reddit.com/r/macmini/comments/9vibhk/mac_mini_2018_ssd_speed/

https://macperformanceguide.com/MacMini2018-SSD-PeakSpeed.html

I liken it to Harley Davidson. Hear me out.

HD rarely posts raw horse power for their motorcycles. Why? Because horsepower really doesn't matter in the end. It's all about torque. But the industry has taken to always throw horsepower out as the end all be all of performance. Which it absolutley is not.

Same for this situation, I feel. Disk read write tells part of the story, but there are multiple variables that go into computer's overall "speed". And most people who are in the market for a mini type Mac, won't ever need that kind of I/O. People make way to big of a deal about those numbers.

I built a PC that has an interl NvME SSD, and it goes at about 7000/5200 sequential read. My mini pro does about half that. Does my mini feel slower than my PC? Absolutley not. Could I take advantage of that speed for tasks that take advantage of that? Like encoding 4/8k videos, etc? Sure. Don't need it though, since I don't do that.

It's all about perspective.

darkhorse69 wrote:

......

I have heard that now with the M2 Mac Mini, you won't get a dual NAND configuration until the 2TB model.

....

What is the source you "heard" this from as there are yet to be a physical M2 MacMini in the field and until then no one reliably knows what sort of configuration there is and any thing at this point is pure speculation.

Yes, I occasionally boot Mac mini 2018 1 TB (internal drive ~2.6 GB/s) to an external SATA USB3.1 SSD drive with ~0.55 GB/s and do not notice much or any difference.

Only when I move around large ~500 GB movie files etc, I feel the need for more speed (or coffee), especially when using old archive purpose HDDs with ~0.075-0.11 GB/s (1.5-3TB Seagate HDDs).

I have not yet switched to faster NVMe drives because SATA speed is enough and because I have not yet found a good dual dock or any dock solution for bare M.2 drives and I am unsure which one is as robust or supports booting as well as my current SATA-to-USB 3.1 Gen 2 setup.