Hello,
I am looking into buying an iMac M4 with 4 Thunderbolt ports, so at least 10-10-16-16. I want to use an external 2TB SSD.
I am a daily heavy Excel/Word user with normal usage of pictures and videos. I am not a video pro editor, in case this info is important.
Since the SSD it is not soldered in and in order to maximize the drive's speed, what are your recommandations for the :
Thanks for helping.
iMac (M4)
rlesperance wrote:
While the specs can also apply to a Mac Mini, they are for an iMac M4.
Sorry, it's all blurring together...
The iMac comes with a basic 256GB internal SSD. The OS will reside there. As for the rest of the data, I am planning of putting it on the external drive.
I appreciate your input. I wonder what people that have tested this alternative think about my idea.
There are many posts here in the forums from people who have tested this. None of them are pretty.
The best I can do dissuade you from attempting it. Calculate how much data you have now. But a new iMac with enough internal storage for that amount, plus at least 200 GB more. And even that recommendation is in terms of something like a 1 TB drive. Otherwise, you will have no end of pain from "missing" storage, "System Data", full hard drive, super slow performance, etc. These are all regular, daily complaints here in the forum. You don't have to inflict that on yourself.
rlesperance wrote:
What is 10-10-16-16 ? = 10 cores CPU - 10 cores GPU - 16 cores neural engine - 16 unified memory
You can just say Mac mini M4. Those other details aren't relevant.
Why ? Personal choices: less expensive if there is no speed issue, can be moved to another computer, etc ...
There's probably a huge speed issue. I think there are some external drives that are as fast as the internal, but they're very hard to find and very expensive. Plus, you'll have lots of headaches and hassles dealing with external drives.
If you just want to use it for a Time Machine backup or additional storage. That's totally fine. Any name brand external SSD will have great speed and reliability for that kind of use.
Just don't try anything fancy like external booting or moving your home directory. You'll regret that.
What is 10-10-16-16 ? = 10 cores CPU - 10 cores GPU - 16 cores neural engine - 16 unified memory
Why ? Personal choices: less expensive if there is no speed issue, can be moved to another computer, etc ...
While the specs can also apply to a Mac Mini, they are for an iMac M4.
The iMac comes with a basic 256GB internal SSD. The OS will reside there. As for the rest of the data, I am planning of putting it on the external drive.
I appreciate your input. I wonder what people that have tested this alternative think about my idea.
rlesperance wrote:
I am looking into buying an iMac M4 with 4 Thunderbolt ports, so at least 10-10-16-16.
What is 10-10-16-16?
I want to use an external 2TB SSD.
Why?
External SSD with iMac M4 ...
