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TheAppleMac mini M4 is arguably the biggest bargain in computing.
It’s almost too good to be true.
Seriously, don’t even consider it.
Instead, you’ll want to buy an external enclosure and NVMe storage.
That’s exactly what I did, and it’s saved me a fortune.
Like way too much.
That’s $800 / 800 extra for another 1.75TB of SSD storage.
How does that compare to third-party storage?
Ourbest SSDbuying guide lists nine options, that have all been thoroughly tested and TechRadar-approved.
Jump up to the 4TB model and the price per GB drops to 7.5 cents, or 6 pence.
The flipside is that you will need to buy an external enclosure too, but these are not expensive.
And nor do you’re gonna wanna worry about it being a difficult installation process.
(The Mac mini M4 Pro, meanwhile, has Thunderbolt 5, which can handle up to 120Gb/s.
TheSamsung990 Pro mentioned above is one such SSD.
You could therefore buy a cheaper PCIe 3.0 card such as the Samsung 970 EVO Plus.
The enclosure
Once you’ve chosen your SSD you’ll need something to put it into.
Instead,you specifically need an M.2 NVMe USB 4 or Thunderbolt 4 enclosure.
This cost me 257 which works out at 6 pence per GB.
Either way, you will definitely save money over taking the Apple upgrade.
I can’t praise it enough.
The whole thing takes about five minutes, max; it’s really not a complicated process.
Nor does it get too hot.
The result is that I can treat my external storage almost as if it’s internal.
It’s one of the best upgrades I’ve ever made.
