Tag: SSD

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A new MacMini 4 Pro for LrC – some lessons learnt, and an issue resolved.

So … I did succumb, and I did purchase the Mac mini 4 Pro with 24Gb RAM and 500Gb internal SSD, and the Satechi Mac mini M4 Stand & Hub with SSD Enclosure with 2Tb of NVMe SSD storage which I liked the look of in the previous post

What have I learnt, what could I have done differently – if anything?

I’m pleased I purchased the Mac mini 4 Pro, I got a remarkably good discount on it (c.£300 from Amazon (breaking a golden rule), and was able to pay for it over 4 months at 0% interest. A good buy. The processor just swallows up anything and everything I throw at it, and with the 24Gb RAM, I believe I’ll be future proofed for quite a few years!

The SSD both internal and external (in the hub) however has caused some issues and consternation, which initially caused me to think I should have gone for a much larger internal SSD, but thankfully (as explained below) I’m now quite relaxed about that decision and 500Gb is definitely sufficient for my needs.

The Satechi Hub is not a Thunderbolt hub, and if I’d been prepared to wait (or pay a lot more for one that was not so aesthetically pleasing), the connection between the Hub and the Mac mini could have been faster – but to be honest the data transfer rate using the USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 (up to 10Gbps) has not proven to be a problem. The 2Tb Crucial NVMe SSD storage in the Hub is not being used intensively and so data transfer rate has not been a problem. The ports on the front of the Hub are all in use to serve music, movies and other stored media, and the SD-UHS-II card slot has been well used to import images from my camera.

The Mac mini’s Three Thunderbolt 5 ports are connected to the Hub, an external G’Drive SSD drive for Images, and a connection to two external G’Drive HD Time Machine and Carbon Copy Cloning drives. The Headphone jack connected to a pair of Logitech powered speakers. Magic!!!

[PS I treated myself to a Pioneer Blu-Ray Player as well because my old SuperDrive was not working with the new Mac mini hardware.]

Did I learn anything from the purchase? Well, yes – but it was nothing to do with the hardware!!

As I was editing images in Lightroom Classic, I discovered that I couldn’t save a Catalog Backup to a folder on my iCloud Drive. There was plenty of space for the file, so what could be going on?

It took me a couple of days to get to the bottom of the problem, and one that was quite unexpected.

The problem was that the System Data on my internal drive was growing to a ridiculous size, to the extent that there was not enough space on the Internal Drive of the Mac mini to do the save to the iCloud Drive. So, a couple of things had to be addressed. Why was the System Data growing so large, and should I review where some of my Lightroom files were being stored. This was the first thing to be considered.

I moved the Lightroom Classic Catalog Backups folder from the iCloud Drive to the external SSD drive in the Hub, I also reviewed all the other peripheral files and folders that Lightroom was using and either moved them to the Internal SSD on the Mac mini, or to the External SSD in the Hub.

The folders on the external SSD in the Hub – none of these require “fast” access and so are “happy” to sit on an external drive with data transfer rates still at up to 10Gbps.

These folders are located on the internal SSD of the Mac mini and are ones which could benefit from the fastest data transfer rates.

It is also important to make sure you’ve changed all the preferences in Lightroom Classic to match the “new” configuration …

So that’s got Lightroom Classic sorted to give me the best performance on the new kit, but still I had an issue with System Data in General > Storage on the Mac mini. For a while I thought “shall I just upgrade to Tahoe (from Sequoia) and perhaps it’ll go away, but having upgraded my Mac Book Pro to Tahoe I was astonished to see that even with 2Tb of Internal SSD storage, System Data was eating as much it could of that storage. Obviously something wasn’t right.

The solution which I discovered eventually after extensive use of Perplexity was counter-intuitive and one that I would never have worked out.

I needed to switch-off synchronising of my Desktop and Documents Folders – this meant some re-organisation of file store which was in itself long overdue, and then switch on Optimise Mac Storage!!!

Surprisingly System Data will gobble-up local disk storage if you switch this off. Switching it on gets everything back into a sensible state of order.

So … I applied these settings to both the Mac mini and the MacBook Pro (even though it had loads of Internal SSD space), and System Data shrunk on both systems to a manageable level.

Who’d have known that! Thanks Perplexity.

[Addendum: After upgrading the Mac mini 4 to Tahoe this morning (15/12/2025) the System Data shrank again to c.67Gb – this was also recommended in the Perplexity threads as a “if the above doesn’t work … try a re-install”]

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Buying an entry level Mac system for Photography

Update: Go to bottom of post for a change in advice …

I was recently asked my opinion on buying an entry level Mac system that could be used for Photography – principally for use with the Adobe Creative Cloud Photography Plan.

The budget was set as equivalent to an iMac M1, 2021 24″ system, but I had been impressed by the reviews I’d read for the  Mac Mini M1, 2020 system – the first of the new Apple M1 systems to be introduced. I made the following observations in comparing the Mac Mini as an alternative to the iMac …

“We’re talking about the base model at £699 with 256Gb of SSD (storage) and 8Gb RAM. [I’m thinking you would not need more than 256Gb for storage as you could store/archive photos on an external disk – more about that later because it relates to a possible iMac 24” as well.]

A comparably spec’d iMac 24″ would be £1449 – both are 8-core CPU, 8-core GPU systems, so identical processing power.

The cheaper model (£1299) I wouldn’t recommend as it doesn’t have ethernet, and doesn’t have the legacy USB-A ports (which are not essential, but are really useful to have and removes the need for convertors – which would take up Tb/USB-C ports which you could be using for external fast Tb hard disks – see below!).

With the Mac Mini you also get an HDMI slot (so you could run it through a TV as well as possibly using this port for a monitor). [I have done this – I’m still using an old Mac Mini as a Media Server.] However you need to purchase a display, a keyboard and a mouse to do a true comparison. That’s the next step.

The latter two are easy. Apple’s Magic keyboard – (£20 less if you want a silver/white one) and Magic Mouse – again £20 less if you want a silver/white one are the obvious choices – but you can repurpose exiting keyboards and mice if you want to save money! So that’s £258 to add to £699 for the Mac Mini.

To match the iMac (similar spec as above) leaves £492 for a monitor, and here’s a ViewSonic one that gets good reviews for £201. So that leaves you with money in hand. If you wanted to spend more you could go for a bigger screen, or a different make. I have a Benq monitor (not this one though) – they have a very good reputation. A recent review of monitors for the Mac Mini can be found here.

Doing it this way gives you a lot of flexibility to buy the right machine, with the same performance, and add the flexibility of getting the best possible display within a budget of £1449 – which I deem to be the minimum for an iMac 24″ equivalent.

Next … on to RAM. The consensus appears to be that if you’re NOT a professional, and you AREN’T into heavy-duty video-editing, then 8Gb RAM should be sufficient. However … as you can’t upgrade either of the two Mac models, I would always shell out the extra £200 to get 16Gb RAM, if you afford it. Indeed you could use the money saved on the ViewSonic monitor (above) and you’d still be in credit!!!

And finally external hard disks. The beauty of the Mac platform is that it has developed and promoted the fastest Thunderbolt technology. Therefore for archived images (or documents) you will not notice any problems (at least I don’t) by using external hard disks rather than increasing the minimum of 256Gb SSD in the system. You should use this storage for applications and current (ie a couple of recent years) images, and store everything else on a dual-drive external configuration. One for archived images/documents that you might want to access occasionally, and the other for TimeMachine backup – the best and easiest to use backup software ever invented. [Indeed I would go as far as to say that I’d consider buying a Mac for TimeMachine alone!!!]

Both of these could be normal HDD technology as the speed of access you get from SSD would not be required. I’d certainly recommend looking at either Lacie, or G-Tech Drives (I’m using the latter these days) – I have this one for my photos – and this one for my backups.“

I have one caveat to make. The Mac Mini M1, 2020 will almost certainly be replaced/upgraded later this year which means you a) might have the opportunity to get a refurbished one, b) might considering a possible delay until later, or c) might just crack on with the project knowing that even the current model is a really good option [Review article]. 

24 hours later: I showed this to a friend and he pointed out the discrepancy between the monitor I’d suggested and the pixel density of the iMac 24″ display, and casually commented that I hadn’t added a camera either. Both of these factors materially change the advice given above, and whilst I still maintain the Mac Mini is an excellent platform for Photographic use especially when paired with a high quality monitor, I have to concede that you cannot improve on the iMac 24″, 2021, 8Gb RAM, 256Gb SSD with the extra ports at £1449.