Mac mini setup
My play toy: an Apple M6 Mac mini, what is plugged into it, and how fast each part runs. Rescanned October 19, 2026.
The machine
| Model | Mac mini (Mac18,5), 2026 |
| Chip | Apple M6: 12-core CPU (2 Super, 4 Performance, 6 Efficiency), 12-core GPU |
| Memory and storage | 16 GB LPDDR5, 512 GB internal SSD |
| Software | macOS 27.0.1 |
| Ports in use | 2 of 3 Thunderbolt 4, HDMI, 2.5 Gb Ethernet |
Where things stand
- TB 1 is empty. TB 2 holds the Mokin USB4 enclosure with a 2 TB NVMe drive, stable at 40 Gb/s. TB 4 has the USB dock.
- The mini runs one bus-powered NVMe enclosure reliably, not two. See the troubleshooting section below.
- The MacBook Pro is no longer cabled to the mini. Its own page has the details.
Connection map
Drive speeds
4 GB sequential runs with fio, 1 MB blocks, direct I/O, queue depth 16. October 19, 2026.
| Device | Link | Write | Read | Temp |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Internal SSD (Apple AP0512Z, 512 GB) | Apple fabric | 6838 MB/s | 6450 MB/s | 33 °C |
| Crucial P310 2 TB in a Mokin enclosure | USB4, 40 Gb/s, PCIe Gen4 x4 | 3043 MB/s | 3667 MB/s | 47 °C |
| SSD in the dock's M.2 slot | USB, 10 Gb/s | 779 MB/s | 776 MB/s | n/a |
| WD Elements 4 TB (Time Machine) | USB, 5 Gb/s | ~106 MB/s rated, not tested | ||
The 4 GB write on the P310 stays inside its fast cache. In a longer run, writes fall to about 0.9 GB/s once the cache fills, which is the limit of its QLC flash. Temperature peaked at 70 °C after about 400 GB of nonstop writes and never throttled. The dock SSD was measured shortly after a reboot, slightly under its usual ~850 MB/s. Temperature and wear come from smartctl, which cannot read the USB-bridged drives.
Thunderbolt troubleshooting
Two NVMe enclosures, two ports, one afternoon.
| Setup | Result |
|---|---|
| Mokin on TB 1, ACASIS second | ACASIS fell back to USB 10 Gb/s and its 990 PRO ran at about 950 MB/s. A new cable and a reboot did not help. |
| Swapped: ACASIS on TB 1, Mokin second | ACASIS came up at 40 Gb/s (2792 MB/s write, 3021 read). The Mokin's drive failed to attach, mounted unwritable, then dropped. No PCIe or NVMe errors were logged first. |
| Mokin alone on TB 2 | Stable at 40 Gb/s, 3043 MB/s write and 3667 read. |
- The second enclosure to connect loses. Each Thunderbolt port supplies bus power of about 15 W. The likely cause is that two bus-powered enclosures don't fit, though the logs can't prove it: overcurrent counters stayed at 0.
- TB 2 is not faulty. The Mokin runs the same speed on TB 1 and TB 2.
- If both are ever needed: put one behind a self-powered Thunderbolt hub.
- Eject before unplugging. The P310 has 31 unsafe shutdowns on record, several from this troubleshooting.
USB4 and Thunderbolt 3 here
| Standard | Speed | In this setup |
|---|---|---|
| Thunderbolt 3 (2015) | 40 Gb/s | ACASIS enclosure, now on the MacBook |
| USB4 (2019) | 20/40 Gb/s | Mokin enclosure (ASMedia chip) |
| Thunderbolt 4 (2020) | 40 Gb/s | The mini's three back ports |
| Thunderbolt 5 (2024) | 80/120 Gb/s | The MacBook Pro and its dock |
Both enclosures run a 40 Gb/s link, but inside the Mokin the USB4 chip reaches the SSD at PCIe Gen4 (about 3.7 GB/s here) while the ACASIS Thunderbolt 3 chip runs Gen3 (about 3 GB/s), even with a faster drive. Neither gets faster on a Thunderbolt 5 port.
Network
Speed test from October 17, 2026.
| Link | Down | Up | Router ping |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ethernet, 2.5 Gb | 2291 Mbps | 2176 Mbps | 0.64 ms |
| Wi-Fi 7 | 802 Mbps | 736 Mbps | 52 ms avg |
Ethernet carries the traffic. Wi-Fi has a strong signal but latency that swings from 2.5 to 113 ms. The October 19 scan found Wi-Fi on 5 GHz (channel 157, 80 MHz) at 720 Mb/s, not the 6 GHz band of the earlier test.
Displays
| HP 23er | 1080p, 60 Hz, on the Mac's HDMI |
| Dell S2425HS | 1080p, 100 Hz, through the dock's HDMI (not detected in the latest scan) |
The M6 can drive three displays, including two 4K screens at 165 Hz. A pair of 4K 144 to 165 Hz monitors is the next upgrade.
The dock
- An Ivanky Fusion Dock 3. It is a USB dock, not Thunderbolt, so everything behind it shares one 10 Gb/s link and macOS lists its Thunderbolt port as empty.
- HDMI up to 4K at 144 Hz, a 10 Gb and a 5 Gb USB hub, an SD card reader, and an M.2 slot that holds a 512 GB SSD used for scratch files. It is powered from a separate 100 W USB-C supply.
- Also behind it: the 4 TB Time Machine drive and a Blu-ray/DVD burner on USB 2.0.
Next to the MacBook Pro
| This Mac mini | Mac Work Book Pro | |
|---|---|---|
| Chip | Apple M6 | Apple M5 Pro |
| CPU | 12 cores: 2 Super, 4 Performance, 6 Efficiency | 18 cores: 6 Super, 12 Performance |
| GPU | 12 cores | 20 cores |
| Memory | 16 GB | 48 GB |
| Internal SSD | 512 GB | 1 TB |
| Thunderbolt | Thunderbolt 4, 40 Gb/s | Thunderbolt 5, up to 80 Gb/s |
"Performance" is the lower of two tiers on the M5 Pro but the middle of three on the M6. See the MacBook Pro page.