Sandisk Extreme vs NVMe in external enclosure?

[Camrarat]

Which type of external storage will yield fastest performance with a mac?

At this point will the difference in speed between a Sandisk Extreme portable SSD and a faster NVMe setup ever be observable/detectable? If so which NVMe memory and enclosure do you recommend?

 

[Greybeard2017]

Which type of external storage will yield fastest performance with a mac?

At this point will the difference in speed between a Sandisk Extreme portable SSD and a faster NVMe setup ever be observable/detectable? If so which NVMe memory and enclosure do you recommend?

An enclosure that supports Thunderbolt will be faster than the Sandisk Extreme (assuming you are using it with a Thunderbolt port on the mac)

 

[James Grove]

Which type of external storage will yield fastest performance with a mac?

At this point will the difference in speed between a Sandisk Extreme portable SSD and a faster NVMe setup ever be observable/detectable? If so which NVMe memory and enclosure do you recommend?

NVMe with a TB4/USB4 connector, around 100 UK Pounds for the enclosure

 

[Tom_N]

Which type of external storage will yield fastest performance with a mac?

At this point will the difference in speed between a Sandisk Extreme portable SSD and a faster NVMe setup ever be observable/detectable? If so which NVMe memory and enclosure do you recommend?

USB 3.1 Gen 2 ("up to 10 Gbps") enclosures should be fast enough for SATA III ("up to 6 Gb/s SSDs.

M.2 NVMe SSDs with maximum read speeds in the range of 3500 – 4000 MB/s (28 – 32 Gb/s) are well-matched to Thunderbolt enclosures – though you can also put them into cheaper USB 3.1 Gen 2 enclosures (at a cost in speed). Some external SSDs offer USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 interfaces, but M1 Macs don't, and will fall back to "up to 10 Gbps" speeds when using such drives. Seems that USB4 Gen 2x2 ("USB4 20 Gbps") isn't the same as USB 3.2 Gen 2x2, and that by making the latter optional for USB4 hosts and hubs, the USB-IF has effectively thrown it under the bus.

There are some M.2 NVMe SSDs for which even 40 Gbps Thunderbolt enclosures could theoretically be a bottleneck.

 

[bakubo]

The way you use the external SSD would determine whether you truly see much or any benefit to using an NVMe in external enclosure. For many things the additional speed would probably make no real world difference, but for active, constant use where you are reading and writing the external SSD a lot then the faster one would probably be beneficial.

 

[cortlander1]

Which type of external storage will yield fastest performance with a mac?

At this point will the difference in speed between a Sandisk Extreme portable SSD and a faster NVMe setup ever be observable/detectable? If so which NVMe memory and enclosure do you recommend?

I use Samsung 980 in an Acasis enclosure that gives me 2700-2800 read and write speeds on a 16 inch MBP Max with M1 chip. It allows me to process 8K video in Final Cut Pro. I could not do that with the Sandisk SSD.

 

[apekkpul]

This is a pretty good video on external SSDs

 

[Jacques Cornell]

Which type of external storage will yield fastest performance with a mac?

At this point will the difference in speed between a Sandisk Extreme portable SSD and a faster NVMe setup ever be observable/detectable? If so which NVMe memory and enclosure do you recommend?

What I can tell you is that when I moved my Lightroom folder from a 200MB/s spinning platter to a 300MB/s USB 3.0 external SSD, I noticed a substantial improvement in responsiveness, even with the master image files still on the spinning platter. When I moved the Lightroom folder and the master image files to a 1000MB/s internal SSD and then an NVME in a 1500MB/s Thunderbolt enclosure, I noticed no further improvements.

In short, depending on what you intend to use it for, the "fastest performance" may simply be wild overkill. Nowadays, I'd go for an 800MB/s USB 3.x Gen 2 external SSD, as that's where the price/performance sweet spot is. Using SSDs for archival storage of large numbers of master image files seems like a waste of money.

Plus, my experience has been that when SSDs fail, they just drop dead in an instant with no warning, whereas utilities like TechTool Pro that monitor drive health often provide sufficient warning to transfer data to a new drive when an old hard drive starts to wear out. Both of these things have happened to me in the past decade. More than once.

Caveat: Many USB enclosures don't pass through SMART data on drive health to drive utilities, so there's no warning to be had. For this reason, all my critical hard drives are in Thunderbolt enclosures, which do pass through this data and allow the utilities to effectively monitor them.

 

[Gosman]

Which type of external storage will yield fastest performance with a mac?

At this point will the difference in speed between a Sandisk Extreme portable SSD and a faster NVMe setup ever be observable/detectable? If so which NVMe memory and enclosure do you recommend?

I use Samsung 980 in an Acasis enclosure that gives me 2700-2800 read and write speeds on a 16 inch MBP Max with M1 chip. It allows me to process 8K video in Final Cut Pro. I could not do that with the Sandisk SSD.

They are claiming 6600 mb/s on the Samsung 980. I guess the external slows it down?

 

[Tom_N]

Which type of external storage will yield fastest performance with a mac?

At this point will the difference in speed between a Sandisk Extreme portable SSD and a faster NVMe setup ever be observable/detectable? If so which NVMe memory and enclosure do you recommend?

I use Samsung 980 in an Acasis enclosure that gives me 2700-2800 read and write speeds on a 16 inch MBP Max with M1 chip. It allows me to process 8K video in Final Cut Pro. I could not do that with the Sandisk SSD.

They are claiming 6600 mb/s on the Samsung 980. I guess the external slows it down?

Thunderbolt 4 runs at 40 Gbps, before overhead.

6600 MBps = 52.8 Gbps, so the Samsung 980's advertised best-case maximum speed requires something faster than the TB4 ports (like an internal connection.

2700 – 2800 MBps = 21.6 – 22.4 Gbps.

 

[cortlander1]

Which type of external storage will yield fastest performance with a mac?

At this point will the difference in speed between a Sandisk Extreme portable SSD and a faster NVMe setup ever be observable/detectable? If so which NVMe memory and enclosure do you recommend?

I use Samsung 980 in an Acasis enclosure that gives me 2700-2800 read and write speeds on a 16 inch MBP Max with M1 chip. It allows me to process 8K video in Final Cut Pro. I could not do that with the Sandisk SSD.

They are claiming 6600 mb/s on the Samsung 980. I guess the external slows it down?

Thunderbolt 4 runs at 40 Gbps, before overhead.

6600 MBps = 52.8 Gbps, so the Samsung 980's advertised best-case maximum speed requires something faster than the TB4 ports (like an internal connection.

2700 – 2800 MBps = 21.6 – 22.4 Gbps.

Add to the above, the length of the thunderbolt cable can have a significant impact on speed, and whether these are passive cables or active (with chips, and better shielding).

 

[Jacques Cornell]

Which type of external storage will yield fastest performance with a mac?

At this point will the difference in speed between a Sandisk Extreme portable SSD and a faster NVMe setup ever be observable/detectable? If so which NVMe memory and enclosure do you recommend?

I use Samsung 980 in an Acasis enclosure that gives me 2700-2800 read and write speeds on a 16 inch MBP Max with M1 chip. It allows me to process 8K video in Final Cut Pro. I could not do that with the Sandisk SSD.

They are claiming 6600 mb/s on the Samsung 980. I guess the external slows it down?

Thunderbolt 4 runs at 40 Gbps, before overhead.

6600 MBps = 52.8 Gbps, so the Samsung 980's advertised best-case maximum speed requires something faster than the TB4 ports (like an internal connection.

2700 – 2800 MBps = 21.6 – 22.4 Gbps.

Add to the above, the length of the thunderbolt cable can have a significant impact on speed, and whether these are passive cables or active (with chips, and better shielding).

And add to that the actual speed potential of the enclosure. My OWC Envoy TB case tops out around 1500MBps, which is more than plenty for my use with stills.

 

[Gosman]

Which type of external storage will yield fastest performance with a mac?

At this point will the difference in speed between a Sandisk Extreme portable SSD and a faster NVMe setup ever be observable/detectable? If so which NVMe memory and enclosure do you recommend?

I use Samsung 980 in an Acasis enclosure that gives me 2700-2800 read and write speeds on a 16 inch MBP Max with M1 chip. It allows me to process 8K video in Final Cut Pro. I could not do that with the Sandisk SSD.

They are claiming 6600 mb/s on the Samsung 980. I guess the external slows it down?

Thunderbolt 4 runs at 40 Gbps, before overhead.

6600 MBps = 52.8 Gbps, so the Samsung 980's advertised best-case maximum speed requires something faster than the TB4 ports (like an internal connection.

2700 – 2800 MBps = 21.6 – 22.4 Gbps.

Add to the above, the length of the thunderbolt cable can have a significant impact on speed, and whether these are passive cables or active (with chips, and better shielding).

And add to that the actual speed potential of the enclosure. My OWC Envoy TB case tops out around 1500MBps, which is more than plenty for my use with stills.

All of these Thunderbolt 3 &4 and USB 3.2 2x2 stuff is confusing. Here's toasting to everyone on how to get a true 40 gb/s out of your external drives!

 

[Jacques Cornell]

Which type of external storage will yield fastest performance with a mac?

At this point will the difference in speed between a Sandisk Extreme portable SSD and a faster NVMe setup ever be observable/detectable? If so which NVMe memory and enclosure do you recommend?

I use Samsung 980 in an Acasis enclosure that gives me 2700-2800 read and write speeds on a 16 inch MBP Max with M1 chip. It allows me to process 8K video in Final Cut Pro. I could not do that with the Sandisk SSD.

They are claiming 6600 mb/s on the Samsung 980. I guess the external slows it down?

Thunderbolt 4 runs at 40 Gbps, before overhead.

6600 MBps = 52.8 Gbps, so the Samsung 980's advertised best-case maximum speed requires something faster than the TB4 ports (like an internal connection.

2700 – 2800 MBps = 21.6 – 22.4 Gbps.

Add to the above, the length of the thunderbolt cable can have a significant impact on speed, and whether these are passive cables or active (with chips, and better shielding).

And add to that the actual speed potential of the enclosure. My OWC Envoy TB case tops out around 1500MBps, which is more than plenty for my use with stills.

All of these Thunderbolt 3 &4 and USB 3.2 2x2 stuff is confusing. Here's toasting to everyone on how to get a true 40 gb/s out of your external drives!

For what? For stills work, anything faster than USB 3.x Gen 2 is utterly wasted.

Video is a different story, and not one I'm privy to.

 

[Gosman]

Which type of external storage will yield fastest performance with a mac?

At this point will the difference in speed between a Sandisk Extreme portable SSD and a faster NVMe setup ever be observable/detectable? If so which NVMe memory and enclosure do you recommend?

I use Samsung 980 in an Acasis enclosure that gives me 2700-2800 read and write speeds on a 16 inch MBP Max with M1 chip. It allows me to process 8K video in Final Cut Pro. I could not do that with the Sandisk SSD.

They are claiming 6600 mb/s on the Samsung 980. I guess the external slows it down?

Thunderbolt 4 runs at 40 Gbps, before overhead.

6600 MBps = 52.8 Gbps, so the Samsung 980's advertised best-case maximum speed requires something faster than the TB4 ports (like an internal connection.

2700 – 2800 MBps = 21.6 – 22.4 Gbps.

Add to the above, the length of the thunderbolt cable can have a significant impact on speed, and whether these are passive cables or active (with chips, and better shielding).

And add to that the actual speed potential of the enclosure. My OWC Envoy TB case tops out around 1500MBps, which is more than plenty for my use with stills.

All of these Thunderbolt 3 &4 and USB 3.2 2x2 stuff is confusing. Here's toasting to everyone on how to get a true 40 gb/s out of your external drives!

For what? For stills work, anything faster than USB 3.x Gen 2 is utterly wasted.

Video is a different story, and not one I'm privy to.

Exactly, why I got my 4TB Sandisk Pro for $350 before they went back up to $999!

 

[bakubo]

Exactly, why I got my 4TB Sandisk Pro for $350 before they went back up to $999!

Back to $358 for anyone here who may want one:

https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-4TB-Extreme-Portable-SDSSDE81-4T00-G25/dp/B08RX3343D/

 

[Gosman]

Exactly, why I got my 4TB Sandisk Pro for $350 before they went back up to $999!

Back to $358 for anyone here who may want one:

https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-4TB-Extreme-Portable-SDSSDE81-4T00-G25/dp/B08RX3343D/

Does anyone know of a computer that will take the 3.2 gen 2x2? Most motherboards only have Thunderbolt or just regular 3.2.

 

[Jacques Cornell]

Exactly, why I got my 4TB Sandisk Pro for $350 before they went back up to $999!

Back to $358 for anyone here who may want one:

https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-4TB-Extreme-Portable-SDSSDE81-4T00-G25/dp/B08RX3343D/

Does anyone know of a computer that will take the 3.2 gen 2x2? Most motherboards only have Thunderbolt or just regular 3.2.

Pretty sure no Macs support it.

 

[Gosman]

Exactly, why I got my 4TB Sandisk Pro for $350 before they went back up to $999!

Back to $358 for anyone here who may want one:

https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-4TB-Extreme-Portable-SDSSDE81-4T00-G25/dp/B08RX3343D/

Does anyone know of a computer that will take the 3.2 gen 2x2? Most motherboards only have Thunderbolt or just regular 3.2.

Pretty sure no Macs support it.

Correct. That is why I will stick with a PC for now.

 

[Jacques Cornell]

Exactly, why I got my 4TB Sandisk Pro for $350 before they went back up to $999!

Back to $358 for anyone here who may want one:

https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-4TB-Extreme-Portable-SDSSDE81-4T00-G25/dp/B08RX3343D/

Does anyone know of a computer that will take the 3.2 gen 2x2? Most motherboards only have Thunderbolt or just regular 3.2.

Pretty sure no Macs support it.

Correct. That is why I will stick with a PC for now.

That seems an odd reason when Macs have Thunderbolt ports that are twice as fast as 3.x Gen 2x2.