Current best options for external thunderbolt SSD (for boot drive)

kapalua12 said:

I also have the LaCie Thunderbolt 1 TB SSD Little Big Disk and the fan sound is noticeable, especially after getting used to my perfectly silent 768 SSD GB IMac late 2012. It's kind of like the fan sound of my i7 2010 iMac when it's really being pushed to it's limits but it's not objectionable. It sure is super fast though.

Perhaps a 6 foot TB cable would be a good idea to place it further away, instead of just behind my iMacs where it lives now.

Click to expand...

I disconnect the fans when using SSDs in the LBD enclosure. I haven't noticed any heat problems, the case is just slightly warm when using. Unfortunately, you have to open the unit to unplug the fan, which breaks the tamper seals and voids the warranty.


-howard

Thank you to the participants of the forum. I don't need to open my new iMac 27. I have a Lacie LBD SATA II 2x128gb Vertex 4 and WD My Book Thunderbolt samsung 830 256 gb divided into 128 gb for Mac OS Raid and Windows. I am very pleased with the result. Here are a few of my tests. Sorry for my English

Insar said:

Thank you to the participants of the forum. I don't need to open my new iMac 27. I have a Lacie LBD 2x128gb Vertex 4 and WD My Book Thunderbolt samsung 830 256 gb divided into 128 gb for Mac OS Raid and Windows. I am very pleased with the result. Here are a few of my tests. Sorry for my English

Click to expand...

You have wicked fast speeds!

At this time we have virtually no options (besides seagate's) to connect a SSD of our choice to a thunderbolt enclosure. I'm gonna wait till a proper thunderbolt enclosure comes out.

Till then, I'm gonna buy one of those thermaltake 5G USB 3.0 enclosures and boot from that.

I've read mixed reviews about booting from Thunderbolt and USB 3.0. For the most part, they seem to be pretty damn equal in terms of speed. I'm not sure about reliability though. I'm inclined to think Thunderbolt is more stable but then again I thought it would be way faster than USB 3.0.

It really looks like we won't be seeing any Thunderbolt enclosures for months to come. I think now would be a good time to experiment with USB 3.0 and see if its just as good for booting.

Mitch619 said:

At this time we have virtually no options (besides seagate's) to connect a SSD of our choice to a thunderbolt enclosure. I'm gonna wait till a proper thunderbolt enclosure comes out.

Till then, I'm gonna buy one of those thermaltake 5G USB 3.0 enclosures and boot from that.

I've read mixed reviews about booting from Thunderbolt and USB 3.0. For the most part, they seem to be pretty damn equal in terms of speed. I'm not sure about reliability though. I'm inclined to think Thunderbolt is more stable but then again I thought it would be way faster than USB 3.0.

It really looks like we won't be seeing any Thunderbolt enclosures for months to come. I think now would be a good time to experiment with USB 3.0 and see if its just as good for booting.

Click to expand...

For a single SSD, you will probably see similar results for USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt due to the speed of the SSD itself. If you set up multiple SSDs in a RAID-0 configuration, such as in the Little Big Disk SSD, you see a huge difference by having a Thunderbolt interface. There aren't many RAID capable USB 3.0 enclosures available, especially small ones geared towards 2.5" form factor drives.

Just thought of something that could potentially ruin the whole "external fusion drive" thing.

I'm no expert, but what will happen when the new version of OSX comes out later this year? From experience with enabling TRIM on third-party SSDs, I know that after every update or new OS, I have to re-enable TRIM.

If any update or future OS breaks the Patched Fusion drive you just did, that would really suck!

Can anyone else chime in on this?

Mitch619 said:

Just thought of something that could potentially ruin the whole "external fusion drive" thing.

I'm no expert, but what will happen when the new version of OSX comes out later this year? From experience with enabling TRIM on third-party SSDs, I know that after every update or new OS, I have to re-enable TRIM.

If any update or future OS breaks the Patched Fusion drive you just did, that would really suck!

Can anyone else chime in on this?

Click to expand...

Well ... the 10.8.3 update didn't break the 10.8.2 DIY Fusion drives.

Since the Fusion CoreStorage is part of the underlying OS and is used by Apple OEM Fusion drives as well, I don't think they are going to do anything to purposely break it. The TRIM hack is a way to get around functionality traps that the OS is configured with ... those could be broken or reset with updates!

hfg said:

Well ... the 10.8.3 update didn't break the 10.8.2 DIY Fusion drives.

Since the Fusion CoreStorage is part of the underlying OS and is used by Apple OEM Fusion drives as well, I don't think they are going to do anything to purposely break it. The TRIM hack is a way to get around functionality traps that the OS is configured with ... those could be broken or reset with updates!

Click to expand...

Sounds logical. Good to know people's fusion drives survived.

And I agree with you about the raid setups with Thunderbolt. I was referring to single drives. I've actually seen a few tests where 3.0 bested Thunderbolt in performance. Thunderbolt has a very promising future for professionals and hobbyists, but as of right now, I don't think it's anything more than marginally better than USB 3.0.

so guys do u use this external thunderbolt SSD drive as a fusion drive or just a boot/Mac system drive?

how reliable both option?

fireedo said:

so guys do u use this external thunderbolt SSD drive as a fusion drive or just a boot/Mac system drive?

how reliable both option?

Click to expand...

If you do not play with the physical connectors, I think they are just as reliable as internal ones.

Mitch619 said:

I've actually seen a few tests where 3.0 bested Thunderbolt in performance. Thunderbolt has a very promising future for professionals and hobbyists, but as of right now, I don't think it's anything more than marginally better than USB 3.0.

Click to expand...

My personal experience is that with a good USB 3.0 enclosure, the same 840 Pro SSD was slightly faster than a Thunderbolt enclosure, while using a bit more CPU overhead. Another difference is that with Thunderbolt you can have TRIM support but not with USB 3.0.

wmy5 said:

If you do not play with the physical connectors, I think they are just as reliable as internal ones.

Click to expand...

ok thx a lot for your reply ... will get seagate thunderbolt for external ssd

Seagate GoFlex Thunderbolt

jackoatmon said:

ANyone doing this?

I'm thinking Seagate GoFlex adapter with a 256gb Samsung 830 or maybe one of the new Intell 335s.

Is the Goflex adapter a good idea for a boot drive solution? What other enclosure setups are preferable for a permanent add-on to my 2011 imac 27"?

Click to expand...

I use Seagate GoFlex Thunderbolt Adapter (STAE121) with MacBook Air 2011 for few resons. For example ability to run antivirus (from Windows 8 running under Parallels) or for general edition of data on laptop HDDs and SDDs and for speed measurement of laptop disks...

Big minus for me is this adapter is not Daisy chain so I can use it together with external DP monitor. It is only minus.

Big plus is ability to boot and run OS X from it. On HDD or SDD. Changing test systém is so easy.

For everyday use I found great feature of this solution. As my internal drive is 128GB SSD only I install copy of my OS X on external 1TB HDD. Why? On insternal drive I keep working copy of systém and iTunes without data and Music Match only. All iTunes content is on system on 1TB HDD what I use to fullfill Music Match with.

The best thing is OS X itself. When you choose external 1TB HDD on Thunderbird adapter as a startup disk it start OS X from external disk everytime when attached in moment of boot. But without external drive it starts from internal SSD drive. And so on. So I do not need to change startup disk in OS X anymore...

which USB 3.0 enclosure did you use?

Nuke61 said:

My personal experience is that with a good USB 3.0 enclosure, the same 840 Pro SSD was slightly faster than a Thunderbolt enclosure, while using a bit more CPU overhead. Another difference is that with Thunderbolt you can have TRIM support but not with USB 3.0.

Click to expand...

Which USB 3.0 enclosure did you use?

schloerg said:

Which USB 3.0 enclosure did you use?

Click to expand...

FirmTek miniSwap/U3 http://www.firmtek.com/seritek/miniswap-u3/

Only downside is no TRIM support, since it's USB. It's also pretty large compared to my Buffalo Thunderbolt enclosure, but the FirmTek is also hot swappable and swapping an SSD for an HDD, or vice-versa, takes just a few seconds.

Nuke61 said:

FirmTek miniSwap/U3 http://www.firmtek.com/seritek/miniswap-u3/

Only downside is no TRIM support, since it's USB. It's also pretty large compared to my Buffalo Thunderbolt enclosure, but the FirmTek is also hot swappable and swapping an SSD for an HDD, or vice-versa, takes just a few seconds.

Click to expand...

I can't seem to see it on their site - does it require external power when using SSDs over a certain size? ie the Crucial 960?

thecounthahaha said:

I can't seem to see it on their site - does it require external power when using SSDs over a certain size? ie the Crucial 960?

Click to expand...

It is bus powered, but they offer an *optional* external power supply.

LaCie thunderbolt SSD.

$199 for 128gig and $299 for 256gig

Been using it as a boot drive for a while now! Works great.

antman2x2 said:

LaCie thunderbolt SSD.

$199 for 128gig and $299 for 256gig

Been using it as a boot drive for a while now! Works great.

Click to expand...

Where can I get the 256 for $300?

Nuke61 said:

My personal experience is that with a good USB 3.0 enclosure, the same 840 Pro SSD was slightly faster than a Thunderbolt enclosure, while using a bit more CPU overhead. Another difference is that with Thunderbolt you can have TRIM support but not with USB 3.0.

Click to expand...

Nuke,

When you said "slightly faster"... did you mean in terms of MB/s? I ask because the MUCH more important speed criteria for an SSD is IOPS. I would be shocked if a USB 3 attached drive would be driving more IOPS than a TB attached drive... because the software stack overhead would be higher with USB. It doesn't matter with a HDD because the IOPS are very low (dominated by head repositioning + rotational latency), and hence not as sensitive to connectivity. By contrast, the high IOPS rate of a good SSD could be affected by the lower USB efficiency.

My general recommendation would be attach external SSDs via TB whenever possible.

/Jim

flynz4 said:

Nuke,
When you said "slightly faster"... did you mean in terms of MB/s? I ask because the MUCH more important speed criteria for an SSD is IOPS.

Click to expand...

Yes, in terms of MB/s. I know that IOPS is far more important, but I don't have a benchmark program that has an IOPS measurement, I used BlackMagic. In terms of actual usage, there is effectively no difference between the USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt interfaces using the same Pro 840 SSD. Same boot times, same Aperture start time, and pretty much every other app starts so quickly that any user error (me) would overshadow any real start time differences.

Nuke61 said:

FirmTek miniSwap/U3 http://www.firmtek.com/seritek/miniswap-u3/

Only downside is no TRIM support, since it's USB. It's also pretty large compared to my Buffalo Thunderbolt enclosure, but the FirmTek is also hot swappable and swapping an SSD for an HDD, or vice-versa, takes just a few seconds.

Click to expand...

thank you nuke61 for the quick reply. I read about Thermaltake Silver River 5G case here at macrumors and I will go for that one.

I was wondering if, using this ssd as my boot drive, i will able to use bootcamp on this ssd, as well as my montain lion. I mean, i pretend to run macOSX and windows (via bootcamp) on the external lacie rugged ssd together.