Best external boot SSD and enclosure for a M4 iMac w/ TB4 ?

[Turnpike]

I have an iMac M4 with the 10 core 16GB RAM (if it matters) and I'm going to get a 2TB external SSD to boot up from, what is the best set up people would recommend? I don't care if it's the larger SSD or the blades, but I do want to take advantage of the Thunderbolt 4 connection, since I've been using USB3.0 for my older iMacs as an external HD.

I don't care about the physical size of the contraption, I just want to be able to look through 1000's of iPhone photos and videos and sort them for albums and projects, and then regular use of the iMac as well. I feel like people here would have experience and technical knowledge far better than anywhere else that I could look.

This is for suggestions on the SSD and enclosure, for dependability and to make use of the Thunderbolt 4 on the iMac.

Thanks in advance!

 

[PaulD-UK]

For a boot SSD rock solid reliability is key.

Intel hasn’t made a TB4 SSD enclosure chip, only a hub/dock controller.
So you have a choice of USB4 enclosures, which are not Intel certified, or TB3 enclosures, which are certified, but are slightly slower.

USB4 enclosures are mostly bus powered, and the OWC Express 1M2 is very reliable.

I myself use a WD D50 TB3 Dock (which has other ports and its own PSU) and that has a 2TB SSD internally, and has been 100% reliable.
But I only use it as a boot disk occasionally.
They are a good price ATM.

But if I was buying now I’d get a TB5 dock that has an internal SSD.
Because it will be Intel certified…

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/thunderbolt-5-m-2-nvme-ssd-enclosures-and-docks.2447842/

No doubt others will post cheaper options, and confirm their reliability…