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Best external Drive for Apple iMac 2019 27in 5K i5 8GB 2TB Fusion AMD 580X Desktop
- Thread starter Applefan2015
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I’m using this with Sabrent Rocket 1tb nvme ssd as a boot drive since it has Phison controller and it works nice with Mac systems and the internal fusion drive as backup.
forums.macrumors.com
I got about 1700-1800 Mb/s write and 2200-2300 Mb/s reading speeds.
JEYI M.2 to Thunderbolt enclosure
Most of the M.2 cases in the market are USB-C, and there are a few external Thunderbolt SSD's, but hardly any pure Thunderbolt M.2 cases. I want to share this product I found at Aliexpress...
forums.macrumors.com
I got about 1700-1800 Mb/s write and 2200-2300 Mb/s reading speeds.
Last edited:
I guess it depends on how you define "best".
Do you mean fastest?
Most reliable?
Largest potential storage?
Cheapest?
Cheapest per GB?
Some combination of the above?
Are you just using it for back ups? Do you want it bus-powered? What size are you looking to get? More info is needed to give recommendations.
If you are just looking for something for backing up data, maybe an HDD would be best for you.
Thanks for your questions.
From your questions.
The external storage I need is fastest transfer of data / biggest storage available.
Is that combo available on HDD, or would I have to go SSD route?
If you could link 1 of each that would be great?
Thanks
Applefan2015
You should really give limits or ranges you are looking for. Options can get pretty big, and pretty fast, but at a price for the sizes and speeds.
You can get plenty fast with HDDs in RAID0, or even faster with SSDs in RAID. If price is less of an issue, there are all sorts of options for you. You can have a RAID with stripping and mirroring, that way you can have speed and the peace of mind with redundancy.
The big question: Is there maximum price tag?
The only reason I mention it because you can have both huge storage at a relatively fast speed, but some options come at a price:
PROMISE Pegasus32 R8 32TB RAID System
The PROMISE Pegasus32 R series RAID storage system brings the power of Thunderbolt 3 technology to a wide range of Mac users. Buy online now at apple.com.
www.apple.com
Or if that isn't big enough, you can go with:
Lacie 60TB 6big 6-Bay Thunderbolt 3 RAID Array (6 x 10TB)
Finally, storage that keeps up with your creative vision. With up to 60TB of capacity on your desktop, up to 1400MB/s speeds, and RAID 5/6, the LaCie 6Big Thunderbolt 3 lets you control the avalanche of data from 4K cameras.
www.amazon.com
This price can drop a lot if you want to just buy an external RAID enclosure and the drives separately. You can go cheaper with HDDs or go with speed with SSDs.
For example: A 4-bay Thunderbolt 3 RAID enclosure with 4 SATA SSDs in RAID0 would have read speeds of about 3000MBps, versus 4 SATA HDDs would be around 1000MBps.
Now, these above options are probably overkill for most users, but you did not give limits or ranges on what you were looking for.
Please don’t use a single external drive for both external storage AND backup.
Flynnstone makes a VERY good point in #6 above.
You want to keep your "backup drives" SEPARATE FROM your "primary storage drives".
Having said that...
If you want "fast", what you want is a Samsung X5. They're pricey, but as fast as an internally-mounted SSD.
Next down the list:
A USB3.1 gen2 external enclosure with an nvme blade SSD inside. You pretty much have to put these together yourself (not hard, some enclosures are even "tool-less"). 965MBps reads.
Less pricey, still modestly fast:
A USB3 external SSD, such as the Samsung t5, or perhaps one you put together yourself.
430MBps reads.
You want to keep your "backup drives" SEPARATE FROM your "primary storage drives".
Having said that...
If you want "fast", what you want is a Samsung X5. They're pricey, but as fast as an internally-mounted SSD.
Next down the list:
A USB3.1 gen2 external enclosure with an nvme blade SSD inside. You pretty much have to put these together yourself (not hard, some enclosures are even "tool-less"). 965MBps reads.
Less pricey, still modestly fast:
A USB3 external SSD, such as the Samsung t5, or perhaps one you put together yourself.
430MBps reads.
FYI: I have a 2017 5K iMac and upgraded the original Fusion Drive to an external NVMe WD Black 1 TB. With the TB3 interface, I can get 2400 MB/s reads and 2200 MB/s write. Pretty good, I think
