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lewis50

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 31, 2020
3
0
hi all non tech guy here... have a MacBook Pro RETINA 13'' early 2015 model - use only for music production - keep a lot of my music software libraries on 4tb external hard drive e.g. Native instruments kONTACT libraries, and recently started getting the spinning wheel as the DAW on the Mac is running the library on the ex hard drive.
to resolve this I was wondering if I brought a ssd external hard drive - I know they are faster and hopefully reduce this latency.

I have three questions...
1) I want a ssd which I can use the thunderbolt 2 port on my MacBook - can you recommend any SSD which would be able to do this.
2) would an adapter for the thunderbolt 2 port work as well if connecting to a ssd?
3) do you think this would work - I wouldn't want to buy a very expensive SSD if I see no immediate benefit.

as I stated I don't use the MacBook for anything else and keep it as lean and clean as possible.

appreciate your help In this matter.
 

Fishrrman

macrumors Penryn
Feb 20, 2009
29,223
13,293
I'd suggest something like a Samsung t5.

This is USB3 instead of tbolt2.
I don't think you're going to find tbolt2 any faster than USB3, in fact, the results you get may be SLOWER with tbolt2 vis-a-vis USB3.

USB3 will give you read speeds of 430-430MBps.

You are going to pay a heavy $$$ premium for a 4tb SSD (if there are any).
2tb is about "the limit" right now, and these (as of yet) remain pricey...
 

lewis50

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 31, 2020
3
0
thanks for that information - ok so stupid question... I am looking at 1tb SSB which I think is all I will need however - will it be faster than a standard HDD external hard drive?
 

chrfr

macrumors G5
Jul 11, 2009
13,707
7,277
thanks for that information - ok so stupid question... I am looking at 1tb SSB which I think is all I will need however - will it be faster than a standard HDD external hard drive?
It'll be substantially faster than a regular disk.
 

lewis50

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 31, 2020
3
0
does anyone on here use their MacBook Pro as a DAW and experience similar issues with lagging when running off a external drive.?
 

robvas

macrumors 68040
Mar 29, 2009
3,240
630
USA
Find a Seagate Thunderbolt to SATA adapter and buy one of those 2TB Micron SSD's
 
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