Was thinking of buying a couple of the Kingston XS2000's for backup use (4 TB for Time Machine, 2 TB for Carbon Copy Cloner; currently have 850 GB of data) (or might start with just the 4 TB, partitioning it to 2 TB each, or 2.5 TB TM/1.5 TB CCC, then add the 2 TB drive later). Anyone have experience with the Kingston XS2000 as compared with the Sandisk Extreme Pro?
I'd be using them on a 27" 2019 iMac, maybe connected to an OWC TB4 Hub.
Both of these SSDs are USB 3.2 Gen 2x2, which is 20 Gbps max. However, even though TB3 is 40 Gbps, if you plug one of these directly into a TB3 port, you'll only get 10 Gbps, b/c TB3 doesn't support USB 3.2 Gen 2x2*. But: That doesn't mean you won't get the benefit of the faster speeds of these drives, since there are many operations that don't come close to 10 Gbps (=1250 MBps), but which are still much faster on these drives than on slower ones, e.g., this one from Anadtech's DAS (storage) suite:
Also—and I'll need to ask OWC about this—their TB4 dock is listed as USB4 complaint, which means it *might* support USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 (IIUC, this is optional), in which case, since TB3 has the bandwidth to support the latter, I'm wondering if, while TB3-> SB 3.2 Gen 2x2 is 10 Gbps, it might be the case that TB3-> OWC TB4/USB4 -> SB 3.2 Gen 2x2 might be 20 Gbps (it's at least worth asking).
Anyways, there are plenty of reviews out there of both drives. Essentially, their speeds are comparable, but with extended writing to the drive (more than a few minutes), the XS2000 slows down (Anadtech, in comparing the .5, 1, and 2 TB models, said the time-before-the-cliff increased significanlty with size; they didn't assess the 4 TB model), but the SanDisk Extreme Pro doesn't.
Still, I'd be interested to hear from anyone that's used these for Time Machine and/or Carbon Copy Cloner (standard backup). In both cases I'll be formatting as APFS and encrypting the drive with FireVault.
Source: https://www.anandtech.com/show/16892/sandisk-extreme-pro-crucial-x6-4tb-portable-ssds/3
*Tech details on this, in case you're interested; this is a statement from Kingston, as reported by Desire Athow of Tech Radar (https://www.techradar.com/reviews/kingston-xs2000-usb-32-gen-2-x-2-external-ssd ) :
“Thunderbolt and USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 are different technologies with different specs that use the same connector (Type-C). Basically, the XS2000 SSD needs to be connected to a USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 USB (Type-C) port and use the appropriate cable to reach the advertised speed. Even though Thunderbolt 3 & 4 use a Type-C connector and advertise up to 40Gbps of transfer speed, the pins layout (aka lanes) are different from the one of USB 3.2 Gen 2x2. The pins of the Type-C connector need to be allocated for data transfer to reach the 20GBps of USB 3.2 Gen 2x2. For the Thunderbolt Type-C connector, some of the pins (2 lanes) are used for video signals (or else) and not specifically dedicated to data transfer, that is why the data transfer speed is lower with Thunderbolt.”
I'd be using them on a 27" 2019 iMac, maybe connected to an OWC TB4 Hub.
Both of these SSDs are USB 3.2 Gen 2x2, which is 20 Gbps max. However, even though TB3 is 40 Gbps, if you plug one of these directly into a TB3 port, you'll only get 10 Gbps, b/c TB3 doesn't support USB 3.2 Gen 2x2*. But: That doesn't mean you won't get the benefit of the faster speeds of these drives, since there are many operations that don't come close to 10 Gbps (=1250 MBps), but which are still much faster on these drives than on slower ones, e.g., this one from Anadtech's DAS (storage) suite:
Also—and I'll need to ask OWC about this—their TB4 dock is listed as USB4 complaint, which means it *might* support USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 (IIUC, this is optional), in which case, since TB3 has the bandwidth to support the latter, I'm wondering if, while TB3-> SB 3.2 Gen 2x2 is 10 Gbps, it might be the case that TB3-> OWC TB4/USB4 -> SB 3.2 Gen 2x2 might be 20 Gbps (it's at least worth asking).
Anyways, there are plenty of reviews out there of both drives. Essentially, their speeds are comparable, but with extended writing to the drive (more than a few minutes), the XS2000 slows down (Anadtech, in comparing the .5, 1, and 2 TB models, said the time-before-the-cliff increased significanlty with size; they didn't assess the 4 TB model), but the SanDisk Extreme Pro doesn't.
Still, I'd be interested to hear from anyone that's used these for Time Machine and/or Carbon Copy Cloner (standard backup). In both cases I'll be formatting as APFS and encrypting the drive with FireVault.
Source: https://www.anandtech.com/show/16892/sandisk-extreme-pro-crucial-x6-4tb-portable-ssds/3
*Tech details on this, in case you're interested; this is a statement from Kingston, as reported by Desire Athow of Tech Radar (https://www.techradar.com/reviews/kingston-xs2000-usb-32-gen-2-x-2-external-ssd ) :
“Thunderbolt and USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 are different technologies with different specs that use the same connector (Type-C). Basically, the XS2000 SSD needs to be connected to a USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 USB (Type-C) port and use the appropriate cable to reach the advertised speed. Even though Thunderbolt 3 & 4 use a Type-C connector and advertise up to 40Gbps of transfer speed, the pins layout (aka lanes) are different from the one of USB 3.2 Gen 2x2. The pins of the Type-C connector need to be allocated for data transfer to reach the 20GBps of USB 3.2 Gen 2x2. For the Thunderbolt Type-C connector, some of the pins (2 lanes) are used for video signals (or else) and not specifically dedicated to data transfer, that is why the data transfer speed is lower with Thunderbolt.”
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