Hi,
I was advised to get a 2 TB M.2 SSD USB-C that had 40 gigabytes per second transfers but then they mentioned it should also have 3000 megabytes per second write speed.
People here are recommending SSD drives with Type C transfer cases. These run at around 850-900 MBS. But you have been advised to get 40 Gigabytes per second transfer speeds. These speeds are only available with Thunderbolt 3. And in practice, an SSD in an external case connected with T-3, will run at around 2.8 gigabytes per second. But that is 3 times faster than the SSD drives so far recommended, which are bottlenecked by only having USB connections. While USB Type C and Thunderbolt look the same, Thunderbolt 3 is theoretically 4 times faster. On Apple silicon like yours, USB4 is said to be a bit faster than T-3.
Your real question is: is it worth paying 100 pounds less for one third the speed?
Apple sells on their UK website a LaCie T-3 SSD drive:
https://www.apple.com/uk/shop/product/HNY32ZM/A/lacie-2tb-rugged-ssd-pro-external-drive-with-thunderbolt-3?fnode=9e1f9c942410f453fda6043f483798242dd311e90627dea401dc51c7edbd7e834fa69cd9eb4e96cd5f53896a23ca7cebbfa93b6fae2285b0020caa7c3ebc8c4ba0d128d7347158dfb9fbec5ab94aec719ccfd7b57d6bf135fb910a6865e4a227&fs=f=ssd&fh=3783%2B464d which costs 399 pounds. For 2 TB. And it's out of stock. The 1 TB is 259 pounds.
This is the style of drive that has been recommended. While these are "professional", they should be more reliable. And having speed is much more practical. Look at the cost of bigger drives in your Mac. These external drives are in comparison good value. And while they cost a lot more than USB Type C 3.2 connected drives, they will be at least 3 times faster.
You can buy a case for an NVME drive as well, and add an NVME drive to it. Such cases seem to be from around 1009 pounds.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Enclosure-Compatible-Interface-Universal-Thunderbolt-3-M-2-Nvme/dp/B08X9YTWJC/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?crid=1I45L9M32PW4R&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.VdHn9GvfdzIsARoaLE_gTk7tu1Ojt6TLyLpTpPMzFKiU8CAR6hHwl_IWIUtwNEDEPFGbazn5G9d8nljasy06zyRJ8nQdb1pyC3V1Gcm9_DTAs8gvRU9UMriCStaaBYm9my0BgydSi5MptZRsB_cbfnHRS1A4BGVSlYXunPscmHLPWT9cSJGkeb_9kQ3i-WZRWvBfAqlOwjWgCm-R6TDY7Og0zYJfAKTxkXJF4RR-NFZ1fzwo0b24j2tuoAewfuGFgWBzugkr_miVhoQIrTbjkRfqgmpauKEH9jIspdKsu0c.EgxJ-Mc3-vc5gMuXMOn7WxsD7SZZ3jKdsSHhjZ11wkU&dib_tag=se&keywords=thunderbolt+3+ssd&qid=1714514391&s=computers&sprefix=thunderbolt+3+ssd,computers,348&sr=1-2-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&psc=1
I don't know if Fantom are any good? I have just used Amazon UK for pricing ... but they have a range of available drives, 1TB is 195 pounds, 2 TB is £251.80, 4 TB is £375.66. They claim from 2800 to 3,000 speeds. These prices are from Amazon UK, and I am in Australia.
We can work out the cost of these drives. It seems that the 2 TB less the 1 TB differential is about:
256 pounds for a 1 TB. From 2 TB to 4 TBs the extra 2TB cost about 125 pounds, or 63 pounds for a TB.
63 pounds for a 1 TB when one buys the 4 TB external.
What does Apple charge for you computer's internal drive? From Apple's Web site (I have inferred the standard 256 GB drive)
256 GB @ £100
512 GB @ £200
1024 GB @ £400
2048 GB @ £800
So 2.56 gigabytes per £.
Or £0.39 per GB ( a bit more actually). So with Apple, spend 100 times £0.39, you spend £400 pounds and you get 1TB. Spend twice as much you get 2 TB.
With the external option, spend £375.66, you get 3000 transfer speeds, and you get 4TB ie one quarter of Apples price. Or spend 195 pounds, instead of getting (in theory) 499 GB, you get 1025 GB ( 1 TB). So half the price of Apple.
Spend £251.80 for 2048 GB, with Apple you'd get (in theory) 645 GB. Here, Apple costs 3.1 times more or 310% more.
Spend £375.66 for 4096 (4 TB), with Apple you'd get (in theory) 962 GB. Here, Apple costs 4.25 times more or 426% more.
I am interested because I am going to Apple silicon soon and Apple's internal drives are very costly, so external via Thunderbolt seems to be a more affordable way of doing things. I am tossing up whether to sell my PCI RAID card in my Classic Mac Pro, or keep the RAID card and buy an external Thunderbolt 3 PCI casing for it.
And while Thunderbolt 3 SSD drives are not cheap, they are a lot cheaper than Apple's internal drives. No doubt though there benefits for work in having elbow room in an internal drive. But Apple charges a lot for that privilege.
Finally there are external enclosures, where you can put in your own SSD card. You must ensure the card is compatible with the drive enclosure.
Also there are quality issues. There are some very cheap enclosures around, and others which cost much more. The difference is not just the brand - better ones have good plastics, good heat sinks, run cool so don't slow down with heat throttling, and have a good cable enclosed. An example is the OWC ones, available via Amazon UK too ... also they can be bought with a drive included.
Express 1M2 - 2TB Ultra-fast, compatible, and reliable portable USB4 NVMe SSD. Build your own or choose ready-to-run solutions.
www.amazon.co.uk
It's easier to choose an NVME drive though IMO, as the speed is not so critical, because your bottleneck is likely the transfer speed from the external to your computer.
But if you buy an external case with the cable for around 100 pounds (maybe a bit more) and then add the drive yourself, that would be good value too. For instance this one via Amazon UK :
WD_BLACK SN770 2TB 22800 Game Drive PCIe Gen4 NVMe ups to 5150 MB/s
is 125 pounds, for 2TB, giving a price of I guess 235 pounds for 2 TB and good speeds.
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