External Storage

[Han1]

Hi – I’m a bit of a novice and I’d be grateful of any suggestions.

Setup: MBA M1 and StarTech Thunderbolt dock (1 TB USB-c and 1 USB-A 3.0)

I currently have a HDD for TimeMachine, connected via USB-A to my dock. I’d like to add more external storage (desktop, not portable).

I’ve decided the new storage will be SSD or NVMe in an enclosure. Is there a clear winner between these two for Mac? (I can do the price comparison, so I’m thinking more about any technical expertise.)

I’m presuming the best way to connect will be via my thunderbolt port on the StarTech hub. Is there any benefit from splitting the Thunderbolt port with some sort of hub to connect other devices with Thunderbolt? I’m not sure this is possible and I don’t really have much of a need for it today, but maybe in the future.

Thanks for any help you can provide, even if it’s just pointing me to other threads or articles on this topic.

 

[rm5]

"OEM external SSDs" - those made by Samsung, WD, SanDisk etc. - will be more expensive per terabyte, and also slower, than you building your own with an enclosure. So I would recommend building your own with an NVMe and an enclosure.

It sounds as though your dock has a dedicated Thunderbolt port on it, which is great. Keep in mind that to get full speeds, you need to be connected via USB-C (if your enclosure is 10 gigabit) or Thunderbolt (40 gigabit). Connecting an external SSD via USB-A will result in abysmal speeds, akin to a SATA SSD.

 

[Han1]

"OEM external SSDs" - those made by Samsung, WD, SanDisk etc. - will be more expensive per terabyte, and also slower, than you building your own with an enclosure. So I would recommend building your own with an NVMe and an enclosure.

It sounds as though your dock has a dedicated Thunderbolt port on it, which is great. Keep in mind that to get full speeds, you need to be connected via USB-C (if your enclosure is 10 gigabit) or Thunderbolt (40 gigabit). Connecting an external SSD via USB-A will result in abysmal speeds, akin to a SATA SSD.

Perfect, thank you. NVMe was my hunch (based on what I'd read). It's Thunderbolt 40GBps, so given I doubt I'll be using / paying for an NVMe enclosure with faster than USB-C 10Gbps, can I hang a USB-C splitter off the Thunderbolt port and also connect 3 of my old SSDs for some additional capacity?

Do you have any recommendations for NVMe manufacturers?

Thanks a lot. Really appreciate your advice.

 

[rm5]

Of course!! You could use some kind of splitter to attach more drives, but don't expect really fast speeds if you do.

Also, I just use a Sabrent enclosure, and it works fine, but there may be better alternatives--I'm honestly not sure.

 

[Han1]

Of course!! You could use some kind of splitter to attach more drives, but don't expect really fast speeds if you do.

Also, I just use a Sabrent enclosure, and it works fine, but there may be better alternatives--I'm honestly not sure.

Thanks. I told you I was a novice! Just wanted to be sure.

I know USB governs itself a bit like the wild west, but I'm assuming if 3 (the older SSDs) of the 4 drives on the splitter are idle, the NVMe will be able to consume as much bandwidth as possible?

Thanks for your help. I've now got a few things for my xmas list!

 

[klspahr]

Be aware that just because your usbc cable fits in the hole doesn’t mean it will provide high speed transfers. The cables are rated for different speeds and it makes a big difference.

 

[Han1]

Be aware that just because your usbc cable fits in the hole doesn’t mean it will provide high speed transfers. The cables are rated for different speeds and it makes a big difference.

Thanks. I know I'm probably opening a can of worms. My (completely uneducated) theory on this was TB3 out (from my hub) gives 40Gbps of bandwidth, which I understand in practice for an external drive will only ever peak at 22Gbps.

I can't find a reasonably priced (less than $100) splitter for the port that would present 40Gbps to the splitter and then also have 40Gbps out to the drives. If i could, I was hoping I could get a 40Gbps enclosure for my new drive and at least get 22Gbps from it (when the other drives hanging off the splitter were idle or physically limited to a combined bandwidth of 18Gbps). I know this is only theoretical because there would be no way to allocate the first 22Gbps to my new drive.

The reality seems to be, use a USB-C 3.2 10Gbps splitter and all the drives will have to share the single connection back to the TB3 port at 10Gbps. I plan to only use my new drive most of the time, so don't expect too many problems with contention.

I think, based on what I've read here and elsewhere, the 10Gbps all the way from my new drive to the TB3 port on the hub should be 'good enough' and significantly better than a HDD?

I suppose the other alternative would be to ditch my old drives and just have a 40Gbps enclosure for the new NVMe drive and get up to 22Gbps dedicated to it.

Sorry for all the questions, it is at least starting to crystalise in my mind!