LaCie Bolt3 vs. Samsung 960 Pro + TB3 Enclosure: Which Would You Choose?

[Brookzy]

TL;DR: Will a Samsung 960 Pro SSD fit in a Sonnet Thunderbolt 3 enclosure, and would you choose it over the LaCie Bolt3?

I'm planning the mother of all set-ups.

I'm hoping for new iMacs to be released soon that will support two external 5K displays, to make 45 million pixels of awesomeness.

Such a system deserves the fastest external storage in the world. Do I need it? No, not at all - but it would be cool, and today's blazing fast drives are tomorrow's mediocre ones, so it's good to future proof.

The LaCie Bolt3 looks to be the obvious choice should the budget allow:

• Up to 2800MB/s read
• Great design
• £1999

But, I've read that LaCie/Seagate hasn't got the best reputation for reliability, and I assume it's completely un-upgradable.

Meanwhile, Sonnet has released new Thunderbolt 3 PCIe enclosures that are Mac compatible: here and here for around £200-300 (they're not available in the UK yet but I assume they will be soon).



And Samsung now has the 960 Pro SSD:

• Up to 3500MB/s read
• Up to 2100MB/s write
• £1150

Could I just plonk one of those into the Sonnet Thunderbolt 3 enclosure and have 2TB of up to 3500MB/s, future-upgradable storage, for less than the cost of the LaCie drive?

If so, which would you choose?

Thanks!

 

[DanDilla]

As these 960pro are only available as NVMe SSD I wouldn't expect them to work in a PCI-Enclosure

If you want a really nice SSD go for a Glyph Atom Raid or some Thunderbolt 3 RAID stations and put a few SSDs in it.

I don't know what you want to use it for but I think in 99% of the cases that should be more than enough.

There are also a few NVMe Enclosures on amazon but I don't think any which can handle speeds of a 960pro...

Okay, just saw you could fit the 960pro in the enclosure with an adapter, should work then and be more future-proof for sure.

I would put the 960pro in a small nvme tb3 enclosure if there are some on the market and expand the Mac with a better, external GPU in the PCIe enclosure

Or just start with an eGPU and buy a Glyoh RAID, would be my way to go.

 

[Brookzy]

As these 960pro are only available as NVMe SSD I wouldn't expect them to work in a PCI-Enclosure

If you want a really nice SSD go for a Glyph Atom Raid or some Thunderbolt 3 RAID stations and put a few SSDs in it.

I don't know what you want to use it for but I think in 99% of the cases that should be more than enough.

There are also a few NVMe Enclosures on amazon but I don't think any which can handle speeds of a 960pro...

Okay, just saw you could fit the 960pro in the enclosure with an adapter, should work then and be more future-proof for sure.

I would put the 960pro in a small nvme tb3 enclosure if there are some on the market and expand the Mac with a better, external GPU in the PCIe enclosure

Or just start with an eGPU and buy a Glyoh RAID, would be my way to go.

Thanks for the info. I see now the difference between NVMe and PCIe and it is good that adapters exist, though they do add some complexity and perhaps slowdown.

Fast TB3 NVMe enclosures don't really seem to be available yet.

The Glyph thing looks great, though I can't find a seller outside the US. And I could get a SanDisk 900 1.92TB which occasionally pops up on Amazon UK for £400-500.

No love for the LaCie? It's looking for appealing to me now. Can get one for £1830 locally.

Re eGPUs - I've been looking into that but two issues: 1) the lack of official macOS support is putting me off (I don't want a significant investment to be written off by a software update), and 2) there are some unconfirmed rumblings that the LG UltraFine 5K uses some eGPU trickery and so adding my own eGPU could threaten the compatibility/performance of the two 5K monitors I'm planning on getting.

 

[DanDilla]

The SanDisk 900 looks great too, but I think I will wait and get a Glyph, but, for me, the normal - non RAID - will be good enough.

I've taken a closer look at the Bolt 3 and in the description it's mentioned there are 2 nvme SSDs in the case. So it could appear to be expandable, with more and even faster storage to fill the 40Gb/s.

But on the other side there are not a lot cases in which you would benefit from the speed over a RAID SSD like the Sandisk 900 or the Glyph atom RAID and £1830 are really a lot of money over a Sandisk 900 with 2 TB for £400.

I'm a student and don't have a budget whcih includes 2k for storage...

Yes you're right, the eGPU thing is something which definetly needs some time, but I think it will become more interesting n the next months.

 

[Outrigger]

Thanks for the info. I see now the difference between NVMe and PCIe and it is good that adapters exist, though they do add some complexity and perhaps slowdown.

Fast TB3 NVMe enclosures don't really seem to be available yet.

The Glyph thing looks great, though I can't find a seller outside the US. And I could get a SanDisk 900 1.92TB which occasionally pops up on Amazon UK for £400-500.

No love for the LaCie? It's looking for appealing to me now. Can get one for £1830 locally.

Re eGPUs - I've been looking into that but two issues: 1) the lack of official macOS support is putting me off (I don't want a significant investment to be written off by a software update), and 2) there are some unconfirmed rumblings that the LG UltraFine 5K uses some eGPU trickery and so adding my own eGPU could threaten the compatibility/performance of the two 5K monitors I'm planning on getting.

What are you planning on doing with it that will actually take advantage of the speed? I can buy a Ferrari and drive to the local grocery store but it won't get me there any faster than a budget car, but if I take it to the race track, I can unlock its potential.

And there is no such thing as future proofing. When the future is here, there is always something better and faster.

 

[Brookzy]

What are you planning on doing with it that will actually take advantage of the speed? I can buy a Ferrari and drive to the local grocery store but it won't get me there any faster than a budget car, but if I take it to the race track, I can unlock its potential.

I think it was quite clear from my original post that this is just a nice thing to have. Indeed:

Do I need it? No, not at all

This is a case of getting something luxuriously excessive. Like owning a Ferrari for grocery shopping.

And there is no such thing as future proofing. When the future is here, there is always something better and faster.

I can afford to splurge £2k on an obscenely cool piece of storage hardware today, but not every year. My point was that 2800MB/s+ is going to be wicked fast for a good few years yet. It's future-proofed insofar that it won't become useless any time soon (which I believe is what future-proofing means). I'm not claiming or expecting that it will be the fastest car at the meet in the future.

 

[DanDilla]

Okay, but did you consider you would have to carry an ac plug every time you want to move your drive and also that its a lot bigger?

When you need that ferrari at the grocery store, go for it.

But to be honest, the Bolt is in my opinion more like a stretch limo, and if your driving around in these, you should always have a ducati in the trunk for a 'walk'

If I would really spend those numbers on something like this I would pull the trigger for both or only a Sandisk/Glyph.
You could easily order a Glyph at b&h or sth like that for a little extra. They ship to germany so uk should work too.
Don't know why but the Glyph looks IMO much better/durable than the Sandisk + got USB-C

 

[Brookzy]

Okay, but did you consider you would have to carry an ac plug every time you want to move your drive and also that its a lot bigger?

It and many other things will be affixed to the underside of my desk (depending on how good it looks in person... a Bolt3 would probably deserve desk space!).

If I would really spend those numbers on something like this I would pull the trigger for both or only a Sandisk/Glyph.
You could easily order a Glyph at b&h or sth like that for a little extra. They ship to germany so uk should work too.
Don't know why but the Glyph looks IMO much better/durable than the Sandisk + got USB-C

The Glyph is a no-go. $820 list, plus shipping, plus a minimum of 20% tax (i.e. VAT) on arrival and possibly up to 30% if it gets slapped with import duties and other fees - I might as well get a Bolt3! And if I get a DOA drive or something it will be a massive PITA.

The SanDisk is still tempting though availability is poor at the moment. Several suppliers I have contacted have said it has been discontinued. Though one site still has it for £599. Amazon had it for £475 a couple of weeks ago, hopefully it returns. I've emailed SanDisk to ask if it really has been discontinued and if a replacement is coming.

The SanDisk comes with both USB-C and USB-A cables so that's not an issue.

 

[DanDilla]

So...

That's completely up to you, in my eyes you have to decide over price+ portability & enough speed vs insane speeds.

And that's a clear choice for ME even if the 3x price tag wouldn't bother me, I would go for the Sandisk.
Stuff with speeds like the bolt will become mucb cheaper or enclosures with tb3 will become available in the future, if more windows machines adopt tb3.
Give tB3 some time to grow up, if you can...

 

[carestudio]

I am very price sensitive

 

[mctrials23]

It all depends on what its for really. The sandisk will still be fast to the point where it probably not really holding you back at all. Transferring a 30gb file will still take less than a minute. As others have said, you will find that tech gets cheaper or better quite quickly so perhaps in 6 months time that £2000 drive will only set you back £1000 and that will take the shine off it for you.

 

[g4cube]

*** deleted ***

 

[alFR]

At nearly £1000/Tb for the bolt3 I think you're nuts, personally, but it's your money.

 

[CmonStoke]

At nearly £1000/Tb for the bolt3 I think you're nuts, personally, but it's your money.

So I did and I agree totally. Was of best part of 2k I should have spent another year confirming it just wouldn't do what I needed. I wanted to build fast portable VMs it didn't work.

I tried on and dell p5510 (worst windows laptop I have owned and I won't by dell after 15 years of loyalty) only half bus speed so not much faster when it decides it has tb3. Also tried it on my mbp 2017 and it doesn't hit 2800 did loads of benchmarks.

Bought a new motherboard for my i9 to support it as my 1st one didn't support it then gave up. So it's not been powered up for over a year now.