MBP Touch Bar - best way to get more storage

[MacUse-R]

So on the MBP with Touch Bar one is not able to upgrade the SSD. I have a 512 GB SSD, i was wondering what is the most practical way to add more storage space, but at the same time still being pretty fast?

I guess to have a USB-C connected external SSD connected is the fastest way, but then you need to have an external device connected to the device. Another solution is the cloud or a WiFi hard drive, but i don´t know how fast that would be.

I would want to be able to access the files, like movies and other files fast enough without it becoming too slow with too long loading/opening times or lagging in movies etc. But at the same time i dont know how i would feel about the need to have a external disc connected at all times to the MBP. I also would like to be able to access the files at all times, the same way as on the internal SSD.

Any ideas whats the best way to go? What do you people use for extra storage?

By the way, i came to think about that since the SSD is soldered and a SSD has a limited lifetime, would that become an issue on a MBP? Especially since Mac computers are generally used much longer than PC´s?

 

[Sterkenburg]

Any ideas whats the best way to go? What do you people use for extra storage?

By the way, i came to think about that since the SSD is soldered and a SSD has a limited lifetime, would that become an issue on a MBP? Especially since Mac computers are generally used much longer than PC´s?

- Samsung T5, best bang for the buck as far as external SSDs go. I have one for 1:1 CCC backups of my internal drive and another for my photo/video library. Wireless solutions would not be fast enough for direct photo and video editing. To reduce the annoyance of having to plug in an external drive, I keep them plugged into my eGPU enclosure, so that all my external peripherals become available as soon as I dock the Mac.

- No need to be concerned about the SSD's lifetime. That used to be an issue for early SSD technology but modern drives have come a long way since then. Even with consistent and intensive usage, you will probably want to upgrade your machine way before you have to worry about the drive's lifespan.

 

[MacUse-R]

- Samsung T5, best bang for the buck as far as external SSDs go. I have one for 1:1 CCC backups of my internal drive and another for my photo/video library. Wireless solutions would not be fast enough for direct photo and video editing. To reduce the annoyance of having to plug in an external drive, I keep them plugged into my eGPU enclosure, so that all my external peripherals become available as soon as I dock the Mac.

- No need to be concerned about the SSD's lifetime. That used to be an issue for early SSD technology but modern drives have come a long way since then. Even with consistent and intensive usage, you will probably want to upgrade your machine way before you have to worry about the drive's lifespan.

Thanks for your answer, have you noticed any noticeable speed differences between the internal SSD and the external, since the external one is a SATA3 SSD?
But i guess the speed is fast enough even on an SATA SSD?.

 

[Sterkenburg]

Thanks for your answer, have you noticed any noticeable speed differences between the internal SSD and the external, since the external one is a SATA3 SSD?
But i guess the speed is fast enough even on an SATA SSD?.

The internal SSD is indeed much faster... technically. In practice, I found the T5's speed to be more than enough for most purposes. If you are doing something very bandwidth demanding (like idk, editing 4K stuff on the fly), there are solutions in the form of TB3 drives such as the Samsung X5. They are, however, considerably more expensive, and at that point I'd just consider bumping up the internal storage at purchase.

When configuring a Mac, I usually follow the thumb rule of doubling the amount of space I'm currently using so that I always have enough "leeway" in terms of super-fast internal storage. So far, it has worked well for me.

 

[fishmoose]

Why not consider a NAS? If you want to stream movies you’d be able to do so instantly over WebDAV. If you get a NAS with 4-bays or more you can easily get more space for a decent price. I have a NAS with 12tb for movies and TV-shows and I find it ideal.

 

[jerryk]

Any cloud drive should be fast enough if your connection is good. A 4K movie requires 15-25 mbps

 

[DeepIn2U]

Why not consider a NAS? If you want to stream movies you’d be able to do so instantly over WebDAV. If you get a NAS with 4-bays or more you can easily get more space for a decent price. I have a NAS with 12tb for movies and TV-shows and I find it ideal.

Any chance you have the first 2 seasons of Miami Vice?

 

[fishmoose]

Any chance you have the first 2 seasons of Miami Vice?

I don’t, I’m afraid.

 

[MacUse-R]

I have an Apple TimeCapsule to which an external drive can be connected through its USB-A port, and accessed wirelessly, and of course the internal TimeCapsule drive can be accessed wirelessly as well, but the internal drive is used for backups.
Im just a bit worried about the speed. I prefer SSD´ish speeds. Its not only movies, but i want to be able to transfer large files fast. I have never gotten any decent speeds wirelessly, but i have only used mechanical drives wirelessly.

By the way, an external SATA3 SSD with USB-C 3.1 Gen 2 (for example Samsung T5), would it be faster than an internal SSD which is put in an external enclosure and if the enclosure is also a USB-C 3.1 Gen 2, or would they have the same speed, meaning do i loose any speed because using an external enclosure?

Since for the price of a 512GB external SSD i can get a 1TB internal SSD, and then just buy a cheap USB-C 3.1 Gen 2 enclosure.

 

[Ploki]

They are, however, considerably more expensive, and at that point I'd just consider bumping up the internal storage at purchase.

i have to agree.

since apple dropped SSD prices and baseline is 512, that's indeed true.
The price difference used to be much bigger just one year ago. When i bought an external 1TB thunderbolt3 drive, it cost me 40% as much as it would have cost me at apple to up it from 256 to 1TB.

The only thing is, you get more throughput if you need it.

 

[apolkowski]

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Since for the price of a 512GB external SSD i can get a 1TB internal SSD, and then just buy a cheap USB-C 3.1 Gen 2 enclosure.
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You can buy SATA SSD and USB3.1 enclosure, but you will be limited to SATA speed. But you can also buy NVMe SSD drive and compatible M.2 M key eclosure and the speed will be much higher.

 

[MacUse-R]

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Since for the price of a 512GB external SSD i can get a 1TB internal SSD, and then just buy a cheap USB-C 3.1 Gen 2 enclosure.
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You can buy SATA SSD and USB3.1 enclosure, but you will be limited to SATA speed. But you can also buy NVMe SSD drive and compatible M.2 M key eclosure and the speed will be much higher.

True, but wouldnt i be limited by the USB-C 3.1 Gen 2 speeds of 10 Gbit/s, unless its an thunderbolt 3 enclosure?
I looked at that option but even an external NVMe enclosure with just a USB-C 3.1 port is pretty expensive compared to SATA enclosures, i guess a TB3 enclosure would be even more expensive.

I would be satisfied with the (theoretical) SATA3 speed of 6Gbit/s, im just thinking if an internal SSD inside an external enclosure would affect the speed negatively, compared to a "real" external SSD drive?

I guess they are virtually the same thing, isnt an external SSD also a normal SSD with a USB controller or something like that?
If i put it like this, can one achieve the internal SSD´s full speed if its inside an USB enclosure, and if the enclosure is faster (10Gbit/s) than the SATA3 SSD?

Because it doesnt feel smart buying a 512GB if i can get a 1TB for the same price....if they can achieve the same speed?

The MBP is already bought second hand and has a 512GB SSD, so that cant be changed, im happy i didnt went with the 256GB version. The 1TB version was more expensive, even second hand.

 

[apolkowski]

I’m not aware of any SSD SATA drive faster than 520MB/s. NVMe can give you more than 3000MB/s

 

[iMacDragon]

I’m not aware of any SSD SATA drive faster than 520MB/s. NVMe can give you more than 3000MB/s

SATA is limited to 6GBit ~600MB/s, but there are usb drives that use nvme internally for max 10GBit that sit between true thunderbolt and SATA usb.

 

[Ploki]

SATA is limited to 6GBit ~600MB/s, but there are usb drives that use nvme internally for max 10GBit that sit between true thunderbolt and SATA usb.

i just ordered one such enclosure from aliexpress for a 2nd dump drive where i can throw a cheaper NVMe drive in (such as the intel QLC thing), while i keep the samsung in the thunderbolt3 enclosure.
all are so incredibly small.
And hot.

 

[Howard2k]

I use a NAS too.

You should verify your wifi throughput and signal clarity in your usual locations if you are considering a NAS, as well as the specifics of your own MBPro Wifi. The 1.4GHz 13” has slower wifi but it could almost certainly still work well enough with a good enough signal

 

[MacUse-R]

SATA is limited to 6GBit ~600MB/s, but there are usb drives that use nvme internally for max 10GBit that sit between true thunderbolt and SATA usb.

Yeah, i think its the USB 3.1 Gen 2 which you are speaking about, they have a max theoretical speed of 10Gbit/s, so one would be limited to 10 Gbit/s even if the NVMe drive is much more faster than 10Gbit/s.
So one would still not get true NVMe speeds if used externally. You would only get around 33% of the real NVMe speed, or about double the speed of a faster SATA3 SSD drive.

I think the only way to achieve full NVMe speed externally is to use a Thunderbolt 3 interface, which also bumps up the price considerably.

 

[MacUse-R]

I use a NAS too.

You should verify your wifi throughput and signal clarity in your usual locations if you are considering a NAS, as well as the specifics of your own MBPro Wifi. The 1.4GHz 13” has slower wifi but it could almost certainly still work well enough with a good enough signal

I get around 50-60 mbit/s down on my Wifi, and 10-11 mbit/s up. My fiber internet connection is a 100 mbit/s line down, and 10 mbit/s up.

So even with a SSD over Wifi i would still not get a faster speed than max 100 mbit/s down (12.5 Megabytes/s), and 10mbit/s up (1.25 Megabytes/s), thats not much in megabytes per second.

So i guess cloud storage is not an alternative for me since my upload speed is maximum 10 mbit/s.
Or am i thinking wrong here?

 

[smirking]

It sounds to me that you don't really need the speed of a NVMe drive so just for the sake of comparison, I have a SanDisk Extreme external SSD. It's the "regular" version of SSD over USB 3.1 connected to my MBP. My Blackmagic Speed tests give me around 470Mb/s write and 510Mb/s read. It's approximately half the speed promised by the NVMe version.

It's very light, in a slim case that is rugged enough to toss around, and wouldn't be a big ordeal to tote around. They're not exactly cheap, but they're way cheaper than a NVMe variant. I wouldn't want to run the OS off of it, but it handles the job of backup or storing big files I want to access once in a while quite handily.
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I'm really surprised that nobody's made either a MBP case/dock with a built in SSD enclosure or even just a MBP case that has some way to easily secure an external SSD of your choice to it.

 

[MacUse-R]

It sounds to me that you don't really need the speed of a NVMe drive so just for the sake of comparison, I have a SanDisk Extreme external SSD. It's the "regular" version of SSD over USB 3.1 connected to my MBP. My Blackmagic Speed tests give me around 470Mb/s write and 510Mb/s read. It's approximately half the speed promised by the NVMe version.

It's very light, in a slim case that is rugged enough to toss around, and wouldn't be a big ordeal to tote around. They're not exactly cheap, but they're way cheaper than a NVMe variant. I wouldn't want to run the OS off of it, but it handles the job of backup or storing big files I want to access once in a while quite handily.
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I'm really surprised that nobody's made either a MBP case/dock with a built in SSD enclosure or even just a MBP case that has some way to easily secure an external SSD of your choice to it.

Thats correct, i dont really need NVMe speeds, but speeds around 400-500 MB/s is suitable for me.

What do you mean with "regular" version of SSD? But its an External SSD you have, and not an internal SSD inside an USB enclosure?

An external SSD inside a USB-C hub is a good idea, that way you would have both an external SSD and more ports in only one single enclosure/hub.

Just curious why you wouldnt want to run MacOS from the external SSD, do you mean that 470/510Mb/s is not fast enough for running an OS, or is it for some other reason?

 

[Howard2k]

I get around 50-60 mbit/s down on my Wifi, and 10-11 mbit/s up. My fiber internet connection is a 100 mbit/s line down, and 10 mbit/s up.

So even with a SSD over Wifi i would still not get a faster speed than max 100 mbit/s down (12.5 Megabytes/s), and 10mbit/s up (1.25 Megabytes/s), thats not much in megabytes per second.

So i guess cloud storage is not an alternative for me since my upload speed is maximum 10 mbit/s.
Or am i thinking wrong here?

Yeah those numbers are pretty low, that sort of sounds like 802.11g or 802.11n. You'd certainly need to refresh your wifi network too, in addition to buying a NAS, were your to take that route.

Over an 802.11n connection I can move a 1.98GB file from my NAS to my local machine in 3:35.
I'm still pre-coffee but I think that's around 9MB/s (74Mb/s) for the 802.11n connection.

Over my 802.11ac connection I can move the same 1.98GB file in 26 (pass 1) or 27 (pass 2) seconds, so 76MB/s or 609Mb/s. Even this doesn't allow me to push an SSD to break a sweat. If you need SSD speeds then you need a wired 10Gb/s LAN (or just plug in an SSD of course!).

Working with the cloud, yes, you need to be aware of your Internet speeds too. 10/100 is not a bad connection at all, but still far slower than you can achieve over your local wifi. Cloud and NAS are not the same, but you can leverage both. I don't use cloud but I do VPN into my home network from remote. I have a 40Mb/s down and 10Mb/s up connection, so when I'm out and about the 10Mb/s up connection is the limiting factor. I can access my files from that small town coffee shop somewhere, but it's obviously slower. Still, whether this is a factor depends on your workflow

 

[smirking]

What do you mean with "regular" version of SSD? But its an External SSD you have, and not an internal SSD inside an USB enclosure?

I meant "regular" as in "not NVMe" speed. Non-NVMe SSDs can come in several different speeds too, but I think all the ones produced in recent years are the faster ones. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

Just curious why you wouldnt want to run MacOS from the external SSD, do you mean that 470/510Mb/s is not fast enough for running an OS, or is it for some other reason?

I haven't tried running an OS off of an external SSD at this speed, but I'd expect that it'd be quite doable even if it would have some occasional hiccups. I just meant that you wouldn't want to run an OS off of an external SSD because you always want maximum speed and the least latency possible to run the OS not to mention that an accidental disconnection with an external drive when the OS is running on it would have a greater potential for serious consequences.

 

[apolkowski]

Bootcamp partition in my MBP takes more than 80% of the drive, so I use external USB-C drive (NVMe) for booting macOS when I want to play with betas and run photo apps which I do not have in Windows. Blackmagic shows 600/800 MB speeds.
I also tried booting different macs (mini, late 2013 MBP) from the same USB drive and it worked OK, but it was more for fun than real testing.

 

[hvfsl]

If you want someone more portable, an M.2 SSD in a USB-C (gen2) enclosure will be your best bet. I was looking before Christmas on Amazon and you can pick up an enclosure and 1TB drive for only about $10 more than a SATA SSD drive + enclosure. But unless you are working with lots of uncompressed video, you are unlikely to notice much difference in speed between ether options.

 

[MacUse-R]

So i ended up purchasing a Samsung T5 (External SATA, USB-C 3.1 Gen 2 SSD), a 512GB SSD.

I could have bought an internal SATA SSD 1TB for almost the same price, but i never found an answer if putting an internal SSD inside a USB-C 3.1 Gen 2 enclosure would affect the speed negatively, compared to an external SSD?
By the way, after my SSD purchase i found a SATA SSD called PNY Pro Elite which claims speeds of up to 900 MB/Sec, that sounds too good to be true.

I get speeds of around 500 MB/sec in sequential speed tests. I wanted to use the external SSD to expand storage for my MBP which has a 512GB SSD.
But i was curious how well it would work to run MacOS Catalina straight from the external SSD, so i tried that.
That actually works very good, no hiccups as far as i can tell. I can still easily access the internal drive, so the roles of the drives are reversed now.

I obviously have not planned to keep it this way, but i have been too lazy to switch it back. But i guess i have to do it now before too many files is stored on the external drive, which will get deleted at disk format.

But at least now i know that it works fine to use an external SATA SSD as the main drive with MacOS on.

If i had unlimited funds i would go for an external Thunderbolt 3 SSD, that seems very nice. But they are very expensive. I wonder if TB3 products will come down in price? It seems TB implementation in laptops must be very expensive since only the most high end laptops use it, not even all of them.