MBP Touch Bar - best way to get more storage

[MacUse-R]

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

Okay sorry, yeah i meant my internet speed, i didnt thought about that maybe it doesnt use the internet when you transfer files within your local network (unlike cloud file transfers).

I have no idea what speeds i would get for local file transfers over my network?
But what i do know is that my current router is an older version Apple TimeCapsule which only has "n" Wifi, not "ac", i dont know max speeds on "n".

I guess my next project has to be a new router.

 

[smirking]

I wonder if TB3 products will come down in price?

Count on it. It'll gradually get cheaper especially as it starts to find its way into more middle tier laptops.

I was in the market for a TB3 external drive myself, but I ended up settling for a USB 3.1 external SSD like you did. For me, the real world difference for a secondary storage drive operating at TB3 speeds vs USB 3.1 speeds was just not worth the price differential.

I still use Time Machine over 802.11n WiFi and clone my internal SSD to a spinning platter HD for my full system backups. A 3d NAND SSD over USB 3.1 feels instantaneous in comparison. I really need to do something about my slow WiFi backups, but the pain of the slow speeds isn't causing enough pain to get me to move yet.