New External SSD with Thunderbolt 3 (10G Capable Enclosure) REALLY SLOW!

[RenaldoG]

Hi there,

Freshly installed OS running on 1TB Samsung 870 QVO external drive that is capable of the Thunderbold port and providing 10GB in the enclosure. It should write at 520 and read at 540 but as you can see my write speed is in the gutter.

These are the results I get with nothing running or any apps open. Please help!

 

[Juicy Box]

Probably indexing, and it is completely normal.

Freshly installed OS

There is a lot of indexing with a freshly installed OS, give it a few hours and see if it improves.

Indexing usually takes a few hours to a few days. SSDs are usually faster, and performance would improve as time goes on.

If it still really slow after a day or two, then there is most likely a problem.

 

[Juicy Box]

1TB Samsung EVQ

I have never heard of the EVQ, do you mean EVO? Is it a SATAIII drive?

While it wouldn't explain how slow the current write speeds are (most likely due to indexing), if this is a SATAIII drive, you will not be getting the full 10Gbps from the enclosure, as the SATAIII is limited to 6Gbps, or about 550MBps max sequential read speeds. Typical would be around 450-500MBps.

 

[RenaldoG]

Probably indexing, and it is completely normal.



There is a lot of indexing with a freshly installed OS, give it a few hours and see if it improves.

Indexing usually takes a few hours to a few days. SSDs are usually faster, and performance would improve as time goes on.

If it still really slow after a day or two, then there is most likely a problem.

Thanks, it has been two days. I actually got this external as the 1TB Fusion Drive was doing the exact same thing. The write was terribly slow and the read was fast. So two drives, one internal and one external are now giving me slow write speeds. What tests could I run to diagnose it? Thanks for the response.

 

[RenaldoG]

I have never heard of the EVQ, do you mean EVO? Is it a SATAIII drive?

While it wouldn't explain how slow the current write speeds are (most likely due to indexing), if this is a SATAIII drive, you will not be getting the full 10Gbps from the enclosure, as the SATAIII is limited to 6Gbps, or about 550MBps max sequential read speeds. Typical would be around 450-500MBps.

Thanks for the response. Yeah I realistically expect it to be 450 write and 550 read speeds but as you can see from the image I am getting slower than old SATA hard drive speeds here. It's also not indexing as it has been more than 2 days and all the indexing is done. The drive is actually called Samsung 870 QVO

 

[Juicy Box]

t has been two days.

That is too long, Indexing should be done by then.


What kind of enclosure are you using? Is it TB or USB?

If it is TB, can you check to see if TRIM is enabled?

I actually got this external as the 1TB Fusion Drive was doing the exact same thing.

Can you let us know what Mac you are working with?

What is the speed of the drive when it is freshly wiped?

Are you sure you selected the external? maybe you are still testing the Fusion Drive.

 

[RenaldoG]

That is too long, Indexing should be done by then.


What kind of enclosure are you using? Is it TB or USB?

If it is TB, can you check to see if TRIM is enabled?


Can you let us know what Mac you are working with?

What is the speed of the drive when it is freshly wiped?

Are you sure you selected the external? maybe you are still testing the Fusion Drive.

- The enclosure is a TB
- No idea what Trim is or how to enable it
- Drive when freshly wiped gives me 500 Write and 520 Read
- Yeah 100% it's the external enclosure I am testing as the Fusion is now giving me 900 write and 1400 read.

Thanks for the feedback

 

[Juicy Box]

What Mac are you using? Do you have access to another Mac to test the external on it?

Yeah 100% it's the external enclosure I am testing as the Fusion is now giving me 900 write and 1400 read.

So, when you are not booting from the drive, it is reading full speed? I bet there is something that is writing on the boot drive, maybe something you have installed?

In Activity Monitor app, in your utility folder, there is a tab to see current disk usage. Maybe screenshot it and post it here?

 

[RenaldoG]

What Mac are you using? Do you have access to another Mac to test the external on it?


So, when you are not booting from the drive, it is reading full speed? I bet there is something that is writing on the boot drive, maybe something you have installed?

In Activity Monitor app, in your utility folder, there is a tab to see current disk usage. Maybe screenshot it and post it here?

Using a 2019 5k 27" iMac with 24GB Ram

The boot drive is the external SSD. It is what I use to run the OS considering the Fusion drive was terribly slow. 8 minutes to start up and for me to open up the first tab vs this SSD which does it all in 40 seconds. This SSD is fast but when doing the speedtest it really does show the write speed as being slow. I rebooted the device after enabling Trim.

So this is my activity after having the Mac on after 5 minutes. I did a test to see and it is still slow after just restarting with no apps open.

 

[RenaldoG]

And here is the Fusion Drive that I wiped and made an additional drive.

This is the same drive that crawled when I had it as the boot drive and took 8 minutes to load the OS

 

[Fishrrman]

Try a USB3 enclosure or a USB3/SATA docking station.
I'll predict that your results will be much better...

 

[RenaldoG]

Try a USB3 enclosure or a USB3/SATA docking station.
I'll predict that your results will be much better...

Thanks for the feedback, I am using an enclosure that is graded USB3/10Gbps hence why the writing speed is considered so slow.