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Samsung Announces 8TB T5 EVO Portable SSD
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First of, the difference to internal Apple SSD is the sheer speed, Apple is brutally fast with 6/7KMB/s, even the fastest external SSD-Raid so not go to those speed limits. The Samsung, though cheap and a nice portable HDD-alternative, comes in at a fraction of that speed with 460MB/s.But at that it costs far less than the few and socialized faster 8TB drives available so far, so it’s nice to see external 8 TB going mainstream, can't wait for 16/32/48TB.
1. Mac mini M2 (or any modern Mac with a USB 3.2 Gen 2 port)
2. Four of these 4TB SSD's at 2000MB/s:
or these at 1000MB/sec:
Although you can get them for eBay for MUCH cheaper. Like up to $150 less. Since we're doing mostly reads and few writes with a movie server, having used ones is just fine with me. You can also get the non-Pro versions that do 1000MB/sec (still very fast!) for even cheaper. I went with 2000MB/sec Pro for future proofing if Apple ever adds USB 3.2 Gen 2x2.
3. A USB 3.2 Gen 2 hub: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BTNTZ4BW/
Finding a reliable and large powered USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 is hard, so I just went with this since the Mac USB doesn't do 2x2 either.
4. 16TB HDD backup for the SSD's:
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After you get the equipment and plug it all in and format it:
1. Update the SSD firmware with this to prevent data loss. Most on eBay do NOT have the firmware updated:
SanDisk SSDs, Memory Cards, and Flash Drives for Your Digital Life | SanDisk
Instructions to update your SanDisk & WD Portable SSD storage device. Follow these steps to update the firmware on SanDisk Extreme V2, Extreme Pro V2, and WD My Passport.
2. Span the hard drives into one single drive using Disk Utility like so (see JBOD):
Overview of creating disk sets using Disk Utility on Mac
Use Disk Utility on your Mac to create a Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) set, multiple disks that work as one disk.
support.apple.com
3. Set up Carbon Copy Cloner to auto create backups from the SSD span to the HDD:
4. Install Plex and you're good to go.
Movies on SSD means you can stream in your or out of your house at full quality with multiple streams with no lag or slowdown. Movies start instantly, and fast forwarding is super quick. Personally, I got 2.5Gb Ethernet switches, MoCA 2.5Gb Coax adapters, and 2.5Gb USB Ethernet jacks for my whole house. I can stream a 100GB REMUX 4K HD Blu-ray file (with basically means a lossless 4K movie) in my house with zero lag to my Apple TV's from my movie server.
I can essentially make a super-fast SSD as big as I want this way for REALLY cheap.
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I can't tell if I'm dumb or not, but isn't this worse than the T7 Shield? I got my 2TB one earlier this year for only $110.
This did remind me that they recently released the T9 recently, which made my recent purchase outdated in a matter of months. They make good SSDs though and still cheaper than Apple if all you need is a place to hold your files honestly
This did remind me that they recently released the T9 recently, which made my recent purchase outdated in a matter of months. They make good SSDs though and still cheaper than Apple if all you need is a place to hold your files honestly
Hopefully this is part of a new push forward with higher and higher SSD capacities going forward. Sometime in the next ten years I would like to own 2X 16TB external SSDs to back up all my stuff twice over locally. 16 TB would provide me with a nice amount of headroom for my stuff. I do wonder when this 8TB SSD is released in Europe how much it will cost. I'm predicting €759. Currently have two 8TB HDD for external storage, but the noise and the slowness and the potential for failure is always there nagging.
Apple's storage is vastly faster and no comparison. Apples n oranges
Is it though? Or is it just that apples is build into the thing and thus faster. Still no reason for it to cost so much
While a bit slow on their own these could really shine for those that typically use a HDD raid to get to those speeds and storage size.
I have since replaced all my smaller raids with single SSDs and will never look back. Sure one can still get a decent 8 TB two drive raid for $350 but at best it's reaching 350 MB/S and thats only when empty. Plus it likely has a higher failure rate since you have to use raid-0 to get that speed. They are also louder, bulkier and heavier and need direct power to run. An extra $300 is not a lot to spend on an overall much better solution.
SSD has really reached raid killer status. Shrinking a bulkier direct powered device down to a bus powered tiny device that can fit in a pocket or Velcro to the back of a laptop is worth that extra cost.
Yes I would like to see it be faster at least up to 3.1 standards but a HDD raid capable of that speed would be at least a 8 drive setup which is insanely large and expensive anyway. Again this is tiny and fit in a pocket and run off of bus power.
I have since replaced all my smaller raids with single SSDs and will never look back. Sure one can still get a decent 8 TB two drive raid for $350 but at best it's reaching 350 MB/S and thats only when empty. Plus it likely has a higher failure rate since you have to use raid-0 to get that speed. They are also louder, bulkier and heavier and need direct power to run. An extra $300 is not a lot to spend on an overall much better solution.
SSD has really reached raid killer status. Shrinking a bulkier direct powered device down to a bus powered tiny device that can fit in a pocket or Velcro to the back of a laptop is worth that extra cost.
Yes I would like to see it be faster at least up to 3.1 standards but a HDD raid capable of that speed would be at least a 8 drive setup which is insanely large and expensive anyway. Again this is tiny and fit in a pocket and run off of bus power.
That comes to €862 here ($935) and doesn't give me any additional storage. Think I'll pass. It might to be years before I upgrade my external drives, and it'll be 2X 16 TB when I do. I made my bed so I'll lay in it, but appreciate the heads up. The Samsung solution above I think is more up my alley in terms of setup with two simple SSDs, but needs to be 16 TB and to come down in price.
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Wonder if Best Buy will discount these like they do the T9?? (which normally goes for $440, but is going for just $250) If they do, this might be a decent buy for either my iMac (which acts as a media server - got my movie/music collection on a 4TB T9) or my gaming laptop (wasn't very smart and overlooked the minimal internal SSD size - half of my Steam library is on a 4TB T9 as well)
You are correct, the speed is not even comparable. But we also can agree that Apple overprices it. The fastest 8TB NVMEs (at about 7000 mbps) have dropped below $1000.
I built my own 8TB drive for video storage, using a self powered thunderbolt enclosure from Sabrent, as well as their 8TB 7000 mbps NVME. I can transfer my entire 6TB video catalog to it in less than two hours.
Just as a comparison, when I had my 8TB MacBook Pro 2019, I could do it from the enclose to the MacBook in about an hour.
Samsung should offer a thunderbolt version. Heat can be an issue for long transfers (like the ones I mention above) since it has no fan or external power supply. But in normal use, like streaming from it, it stays normal temperatures.
Just as a comparison, when I had my 8TB MacBook Pro 2019, I could do it from the enclose to the MacBook in about an hour.
Samsung should offer a thunderbolt version. Heat can be an issue for long transfers (like the ones I mention above) since it has no fan or external power supply. But in normal use, like streaming from it, it stays normal temperatures.
Why USB4 40GB is not standard on all new computers and external drives in 2023 is a "mystery" as is the ridiculous pricing of USB4 external enclosures which have been priced like this for over a decade.
Nothing else in technology remains priced like this over even half as long a period of time. There is no point in the future we can look to where 40GB USB4 enclosures and ports are ubiquitous like USB 3.0 There is no public information to explain this.
Monopoly pricing. You know it when you see it.
Yeah. I wasn’t arguing the point were Apple over charges for ram or HDD/SSD.
But it seems auto-correct or predictive typing messed up my sentence about the 2.4k overcharged price.
I like that OWC+Dual 8TB Samsung idea and ordered it as well. Not a friend of such cobbled-together solutions and it lacs TB3 (not necessary for the SATA Speed), but 16 TB in Raid0 sounds promising and it IS only 200€ more than the external as-slow solution from Samsung. Let's see.
Considering the fast Apple SSD – I'd also rather have their stuff cheaper. Going for 4 TB on Studio and MBP is a pain in the ass and 8 TB, which would make more sense, is almost prohibitive. I don't get why a «pro» company like apple has such exponential prices when the hardware goes, well... pro. That said, the performance of their internal drives is so much better than anything external, it IS much, much preferable to any kind of external drive, even at the faster TB4-speeds.
The way this develops, all in all, is a good one. I hope I can live to see that day that a T7-sized drive holds 48 or 64 TB. By then we will need it for all the 16K movie material. ;-)
Considering the fast Apple SSD – I'd also rather have their stuff cheaper. Going for 4 TB on Studio and MBP is a pain in the ass and 8 TB, which would make more sense, is almost prohibitive. I don't get why a «pro» company like apple has such exponential prices when the hardware goes, well... pro. That said, the performance of their internal drives is so much better than anything external, it IS much, much preferable to any kind of external drive, even at the faster TB4-speeds.
The way this develops, all in all, is a good one. I hope I can live to see that day that a T7-sized drive holds 48 or 64 TB. By then we will need it for all the 16K movie material. ;-)
I swear the whole Mb/s and MB/s gets confusing.
They have a chart.
USB - Wikipedia
You probably didn’t get the recent 8GB RAM = 16GB RAM statement of the Apple Marketing Clown. It’s a running gag now serving everything. 😆
1 Tim Cook = 2 Tim Cook‘s, the real one is at home chilling, the other one at Apple doing the nonsense.
Just like the cloned Humperdoo from „The Preacher“. The real one can dance.
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