Samsung X5 Speeds on TB1 Macs

[Juicy Box]

I recently purchased a 500GB Samsung X5 external TB3 drive that I intend on installing a larger NVMe and using it as my primary boot drive on my Late 2012 iMac.

It is currently getting averages of 807MBps Write and 880MBps Read speeds with the original NVMe.

While it is far from slow, and much faster than the internal SSD, the read speeds seem a little lower than what I was expecting. I thought I would see speeds closer to 1000GBps.

It isn't really that far off, and I probably wouldn't notice a 100MBps difference, but I was curious what speeds others are getting with the X5 on their older Macs.

 

[chrfr]

I recently purchased a 500GB Samsung X5 external TB3 drive that I intend on installing a larger NVMe and using it as my primary boot drive on my Late 2012 iMac.

It is currently getting averages of 807MBps Write and 880MBps Read speeds with the original NVMe.

While it is far from slow, and much faster than the internal SSD, the read speeds seem a little lower than what I was expecting. I thought I would see speeds closer to 1000GBps.

It isn't really that far off, and I probably wouldn't notice a 100MBps difference, but I was curious what speeds others are getting with the X5 on their older Macs.

You're not going to be able to use the X5 on a Mac with Thunderbolt 1 or 2 unless you run it through a dock that has native Thunderbolt 3 ports. Thunderbolt 2-3 adapters don't provide power to Thunderbolt 3 devices so the device connected to it must be self powered.

About the Apple Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) to Thunderbolt 2 Adapter - Apple Support

Connect a Mac that has a Thunderbolt 3 port to a device that uses a Thunderbolt or Thunderbolt 2 cable.

support.apple.com

If you're running the drive through a dock, the dock will use some of the available bandwidth thus reducing the speed of the drive.

 

[Juicy Box]

You're not going to be able to use the X5 on a Mac with Thunderbolt 1 or 2 unless you run it through a dock that has native Thunderbolt 1/2 ports. Thunderbolt 2-3 adapters don't provide power to Thunderbolt 3 devices so the device connected to it must be self powered.

About the Apple Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) to Thunderbolt 2 Adapter - Apple Support

Connect a Mac that has a Thunderbolt 3 port to a device that uses a Thunderbolt or Thunderbolt 2 cable.

support.apple.com

This isn't a problem for me, as I am currently running a X5 on my Late 2012 iMac with Thunderbolt 1.

I am using Apple's Bi-directional adapter with a TB3 dock.

The drive works well, with the exception of being slightly slower than what I was expecting.

If you're running the drive through a dock, the dock will use some of the available bandwidth thus reducing the speed of the drive.

I was wondering if using the dock might be the reason for the slower than expected speeds.

I noticed that using USB on the TB3 dock seemed to be a little slower than usual. Or maybe it is the particular dock I am using, as a different dock that I have that is TB1, the USB speeds are slightly faster than the TB3 dock.

 

[chrfr]

I noticed that using USB on the TB3 dock seemed to be a little slower than usual. Or maybe it is the particular dock I am using, as a different dock that I have that is TB1, the USB speeds are slightly faster than the TB3 dock.

With only 10Gb available in total to all the ports on the dock, the dock will definitely reduce the bandwidth available to the drive. ~800MBps seems quite reasonable in that configuration.

 

[Juicy Box]

With only 10Gb available in total to all the ports on the dock, the dock will definitely reduce the bandwidth available to the drive.

Only the X5 is connected to the dock at the moment, but I think that maybe the dock is adding to the overhead.

~800MBps seems quite reasonable in that configuration.

The read speeds are almost 900MBps, which is really nice on that older Mac, but again, I was expecting 1000GBps. The slower speeds might just be due to the dock, which is why I was asking what other people are getting with a similar setup.

 

[Flint Ironstag]

Those numbers are spot on without (storagereview.com) level tweaking.