Searching for 2TB SSD External HD for iMac 19,1 27"

[Rhobes]

Hello All-

I have a new 2019 iMac 19,1 27" Retina, Mojave v.10.14.6, 2TB SSD internal, 72GB 2666 DDR4 Memory, 3.6 GHz 8-core Intel core i9 Processor, Radeon Pro Vega GPU, 2-Thunderbolt 3 Ports, 4-USB(Type A) 3.0/3.1 Gen1/3.2 Gen1 all 5GB/s also compatible with USB 3.1 Gen2 (10 GB/s).

My 2010 iMac RIP, I had Time Machine & CCC backups. Job relocations and present fired status (NIH) kept me away from opening the 2019 iMac till now- lots of free time now, no job. I do video and photography; Photoshop CS5 & FCPX both working on Mojave just yesterday, at least they open and run.

I need to keep Mojave to run Ps CS5 (32/64 bit) for sure (and 32-bit apps Motion, Compressor, etc). I have FCPX upgraded to 10.4.10 & on Mojave but this could be upgraded and work on Sequoia.

I want to put the new Mojave with Ps CS5 and pics/video & a couple old photo apps onto a "Bootable" external 3-4TB SSD hard drive with preferable Thunderbolt 3 connection. I would use this drive primarily for Photoshop and pics/video storage. Keeping the Mojave remaining on internal SSD and upgrade that to Sequoia. If FCPX don't work well on Mojave it can run on Sequoia. Essentially run two OS, booting between them.

I have the "Newer Technology" Voyager Q SATA Hard Drive Docking with Seagate desktop HDD 2TB 2700 rpm, using CCC & Time Machine.

Question, what would be a good brand for SSD's and if they need a docking station? Hopefully, I can just use my TM & CCC software for this change over giving a reliable reboot-able OS

TIA, Rhobes

 

[Fishrrman]

Crucial X9 external USB3.1 gen2 SSD.
Make sure it's plugged into a USBc port on the back of the iMac.

This will give you 2x the speeds you would get from an SSD sitting in a USB3/SATA docking station.

 

[DakotaGuy]

I just got a Seagate One Touch 2GB SSD and it's super fast USB 3.2 Gen 2. My iMac connects at USB 3.1 speeds, but it's still fast. I was surprised how small it is compared to the pictures I saw. I'm using it for Time Machine back-ups since I was tired of the noise of my external HHD drive.

 

[MacPoulet]

Crucial X9 external USB3.1 gen2 SSD.
Make sure it's plugged into a USBc port on the back of the iMac.

This will give you 2x the speeds you would get from an SSD sitting in a USB3/SATA docking station.

I have the X9 Pro as a 4TB drive and was super happy with it, until it let me down last week. Transferring files greater than 35GB at a time is painfully slow. It took about two hours to transfer 80GB from the X9 to my M1 MacBook Pro. Going from the Mac to my other drive (a Sandisk) took about 15 minutes. When I looked into it, other X9 owners had the same issue and blamed the lack of DRAM.

My next drive will either be a Sandisk Extreme of I'll put an NVME drive in a good quality enclosure.

 

[Terraaustralis]

There is a great Easter deal on currently with the TB4 Zike drive at $109.99. I have a M2. 4tb lexar NM790 inserted with the drive set up for TM and capable of booting into Sequoia. Lexar gives Write 1803.1 Read 2956 running with 2019 27" iMac 19.1 3.7 Ghz 6 core. Far better than SATA.

So that is a future proofed external kit of USB4/TB4 at a reasonable price running on PCIe 3.0

Background: I expected better write speeds from the Lexar. In a test with external Zike hooked to M2 MBP it was ran at Write 2839 Read 3307.

Informed opinion from this forum suggests the slow write time is the result of Lexar not being fully compatible with TB3 iMac chip.
bznyc2 advised:
"Or maybe it is just that Lexar SSD that doesn't work well with Intel host controllers for some reason. And/or maybe the relevant drivers are different enough between macOS for Apple Silicon and for Intel and the Intel one doesn't like the Lexar as much. In either of those cases keeping the Z666 but swapping in the SN850X would get you to the expected 2500-2700 MB/sec speeds."
A WD Black drive would probably be more TB3 compatible and give better write speeds

This is a long answer Rhobes but offers a viable option for what it may be worth.

 

[gilby101]

You will certainly do better with a good TB3 drive (as suggested by @Terraaustralis) than a slower USB 3.1 drive.

For planning your usage,

1) Don't be surprised that when booted in Mojave you will not be able to access the internal drive formatted for Sequoia. This is because Mojave does not understand "future" versions of APFS.

2) Though Sequoia will be able to read and write the Mojave boot disk, be vary careful that it does not attempt to upgrade it.

3) Regarding TM and CCC, you should use separate partitions on the backup disks for Mojave and Sequoia. Probably different versions of CCC as well as TM - you will need to check this.

4) I would not attempt to upgrade the internal Mojave installation to Sequoia - too big a jump in major version. I would want to start with a freshly formatted disk to install Sequoia.

 

[Terraaustralis]

Hello All-

I have a new 2019 iMac 19,1 27" Retina, Mojave v.10.14.6, 2TB SSD internal, 72GB 2666 DDR4 Memory, 3.6 GHz 8-core Intel core i9 Processor, Radeon Pro Vega GPU, 2-Thunderbolt 3 Ports, 4-USB(Type A) 3.0/3.1 Gen1/3.2 Gen1 all 5GB/s also compatible with USB 3.1 Gen2 (10 GB/s).

My 2010 iMac RIP, I had Time Machine & CCC backups. Job relocations and present fired status (NIH) kept me away from opening the 2019 iMac till now- lots of free time now, no job. I do video and photography; Photoshop CS5 & FCPX both working on Mojave just yesterday, at least they open and run.

I need to keep Mojave to run Ps CS5 (32/64 bit) for sure (and 32-bit apps Motion, Compressor, etc). I have FCPX upgraded to 10.4.10 & on Mojave but this could be upgraded and work on Sequoia.

I want to put the new Mojave with Ps CS5 and pics/video & a couple old photo apps onto a "Bootable" external 3-4TB SSD hard drive with preferable Thunderbolt 3 connection. I would use this drive primarily for Photoshop and pics/video storage. Keeping the Mojave remaining on internal SSD and upgrade that to Sequoia. If FCPX don't work well on Mojave it can run on Sequoia. Essentially run two OS, booting between them.

I have the "Newer Technology" Voyager Q SATA Hard Drive Docking with Seagate desktop HDD 2TB 2700 rpm, using CCC & Time Machine.

Question, what would be a good brand for SSD's and if they need a docking station? Hopefully, I can just use my TM & CCC software for this change over giving a reliable reboot-able OS

TIA, Rhobes

Hi Rhobes,
See my response to your SSD question in separate post below.

Meanwhile, I am interested to learn you are running Photoshop PS5 on Mojave. I did not think that was possible. Is this the result of an EFI upgrade? Please tell me how you did it.

Cheers.

 

[gilby101]

Meanwhile, I am interested to learn you are running Photoshop PS5 on Mojave. I did not think that was possible. Is this the result of an EFI upgrade? Please tell me how you did it.

My memory: You can't install PS5 on Mojave, but if you have installed it earlier and upgraded to Mojave it runs ok.