Surface Devices

[cbautis2]

Hi cbautis2, not sure if this was in response to my benchmark discussion a few posts above, but it proves my point. SP4 with 256gb SSD costs (or did) around 2000AUD. My SB2 with 256 costs 3000AUD. Yet, my write speeds are 50% less than those of the SP4.

Steve, I’m very much aware that higher capacity SSDs will be faster. My qualm is not with that though. My issue is with the extremely slow speed of its writing capacity on my chosen model.

Oh well, expensive lesson learnt

It has been known that there are 2 brands of the SSD in the SP4 and SB/SB2: Toshiba and Samsung. The Toshiba one is 1/2 the speed of the Samsung. Check your Smart report to see which one you have
[doublepost=1539718434][/doublepost]

The Surface Pro 6 i5 is still fanless.

Any links or iFixit link to prove this?

Just found an article claiming that the consumer version is fanless and it has the slower/non-Vpro i5-8250U. I’ll wait for official iFixit teardown for confirmation.

The i5 8250U is a turn off to me since you don’t have the exclusivity of the past gen Surface Pros where has the slightly faster, slightly faster iGPU, vpro/vt-d enabled i5 chips. Now you have to fork for the i5 business version or i7 model to get that exclusivity since the typical i7 on the consumer laptops have the slower and non vPro i7-8550U

 

[SteveJUAE]

Hi cbautis2, not sure if this was in response to my benchmark discussion a few posts above, but it proves my point. SP4 with 256gb SSD costs (or did) around 2000AUD. My SB2 with 256 costs 3000AUD. Yet, my write speeds are 50% less than those of the SP4.

Steve, I’m very much aware that higher capacity SSDs will be faster. My qualm is not with that though. My issue is with the extremely slow speed of its writing capacity on my chosen model.

Oh well, expensive lesson learnt

I understand it is possible to change the SSD on the SB2, obviously not a DIY job but it may be worth it

Why not inquire at MS and see what daft number they come up with

 

[Dave245]

The Surface Pro 6 was released on Monday (15th) here in the UK, I've looked at the prices online and they are definitely up there, 16GB Ram, i7 Processor and 512GB SSD comes out at £1,799 add the keyboard and pen to that and we are talking over £2000, for that price they seem to be going after the Mac.

 

[Bodie CI5]

It has been known that there are 2 brands of the SSD in the SP4 and SB/SB2: Toshiba and Samsung. The Toshiba one is 1/2 the speed of the Samsung. Check your Smart report to see which one you have

I have the Samsung, viz. MZFFLW256HEHP.

I don't know how accurate this is, but the 2nd reply reckons that the Toshiba in the early batches (which would go some way to explain my situation) saw the Toshiba versions actually run faster than my Samsung.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Surface/co...gb_ssd_terribly_slow/?st=jnd0bdwe&sh=8c2115ff

I have read that journos received the Toshiba version hence why in the early days no one said anything. Not sure if it's a conspiracy theory or not though.

I understand it is possible to change the SSD on the SB2, obviously not a DIY job but it may be worth it

Why not inquire at MS and see what daft number they come up with

Hello Steve,

I thought the innards were all hot glued to prevent it?

I find myself in the quandary that it's nearly 12 months since I bought the unit. It's not technically a defect so I don't know how successful any such endeavour would actually be. Plus I didn't buy it from MS, but from a chain here in Australia (JB Hi-Fi).

Again, not sure if these are to be taken with a grain of salt (I'll part-quote two posts from MS support forums), but the battle would be too great to accomplish anything, methinks. Sucks, to be honest. I do love the machine (old MS fanboy here lol). Ah well.

Yep, after waiting about a week and a half, Microsoft support has stated this to me:

" After examining the test results provided it seems that your device is performing within regular performance standards. There would be no additional changes that we would be able to make to driver/ software on your device to increase speeds as current firmware is up to date.

Since there is nothing much we can do in this case. We would be moving forward to archiving of the case. "

I have insisted on further testing, but doubt it will happen.

I know that it isn't a massive issue, but this kind of performance on a device that I paid over $3,500 AUD isn't acceptable to me.

and,

The SSD used in the Surface Book 2 is PM961 (MZVLW256HEHP), Samsung is the manufacturer but they are not responsible for this issue, it's an OEM drive - Microsoft is fully responsible for its implementation and performance. This is why Samsung don't provide any support, they only do this for SSDs they sell to consumers.

The specifications for that drive is here: https://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/ssd/client-ssd/MZVLW256HEHP/

It has been manufactured with a capability of 2800 MB/s Seq. read and 1100 MB/s seq. write. Microsoft has implemented it in such a way as to get far worse seq. write than the drive is capable of.

The two quotes above come from the last two posts in the linked page:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...te-speed/8b27827c-1a46-47a9-b6e5-4b3d6839cd5c

 

[SDColorado]

The Surface Pro 6 was released on Monday (15th) here in the UK, I've looked at the prices online and they are definitely up there, 16GB Ram, i7 Processor and 512GB SSD comes out at £1,799 add the keyboard and pen to that and we are talking over £2000, for that price they seem to be going after the Mac.

The better bang for the buck machines may be in the remaining stock of 5th Gen machines where that configuration comes to $1,799 or £1,369. I am not sure if there are £430 worth of improvements between the 5th. Gen and the SP 6.

I believe Apple/Mac have always been the target in terms of build and price. There are definitely some lower cost 2-1 devices such as the Lenovo Yoga line. But while those can flip over, they do lack the ability to remove the display entirely, which makes the surface unique.

 

[Dave245]

The better bang for the buck machines may be in the remaining stock of 5th Gen machines where that configuration comes to $1,799 or £1,369. I am not sure if there are £430 worth of improvements between the 5th. Gen and the SP 6.

I believe Apple/Mac have always been the target in terms of build and price. There are definitely some lower cost 2-1 devices such as the Lenovo Yoga line. But while those can flip over, they do lack the ability to remove the display entirely, which makes the surface unique.

I wouldn't know which spec to get, i'm not very tech'y when it comes to specs, especially with Windows because i haven't used a Windows device since before 2011. Is it true that Windows will use more Ram than MacOS does? the most heavy thing i do is a couple of games with the most spec heavy one being Two Point Hospital, i've attached a screen shot of the specs for Windows, i do have it on Mac but the specs for Windows are different for some reason. Other than that it's mostly A LOT of writing/word processing, some photo edits in Pixelmator, web browsing, Netflix, iTunes, Apple Music and just general things like that.

 

[SDColorado]

It has been known that there are 2 brands of the SSD in the SP4 and SB/SB2: Toshiba and Samsung. The Toshiba one is 1/2 the speed of the Samsung. Check your Smart report to see which one you have
[doublepost=1539718434][/doublepost]

Any links or iFixit link to prove this?

Just found an article claiming that the consumer version is fanless and it has the slower/non-Vpro i5-8250U. I’ll wait for official iFixit teardown for confirmation.

The i5 8250U is a turn off to me since you don’t have the exclusivity of the past gen Surface Pros where has the slightly faster, slightly faster iGPU, vpro/vt-d enabled i5 chips. Now you have to fork for the i5 business version or i7 model to get that exclusivity since the typical i7 on the consumer laptops have the slower and non vPro i7-8550U

I wouldn't know which spec to get, i'm not very tech'y when it comes to specs, especially with Windows because i haven't used a Windows device since before 2011. Is it true that Windows will use more Ram than MacOS does? the most heavy thing i do is a couple of games with the most spec heavy one being Two Point Hospital, i've attached a screen shot of the specs for Windows, i do have it on Mac but the specs for Windows are different for some reason. Other than that it's mostly A LOT of writing/word processing, some photo edits in Pixelmator, web browsing, Netflix, iTunes, Apple Music and just general things like that.

As far as Windows using more ram than MacOS. I don't know if that was ever really true, but there was a difference in how the two handled RAM with Apple using ARC while Windows uses Garbage Collection. More detail on that is well above and beyond my pay grade, but I believe that while GS had its advantages, ARC allowed MacOS to run more efficiently than Windows in low RAM conditions. ARC vs GC.

These days Windows 10 uses a lot of RAM, but so does MacOS, because unused RAM is wasted RAM. How they use RAM is much more similar in Windows 10.

The pitfall I see for the game you reference though is that even the minimum requirements for Two Point Hospital referencing discreet graphics as preferred. The MacBook Pro 15" with AMD RX555/RX560 (depending on configuration) meet these requirements. But the 13" with Intel IRIS graphics does not, though still meets minimum requirements with the Intel Iris 650/655.

The Surface Pro 5th Gen i7 also meets this minimum with Intel Iris 640, but you would get the far better gameplay out of the Surface Book 2 with its GeForce 1050/1060 options or an equivalent machine.

 

[maflynn]

These days Windows 10 uses a lot of RAM, but so does MacOS, because unused RAM is wasted RAM. How they use RAM is much more similar in Windows 10.

Two different memory models. In windows, you really do want free ram, in macOS, free ram is wasted ram. I constantly monitor server ram utilization on some application servers because the server becomes unstable when the free ram goes down to mere megabytes.

I do think macOS memory management is superior, but the differences are not as stark as in years past. If a windows machines has 16GB, you'll not likely incur issues, at least that's been my experience.

 

[Dave245]

As far as Windows using more ram than MacOS. I don't know if that was ever really true, but there was a difference in how the two handled RAM with Apple using ARC while Windows uses Garbage Collection. More detail on that is well above and beyond my pay grade, but I believe that while GS had its advantages, ARC allowed MacOS to run more efficiently than Windows in low RAM conditions. ARC vs GC.

These days Windows 10 uses a lot of RAM, but so does MacOS, because unused RAM is wasted RAM. How they use RAM is much more similar in Windows 10.

The pitfall I see for the game you reference though is that even the minimum requirements for Two Point Hospital referencing discreet graphics as preferred. The MacBook Pro 15" with AMD RX555/RX560 (depending on configuration) meet these requirements. But the 13" with Intel IRIS graphics does not, though still meets minimum requirements with the Intel Iris 650/655.

The Surface Pro 5th Gen i7 also meets this minimum with Intel Iris 640, but you would get the far better gameplay out of the Surface Book 2 with its GeForce 1050/1060 options or an equivalent machine.

It’s just what i’ve read online over the years, doesn’t mean it’s true tho which is why I wasn’t sure. My last windows machine was at least 7 years ago, time have changed and Windows may have changed with it.

Two Point Hospital currently runs on my 2012 iMac, obviously that’s a big difference in form factor to a smaller Surface PC/tablet device. The one draw to going back to Windows is the fact that I could play more Windows based games such as Age of empires, yea it’s an old game but I really liked playing it when I was on a Windows machine.

My intention would be to try a Surface device but also keep a Mac, probably an iMac as I don’t want to leave MacOS behind completely, I happen to really like Mojave. At the moment however I’m still waiting to see what Apple will announce Mac wise at an October event!

 

[SDColorado]

It’s just what i’ve read online over the years, doesn’t mean it’s true tho which is why I wasn’t sure. My last windows machine was at least 7 years ago, time have changed and Windows may have changed with it.

Two Point Hospital currently runs on my 2012 iMac, obviously that’s a big difference in form factor to a smaller Surface PC/tablet device. The one draw to going back to Windows is the fact that I could play more Windows based games such as Age of empires, yea it’s an old game but I really liked playing it when I was on a Windows machine.

My intention would be to try a Surface device but also keep a Mac, probably an iMac as I don’t want to leave MacOS behind completely, I happen to really like Mojave. At the moment however I’m still waiting to see what Apple will announce Mac wise at an October event!

You don’t mention the specifics of your 2012 iMac, but it should have either a GeForce GTX 660, 675 or 680. But all will meet the requirements.

As for the Apple October event, what are you hoping for there? Update to the iMac or MacBook?

 

[SteveJUAE]

I have the Samsung, viz. MZFFLW256HEHP.

I don't know how accurate this is, but the 2nd reply reckons that the Toshiba in the early batches (which would go some way to explain my situation) saw the Toshiba versions actually run faster than my Samsung.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Surface/co...gb_ssd_terribly_slow/?st=jnd0bdwe&sh=8c2115ff

I have read that journos received the Toshiba version hence why in the early days no one said anything. Not sure if it's a conspiracy theory or not though.



Hello Steve,

I thought the innards were all hot glued to prevent it?

I find myself in the quandary that it's nearly 12 months since I bought the unit. It's not technically a defect so I don't know how successful any such endeavour would actually be. Plus I didn't buy it from MS, but from a chain here in Australia (JB Hi-Fi).

Again, not sure if these are to be taken with a grain of salt (I'll part-quote two posts from MS support forums), but the battle would be too great to accomplish anything, methinks. Sucks, to be honest. I do love the machine (old MS fanboy here lol). Ah well.



and,



The two quotes above come from the last two posts in the linked page:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...te-speed/8b27827c-1a46-47a9-b6e5-4b3d6839cd5c

Hi I think there is a couple of errors the drive is MZFLW256HEHP ie only one F the link to Samsung site I think is wrong but it may of suited the guys argument on low write speed he had vs the linked drive.

When you search for the correct drive you get a few hits

https://novabench.com/parts/ssd/samsung-mzflw256hehp-000mv

https://ssd.userbenchmark.com/SpeedTest/268839/SAMSUNG-MZFLW256HEHP-000MV

These seem more in line with some of the Crystaldiskmark scores typically posted ie high read but low writes

Which is why some sites report it as good as the highs were masking the lows as an overall score

However I can understand after reading these posts that these guys and one in particular were pointing very hard at MS but the truth I think is it just has low writes period and probably slow sustained writes which maybe benchmark apps up show up more hence the variations of real world usage

I just checked Ifixit and the SSD is replaceable but as you note getting to it is a nightmare of glue and so not a DIY job

 

[Dave245]

You don’t mention the specifics of your 2012 iMac, but it should have either a GeForce GTX 660, 675 or 680. But all will meet the requirements.

As for the Apple October event, what are you hoping for there? Update to the iMac or MacBook?

I think it’s the 680 with 2GB graphics card in my 2012 iMac along with 16GB Ram and the i7 processor.

I’d like to see both to be honest, my 2012 iMac is getting old now and it doesn’t even have a retina screen. My 2011 MacBook Pro died on me a month or so ago, I’d like to see Apple update the MacBook lineup, there have been rumours from Mark Gurman and more recently Ming Chi Kuo that Apple will be introducing a new 13” MacBook with Touch ID, that would be interesting.

https://www.macrumors.com/2018/09/10/kuo-september-2018-predictions - he was right about a lot of this stuff so far.

I’m at a point now where I’d also like to see Apple get serious about the iPad Pro, if it’s suppose to be a laptop replacement then go all in, I wouldn’t have to then buy an iPad Pro, MacBook and keep my iMac. In an ideal world I’d like an iPad Pro to fully replace the MacBook Pro I was using, at the moment I use my iPad Pro to editi photos in Pixelmator and so on but I can’t use it for long writing sessions, editing blog posts or any other serious work.

 

[SDColorado]

I think it’s the 680 with 2GB graphics card in my 2012 iMac along with 16GB Ram and the i7 processor.

I’d like to see both to be honest, my 2012 iMac is getting old now and it doesn’t even have a retina screen. My 2011 MacBook Pro died on me a month or so ago, I’d like to see Apple update the MacBook lineup, there have been rumours from Mark Gurman and more recently Ming Chi Kuo that Apple will be introducing a new 13” MacBook with Touch ID, that would be interesting.

https://www.macrumors.com/2018/09/10/kuo-september-2018-predictions - he was right about a lot of this stuff so far.

I’m at a point now where I’d also like to see Apple get serious about the iPad Pro, if it’s suppose to be a laptop replacement then go all in, I wouldn’t have to then buy an iPad Pro, MacBook and keep my iMac. In an ideal world I’d like an iPad Pro to fully replace the MacBook Pro I was using, at the moment I use my iPad Pro to editi photos in Pixelmator and so on but I can’t use it for long writing sessions, editing blog posts or any other serious work.

I have heard the rumors of the 13" MacBook as well as rumors about a revised MacBook Air with retina display. I would be surprised to see both. I think the 13" MacBook would mean the end of the MacBook Air, but who knows with Apple.

I do like my 5K iMac, so no matter what they do with the iMac line, I would suggest at the least you upgrade to a newer iMac, whether brand new, gently used or whatever. But its time for the 2012 to go

As for the iPad if they do much more than a spec bump and add a notch for FaceID, I will be surprised. They will never make an iPad to replace the MacBook Pro as long as there is more money in the Macbook/MacBook Pro lines.

 

[Dave245]

I do like my 5K iMac, so no matter what they do with the iMac line, I would suggest at the least you upgrade to a newer iMac, whether brand new, gently used or whatever. But its time for the 2012 to go

As for the iPad if they do much more than a spec bump and add a notch for FaceID, I will be surprised. They will never make an iPad to replace the MacBook Pro as long as there is more money in the Macbook/MacBook Pro lines.

Yea I was thinking the same, my 2012 also has the 3TB fusion drive so this time I’m thinking of going with the pure SSD. Also the screen will be a lot better than my current 2012 which doesn’t look the best on a none retina 2012 iMac I’m hoping the new 2018 iMac are a great upgrade, I read somewhere that Ming Chi Kuo reporter that they will get a “significant display performance” upgrade, not sure what that means but I guess we will find out soon

It seems that way, I would love it if Apple did a Surface style of device with Mojave on it, but I don’t see it happening any time soon, hence why I’m looking at the Surface Pro to either replace my iPad or even accompany it until I decide to either go full Surface Pro or keep both.

 

[SDColorado]

Yea I was thinking the same, my 2012 also has the 3TB fusion drive so this time I’m thinking of going with the pure SSD. Also the screen will be a lot better than my current 2012 which doesn’t look the best on a none retina 2012 iMac I’m hoping the new 2018 iMac are a great upgrade, I read somewhere that Ming Chi Kuo reporter that they will get a “significant display performance” upgrade, not sure what that means but I guess we will find out soon

It seems that way, I would love it if Apple did a Surface style of device with Mojave on it, but I don’t see it happening any time soon, hence why I’m looking at the Surface Pro to either replace my iPad or even accompany it until I decide to either go full Surface Pro or keep both.

Good question on the iMac display. Significant display performance upgrade? Where do you really go from the current 5K that would be significant? You could improve lag times I suppose. But other than that what? 8K? Surely not.


As for Apple doing a Surface like device anytime soon? I think they are pretty much the only company that doesn’t have a single touch screen model computer (no the iPad isn’t a computer, they say as much in their own ads).

So waiting for that Surface like computer from Apple? Might as well get in line with this guy

 

[Dave245]

Good question on the iMac display. Significant display performance upgrade? Where do you really go from the current 5K that would be significant? You could improve lag times I suppose. But other than that what? 8K? Surely not.


As for Apple doing a Surface like device anytime soon? I think they are pretty much the only company that doesn’t have a single touch screen model computer (no the iPad isn’t a computer, they say as much in their own ads).

So waiting for that Surface like computer from Apple? Might as well get in line with this guy

Yea it’s mentioned also on the Macrumours buyers guide for the iMac, here is the link https://www.macrumors.com/roundup/imac

8K would be a bit over the top I would of thought. I look forward to seeing what they do with the iMac tho, I do really like the iMac it’s a great desktop.

Yea I kind of gave up on that as well to be fair.

 

[SDColorado]

Yea it’s mentioned also on the Macrumours buyers guide for the iMac, here is the link https://www.macrumors.com/roundup/imac

8K would be a bit over the top I would of thought. I look forward to seeing what they do with the iMac tho, I do really like the iMac it’s a great desktop.

Yea I kind of gave up on that as well to be fair.

iMac will continue to be my tie to the MacOS world as well. I really like my 5K iMac a lot and could maybe see upgrading to a newer one in the next year or two, but I do plan to keep it... at least for now.

After going from all Macs to buying 2 PC’s in the past 2 years. Maybe I will end up moving away from the iMac as well if I am not blown away with the new ones.

 

[Dave245]

iMac will continue to be my tie to the MacOS world as well. I really like my 5K iMac a lot and could maybe see upgrading to a newer one in the next year or two, but I do plan to keep it... at least for now.

After going from all Macs to buying 2 PC’s in the past 2 years. Maybe I will end up moving away from the iMac as well if I am not blown away with the new ones.

I cling to the hope that because it’s the 20th anniversary year of the iMac that Apple might do something special, I know it’s probably not going to happen but i can hope. To be fair tho any update they make will probably be a big one from my current 2012 iMac. I’ve seen the 5K display in shops and it looks great, even the wallpaper on the screen looks amazing.

 

[Bodie CI5]

Hi I think there is a couple of errors the drive is MZFLW256HEHP ie only one F the link to Samsung site I think is wrong but it may of suited the guys argument on low write speed he had vs the linked drive.

When you search for the correct drive you get a few hits

https://novabench.com/parts/ssd/samsung-mzflw256hehp-000mv

https://ssd.userbenchmark.com/SpeedTest/268839/SAMSUNG-MZFLW256HEHP-000MV

These seem more in line with some of the Crystaldiskmark scores typically posted ie high read but low writes

Which is why some sites report it as good as the highs were masking the lows as an overall score

However I can understand after reading these posts that these guys and one in particular were pointing very hard at MS but the truth I think is it just has low writes period and probably slow sustained writes which maybe benchmark apps up show up more hence the variations of real world usage

I just checked Ifixit and the SSD is replaceable but as you note getting to it is a nightmare of glue and so not a DIY job

Hi Steve,
Apart from the double-tap on the F key, how does any of this refute what I’ve been claiming? (Genuine question; as I’m a little unclear on what the focus of your reply is on)

 

[SteveJUAE]

Hi Steve,
Apart from the double-tap on the F key, how does any of this refute what I’ve been claiming? (Genuine question; as I’m a little unclear on what the focus of your reply is on)

Hi sorry if I was unclear

The Samsung 256 SSD on the SB2 seems a poor performer for write speed especially for sustained writes.

This is the capabilities of the SSD and I do not believe their is a fix for this other than replacement with another better SSD if your getting circa 3000r/340w peak

I do not see any chance of a warranty claim against MS as it not defective just slow for some and many had a month grace period to check if it was acceptable for their use.

I agree it's a bit cheap of MS given the read speed are good so app loading etc is fine just when you come to save it can show up

I'm guessing but those who require large file transfers or are playing with large data would of opted for the bigger drives in the first instance, so they are OK. Many do not notice if we judge by the amount of complaints on line or the fact to get your 12 hours of endurance most are on low performance settings.

This just leaves a set of users like yourself who feel they have been let down and I agree by todays measure it should of been twice the speed at least.

However it's not unusual for many OEM's to have a model that is spec'd on price point and you need to up spec to get more/better overall result

The complaints we see on line are natural as obviously they hope for a free upgrade at heart if they complain hard enough, but I would not hold my breath on that one

 

[OdT22]

Not to be a Debbie Downer, and maybe this post is misplaced? But when I hit the ‘new posts’ button here daily, the focus seems to be more on what you can’t do. Whether it’s iPad or hardware limitations or whatever.

In contrast, the surface line has been far more about what I can do. Windows and their hardware have been limitless in my renewed experience. Encouraging in every way so far.

And in all fairness, that includes the iPhone too. Whatever I want to do, there’s a way to do it.

Both have limitations and quirks. But the hardware and OS’s are catching up in good style.

Not sure about the future of tablets. They seem like the most weak link so far

 

[Bodie CI5]

Hi sorry if I was unclear

The Samsung 256 SSD on the SB2 seems a poor performer for write speed especially for sustained writes.

This is the capabilities of the SSD and I do not believe their is a fix for this other than replacement with another better SSD if your getting circa 3000w/340r peak

I do not see any chance of a warranty claim against MS as it not defective just slow for some and many had a month grace period to check if it was acceptable for their use.

I agree it's a bit cheap of MS given the read speed are good so app loading etc is fine just when you come to save it can show up

I'm guessing but those who require large file transfers or are playing with large data would of opted for the bigger drives in the first instance, so they are OK. Many do not notice if we judge by the amount of complaints on line or the fact to get your 12 hours of endurance most are on low performance settings.

This just leaves a set of users like yourself who feel they have been let down and I agree by todays measure it should of been twice the speed at least.

However it's not unusual for many OEM's to have a model that is spec'd on price point and you need to up spec to get more/better overall result

The complaints we see on line are natural as obviously they hope for a free upgrade at heart if they complain hard enough, but I would not hold my breath on that one

Hi Steve,

Nope, all good - my apologies that you had to write all of that in response! Thank you

Yes, it's rather saddening that there is no upgrade path in terms of being able to replace the SSD. Not even in terms of upping the storage capacity, but literally being able to install a faster one. I knew this, obviously, beforehand. But it still sucks that it is so gimped. It's doubly sad that one of my brother's laptops, a 2014 MBA has faster write speeds than this SB and that Mojave on it actually feels much nippier than this.

Since I bought this machine, my computing needs have actually shifted somewhat and I am beginning to dabble with photos and editing (astro image acquisition and stacking (planetary)) and so the higher headroom of a larger SSD would have been welcome. In terms of the speed, however, it does show how slow the SB at 256 can be.

If the write speed was double, I'd not be here complaining but singing its praises like the rest of you!!!!!!!


-edit-

Forgot to write in the 2nd last paragraph - should I go for an SB3/4 will definitely be going for at least a 1tb version.

 

[SteveJUAE]

Hi Steve,

Nope, all good - my apologies that you had to write all of that in response! Thank you

Yes, it's rather saddening that there is no upgrade path in terms of being able to replace the SSD. Not even in terms of upping the storage capacity, but literally being able to install a faster one. I knew this, obviously, beforehand. But it still sucks that it is so gimped. It's doubly sad that one of my brother's laptops, a 2014 MBA has faster write speeds than this SB and that Mojave on it actually feels much nippier than this.

Since I bought this machine, my computing needs have actually shifted somewhat and I am beginning to dabble with photos and editing (astro image acquisition and stacking (planetary)) and so the higher headroom of a larger SSD would have been welcome. In terms of the speed, however, it does show how slow the SB at 256 can be.

If the write speed was double, I'd not be here complaining but singing its praises like the rest of you!!!!!!!


-edit-

Forgot to write in the 2nd last paragraph - should I go for an SB3/4 will definitely be going for at least a 1tb version.

No problem

I may have a partial solution for you

I just tried my old Samsung T1 external SSD which is USB-A but via a dongle I plugged it in to the USB-C port as it should be a little faster

Running CrystalDiscMark 6 I was able to get just under 400 write speeds (340 seemed tops with your internal SSD) but not much more read but this is a fairly old SSD

Considering you now need more SSD perhaps the new T5 version could work for you if you can get one to try which now comes with USB-C it may be an option or maybe another brand

https://www.samsung.com/us/computin...tate-drives/portable-ssd-t5-1tb-mu-pa1t0b-am/

 

[SDColorado]

Considering you now need more SSD perhaps the new T5 version could work for you if you can get one to try which now comes with USB-C it may be an option or maybe another brand

https://www.samsung.com/us/computin...tate-drives/portable-ssd-t5-1tb-mu-pa1t0b-am/

That is an interesting thought. I don't have a SB2 to test with, but I did connect my T5 to my X1E and ran Crystal Disk. I got write speeds between 492-493.

 

[SteveJUAE]

That is an interesting thought. I don't have a SB2 to test with, but I did connect my T5 to my X1E and ran Crystal Disk. I got write speeds between 492-493.

Thanks thats exactly what I was expecting

The internal Samsung 256GB SSD on the SB2 seems fine for read with ~3000 so loading apps should be fine, even Samsung TB3 external SSD is rated around that. So by loading and writing your data set to the T5 you could get a ~60% improvement over the internal SSD and get 1TB for $225