What are people using as external drives with their Mac Studio?

[pshufd]

I normally don't move around a lot of files but I was rearranging things recently and decided to test the speeds of external drives and was somewhat shocked at the speed differences between internal, connecting directly to a Mac port and using port hubs. Here are my BlackMagic findings:

The USB-A Monitor Hubs are on Dell Ultrasharp U2720Q and U2718Q monitors. The U2720Q runs off USB-C while the U2718Q runs off USB-A with USB 3.0 speeds. The USB-C Hub is an Amazon Basics USB 3.1 Type C to 4 Port USBA hub (these were really cheap when I bought them). My previous setup was with the USB-A Monitor Hubs but they're now running off the USB-C Hub. The Crucial and EVO drives are run off of cheap enclosures which probably accounts for the poor write speeds. It is nice having faster read and write speeds though it wasn't a huge problem beforehand.

It's certainly interesting to see what happens when you measure things.

 

[transmaster]

I normally don't move around a lot of files but I was rearranging things recently and decided to test the speeds of external drives and was somewhat shocked at the speed differences between internal, connecting directly to a Mac port and using port hubs. Here are my BlackMagic findings:

View attachment 2169629

The USB-A Monitor Hubs are on Dell Ultrasharp U2720Q and U2718Q monitors. The U2720Q runs off USB-C while the U2718Q runs off USB-A with USB 3.0 speeds. The USB-C Hub is an Amazon Basics USB 3.1 Type C to 4 Port USBA hub (these were really cheap when I bought them). My previous setup was with the USB-A Monitor Hubs but they're now running off the USB-C Hub. The Crucial and EVO drives are run off of cheap enclosures which probably accounts for the poor write speeds. It is nice having faster read and write speeds though it wasn't a huge problem beforehand.

It's certainly interesting to see what happens when you measure things.

I have been looking at this read/write issue as I study my way into the Mac computer. The one thing I have learned is that a Thunderbolt 3/4 extends the PCIe connection outside the Mac. So to get a drive with the fastest connection you need a PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD housed in at least a Thunderbolt 3 case.

 

[transmaster]

I have found my external solution. I wish I have know about this at the beginning. The OWC Mercury Pro U.2 Dual. It is setup for SSD's. In one desktop case you can go from 2 to 64TB depending on what kind of SSD you put in it. You can install 2 SATA SSD's 3.5" or 2.5", or up to eight NVMe SSDs. You can configure it up to RAID 10. It is connectable with Thunderbolt 3 with up to a 2800MB/s data transfer rate. I have decided that I am not going to go the NAS route PC does not need to share files with the Mac as they are going to be used for 2 different things. The PC will only do Amatuer Radio.

OWC Gemini

The only drive you need to organize your digital life. Features dual drives and seven ports, taking you from notebook to workstation in seconds.

www.owc.com

 

[braillesounds]

I bought directly from Trebleet.

Hey! Curious if you used the thermal pads included with your nvme? I’m not sure what to do with either the long pad or small pad. When I place the long pad on the nvme there is a bit of pressure on the drive when I close the lid. Not sure that’s safe.

 

[nobullone1964]

Hey! Curious if you used the thermal pads included with your nvme? I’m not sure what to do with either the long pad or small pad. When I place the long pad on the nvme there is a bit of pressure on the drive when I close the lid. Not sure that’s safe.

If I recall correctly, the Trebleet has a built-in pad inside the cover. If I'm incorrect (it's been awhile since opening) just use the thinner pad you have.

 

[Ethosik]

Unfortunately I just ordered two Crucial P3 4TB PCIe Gen3 as I need fast 4TB drives. However, they have dipped to sub 200-400 MB/s very quickly. I am not sure why. I have tried three different enclosures. Even purchased the ACASIS 40Gbps M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosure. I also tried with OWC Envoy Express and Sabrent USB 3.2 10Gbps. The max I could get out of these drives is 1.3 GB/s. But it quickly, and for a very VERY long time between transfers tanks to 200-400 MB/s. I even saw it go as low as 70 MB/s.

Anyone have any good recommendations for 4TB drives? Any way I can saturate the Thunderbolt with more than 1.3 GB/s?

 

[nobullone1964]

Unfortunately I just ordered two Crucial P3 4TB PCIe Gen3 as I need fast 4TB drives. However, they have dipped to sub 200-400 MB/s very quickly. I am not sure why. I have tried three different enclosures. Even purchased the ACASIS 40Gbps M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosure. I also tried with OWC Envoy Express and Sabrent USB 3.2 10Gbps. The max I could get out of these drives is 1.3 GB/s. But it quickly, and for a very VERY long time between transfers tanks to 200-400 MB/s. I even saw it go as low as 70 MB/s.

Anyone have any good recommendations for 4TB drives? Any way I can saturate the Thunderbolt with more than 1.3 GB/s?

Thunderbolt basically tops out @ 2800 MB/s. I use a Samsung 980 Pro which is PCI-E 4.0 and it hits that spot. I've found that PCI-E 3.0 drives just won't give the maximum effort. As far as your drives slowing I have a RAID 0 Array in an enclosure that serves up my movies, TV and music. I notice it drags slowly when a movie is showing. I guess that is because it's in use.

 

[transmaster]

people are using external SSDs and external hard drives as additional storage for their Mac Studio. It seems that some users prefer SSDs for faster performance, while others use hard drives for more affordable storage options.

Yes that is it. You can get a 20 TB Seagate One Touch Hub for $447 bucks. A 8TB Samsung 870 QVO SDD costs $398 USD.

 

[jpefjr]

Thunderbolt basically tops out @ 2800 MB/s. I use a Samsung 980 Pro which is PCI-E 4.0 and it hits that spot. I've found that PCI-E 3.0 drives just won't give the maximum effort. As far as your drives slowing I have a RAID 0 Array in an enclosure that serves up my movies, TV and music. I notice it drags slowly when a movie is showing. I guess that is because it's in use.

I'm seeing exactly the same thing with my Samsung 980 Pro in an Acasis Thunderbolt/USB 4 enclosure attached to my Studio.

 

[edubfromktown]

14TB WD EasyStore for Time machine and CCC clones

Two Kingston 3k nvme's in Sabrent TB3 enclosures.

Disk Speed Tests:

~2100 write, 2500 read (K3k's RAID 0)

4700 write, 5130 read (Studio Base Max)

 

[drmeatball]

M2 Studio Ultra with 1TB internal

Externals are all in USB3-C cases (10gbs)

2 * 4TB AData NVMEs
/Volumes/Unity (my gamedev drive)
/Volumes/Scratch (temp drive)

2 * 4TB Crucial P3 Plus NVMEs
/Volumes/Home
/Volumes/Media

1 * 2TB Inland NVME
/Volumes/Parallels

1 * 8TB Samsung QVO 870 SATA Vantec enclosure
Time Machine (only backs up Home and Unity)

I'm sure the drives could be faster but they are fast enough for my needs.. still 4-5x faster than hard drives. I'm eyeballing the OWC 4M2 Thunderbolt enclosure to move all of the 4TB drives at some point.




Also have a bunch of 1 and 2 TB Sandisk NVME drives.. use them for sharing, backups, etc.

 

[Larabee119]

My humble setup using ORICO M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosure 40Gbps USB4. Top at 2.8GB/s. Each houses a WD black sn850x 4TB. I attach a heatsink using thermal tape then hook up a small USB fan ARCTIC Breeze Mobile which move considerable air to cool them.
I use a Terramaster 2 bay drive to get 16x2 TB of time machine back up.

 

[Mr. Bear]

Unfortunately I just ordered two Crucial P3 4TB PCIe Gen3 as I need fast 4TB drives. However, they have dipped to sub 200-400 MB/s very quickly. I am not sure why. I have tried three different enclosures. Even purchased the ACASIS 40Gbps M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosure. I also tried with OWC Envoy Express and Sabrent USB 3.2 10Gbps. The max I could get out of these drives is 1.3 GB/s. But it quickly, and for a very VERY long time between transfers tanks to 200-400 MB/s. I even saw it go as low as 70 MB/s.

Anyone have any good recommendations for 4TB drives? Any way I can saturate the Thunderbolt with more than 1.3 GB/s?

I'm right there with you! I'm running an M1 Max Studio. I just got one of those Crucial P3 Gen3 sticks, and put it in a new Acasis enclosure, and I'm getting around 700W/500R on the USB4 port. Strangely, I'm getting over 900MB/s when I plug it into the TB4 port. Either way, I hope Best Buy takes returns on SSDs, and that I can get the covers back on the thermal pad...

More oddities...I was starting to disassemble the drive (mostly trying to figure out the best way to pry off the lid, since the thermal tape is stuck to it) and then I plugged it back into the TB4 port. I am now getting 2500 MB/s. Still only about 780 on the USB4 port.

 

[transmaster]

I'm right there with you! I'm running an M1 Max Studio. I just got one of those Crucial P3 Gen3 sticks, and put it in a new Acasis enclosure, and I'm getting around 700W/500R on the USB4 port. Strangely, I'm getting over 900MB/s when I plug it into the TB4 port. Either way, I hope Best Buy takes returns on SSDs, and that I can get the covers back on the thermal pad...

More oddities...I was starting to disassemble the drive (mostly trying to figure out the best way to pry off the lid, since the thermal tape is stuck to it) and then I plugged it back into the TB4 port. I am now getting 2500 MB/s. Still only about 780 on the USB4 port.

I have never used Crucial other than RAM for legacy computers. I have heard to many sad stories about their SSD's. I only use Samsung SSD, and SanDisk SD drives period. I have used these two brands for over a decade with zero problems. Your speed is what I would expect. According to the support documents for the Mac Studio macOS treats an external SSD connected via Thunderbolt to be a internal drive. Not so with any USB connection.

 

[pshufd]

I have never used Crucial other than RAM for legacy computers. I have heard to many sad stories about their SSD's. I only use Samsung SSD, and SanDisk SD drives period. I have used these two brands for over a decade with zero problems. Your speed is what I would expect. According to the support documents for the Mac Studio macOS treats an external SSD connected via Thunderbolt to be a internal drive. Not so with any USB connection.

I've been using Crucial SSDs for over a decade and have had no problems with them. I also have a few Intel SSDs and Samsung SSDs. Actually I've not had any problems with any of them.

 

[transmaster]

This is interesting.

 

[Mr. Bear]

I have never used Crucial other than RAM for legacy computers. I have heard to many sad stories about their SSD's. I only use Samsung SSD, and SanDisk SD drives period. I have used these two brands for over a decade with zero problems. Your speed is what I would expect. According to the support documents for the Mac Studio macOS treats an external SSD connected via Thunderbolt to be a internal drive. Not so with any USB connection.

I don't know what that means "treats an external SSD connected via TB to be an internal drive."

 

[TECK]

Awesome, thanks. Are you using one, and what SSD's would be best for this setup?

See my post, I’m maxing the TB4 bandwidth with that setup.

I don't know what that means "treats an external SSD connected via TB to be an internal drive."

It means your external drive will show as internal, when connected to Mac. Some people don’t like to see the drive icon on the desktop, personally I don’t like to hide the drive unless it is mounted inside the Mac, which this is not possible on Studio.

 

[MarkC426]

Can anyone explain to me why NOT to get an M2 NVMe blade with an enclosure....?

I can get a 980 pro 2TB for £130 + £30 enclosure.
But I am looking at a Lacie 1 Big SSD 2TB TB3 which is £450, which is a REAL desktop drive, and a bargain.
Yes this is 3x the price, but all retailers are selling these for £1400....

Are there any negatives with a blade, i.e. Heat.

 

[Levina]

My humble setup using ORICO M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosure 40Gbps USB4. Top at 2.8GB/s. Each houses a WD black sn850x 4TB. I attach a heatsink using thermal tape then hook up a small USB fan ARCTIC Breeze Mobile which move considerable air to cool them.
I use a Terramaster 2 bay drive to get 16x2 TB of time machine back up.

View attachment 2233761

Interesting. How much of a difference do the heatsinks + fan make, temp wise?

 

[zedsdead]

I just hooked up a Thunderbay 8 to my newly arrived Mac Studio to replace my aging Drobo 5D.

While it is a fast RAID array, it is REALLY LOUD. The fan from the array operates at an annoying frequency, and the unit itself has little sound dampening for when the hard drives spin up. Not sure what to do, but it all might be getting returned.

Might have to bite the bullet and spend money on an SSD raid or something.

The Mac Studio however is dead quiet.

 

[MarkC426]

This is part of my dilemma....🤯
I am so used to my cMP making noise (multiple fans etc), at the time I didn't notice it, it was just what I was used to.

But since I got the Studio, it's just bizarre....the silence, I am still trying to get used to it...😁
Even just waking from sleep, just nothing...silence.

So I am looking for SSD only storage to maintain this quiet, and low energy use.

 

[R3k]

Delete.

 

[Larabee119]

Interesting. How much of a difference do the heatsinks + fan make, temp wise?

It comes down to 40C during load. I edit videos directly on those so it's a little warm to the touch and sometimes thermal throttle. With the heatsink, sustain load is fine. My room temperature is around 35C .

 

[chfilm]

Soooo if I have a Sonnet 4x4 Raid card in my mac pro and want to switch to a mac studio, the Mercury Helios 3s should do the trick, right? Of course it'll be slower, but still fast enough for my needs.