I'm looking for an external 2TB SSD to be used with the 1TB I'll have with the 27" iMac I ordered. The Samsung X5 is fast (2800/2300) but that speed carries a price tag of $1399. Their T5 is only rated to 540 MB/s. It's $399 and seems to be popular I'd ask if I'd notice a real world different between the two but even if I did, the $1399 is out of my budget. Is there anything else I should look at in that price range?
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What do you suggest for an external 2TB SSD?
- Thread starter iMas70
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I don't have one and am only looking at options, but the other option is a NVMe enclosure and 2TB NVMe (and not SATA) drive, probably m.2 in terms of size/format. But the 2TB SSDs may be expensive.
https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-970-EVO-250GB-MZ-V7E250BW/dp/B07C8Y31G1/ref=dp_ob_title_ce?th=1
So that is $569. Again, I have no expertise, but the NVMe interface may give you speeds comparable to the X5 or other TB3 drives.
https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-970-EVO-250GB-MZ-V7E250BW/dp/B07C8Y31G1/ref=dp_ob_title_ce?th=1
So that is $569. Again, I have no expertise, but the NVMe interface may give you speeds comparable to the X5 or other TB3 drives.
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What is more important, speed or price? You can get a Micron 2TB SATA SSD and stick it into a USB 3.0 enclosure, for a little bit over $300 total. If I recall, the Micron has decent read speeds and rather slow write speeds as compared to other SATA SSD's.
When it comes to what is more important, speed or price? I guess I'm looking for the middle ground. I'll be coming for an iMac with a 2TB Fusion drive with a 2TB Lacie external HHD. The new iMac will has a 1TB SSD so I think I'll be giving the external drive much more use than the Lacie received (mostly photos and 4K drone videos). Something like the T5 will be much faster than that one so it will be an improvement either way.
I'm learning when it comes to stuff like this (like what NVMe is). I know it's common for some of you but it feels like a different language for me. I've been studying though! I'm trying to do it right the first time while getting the most speed for my money. Looking at the 2TB Samsung 970 EVO. It's fast with speeds in the 3500/2500 MB/s range. The price isn't bad at $575. I'm looking at the Akitio website. Which one do you have? I've never worked with stuff like this so I'm presuming the EVO SSD would plug into the TB3 enclosure and then that plugs into the iMac?
I'm learning when it comes to stuff like this (like what NVMe is). I know it's common for some of you but it feels like a different language for me. I've been studying though! I'm trying to do it right the first time while getting the most speed for my money. Looking at the 2TB Samsung 970 EVO. It's fast with speeds in the 3500/2500 MB/s range. The price isn't bad at $575. I'm looking at the Akitio website. Which one do you have? I've never worked with stuff like this so I'm presuming the EVO SSD would plug into the TB3 enclosure and then that plugs into the iMac?
I have the Akitio Thunder Quad Mini populated with a few 2TB and a 4TB EVO 850's. I needed large capacity for huge audio production libraries and so this was the best compromise between cost and size for sufficient ssd speed. Combined with my imac pro's internal 2tb super fast drive, it has worked very well. Obviously the faster the better, but for mostly data storage and transfers it seems plenty fast. I think OWC also has a version of this.