What to look for in external drives?

[wayland1985]

I’m about to pull the trigger on a refurb iMac to replace an ancient 2008 MBP.

I was convinced by you all to go with an SSD model, and then add an external hard drive for the bulk storage/backup.

Since my iPhone has been my primary computer for years now; I’m out of the game:

What should I be looking for in a hard drive? I’m on a budget, but would like a reliable (especially with this being a refurb machine) hard drive. I’d like one with some speed as well: I don’t do much video editing right now; but if I did: it wouldn’t be a feature length film (maybe just home videos/drone video edits).

I’m not afraid to buy an enclosure and strap in my own hard drive if that is cost effective.

Thanks for your suggestions!

 

[Fishrrman]

"I’m not afraid to buy an enclosure and strap in my own hard drive if that is cost effective."

For an enclosure, I'd suggest this:
https://www.amazon.com/MiniPro-USB-...541087567&sr=8-1&keywords=2.5"+minipro+usb3.1
(I have one, it's built like a tank)

Get a 2.5" platter-based drive to go inside, 7200rpm.
Or...
Get a 2.5" SSD, perhaps 500gb or 1tb. Not that much $$$ these days.

Or... consider something like a Samsung t5 or Sandisk Extreme USB3 SSD.

 

[wayland1985]

"I’m not afraid to buy an enclosure and strap in my own hard drive if that is cost effective."

For an enclosure, I'd suggest this:
https://www.amazon.com/MiniPro-USB-C-External-Aluminum-Enclosure/dp/B01N52Z26D/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1541087567&sr=8-1&keywords=2.5"+minipro+usb3.1
(I have one, it's built like a tank)

Get a 2.5" platter-based drive to go inside, 7200rpm.
Or...
Get a 2.5" SSD, perhaps 500gb or 1tb. Not that much $$$ these days.

Or... consider something like a Samsung t5 or Sandisk Extreme USB3 SSD.

Thank you for your reply: I've been trying to research this further. It seems Thunderbolt 3 claims to be quite faster than USB C, but can those speeds even be used with today's platter or SSD drives?

 

[matreya]

It seems Thunderbolt 3 claims to be quite faster than USB C, but can those speeds even be used with today's platter or SSD drives?

You'll find it hard to source a thunderbolt 3 enclosure for a single 2.5" SSD. That said, a USB-C enclosure is fast enough for a single 2.5" SSD, and definitely fast enough for a platter drive.