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Which recent SSDs work with Seagate GoFlex Portable Thunderbolt adapter?

P

plucky duck

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 5, 2012
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Looking to get a newer model SSD, in the range of 512GB to 1TB size, would like to get confirmation by other users which ones will run stable on the Seagate adapter.

Tried some 256GB models in the past but would not be recognized by the operating system due to power/voltage issues. Some seem to use more juice under load and while idle.

Considering the following:
Crucial MX100
Samsung EVO and Pro series
Sandisk Extreme series


Please advise, thanks!
 
How do you know its a power/voltage issue? SSD's consume way less power than 2.5" HDD's, which the adapter is rated for. Samsung drives generally have the lowest power requirements, but any SSD should work. I would guess its a software/formatting issue.
 
How are you hooking up the SSDs? Have you cracked open a GoFlex Ultraportable casing to install an SSD in place of the HD?

The Seagate GoFlex Thunderbolt Drive adapter is intended for Seagate GoFlex drives, it isn't really intended to run bare drives. I know some people have MacGyvered up different connection scenarios, but a common problem was the SATA and power connectors being loose and disconnecting.

Photos and description 2/3 the way down this page.
http://www.computer-answers.ca/2014...state-of-thunderbolt-drives-feb-2014-edition/
 
CanadaRAM said:
How are you hooking up the SSDs? Have you cracked open a GoFlex Ultraportable casing to install an SSD in place of the HD?

The Seagate GoFlex Thunderbolt Drive adapter is intended for Seagate GoFlex drives, it isn't really intended to run bare drives. I know some people have MacGyvered up different connection scenarios, but a common problem was the SATA and power connectors being loose and disconnecting.

Photos and description 2/3 the way down this page.
http://www.computer-answers.ca/2014...state-of-thunderbolt-drives-feb-2014-edition/
Click to expand...

You can buy GoFlex "shells" on eBay to mount your drive properly on the Thunderbolt or other Seagate adapter. They have an internal magnet which mates with one in the adapter for a much more robust mechanical connection.

----------
COrocket said:
How do you know its a power/voltage issue? SSD's consume way less power than 2.5" HDD's, which the adapter is rated for. Samsung drives generally have the lowest power requirements, but any SSD should work. I would guess its a software/formatting issue.
Click to expand...

SSDs consume way less AVERAGE power than 2.5" HDDs. However, they consume very short high-current spikes which are not present with hard disks and probably overload the power conditioning circuitry in the bus powered adapters or enclosures.

Older high-performance SSDs (M4, 840 PRO) would only seem to work with up to 256GB drives without power issues. Newer technology drives such as the 840 EVO draw much less power, however they don't have the same peak performance levels. They seem to work with larger capacity drives in bus-powered enclosures.
 
@hfg Sorry to be a pain would that mean that I can use the GoFlex adaptor with a 1TB Crucial SSD as a bus powered external drive to transfer information?
 
FAQinc said:
@hfg Sorry to be a pain would that mean that I can use the GoFlex adaptor with a 1TB Crucial SSD as a bus powered external drive to transfer information?
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, we do not have a lot of detailed specifications on the power characteristics of various SSD drives ... and even less information on the true maximum capabilities of the Seagate GoFlex Thunderbolt adapter. It was designed for hard disks which have a very different power spectrum than SSDs exhibit. Note that Seagate doesn't sell any SSD based GoFlex units. Note also that there are very few commercial 1TB bus powered SSD units for sale at this time.

The published test results I have seen indicate that the newer technology SSD exhibits much lower average power and peak power spikes than the older generation which caused problems with the Seagate adapter. The test results I have seen have indicated that the Samsung 840 EVO in the 1TB size had the lowest peak power requirements, even lower than the Crucial M550 1TB.

I am currently running/testing the 1TB 840 EVO on the GoFlex TB Adapter and so far it is running fine, although I haven't thoroughly stress-tested it as yet. I have no experience with the 1TB Crucial, however I found that the previous generation 960GB M500 seemed very unstable on the bus powered enclosures in normal operation, and I was leery of stress testing it further for fear of destroying it.

If you gain any experience in running the Crucial 1TB M550 on the GoFlex or any other bus powered enclosure, I hope you will post your experience as I suspect there are many readers here who would be interested in the results.

Good luck ...

-howard
 
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As I remember devices can get more power via TB than via USB 3. I have a Samsung EVO 840 SSD in an Inateck USB3 enclosure that does UASP. It does read/write at 400+.

So my question is....if a 1TB SATAIII based SSD can be fast and stable via USB 3, why would it be slower or less stable via TB....unless there is a problem with the design or execution of the particular TB enclosure?
 
You may need to download the manual Thunderbolt firmware updater from the Apple website. This is not widely known.
 
I personally have a 512 gb crucial mx100 ssd in a seagate goflex shell, hooked into a seagate thunderbolt adapter to my 27 late 2013 imac. No problems.
 
I personally have a 512 gb crucial mx100 ssd in a seagate goflex shell, hooked into a seagate thunderbolt adapter to my 27 late 2013 imac. No problems.
Click to expand...

what speeds do you get with Blackmagic Disk Speed Test?
 
I should have a 1TB EVO in hand soon, and I already have the Seagate TB adapter. Is there some particular stress test that is considered a standard?

I'm not planning to use them together, but I can check it.
 
brentsg said:
I should have a 1TB EVO in hand soon, and I already have the Seagate TB adapter. Is there some particular stress test that is considered a standard?

I'm not planning to use them together, but I can check it.
Click to expand...


Blackmagic Disk Speed Test.......you can find it the App Store.
 
Interested to know the result as planning to buy the Seagate Backup plus Thunderbolt adapter with a new SSD as a bootcamp drive for Windows platform.
 
That is the same range using an USB 3 enclosure that does UASP. No advantage using TB with a drive that does SATA 3. Perhaps if the enclosure and SSD did PCIe that would be different.
 
MCAsan said:
That is the same range using an USB 3 enclosure that does UASP. No advantage using TB with a drive that does SATA 3. Perhaps if the enclosure and SSD did PCIe that would be different.
Click to expand...


Well I have my Mac boot drive on the ssd. It's one less usb3 I gotta use. And it supports TRIM. I plan on using bootcamp on the ssd also so I know thunderbolt will work
 
Truefan31 said:
I get about 350-400.
Click to expand...

Wow, that's amazing and seems promising, do you have any experience for disconnect with the SSD? seems the latest gen of SSD over 256GB size overcome the power consumption of Seagate Thunderbolt adapter?

Planning to buy to bootcamp windows with this thunderbolt setup.
 
lfcjohn said:
Wow, that's amazing and seems promising, do you have any experience for disconnect with the SSD? seems the latest gen of SSD over 256GB size overcome the power consumption of Seagate Thunderbolt adapter?



Planning to buy to bootcamp windows with this thunderbolt setup.
Click to expand...


I've had no issues. My ssd is on a twelve south shelf tucked behind the imac. I know the newer ssds use less power like the crucial mx100. Mines 512, runs great. Boots up less than 20 seconds
 
I use the SeaGate SATA Thunderbolt GoFlex adaptor and it works perfectly with all of the different SSD's I've thrown at it in many capacities. Samsung 840, 840 Pro, 840 EVO, Crucial MX500, and the PNY XLR8. Have used 128GB, 256GB, 480GB, 512GB, and 1TB SSD's and I haven't had any issues.

On my retina MacBook Pro I only have 256GB, so I put the Bootcamp partition on the 1TB 840 EVO and I get performance that is literally every bit as good as if it were an internal SATA III drive. It's pretty amazing stuff if you ask me.

It's cheap too, only $80 on Amazon for the adaptor. Compared to most thunderbolt devices it's pretty cheap. I've been using it this way for like...2 maybe 3 years and it still works perfectly. Note that it is not thunderbolt 2, but that would be completely unnecessary since even SATA III doesn't come anywhere close to saturating the Thunderbolt 1 capacity.

71pe2OYJhrL._SX450_.jpg
 
I tested it with a relatively old goflex hard drive and I had to update the cMBP Thunderbolt firmware to get any power at all.
 
While not much in the way of a performance analysis, the Samsung 840 EVO 1TB seems ok in the cradle. Results were 337MB/s write and 383MB/s read on the Blackmagic test.

I let it go for a bit and it was ok, no crashes or strange behavior.
 
brentsg said:
While not much in the way of a performance analysis, the Samsung 840 EVO 1TB seems ok in the cradle. Results were 337MB/s write and 383MB/s read on the Blackmagic test.

I let it go for a bit and it was ok, no crashes or strange behavior.
Click to expand...

That looks similar to what I am getting as well with the 840 EVO 1TB on the Seagate Thunderbolt Adapter:
 

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I've used Samsung 470, 830, 840, EVO, PRO, Intel X25, E, M, 3xx, 5xx, OWC Extreme 3G, 6Gb, Electra 3G, 6G, OCZ Vertex 2, 3, 4. No problem with any of these.

Only had problem with an old Samsung 64GB SSD that cost me like $800 I think it was. It has SLC chips, but doesn't support TRIM or have garbage collection. It's very old now, so perhaps that's the issue?
 
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