External SSD for MacBook Pro

[maverick786us]

I am looking from external SSD for my M1 MacBook 16 Pro. I will be using that SSD primarily for storage, but it should be fast enough so that I can encode / decode videos directly from SSD with minimal lag

 

[Zepher]

Get an NVME drive and a thunderbolt case for it.
Sabrent TB3 Enclosure
2TB NVME Crucial P3

 

[daglesj]

Ahhh Mac users with external drives...my data recovery bread and butter.

 

[maverick786us]

Get an NVME drive and a thunderbolt case for it.
Sabrent TB3 Enclosure
2TB NVME Crucial P3

View attachment 532642

2 separate components? It looks good when it comes to speed and performance. How good is it in terms of reliability?

 

[westrock2000]

I have one of the Samsung T3 or whatever they are called. Extremely satisfied. Easily sustains 300MB/s on regular USB3, haven’t tried it on Type-C yet.

 

[pendragon1]

Get an NVME drive and a thunderbolt case for it.
Sabrent TB3 Enclosure
2TB NVME Crucial P3

View attachment 532642

yup, that^^ BUT i would still work with the files on the internal drive, its still faster.

 

[Zepher]

2 separate components? It looks good when it comes to speed and performance. How good is it in terms of reliability?

I have the USBC 10 gigabit version and it's been fine with my WD SN750 500GB NVME.
This one is limited to 1GB/s though since it's only 10 gigabit, the one I linked above can do up to 1.6GB/s

 

[UnknownSouljer]

Zepher I think has covered precisely what I would get if you specifically want fast external storage on a Mac. There are other options, but in terms of cost effectiveness, speed, etc, it's basically the best option.

SanDisk makes their Extreme Pro line of drives, but it's slower and costs more than getting a Thunderbolt setup. https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-2TB-...41&sprefix=sandisk+extreme+pro,aps,161&sr=8-2

Conversely if you want you can move to an array of some sort which will be faster with more density, then you will have to accept paying a significantly higher price. TB3 to NVME is by far the best balance of density/performance to cost.

 

[mwroobel]

When dealing with the mac, especially if you go Thunderbolt... Buy a pre-built drive from a known and supported manufacturer where you have a single point of contact and not two manufacturers who can blame each other (or Apple.) If you remember SCSI voodoo from the old days, Thunderbolt is even worse! It is easier when you have a known quantity that has been tested against your particular configuration and someone you can go back to for support for if or when you have issues.