I went with the Envoy Pro FX, a 2TB model, and am not looking back. The thing is built like a tank, and I can live with the warranty difference between 3 and 5 years. Plenty of folks are using theirs after 3 years. Great review as always, Jerry.
I bought an Envoy Pro. Build quality was impressive as it was like a solid block of aluminium. Problem was after just one day I would have been as well off with a block of aluminium as the drive failed. Good old bathtub failure. In the hours it did work it was indeed fast but not 2800. The best I got was 2400. Anyhow back it went to be melted down into an aluminium ingot!
🍺 Great news! After days of researching, I finally found an external SSD with a consistent read/write speed of 2,800 mb/s for Mac Studio computers and PC. It supports the Mac Studio USB 4 port rated at 40 gb/s. And supports Thunderbolt 3 & 4. Doesn’t get any better than that. Decent price too. 👉 2.0TB OWC Envoy Pro SX-$469.00 External SSD at Amazon and BH Photo Video same price. Cheers‼️
This is an awesome video and I'm glad you covered it Jerry! I'm looking at the Lacie as I travel and am mobile a lot. Currently using a samsung t7, which is great but they get hot super fast.
Thank you Jerry for this Nice and Smart video. I have Intel iMac and MacBook Air M1, so the performances on the 2 architectures are important. The constructor warranty also and it is a major point because that impact the real usage cost. Very very usefull test. Happy to follow you Jerry From 🇫🇷, with the bell.
Using an external SSD as a boot drive is more of a temporary solution or that machine isn’t used too much. Booting from an external drive will always have an issue: if the machine goes to sleep for a while, the drive no longer has power and you will have to restart. Basically turn off auto sleep and don’t close the lid for too long (If it’s a MacBook).
I don’t understand why he wouldn’t recommend the OWC for M1 Macs. He even said, they are all about the same at the start and OWC kicks everyone’s ass after 10 minutes. The small advantage that the G has from a cold start hardly seems like an advantage over the OWC after considering the OWC’s cheaper price and far superior performance after sustained use.
Hi, thank for watching. I recommended the G because this was about the fastest speeds. Generally people only need peak speeds for short bursts like copying large files and on the M1 that was the fastest. For regular use there is really not going to be a diff between the G and OWC. BUT, the OWC is the one that I use every day with both M1 and Intel.
Great Video. I have the 2 TB OWC Envoy Pro FX connected to a Belkin Pro Dock. I have a MacBook Pro 16 inch I9 2.3 GHZ. My MAC internal 1 TB drive gets an almost even 3.3 gigabytes/sec read and write with ATTO Disk Benchmark. My OWC Envoy Pro FX 2 TB gets about 2.7 gigabytes/sec read and 1.5 gigabytes/sec write times. Very happy with the external TB3 OWC. For a portable recording studio drive I cannot complain. Never tried to test directly to a TB3 port on the MacBook pro. I will have to give it a try.
It's frustrating to see the M1 suffer with their numbers on TB3 Drive transfers; especially since this has been an issue that Apple has not addressed since I got the Mac Mini M1 back in January. I'm sitting here surrounded by enclosures and NVME drives trying to troubleshoot with no resolve. Frustrating indeed.
A 'kind of solution, for M1 Mac owners that have the issue you describe above, is using a dock. But not just any dock. I saw a few weeks back (on TH-cam) a guy that was fed up with this issue and experimented by using various docks, and found one that DID make a difference. Sorry though I don't remember either the name or the channel .. Good Luck
I am so glad you actually test the cache effects of these drives. Not everyone does this and there are TLC standard drives but there are also QLC drives that will slow down to a crawl. I bought a FIDECO USB 3.2 Gen 2 enclosure and a Samsung 970 Pro with the idea that this m.2 ssd has 2 bit MLC storage so that I can buy a Thunderbolt 3 case and then work with speed that will never slow, like the Envoy Pro FX. The 980 pro that supersedes this does not have this type of behaviour, slowing down from 5000 MB/s to 2000 after 120GB slc cache. I will never buy anything alse ever again
Great video! I wish all were so clear! But since this video is 2 yrs old what are your thoughts and best picks for external storage in Apr 2024? 4TB seems to be a sweet spot, but if the device can be updated, I could start small and increase later, as prices drop. I did not buy an OWC Envoy Pro FX for that reason, but could be persuaded... It would be backup for a 2021 MBP M1 Pro, and a MBP-2015 TBolt2. I need to consolidate from a mess of thumb drives! Thanks again for your great review.
Hey, thanks for watching. Best bang for your buck would be an NVME and a thunderbolt or USB4 enclosure. I show a couple on this video if that helps. th-cam.com/video/L8auI4MJ5Zg/w-d-xo.html
Hi Jerry, Thanks for the detailed review, I've got one OWC Envoy Pro FX 4TB today and tried it with the new Mac mini M2 Pro running latest Ventura OS. Unfortunately I'm getting very mixed results on the speed, using Blackmagic disk speed test, it starts with 2700 MB/s after seconds it goes to 700 MB/s on both read and write, and it keeps changing up and down. even I tried copying 500GB normal footage files and calculated the speed, it ended with average 600 MB/s during the copy. I've tried formatting with APFS and Mac OS extended, both same. do you have any idea what might be the problem? I'm thinking to return it as I'm really not getting the benefit of NVMe speeds. the cable is thunderbolt and I tried 4 different cables.
fhe 2022 lacie still sold at Apple store in 2024. $109 for 1TB ssd. box says Mac and Windows. Pretty sure utilities included are out of date. Supposedly iPadOS compatible. Do I need a Mac or PC to format it for iPad? Should it be APFS or ExFAT?
Beware of the old "Bait & Switch" by manufacturers - they are all at it. The initial drive components released in the first wave for review purposes are not necessarily included in the drives released on Amazon and others. Only one of the 3 principle ssd board components needs to be swapped with an inferior cheaper version to downgrade the performance.
awesome video Im not using a mac Im on an Acer Spin5. My current plan is to build a plug in battle station/desktop stile system and would like to have some extra storage on sight for games and such. With that my laptop can stay free and clean.
Hi Jerry as a man obviously in the know what is your take on an issue Ive recently come into contact with, that being the apparent decrease in performance of the USB bus in Apple silicon Macs compared to recent Apple Intel Macs. Case in point, Ive recently splashed out on a M2 Studio that I will be using for both video and photography editing. I had a bunch of SSD drives that I had been using on a well speced 2020 Intel iMac. While I was not expecting any speed bump from these SSds on the Mac Studio I certainly was not expecting a drop off in performance of up to 25%. The problem, as I am sure you will appreciate, makes 4K editing using ProResHQ on these compromised drives now very marginal, at least according to Blackmagic speed checker. Im wondering if you have an opinion on that particular situation? or have I just got my panties in a twist?
Interesting video and testing! You say” in case you’re wondering the M1 Mac had similar results to the Intel after 10 minutes“ The slide shows the OMC R/W as 2103/2503. But you show OMC R/W 1380/2779 on a previous slide. What gives? Did I miss something here.
Use to think highly of OWC. Have an Envoy Pro SX, Envoy Pro EX, and a Thunderbolt 4 hub. The Envoy Pro SX is very poor on performance. Only getting 1300 to 1500mbps connected to Thunderbolt 3/4 on my MacBook Pro and/or Mac Studio. Connected with an OWC Thunderbolt 4 cable and formatted to APFS. I’ve tried going through the OWC hub and directly to each Mac. No difference in performance. Good luck getting any customer or tech support. Never ending holds on a call and never answer on the chat setup. Can’t recommend OWC until they get the act together. Much better options out there that actually meet the performance advertised.
Great video, as I now expect from you. I am looking at setting up a mac mini for my pops and we will probably buy him a base model M1. He needs a lot of storage, however, so I am thinking to set him up with a nice external drive zip tied to the back of the monitor or wherever. I saw one company came out with a M.2 SATA SSD compatible port hub the mini can sit on, but sadly it's not TB compatible. What a waste of time to do that! I guess most people don't understand how much it affects performance. Maybe someone will make something like that, but TB... OWC perhaps?
I mean, most people dont need thunderbolt speeds and something like the samsung t7 is absolutely more speed then most people need especially when its being used mainly as a storage drive.
@@JerrySchulze They may not need TB speeds, but your standard USB speed vs TB difference can be a huge real world difference. When he looks through his photo files, it makes a gigantic difference in how fast the thumbnails load up, how fast a picture opens, etc.
@@JerrySchulze Yeah that is true. 50% more per GB (but triple the speed) of an enclosed aftermarket NVMe. No matter how fast, the SSD is still the slowest part of any computer. Don't underestimate the effect additional speed has on the overall experience.
I'm buying the Sony As 3, an Apple M1, and I'm going to be actively using Adobe Premier Pro for work. Do you still suggest the G- Drive? today? Let me know if you have an updated video, Thank you.
Thanks for the informative video! What about running virtual instrument samples for your DAW (I'm on Logic Pro)? I'm strongly considering the Envoy FX, since I've purchased from OWC in the past.
As a long time OWC user, I’ve always had good results with them when loading Kontakt libraries from those. I just ordered the envoy fx pro 4tb and I do not expect anything different. OWC has earned my trust.
Hey Jerry! Great job, thanks. I have a few questions. Why are the read speeds always slower than write speeds? Isn’t it usually the other way around with HDs, if I remember correctly? Is it just inherent to how SSDs work, period? Also, why such a big discrepancy between the M1 and Intel machines on read speeds? Can it be the controller is better optimized in the Intel version? I hope Apple engineers can figure something out to close the gap. Last thing is how did the Apple SSD in the M1 perform? Did you run any tests on it? If so, what were the numbers on it? Thanks again!
Hi, in almost all cases the reads were faster than write. If I mis-spoke in the video do you have a time stamp? Im not sure why the M1 is slower than intel when it comes to thunderbolt but it is. For the Internal disk test I actually covered that in my unboxing and performance test video for the MacBook Pro and Air. I would have to rewatch the video, but I believe they were around 2400MBps.
@@JerrySchulze My bad! I turned the read/write around, not you. I apologize. So, Apple’s SSDs aren’t all that much faster really. So, third party Thunderbolt 4 SSDs are the better value. Only downside is you have to lug it around with a cable if you need it on the go. I love your content. Sorry for my screw up, Jerry. 🤪
Hola 😊me agradó mucho tu video, tengo una consulta ¿al día de hoy 2023 junio, qué disco externo me recomendarías para poder usarlo en un Mac mini m1, para editar video desde el disco externo o usarlo como disco de cache? espero me puedas ayudar. Gracias ❤
Is there any advantage of using an external ssd versus upgrading the internal ssd for m1 pro. 1 tb upgrade is about $400, and most of these external ssds are around $300. The difference though is that they are not as fast as the internal ssd.
I am just thinking: 10 minutes times 60 seconds times 2GB/s writes - 1200GB (1,2TB) ... you've written full drives during that time? But all things aside, yes, temperature is key regarding slow-downs and considering how I am using 500GB T5 SSD with my third mac ... I would say, Samsung is the only company with total vertical integration of all elements in the drive. I would still go with X5.
@@JerrySchulze My point is - Migration Assistant" accounted for 150GB for me, and even slow 500MB/s T5 took like ... 20 minutes to set all things up. Looking at 1200GB is a bit overkill for most cases.
That's an option for sure. I think many people want the one stop item and support if needed. As to the speed, still comes down to potential limitations of the platform. Do you have an enclosure and drive you recommend?
@@JerrySchulze Thanks Jerry. I purchased a Sabrent Rocket Q 2TB NVMe PCIe withe an enclosure of upto 10gb/s. Its only giving me 950mb/s read/write. When its supposed to give 2000. Any idea what could be wrong? Enclosure or the drive? I'm using it as ain external ssd with mac M1 pro. Appreciate your insights.
Wow! Thank you. Just the video I’m that I needed I couldn’t find something like this online even with respectable and famous tech journalist sites. A year ever since this video, what’s your pick for a low end 2017 MacBook Pro?
Thanks! I still believe the OWC is the best overall Thunderbolt drive. If you want to buy a case and SSD separately there are other options but the OWC is great!
Thanks for the speedy reply, do you know of any other solutions that will achieve similar results (to to accommodate my tight budget of 250), and do you believe that my MacBook will deliver the same as your results although being low spec? Because if not then maybe I should just not go for a SSD with a regular USB 3.1 if I won’t be able to get such speeds with my 2017 8GB ram 2.3ghz Dual core i5 MacBook Pro
@@2ShortNsweet oh for sure if you don’t NEED Thunderbolt speed then you can save a good chunk of money with something like this: Samsung T7 SSD: geni.us/7I6CqB
Yeah, but will I achieve similar results (2x faster than non TB) with my specific MacBook? and if yes what’s the cheapest option that will overall be still 2x non-tb?
I just grabbed an Samsung X5 at a very low price of around 337 USD. I am however a M1 user and speeds a abysmally bad. Should I keep it for this low price? What are the odds that Apple will fix it?
Thunderbolt is just slower on apple silicon and I do not think there will be any fix. The OWC had the most stable speed of these 4 but right now I am using a Nvme and enclosure that I show in my Mac studio accessories video.
This was made quite some time ago before the Mac Studio. Also, this was specifically about Thunderbolt 3 at the time, which is the exact same speed as Thunderbolt 4.
@@JerrySchulze - are you telling me then that if I get A thunderbolt 3 hub it will work just fine if I plug it into a thunderbolt 4? Additionally Mac Studio does not support USB 3.2 only 3.1 which was released nearly a decade ago.
@@michaellattaThanks for replying. I need this external m2 to be connected to my lap for prolonged period of time let's say for couple of days. Will it cause any heating or connection issues? By any chance have u tried this use case?
I just got a 16" m1pro...will this work for editing on the go: SanDisk 1TB Extreme Portable External SSD - USB-C, USB 3.1 -claims to go up to 1050MB/s read and up to 1000MB/s write speeds- enough for video editing? HD and 4k from a Sony a6400 and a7iii? thanks so much
Hi all, I have an external case with 20gbps Thunderbolt USB-C (Icy Box IB-1916M-c32), and a Kingston SSD which claims ≈1700mbps speed, soooo why BlackMagic measures 800-900mbps only? I know it’s an ideal case only, but still… 😒 i’m working with an M1 Mac Mini. Do you guys know? (The cable is the provided one with the external case, and the connection is direct.) Thanks for your thoughts.
Apple totally screwed up their Thunderbolt USB Controller. All SSD's run exponentially slower on an M1 Mac compared to Intel Based systems. What a scam. I have an M1 Mac and i'm disappointed AF.
Any reason to get a large physical size of external SSD when you can get the same storage capacity and performance too in a lot smaller physical size? What do you think of the new G-drive Armorlock ssd? I like yellow color so I interested in it but its quite large isn't it plus its usb speed and not thunderbolt, will it too clumbersome to use, i just want one to backup my personal life file and works, these hardware encryption and rugged design are nice addition but not must
These things can get really hot and fail. Bigger devices might be better at dissipating heat. Notice that the bigger drives did better in the tests where they ran them for a while to show how they slow down when they get hot. The OWC was the outlier. It’s not that big but the whole case is a heat sink. It did very well on that test.
@@JerrySchulze and no-one does reviews of this and on devices with a fixed drive one would think would be a big concern. Best way to run desktop macs as no worries to drive wear or security.
I feel the need….the need for speed. Da speed of heat! Thanks Jerry for your latest. Can’t wait for your test drive on the new iPad Pro….please wear your seatbelt. Be well
Thanks for making this video. What do you think is the best hub for the new m1 iPad Pro with thunderbolt 4? It needs to have 3.5 mm headphone jack, HDMI and card reader please.
I have an iMac (2019) i3 and it's slow as pond water. I have a Samsung T7 but I still find it slow. Can anyone give me a good recommendation. I upgraded to 32GB if that helps.
While so quick to share those 10-minute test results and then assuming the cause to be heat sinks and/or thermals, you missed a vital opportunity to educate your viewers. Had you done a bit more research, you’d have found the cause one that future purchasers could research and seek on spec sheets and product pages. Make your findings starting points and opportunities for viewers to learn what to look for on their own instead of offering up assumptions and lazy conclusive statements.
I went with the Envoy Pro FX, a 2TB model, and am not looking back. The thing is built like a tank, and I can live with the warranty difference between 3 and 5 years. Plenty of folks are using theirs after 3 years. Great review as always, Jerry.
Nice and thanks!
I've been an OWC customer for 20 years, and I just bought the OWC Envoy SX version, 2TB drive. I'm glad to see the FX did well in these tests.
Very cool and thanks so much for checking it out. Are you looking for a new drive?
I bought an Envoy Pro. Build quality was impressive as it was like a solid block of aluminium. Problem was after just one day I would have been as well off with a block of aluminium as the drive failed. Good old bathtub failure. In the hours it did work it was indeed fast but not 2800. The best I got was 2400. Anyhow back it went to be melted down into an aluminium ingot!
finally a comparison i was waiting for after watching so many videos. It actually depends on the system you are running!!!!!!!! love you Jerry
Thanks!!! Glad it was helpful .
🍺 Great news! After days of researching, I finally found an external SSD with a consistent read/write speed of 2,800 mb/s for Mac Studio computers and PC. It supports the Mac Studio USB 4 port rated at 40 gb/s. And supports Thunderbolt 3 & 4. Doesn’t get any better than that. Decent price too.
👉 2.0TB OWC Envoy Pro SX-$469.00 External SSD at Amazon and BH Photo Video same price.
Cheers‼️
Will this work good for my 2017 imac intel fusion?
Content like this is invaluable for us users out there so a big thanks from me.
This is an awesome video and I'm glad you covered it Jerry! I'm looking at the Lacie as I travel and am mobile a lot. Currently using a samsung t7, which is great but they get hot super fast.
Awesome video! Thank you for all this thorough testing and great presentation!
Thank you!
EXCELLENT review. Thanks! For me it looks like OWC for my M1 MacBook Air and FCP.
Good choice!
Thank you for this video! I have been researching external SSD hard drives with Thunderbolt and this has helped me in my decision.
Thank you Jerry for this Nice and Smart video. I have Intel iMac and MacBook Air M1, so the performances on the 2 architectures are important. The constructor warranty also and it is a major point because that impact the real usage cost. Very very usefull test. Happy to follow you Jerry From 🇫🇷, with the bell.
Awesome, thanks so much. Which one do you think you will get?
@@JerrySchulze i don’t know for now i have 2 USB3 hard disks.
As always great video, deep diving on tests. Thx!
Thanks for checking it out.
Consider also a thunderbolt NVMe enclosure (e.g. Trebleet). As fast or faster than any of the mentioned drives.
Drop a sabrent gen 4 in either of those housing and you walk off and leave ever ssd mentioned in this video.
@@lancelenoir2875 unless you're using an M1 Mac. Sitting here with a SN750 and both the Treeblet and Acasis with 1200Mbps write speeds.
He didn't say of any of the drives he was testing was SATA or NVMe. I'm sure that would effect speed.
Using an external SSD as a boot drive is more of a temporary solution or that machine isn’t used too much. Booting from an external drive will always have an issue: if the machine goes to sleep for a while, the drive no longer has power and you will have to restart. Basically turn off auto sleep and don’t close the lid for too long (If it’s a MacBook).
Use your drive as the boot disk but leave it mostly empty and use the external for all storage. That's the way you do it.
I don’t understand why he wouldn’t recommend the OWC for M1 Macs. He even said, they are all about the same at the start and OWC kicks everyone’s ass after 10 minutes. The small advantage that the G has from a cold start hardly seems like an advantage over the OWC after considering the OWC’s cheaper price and far superior performance after sustained use.
Hi, thank for watching. I recommended the G because this was about the fastest speeds. Generally people only need peak speeds for short bursts like copying large files and on the M1 that was the fastest. For regular use there is really not going to be a diff between the G and OWC. BUT, the OWC is the one that I use every day with both M1 and Intel.
I felt the same way as @SamBlue. The OWC is my clear winner.
Great comparison, thank you!
You’re welcome. Are you going to pick one up?
IP67 on a HDD is awesome 😎
How far they have come since the power adapter bricks that HDDs used to be.
How about 1 year later? Did apple improve the thunderbolt speed on their M1?
Same.
Great Video. I have the 2 TB OWC Envoy Pro FX connected to a Belkin Pro Dock. I have a MacBook Pro 16 inch I9 2.3 GHZ. My MAC internal 1 TB drive gets an almost even 3.3 gigabytes/sec read and write with ATTO Disk Benchmark. My OWC Envoy Pro FX 2 TB gets about 2.7 gigabytes/sec read and 1.5 gigabytes/sec write times. Very happy with the external TB3 OWC. For a portable recording studio drive I cannot complain. Never tried to test directly to a TB3 port on the MacBook pro. I will have to give it a try.
It's frustrating to see the M1 suffer with their numbers on TB3 Drive transfers; especially since this has been an issue that Apple has not addressed since I got the Mac Mini M1 back in January. I'm sitting here surrounded by enclosures and NVME drives trying to troubleshoot with no resolve. Frustrating indeed.
A 'kind of solution, for M1 Mac owners that have the issue you describe above, is using a dock. But not just any dock. I saw a few weeks back (on TH-cam) a guy that was fed up with this issue and experimented by using various docks, and found one that DID make a difference. Sorry though I don't remember either the name or the channel ..
Good Luck
I am so glad you actually test the cache effects of these drives. Not everyone does this and there are TLC standard drives but there are also QLC drives that will slow down to a crawl.
I bought a FIDECO USB 3.2 Gen 2 enclosure and a Samsung 970 Pro with the idea that this m.2 ssd has 2 bit MLC storage so that I can buy a Thunderbolt 3 case and then work with speed that will never slow, like the Envoy Pro FX. The 980 pro that supersedes this does not have this type of behaviour, slowing down from 5000 MB/s to 2000 after 120GB slc cache.
I will never buy anything alse ever again
Testing over time was something I knew I wanted to do if it was going to be my main editing drive. Thanks for watching and the comment.
Great Video!
Thanks a lot!
Outstanding video. Keep up the good work. Just what I needed. I am a subscriber.
Thank you!
Great video! I wish all were so clear! But since this video is 2 yrs old what are your thoughts and best picks for external storage in Apr 2024?
4TB seems to be a sweet spot, but if the device can be updated, I could start small and increase later, as prices drop. I did not buy an OWC Envoy Pro FX for that reason, but could be persuaded...
It would be backup for a 2021 MBP M1 Pro, and a MBP-2015 TBolt2. I need to consolidate from a mess of thumb drives!
Thanks again for your great review.
Hey, thanks for watching. Best bang for your buck would be an NVME and a thunderbolt or USB4 enclosure. I show a couple on this video if that helps. th-cam.com/video/L8auI4MJ5Zg/w-d-xo.html
Very helpful, thanks for the testing
Glad it was helpful!
Great video man well done.
Much appreciated
Hi Jerry,
Thanks for the detailed review, I've got one OWC Envoy Pro FX 4TB today and tried it with the new Mac mini M2 Pro running latest Ventura OS. Unfortunately I'm getting very mixed results on the speed, using Blackmagic disk speed test, it starts with 2700 MB/s after seconds it goes to 700 MB/s on both read and write, and it keeps changing up and down. even I tried copying 500GB normal footage files and calculated the speed, it ended with average 600 MB/s during the copy. I've tried formatting with APFS and Mac OS extended, both same. do you have any idea what might be the problem? I'm thinking to return it as I'm really not getting the benefit of NVMe speeds. the cable is thunderbolt and I tried 4 different cables.
I have 2017 iMac fusion. Any advice for best ssd for this model. I’m into content creation
Great video. Just wondering if any or all of these can be used as a boot drive for an iMac?
Yes they can all be used as a boot drive but internal boot drive is usually best.
fhe 2022 lacie still sold at Apple store in 2024. $109 for 1TB ssd. box says Mac and Windows. Pretty sure utilities included are out of date. Supposedly iPadOS compatible. Do I need a Mac or PC to format it for iPad? Should it be APFS or ExFAT?
You need a Mac to format it APFS, exfat also works.
Thank you very much !
Beware of the old "Bait & Switch" by manufacturers - they are all at it. The initial drive components released in the first wave for review purposes are not necessarily included in the drives released on Amazon and others. Only one of the 3 principle ssd board components needs to be swapped with an inferior cheaper version to downgrade the performance.
I think there was one company that did that. Do you have info about more? Also, I don't think any of these were new when I bought them.
awesome video Im not using a mac Im on an Acer Spin5. My current plan is to build a plug in battle station/desktop stile system and would like to have some extra storage on sight for games and such. With that my laptop can stay free and clean.
Sounds great!
Hi Jerry as a man obviously in the know what is your take on an issue Ive recently come into contact with, that being the apparent decrease in performance of the USB bus in Apple silicon Macs compared to recent Apple Intel Macs. Case in point, Ive recently splashed out on a M2 Studio that I will be using for both video and photography editing. I had a bunch of SSD drives that I had been using on a well speced 2020 Intel iMac. While I was not expecting any speed bump from these SSds on the Mac Studio I certainly was not expecting a drop off in performance of up to 25%. The problem, as I am sure you will appreciate, makes 4K editing using ProResHQ on these compromised drives now very marginal, at least according to Blackmagic speed checker. Im wondering if you have an opinion on that particular situation? or have I just got my panties in a twist?
Interesting video and testing! You say” in case you’re wondering the M1 Mac had similar results to the Intel after 10 minutes“ The slide shows the OMC R/W as 2103/2503. But you show OMC R/W 1380/2779 on a previous slide. What gives? Did I miss something here.
Use to think highly of OWC. Have an Envoy Pro SX, Envoy Pro EX, and a Thunderbolt 4 hub. The Envoy Pro SX is very poor on performance. Only getting 1300 to 1500mbps connected to Thunderbolt 3/4 on my MacBook Pro and/or Mac Studio. Connected with an OWC Thunderbolt 4 cable and formatted to APFS. I’ve tried going through the OWC hub and directly to each Mac. No difference in performance. Good luck getting any customer or tech support. Never ending holds on a call and never answer on the chat setup. Can’t recommend OWC until they get the act together. Much better options out there that actually meet the performance advertised.
So I have a 2021 MacBook Pro 14”M1 which will work the best for me and all my music files as I use my computer to dj with
Thanks that was very helpful
Thanks for the video.
Excellent review. Help me make a decision.
Nice video great and helpful information. I’m a Dj and need a fast read speed drive.
Great video, as I now expect from you. I am looking at setting up a mac mini for my pops and we will probably buy him a base model M1. He needs a lot of storage, however, so I am thinking to set him up with a nice external drive zip tied to the back of the monitor or wherever. I saw one company came out with a M.2 SATA SSD compatible port hub the mini can sit on, but sadly it's not TB compatible. What a waste of time to do that! I guess most people don't understand how much it affects performance. Maybe someone will make something like that, but TB... OWC perhaps?
I mean, most people dont need thunderbolt speeds and something like the samsung t7 is absolutely more speed then most people need especially when its being used mainly as a storage drive.
@@JerrySchulze They may not need TB speeds, but your standard USB speed vs TB difference can be a huge real world difference. When he looks through his photo files, it makes a gigantic difference in how fast the thumbnails load up, how fast a picture opens, etc.
should i use AFPS for mac and ipad? Any reason to have a spare ExFAT for emergency?😊
You should not need exfat unless you need to connect to a Windows computer.
Be aware of the limited SLC Cache!
The Sabrent ROCKET XTRM-Q.surpasses them all and is the best choice ...
I think music could be a little louder. Maybe 20%? Cant even hear it. Great to set the mood.
Just there to block room hiss but I take your point.
Mac OS does NOT support NAS drives for restoring a backup. Found this out the hard way.
It would be interesting how they perform with the new MacBook Pro MAX.
Same as M1.
Have you taken a look at the TEKQ Thunderbolt 3 SSD's? They seem to be highly reviewed and less than the four included in this video.
The best SSD you can get for your new MacBook Pro is the one inside reading twice as fast as the very fastest external drive.
True but at a very high cost. At some point the SSD is not a bottleneck to performance.
@@JerrySchulze Yeah that is true. 50% more per GB (but triple the speed) of an enclosed aftermarket NVMe. No matter how fast, the SSD is still the slowest part of any computer. Don't underestimate the effect additional speed has on the overall experience.
Isn’t the owc envoy pretty close ?
True. I got 4tb
I'm buying the Sony As 3, an Apple M1, and I'm going to be actively using Adobe Premier Pro for work. Do you still suggest the G- Drive? today? Let me know if you have an updated video, Thank you.
All of these will handle that workload just fine. I think the OWC is the best overall.
Thanks for the informative video! What about running virtual instrument samples for your DAW (I'm on Logic Pro)? I'm strongly considering the Envoy FX, since I've purchased from OWC in the past.
As a long time OWC user, I’ve always had good results with them when loading Kontakt libraries from those. I just ordered the envoy fx pro 4tb and I do not expect anything different. OWC has earned my trust.
Thank you
Hey Jerry! Great job, thanks. I have a few questions. Why are the read speeds always slower than write speeds? Isn’t it usually the other way around with HDs, if I remember correctly? Is it just inherent to how SSDs work, period? Also, why such a big discrepancy between the M1 and Intel machines on read speeds? Can it be the controller is better optimized in the Intel version? I hope Apple engineers can figure something out to close the gap. Last thing is how did the Apple SSD in the M1 perform? Did you run any tests on it? If so, what were the numbers on it? Thanks again!
Hi, in almost all cases the reads were faster than write. If I mis-spoke in the video do you have a time stamp? Im not sure why the M1 is slower than intel when it comes to thunderbolt but it is. For the Internal disk test I actually covered that in my unboxing and performance test video for the MacBook Pro and Air. I would have to rewatch the video, but I believe they were around 2400MBps.
@@JerrySchulze My bad! I turned the read/write around, not you. I apologize. So, Apple’s SSDs aren’t all that much faster really. So, third party Thunderbolt 4 SSDs are the better value. Only downside is you have to lug it around with a cable if you need it on the go. I love your content. Sorry for my screw up, Jerry. 🤪
No prob, thanks for checking it out!
Hola 😊me agradó mucho tu video, tengo una consulta ¿al día de hoy 2023 junio, qué disco externo me recomendarías para poder usarlo en un Mac mini m1, para editar video desde el disco externo o usarlo como disco de cache? espero me puedas ayudar. Gracias ❤
Is there any advantage of using an external ssd versus upgrading the internal ssd for m1 pro. 1 tb upgrade is about $400, and most of these external ssds are around $300. The difference though is that they are not as fast as the internal ssd.
I am just thinking: 10 minutes times 60 seconds times 2GB/s writes - 1200GB (1,2TB) ... you've written full drives during that time? But all things aside, yes, temperature is key regarding slow-downs and considering how I am using 500GB T5 SSD with my third mac ... I would say, Samsung is the only company with total vertical integration of all elements in the drive. I would still go with X5.
Yep, lots of data during that test but the results were interesting.
@@JerrySchulze My point is - Migration Assistant" accounted for 150GB for me, and even slow 500MB/s T5 took like ... 20 minutes to set all things up. Looking at 1200GB is a bit overkill for most cases.
Wait, you're not the same guy from the channel Extra Credits?
I need a link to verify.
@@JerrySchulze th-cam.com/users/extracredits The voice and word dictation is sooo similar!
I have verified that I am not that person. lol. I'll take the subscribers, though.
@@JerrySchulze hahaha, with you're quality content, I'm sure it'll be in no time
I appreciate that.
$350? Why not buy a Pcie ssd for 199 and enclosure for $20 to get 2000mb/s?
That's an option for sure. I think many people want the one stop item and support if needed. As to the speed, still comes down to potential limitations of the platform. Do you have an enclosure and drive you recommend?
@@JerrySchulze Thanks Jerry. I purchased a Sabrent Rocket Q 2TB NVMe PCIe withe an enclosure of upto 10gb/s. Its only giving me 950mb/s read/write. When its supposed to give 2000. Any idea what could be wrong? Enclosure or the drive? I'm using it as ain external ssd with mac M1 pro. Appreciate your insights.
@@MR-AK That is the limit of a 10gbps enclosure. That is USB-C 3.2 speed, not thunderbolt.
@@JerrySchulze do you suggest a different enclosure
I know OWC makes a thunderbolt enclosure that will get you around 1500MBps. The key is going Thunderbolt. geni.us/w9zDR
Wow! Thank you. Just the video I’m that I needed I couldn’t find something like this online even with respectable and famous tech journalist sites.
A year ever since this video, what’s your pick for a low end 2017 MacBook Pro?
Thanks! I still believe the OWC is the best overall Thunderbolt drive. If you want to buy a case and SSD separately there are other options but the OWC is great!
Thanks for the speedy reply, do you know of any other solutions that will achieve similar results (to to accommodate my tight budget of 250), and do you believe that my MacBook will deliver the same as your results although being low spec? Because if not then maybe I should just not go for a SSD with a regular USB 3.1 if I won’t be able to get such speeds with my 2017 8GB ram 2.3ghz Dual core i5 MacBook Pro
@@2ShortNsweet oh for sure if you don’t NEED Thunderbolt speed then you can save a good chunk of money with something like this: Samsung T7 SSD: geni.us/7I6CqB
Yeah, but will I achieve similar results (2x faster than non TB) with my specific MacBook? and if yes what’s the cheapest option that will overall be still 2x non-tb?
You should test the sabrent xtrm-q thunderbolt 3 ssd, it has the highest slc cache compared to other thunderbolt 3 ssd's, it's also the cheapest drive
hmm
Sabrent is a joke. Read it’s Amazon review.
I just grabbed an Samsung X5 at a very low price of around 337 USD. I am however a M1 user and speeds a abysmally bad. Should I keep it for this low price? What are the odds that Apple will fix it?
Thunderbolt is just slower on apple silicon and I do not think there will be any fix. The OWC had the most stable speed of these 4 but right now I am using a Nvme and enclosure that I show in my Mac studio accessories video.
Heard of the Fantom eXtreme? How might that compare?
What about Plugable 2TB Thunderbolt 3 External SSD?
🤔 Macs have Thunderbolt 4 ports as well. Why did you omit that in your report? I’m running a Mac Studio.
This was made quite some time ago before the Mac Studio. Also, this was specifically about Thunderbolt 3 at the time, which is the exact same speed as Thunderbolt 4.
@@JerrySchulze - are you telling me then that if I get A thunderbolt 3 hub it will work just fine if I plug it into a thunderbolt 4? Additionally Mac Studio does not support USB 3.2 only 3.1 which was released nearly a decade ago.
G-Drive Mobile Pro cost nearly as much as the
M 1 MacBook Air.
Ok with APFS but if I need to format the disk in ExFat to be compatible also with Windows, the speed will drop?
Glyph Atom series are the best tho lol
Why are these so expensive? i can buy a super fast 1TB SSD for $150, $250 more to get a fancy thunderbolt connection? I don't get it.
which drives do you like?
Will these also work on Windows?
Yes, if you have thunderbolt.
can you review kingston xs2000 too? please..
I went with the m.2 enclosure route.
nice, which one? how's your speeds?
@@JerrySchulze Write about 1416 read 2758. SSD is a 970 Evo Plus 2TB, case is ACASIS USB4.0 enclosure
@@michaellatta 970 Evo is compatible with M1?
@@arunrajr12345 I am using a 970 EVO as my back up drive with CCC in my M1 MBP. I am using a thunderbolt enclosure for NVME storage.
@@michaellattaThanks for replying. I need this external m2 to be connected to my lap for prolonged period of time let's say for couple of days. Will it cause any heating or connection issues?
By any chance have u tried this use case?
I just got a 16" m1pro...will this work for editing on the go: SanDisk 1TB Extreme Portable External SSD - USB-C, USB 3.1 -claims to go up to 1050MB/s read and up to 1000MB/s write speeds- enough for video editing? HD and 4k from a Sony a6400 and a7iii? thanks so much
Absolutely it is fast enough.
@@JerrySchulze Great...may get a 2 TB. Thanks
Hi all, I have an external case with 20gbps Thunderbolt USB-C (Icy Box IB-1916M-c32), and a Kingston SSD which claims ≈1700mbps speed, soooo why BlackMagic measures 800-900mbps only? I know it’s an ideal case only, but still… 😒 i’m working with an M1 Mac Mini. Do you guys know? (The cable is the provided one with the external case, and the connection is direct.) Thanks for your thoughts.
I don’t think that Mac supports the 20gbps usb. If you want faster than 10gb you need Thunderbolt n
Those USB-C ports are Thunderbolt 3 ports on the M1 Mac Mini, so it shouldn't be the problem
what about copying files and the slc cache on all of these???
Does the OWC PRO FX support start up disk for Macbook 2017 Mojave?
I have used it to start up an intel imac and m1 macbook.
Are there any good thunderbolt 4 drives and any thunderbolt 3 drives ssd with more tb after so many months?
May want to buy an nvme and enclosure. I discussed in this video here with timestamp: th-cam.com/video/_GnSL9Vyqek/w-d-xo.html
Apple totally screwed up their Thunderbolt USB Controller. All SSD's run exponentially slower on an M1 Mac compared to Intel Based systems. What a scam. I have an M1 Mac and i'm disappointed AF.
I'm watching this video in the same shirt right now.
Give it back!
Any reason to get a large physical size of external SSD when you can get the same storage capacity and performance too in a lot smaller physical size?
What do you think of the new G-drive Armorlock ssd? I like yellow color so I interested in it but its quite large isn't it plus its usb speed and not thunderbolt, will it too clumbersome to use, i just want one to backup my personal life file and works, these hardware encryption and rugged design are nice addition but not must
These things can get really hot and fail. Bigger devices might be better at dissipating heat. Notice that the bigger drives did better in the tests where they ran them for a while to show how they slow down when they get hot. The OWC was the outlier. It’s not that big but the whole case is a heat sink. It did very well on that test.
but what about thunderbolt 4 portable SSDs
Should be no difference in speed. Same max 40gbps unless I am missing something.
@@JerrySchulze I am getting max 20 not 40 on my thunderbolt three SSD
BOOTABLE IS THE KEY HERE FOLKS !!!
Interesting. I haven’t booted off an external drive for quite a while. Heat and slowdown would be the main concern with it running as your main drive.
@@JerrySchulze and no-one does reviews of this and on devices with a fixed drive one would think would be a big concern. Best way to run desktop macs as no worries to drive wear or security.
I feel the need….the need for speed. Da speed of heat! Thanks Jerry for your latest. Can’t wait for your test drive on the new iPad Pro….please wear your seatbelt. Be well
🤣
How is kingston xs2000
Thanks for making this video.
What do you think is the best hub for the new m1 iPad Pro with thunderbolt 4? It needs to have 3.5 mm headphone jack, HDMI and card reader please.
I haven't been able to test a new iPad yet so TBD.
@@JerrySchulze I look forward to your recommendations.
Can’t wait for your test drive
Any update? T7 and Sandisk extreme $125
This video is about Thunderbolt drives, not USB-C.
what about the ssd samsung T7 gen 2 🤔
Hi, this was about the fastest drives which would mean thunderbolt. I have a t7 and it’s great but it’s less than 1000MBps.
They're not with the high cost. It's better value paying Apple for upgraded storage
👉 Does anyone have a suggestion for an external 2TB SSD hard drive that runs on Thunderbolt 4 or USB 4?
My mac is still thunderbolt 2.0
I like it fast!
Who let this sicko in here?
I have an iMac (2019) i3 and it's slow as pond water. I have a Samsung T7 but I still find it slow. Can anyone give me a good recommendation. I upgraded to 32GB if that helps.
The t7 is not thunderbolt but you should still be getting 6-700MBps or so.
How is sandisk pro extrem on M1 max pro 2021 16inch
Speeds are the same compared to M1.
.
While so quick to share those 10-minute test results and then assuming the cause to be heat sinks and/or thermals, you missed a vital opportunity to educate your viewers. Had you done a bit more research, you’d have found the cause one that future purchasers could research and seek on spec sheets and product pages. Make your findings starting points and opportunities for viewers to learn what to look for on their own instead of offering up assumptions and lazy conclusive statements.