Best SSD external drives

[Alwyn]

It has been suggested to me on this Forum that for CCC Big Sur backups using APFS spin drives are too slow. There are plenty of unbranded portable SSD 1TB external drives at prices around £25-£30 but the branded ones cost at least £90. For our friends across the pond prices are probably the same in $. They say you get what you pay for but it may be that you are just paying extra for the brand.

 

[Raz0rEdge]

I currently have a Sandisk 1TB SSD that I've been using for quite a while and it has been working really well. You absolutely want to spend the money to get a known brand. That way, even if things begin to fail, you'll have an opportunity to get it replaced under warranty and so on.

 

[RadDave]

It has been suggested to me on this Forum that for CCC Big Sur backups using APFS spin drives are too slow. There are plenty of unbranded portable SSD 1TB external drives at prices around £25-£30 but the branded ones cost at least £90. For our friends across the pond prices are probably the same in $. They say you get what you pay for but it may be that you are just paying extra for the brand.

I have just over a dozen external drives for backup of 3 Macs (do duplicate TM & CCC - have not upgraded yet to Big Sur on my 2 computers that are compatible) - about a third of those externals are SSDs, nearly all the two brands shown below - when my spinners start to 'die', I'll replace them w/ SSDs. Dave
.

 

[Raz0rEdge]

The top one in Dave's list is what I just bought to use with my PS5. I have had the Gen 1 version for about a year and half now.

 

[WW4B]

How about a WD My Passport for Mac. Is this a good one to use as an external hard rive for backups.

 

[chscag]

The top one in Dave's list is what I just bought to use with my PS5.

Who did you have to kill to get that PS5?

 

[Raz0rEdge]

Who did you have to kill to get that PS5?

Just ordered it yesterday actually, lots of waiting and using the right Chrome extensions to watch for stock across a number of sites. Had tried 3 times before unsuccessfully, but finally manage to snag one from Amazon. Arriving on Sunday, only then will I know for sure that I actually got it.

 

[chscag]

Congratulations on hooking one. Every site I've gone to is out of stock and the thieves on eBay are making a killing on them.

Let us know how you like it.

 

[Randy B. Singer]

There are plenty of unbranded portable SSD 1TB external drives at prices around £25-£30 but the branded ones cost at least £90. For our friends across the pond prices are probably the same in $. They say you get what you pay for but it may be that you are just paying extra for the brand.

You definitely get what you pay for with an SSD. If an SSD seems to be too inexpensive, you are likely going to see either noticeably reduced performance, or severely reduced life expectancy, or both.

Inexpensive SSD's sometimes are cheaper because they don't include DRAM (a very fast type of memory used to do look-ups, which provides a significant performance improvement):

(I HIGHLY recommend that you watch the above video! It's an eye-opener!)

SSD's that I've heard of without DRAM have come from SanDisk, Kingston, and from MicroCenter/Inland.

Sometimes an SSD is cheaper because it doesn't include overprovisioning. As an SSD is used, some registers go bad because of overuse. Overprovisioning means that the drive has spare registers that can be used to replace those that go bad. This drastically extends the life of an SSD and it helps maintain performance during its entire lifetime.

SSD Over-Provisioning And Its Benefits | Seagate US

www.seagate.com

Some Samsung SSD's are suspiciously reasonably priced because they provide no overprovisioning whatsoever.

A third thing to look for is whether or not an SSD is compatible with Apple's TRIM software. If TRIM can't be enabled on an SSD, even if the SSD has enabled some of TRIM's functions via ROM, the SSD is going to have a drastically reduced lifespan, and it is going to slow down precipitously as it ages:

What is SSD TRIM, why is it useful, and how to check whether it is turned on | Digital Citizen

What is TRIM when referring to SSDs (Solid State Disks)? What does it do? Why is it useful for the performance of an SSD drive? How to check whether it is turned on in Windows?

www.digitalcitizen.life

Who makes the very best SSD's? Intel and Angelbird. Compare the prices for their SSD's against those from, for instance, SanDisk. (Note that I'm not saying that SanDisk's SSD's are "bad". I'm just saying that there is a reason that their SSD's are noticeably cheaper than others.)

 

[RadDave]

As usual, Randy brings up some important points concerning external SSDs - these issues have come up a number of times and I just re-watched the video (for probably the 4th time over the last few years). Unfortunately, this information is not easily obtained unless 'in-depth' reviews discuss these issues related to TRIM and DRAM on SSDs. Just to show some of my own frustrations - I've been buying Samsung T5 SSDs for a while - back in late 2019 and early 2020, I sent Samsung a number of emails trying to obtain information on my T5 SSDs - below are their responses to me - thanks, big help! When I run DriveDx on these SSDs, I get SMART status reported but not much else related to the features under question (last pic below).

Obviously, I'm not offering any solutions or advice on which brands/models to buy but making a selection(s) is not always an easy decision. Dave
.

 

[chscag]

A third thing to look for is whether or not an SSD is compatible with Apple's TRIM software. If TRIM can't be enabled on an SSD, even if the SSD has enabled some of TRIM's functions via ROM, the SSD is going to have a drastically reduced lifespan, and it is going to slow down precipitously as it ages:

That would only be applicable on internal SSDs. Apple has never allowed TRIM on an external SSD.

 

[Randy B. Singer]

...p! When I run DriveDx on these SSDs, I get SMART status reported but not much else related to the features under question (last pic below)...

DriveDx doesn't tell you specifically if your SSD has DRAM, or if it has overprovisioning, or if it has TRIM enabled, but the DriveDx report does have a lot of valuable information with regard to your SSD.

It tells you that your SSD's lifetime is at 99%, that no blocks have had to be replaced, and that wear leveling has barely even been needed. It looks like your SSD has barely been used and like it has many years ahead of it.

With regard to the features you are concerned about, good SSD's have those specs available somewhere. For those that don't, you can often find them on testing sites or in user reviews. (If you read on Amazon that a particular SSD slowed WAY down after a year, you know that it's features are lacking. If you read that a particular SSD was never as fast as other SSD's to begin with, then you know that it has no DRAM.)

When purchasing an SSD, you likely aren't going to be purchasing the very best one, because it will be too expensive. So you have to make an educated decision on which to purchase. If you are concerned, the rule of thumb is that buying an SSD that is way too big for your needs often covers up any serious deficiencies, and getting one that is too small with do the opposite. Likewise, having a lot of RAM installed will make up for any deficiencies because the drive will see way fewer disk reads and writes, with much data being handled entirely in RAM.

 

[RadDave]

Thanks Charlie and Randy for your additional comments - as Samsung stated in their first response to me in late 2019, TRIM is not implemented on external SSDs; I know the technology is on all of my internal Mac SSDs, so probably not an important issue for me since I use these external drives only intermittently rather than continuously attached - I believe that the type of attachment of the external drive, e.g. USB prevents the use of TRIM but that would need clarification for me to better understand.

Now as to DRAM vs. DRAM-less external SSDs, my response from Samsung (as quoted in my last post) was rather irritating - basically, I was not told about its use or lack (which I suspect) because the company does not give out this information (trade secrets or not?) - again, I'm not that sure how important a DRAM SSD is relative to the ways I use these external drives, probably of little impact, seeing that all of SSDs being used now show about the same results from the DriveDx app; but in my future purchases of SSDs, I'll be paying more attention! Dave

 

[chscag]

It is interesting that the most popular brand of SSD that Apple uses in its machines is Samsung. For a while back, Apple also used Toshiba but the performance and durability was lacking.

It appears that Samsung is the major supplier of Apple SSDs. So it is strange that Samsung is reluctant to give out specs.

 

[Randy B. Singer]

It is interesting that the most popular brand of SSD that Apple uses in its machines is Samsung. For a while back, Apple also used Toshiba but the performance and durability was lacking.

It appears that Samsung is the major supplier of Apple SSDs. So it is strange that Samsung is reluctant to give out specs.

I fear that Samsung doesn't want users to know that their SSD's have what can be perceived as deficient specifications. I have read that many Samsung SSD's have no overprovisioning whatsoever.

I wouldn't read too much into Samsung being Apple's supplier of SSD's. As with Apple's monitors (Samsung manufactures all of Apple's external monitors and then puts Apple's name on them), Samsung branded equipment that is available directly to consumers is usually of an entirely different quality and specification. Apple can dictate specifications for equipment that they act as OEM for.

 

[ferrarr]

For my usage, SSD's are not needed for backups.

 

[krs]

After a bit of research last fall for a 1 TB SSD to replace the original 500GB spinner in my 2012 Mac Mini, I decided this SSD was the best bang for the buck: Crucial MX500
I have been using that as my boot drive,but it's still in an external case right now.
So before I go through the exercise to install this in the Mini to replace the spinner, I wanted to see if anyone has comments about that SSD and if perhaps a different one would be more suitable as a boot drive.
I'm much more interested about reliability and life than access speed.
RelaxedTech in their review lists these advanced features:

• Dynamic Write Acceleration
• Redundant Array of Independent NAND (RAIN)
• Multistep Data Integrity Algorithm
• Adaptive Thermal Protection
• Active Garbage Collection
• TRIM Support
• Self-Monitoring and Reporting Technology (SMART)
• Error Correction Code (ECC)
• Device Sleep Support

The SSD does use DRAMs
No mention of over provisioning
And no idea if TRIM support is for theMac as well

Anyone have any input on that?

 

[krs]

For my usage, SSD's are not needed for backups.

I agree.
In fact I think spinners have one big advantage overSSDs, they often let you know when they are about to fail - SSDs just tend to fail from one second to the next.

 

[IWT]

SSDs just tend to fail from one second to the next.

Agree!! Happened to me recently. No warning. Luckily an EHD and no big deal.

Ian

 

[Howard Brazee]

I have a LaCie External 1TB Solid State mobile that I bought in an Apple Store a year or so ago. It is tiny, silver, and has one socket and two cords to plug into either USB, USB-C. My iMac doesn't have the current Thunderbolt plug, so I use USB. I used the other cord to plug into my wife's iMac with Thunderbolt-3, and it worked there.

I bought this so that I could dual boot to Mojave to run a program that will be converted to 64-bits sometime this spring!?!?! But I see Apple is now selling Macs with much less storage as its default these days. I'll see what I can afford when my program is 64-bits and the M1-iMac is released. I might move most of my data to this SSD.

One caveat. I read an article telling how to boot an M1 Mac to its external SSD. It specified that the SSD needs to be Thunderbolt-compatible. While this plugs into a Thunderbolt plug, it is USB-C. It will work fine for data, but according to that article, it won't work for an external dual-boot on an M1 Mac.