I have been thinking about replacing a couple of external hard drives that are starting to show their age. Both are 4 TB hard drives, where one serves as my primary data drive for storing photos and other data, while the other is used as one of two backup copies. Instead of just buying newer hard drives to replace them, I am considering switching to external SSDs.
One of my objectives was to enhance data read/write speed. All my Apple Mac computers have been equipped with internal SSDs for quite some time, but none of them have had large enough devices to store my accumulated photos and data over the years. Therefore, I decided to go for an external SSD. Recently, I purchased a SanDisk Professional (PRO-G40) Thunderbolt 3 4TB SSD, and I must say, I have been thoroughly impressed with its performance. It came preformatted for a Mac.
I used the BlackMagicDesign v3.4.2 disk speed test app to test both the speed of the internal Apple SSD on my early 2020 Mac Mini and the PRO-G40 SSD connected via a Thunderbolt 3 cable. The results are below:
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The Internal SSD is faster in reading and writing, but only slightly. However, in real-world scenarios, the difference is hardly noticeable. On the other hand, the external Thunderbolt 3 SSD is significantly faster than the external USB-C hard drive it is replacing, which has a speed of around 200MB/s. The improvement is quite noticeable.
https://meanderingpassage.com//wp-content/uploads/images/2023/10/Thunderbolt3_External_SSD.jpg
There are countless external SSDs available in the market, and while some are affordable, only a few boast and obtain this speed. Unfortunately, high speed and quality still come at a cost, so I will have to start saving until I can replace my other hard drive. However, I also thought about the benefits of having more space, easier portability, reduced noise, and lower electricity consumption.
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I have had the 4Tb Western Digital SSD drives for a year of so. One drive holds my current images and the other is a backup. I did not go for speed but price. 😂 Hope you enjoy them. When you say countless drives, you are not kidding! By the way what software do you use for backing up?
I guess I’m late to the party. ~grin~ There are so many choices, and it’s hard to know what’s what. Not just on price, you probably figured reliability into your selection with a well-known brand name. I currently use “ChronoSync” for backups, but I’ve also used “Superduper” in the past. Both allow unattended timed “smart” backups and seem to work well. Thanks, Monte.
There was some hubbub about WD SSD’s some months ago suddenly failing, I don’t know if they resolved it or not. I know on my old machine, going to SSD made a world of difference in overall speeds and I just had to upgrade storage and went with a 4TB SSD for photos and keep a backup w/ Backblaze.
I must say the performance of SSDs varies widely. I own an older external 4TB SSD that I bought ‘on the cheap,’ and while it’s still almost twice as fast as my previous hard disk, it’s nowhere near the speed of my recent SanDisk Thunderbolt3 SSD. I hadn’t heard anything about the recent reports of WD SSDs failing.
It may be limited to certain models. Here is one of the articles I recall: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/08/sandisk-extreme-ssds-are-still-wiping-data-after-firmware-fix-users-say/
I’m happy I also back up to my NAS array weekly. Most of the failures mentioned are Sandisk Extremes of one flavor or the other. However, a search for SanDisk PRO-G40 SSD failures did find one mention but no details. I guess it’s great until it’s not. Maybe I’ll hang on to my newest among the old hard drives. ;-)