Need advice on best 4TB NVMe SSD to buy for my OWC 1M2 80G external

[hassiman]

Hello,
I just purchased an OWC 1M2 80GB external housing to use with my new Mac Studio M4 Max.
I was hoping to get advice on best 4TB NVMe SSD to buy.
I don't think I need the very fastest SSD for Lightroom Classic, Photoshop, Gigapixel and video editing.
I will be running it from the studio's Thunderbolt 5 port.
I would like to get one that does not run red hot, Has DRAM and has a high BTW,
There is just so much out there and it's confusing me to no end...
Thanks

 

[clee01l]

Hello,
I just purchased an OWC 1M2 80GB external housing to use with my new Mac Studio M4 Max.
I was hoping to get advice on best 4TB NVMe SSD to buy.
I don't think I need the very fastest SSD for Lightroom Classic, Photoshop, Gigapixel and video editing.
I will be running it from the studio's Thunderbolt 5 port.
I would like to get one that does not run red hot, Has DRAM and has a high BTW,
There is just so much out there and it's confusing me to no end...
Thanks

Why not just get the one recommended and sold by OWC?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[stevevp]

I've been doing some research on this recently as I need a fast external drive to go with my new MBP M5 Max.
I concluded that I would purchase an empty OWC Express 1M2 80Gb/s Portable NVMe SSD USB4 enclosure and a WD_BLACK SN850X NVMe SSD 4TB drive.
I had previously decided on an Acasis TBU 501 PRO enclosure which has a cooling fan but considered this another point of potential failure.
I found the whole process to be a minefield with negative feedback for all drives and enclosures whether for overall reliability, heat, caching issues and throttling.
Samsung drives seem to have a bigger caching problem than the WD but whether this is for both sequential or random writes I have no idea.
In the UK it is not possible to buy the OWC Express direct from OWC complete with drives and I have no idea what they install. A company called Scan has them but not the 4TB variety. I may regret not going for an 8TB drive but this comes in at an eye watering £1800 complete. You could by a decent spec Macbook Air for this!
I had not heard of the Hynix drive but they seem to get the same comments on heat and caching. YMMV!
Whatever I end up going for I will ensure I have a robust back up strategy in place as none of the 80Gb/s offerings fill me with confidence.
Good luck. Please report back.

 

[Gnits]

I built a custom high spec Win machine several years ago. I used an M2 Nvme ssd with 6700 MB for the o/s & apps…
and installed an identical drive ..dedicated to my Catalog and current years images. At the time… the price for these were eye watering. But I want a high spec machine.

Bottom line.. they made no difference to LrC performance … that I could detect…

Prob 18 months ago I moved my Catalog (and now 2 years images ) to a Samsung T9 external ssd. This dropped the rated I/o to something like 2000MB/s but less in reality, especially for sustained copy operations.

The net effect… again I did not notice any difference in performance.

My accumulated view on this is that you will be punished by LrC with a slow disk (eg poor ports, cables or old ext spinning drive).. but once you go past a basic level ( I would say the speed of an internal Sata 6 hdd) you will get very minor rewards in terms of performance from LrC by opting for exotic components.

 

[stevevp]

Thanks for the comment. That looks like a cheeky bit of advertising added to the end of my post but in German?

 

[Jim Wilde]

Thanks for the comment. That looks like a cheeky bit of advertising added to the end of my post but in German?

I've deleted the post as spam. For some reason this thread appears to have attracted quite a few spammers.

 

[stevevp]

Unfortunately the OP hasn't reported back.
I've been dithering for my own purchase mainly because of the cost. Based on the comments above, would the following be upto the job for my LRC Archive - I'd use it for my pre-2025 photos but these might still require edits?:
SANDISK Extreme Portable SSD 8TB (upto 1050 MB/s Read, 1000 MB/s Write
It seems to be a relatively affordable 8TB drive. The Extreme Pro Portable (2000 MB/s) isn't available in 8TB. Ditto the Samsung T9.
Many thanks.

​

 

[Gnits]

My current practice is to use Spinning Hard Drives for non current (ie not archieved but not active) images. I do use fast external Samsung T9 SSDs for my last 12 months images (which will likely extend to my last 24 months due to low volumes).

Provided your spinning disk is attached to a decent speed port (I would regard Sata 6 as more than ok) you will not have performance issues. It would be better to put the money into a good disk enclosure, say capable of storing 4 spinning large drives with a Thunderbolt interface). One to store archives, a second for backing up archives and two spare slots for future use. This enclosure will make upgrades of future computers that much easier and is a long term solution.

I am hesitant to spend any money on SSD’s at the moment, due to massive price increases. I know I have enough capacity for the next 12 months or more and hoping the storage costs will have calmed down by then.

 

[clee01l]

I've been dithering for my own purchase mainly because of the cost. Based on the comments above, would the following be upto the job for my LRC Archive - I'd use it for my pre-2025 photos but these might still require edits?:

My older photos (and Newest too) are on a 16TB HDD connected via TB4. There is no reason to spend the money for Solid State Disks at current prices. I do not see any performance advantage using a SSD for Lightroom. An 8TB SSD is relatively recent offering and IMO barely adequate for storing images for a long time photographer.

What is it that dictates that you have to have the latest and fastest for your work? Are these the same people that complain about the high prices of Apple silicon computers? What you are considering is 1/2 to 1/3 the cost of a M Series Mac which will out perform any Intel/Nvidia computer being sold.

 

[stevevp]

Thanks for the replies.

I have a new M5 MBP MAX. I currently have my 2025/26 photos on the internal drive and the 2000-24 photos on a 6TB Sandisk G-Drive which I find slow to spin up from sleep.

My immediate need is for another >6TB external drive as the G-Drive is formatted ExFAT (so I can transfer files from my PC) but the MBP seemingly won't show thumbnails in Finder with this format (should it?) which is unhelpful. I therefore need another drive formatted APFS to tranfer the G-Drive contents to. There should be no ongoing need to use the PC.

I'm not going for the latest, fastest 80Gb/s drive due to the cost. I could get another G-Drive but feel an SSD will give me some speed gains and some additional (bus powered) portability.

 

[clee01l]

Thanks for the replies.

I have a new M5 MBP MAX. I currently have my 2025/26 photos on the internal drive and the 2000-24 photos on a 6TB Sandisk G-Drive which I find slow to spin up from sleep.

My immediate need is for another >6TB external drive as the G-Drive is formatted ExFAT (so I can transfer files from my PC) but the MBP seemingly won't show thumbnails in Finder with this format (should it?) which is unhelpful. I therefore need another drive formatted APFS to tranfer the G-Drive contents to. There should be no ongoing need to use the PC.

I'm not going for the latest, fastest 80Gb/s drive due to the cost. I could get another G-Drive but feel an SSD will give me some speed gains and some additional (bus powered) portability.

You should see thumbnails on ExFAT. This is the same filesystem used for thumbdrives and camera cards.

Unless you are powering the G-Drive using the MBP on the MBP battery, there is no reason to put the HDD to Sleep. This is a USB 3.1 drive and this of itself is a problem You should get a TB4 enclosure and connect it to one of your TB4 ports. Also if you are not usually portable, a standalone drive enclosure with its own power supply is preferred. I have a 5 Bay Orico. Unless your 6TB is soldered into the Sandisk Enclosure, you can install it in one of the TB bays. Buy another bare HDD for less than$200USD.

 

[stevevp]

Thanks for the advice on thumbnails on ExFAT. I might have to speak to Apple as they are not showing. This is all new to me!
The G-Drive is mains powered. It goes to sleep automatically and I've no idea how to stop it. I'd rather have a portable SSD for now. A TB4 enclosure plus 8TB SSD eg WD Black SN850X will be approximately double the price of the Sandisk Extreme drive I referenced above.
Longer term I plan on a NAS or DAS but need to find some stability first.

 

[clee01l]

Thanks for the advice on thumbnails on ExFAT. I might have to speak to Apple as they are not showing.

It is possible that you do not have the necessary CODEX installed for your file type. All of the standards ones (JPEG, TIFF, DNG ) come with the OS. What is the file type that is not showing ?

 

[clee01l]

Thanks for the advice on thumbnails on ExFAT. I might have to speak to Apple as they are not showing. This is all new to me!
The G-Drive is mains powered. It goes to sleep automatically and I've no idea how to stop it. I'd rather have a portable SSD for now. A TB4 enclosure plus 8TB SSD eg WD Black SN850X will be approximately double the price of the Sandisk Extreme drive I referenced above.
Longer term I plan on a NAS or DAS but need to find some stability first.

Any Portable SSD of any size is IMO unreasonably priced. The perceived benefit cannot justify the cost.. The Largest SSD that you can get is 8TB. I would need 4-5 of those to hold my image data.

The Orico DAS that I referenced has 5 bays it will hold 3.5" or 2.5" HDDs and IIRC SSDs. It is $389USD and a 6TB HDD is $180USD. So for ~$500USD you can have your DAS maybe use the existing 6TB disk ins plus install another 6TB HDD.

As for the EHD going to sleep, I believe this is controlled in the Preferences Battery section.

The Above is from my Apple Neo . My Preferences looks different on my Mac Studio

 

[stevevp]

It is possible that you do not have the necessary CODEX installed for your file type. All of the standards ones (JPEG, TIFF, DNG ) come with the OS. What is the file type that is not showing ?

The files are jpg and NEF. I now realise that this only happens in Search results. The thumbnails display ok in a regular Finder window.
I'll check out the sleep issue. Thank you.

 

[clee01l]

The files are jpg and NEF. I now realise that this only happens in Search results

This is a Puzzle. If I use Spotlight like you illustrate, I get thumb nails. If the search result is large, I get placeholder icons until the file thumbnail is extracted.

 

[stevevp]

If I use Spotlight (of which I was blissfully unaware!) I get tiny, tiny thumbnails. If I use the search bar, top right corner of finder, I get the placeholders. The previews don't appear however long I wait. It's not helpful when I'm trying to locate duplicates.

The jury's still out on the SSD!

 

[clee01l]

If I use Spotlight (of which I was blissfully unaware!) I get tiny, tiny thumbnails. If I use the search bar, top right corner of finder,

Both are using Spotlight. The Finder dialog restricts the Spotlight search to files. Spotlight is always running in the background indexing everything that is available to it, emails, webpages, document contents etc. It can be very resource intensive impacting performance of other apps