External SSD for work
Storage is cheap, as almost everyone says. But is it really? Is the price/performance ratio great with a reputable external SSD? Over the years, I've tried and worked with most of the major brands and have found significant differences in performance. So much so that I now decided to take another route and use an external 3rd party enclosure and an NVME drive to maximise storage space and price/performance ratio.
Brand external SSD
Sandisk, Crucial, etc., almost every big or small company offer some pro-level external SSD solution. If you investigate the price difference, drive speed, capacity and brand reputation make them cheaper or more expensive. They are plug and play; you don't have to do anything other than spend your money, plug it into your computer and use it.
If you're not willing to spend 5 minutes with some very basic assembly, then these are probably the best solutions for you.
However, they often don't offer the best speed or the largest capacity. Even the connection type is usually USB instead of something faster. I know, USB is plenty fast for most applications, but believe me, with minimal research and assembly time, we might get a much faster and bigger drive.
Do it yourself
My growing frustration with pre-built brand SSDs led me to look for other options. You know how it goes, asking fellow photographers what they're using, overloading the search engine with questions, watching so many tests that you got bored with the whole thing.
After this research period, I decided to purchase an ACASIS TBU405Pro enclosure, which offers Thunderbolt/USB connection with blazing fast speed, has a built-in fan to keep the drive cool even under heavy load. That is only an option; under normal use, the fan can be switched off.
Of course, here comes the second part of the research: what drive should I buy? I don't want to unnecessarily tire all my readers, so long story short, these are my points in the research:
1. Read-write speed
2. Capacity
3. MTBF
4. Warranty
Quickly, I've found myself in the gaming community, for obvious reasons, they are obsessed with SSD performance and reliability. With all the great suggestions, I chose to purchase a Kingston Fury Renegade 4TB drive.
The assembly
This is an amazingly easy part. No tools are needed, and the whole thing takes about 2-3 minutes, including unpacking both the drive and the enclosure. Then pop the enclosure open, insert the drive, fix it with the included small rubber thing, stick the cooling pad on top of it, close the enclosure, and you're ready to go.
Real World tests
For simple read/write tests, I used the Blackmagic Disk speed test app. Here are the results with my M3 Max MacBook Pro:
For comparison, this was the original, with a Crucial external USB drive:
As you can see, in every way, there’s about a whopping 2000 MB/s difference. I also tested the new external SSD with a 1.5 Terabyte catalogue, and it was noticeably faster than before with the pre-built brand SSD.
In everyday use, I don't think anyone needs the built-in fan, but when you really push the limits, copying terabytes of data and working alongside, you can switch on the fan, and the drive remains cool. This is important because a leading cause of SSD death is heat.
And let's talk about some experience while working with the new setup. Import times are cut in half. I didn't expect such a dramatic improvement. Generating previews was fast enough before, but now that time is negligible. Generally, working with a bigger catalogue, editing was great before, now I don't see any wait before the load of high-res files. Although I rarely use these for video work, out of curiosity, I tested with 4K files, and the results are superb. Now, the storage speed is no longer an issue. I know Thunderbolt enclosures cost a bit more than their USB counterparts, but I think the price difference this time is worth it.
The best part is, it took me some research, but the result is: I have a much faster external setup for less money. So, in my opinion, this option is great for anyone who works with external SSDs daily.