Best external hard drive for iTunes (music)

[Yendog]

So I'm in the process of upgrading almost all my work space world. Just got a new Mac which was the big part. Also got a new hub that is Thunderbolt 3 compatible. I'm a professional musician and use apple music (ugg that's confusing now but the native Music program)

I am using the ACTUAL files.. yup strangely that is now old school... but for my world very necessary. I have mp3, mp4, aiff, etc. My library is very large with over 155k tracks. About 1.7TB of iTunes (sorry gonna call it that for clarity) on an external hard drive.

I do teach and even just the waking up of the traditional HD drive when I need to access a track is money my students are spending just waiting to access the drive. Obviously a SS drive would hopefully be more instantaneous.

My father also needs a good drive for his backup so i'm looking to buy a new external drive to fit my needs and then move one of mine on to him.

Can anyone suggest a good drive for such an application of use? I currently am running a G drive off of a USB. I don't want to get ridiculous and break the bank but I need to figure out a solution hopefully.

Any help would be VERY much appreciated!

My computer and hub are brand new so they are running USB C and thunderbolt 3 of course for a bit more info. Love you all for the great help I get here!

 

[satcomer]

Sense this new Mac please tell us what is quickest port on your Mac! You want something large if you plan huge music/videos libraries!

If going thunderbolt 3then consider the largest libraries you have! If going hard drives get a add your own hard drives! Build you own NVME thunderbolt 3 drive with the OWC Envoy-Express and bulldog yourself!

 

[Yendog]

I said it literally multiple times in my post.. Thunderbolt 3 is the fastest.

 

[Apple_Robert]

I use WD Easystore 10TB drives for my library.

 

[weaztek]

Here's what I do.... 256GB internal SSD. Half of that goes to the system which leaves me with ~128GB for working files. Bought an additional 512GB external SSD Thunderbolt for $100. Works exceptionally fast and I use this in case I have a massive project that takes more space than I have on my internal drive.

My iTunes library and photo archive, etc are on a 3TB standard external hard drive (HDD) over USB 3.1 connection. It is more than fast enough to play movies, music videos and music.

Caveat, if I were purchasing everything again today, I'd get a 512GB or 1TB internal SSD. And I'd get a 1TB external SSD (on sale of course). The HDDs would stay the same.

 

[Boyd01]

I use a 2014 Mini as a media server with about a 2tb library on a 4tb Oyen Digital USB3 external SSD. This is the performance I get

I also have a pair of Samsung 2tb T7 external USB-C SSD's that I use on my 2018 Mini. They are about twice as fast, but IMO, you would not notice any difference for a media disk (especially if you are only talking about music).

You can get much faster than this with a thunderbolt 3 external SSD, but they are quite expensive. Before I got the SSD for the media server, I was using a Seagate USB3 4tb external hard disk. That clocked about 170MB/sec but I went through two of these and they only lasted about 3 years each, so I decided to switch to a SSD. The server runs 24/7 and the disk never sleeps however, so your use case might not be that demanding.

 

[Yendog]

yea its not really the speed once the drive is running its the winding up of the drive in the traditional HD so i think i'd like to get it on an SSD.... when working video files i run them off the native HD. I guess I'll look at Oyen and Seagate for my SSD...

 

[Boyd01]

I guess I'll look at Oyen and Seagate for my SSD...

Just to be clear, I was talking about Oyen and Samsung SSD's, not Seagate.

 

[MacGizmo]

The Samsung T5 and T7 drives are generally considered to be the very best consumer drives available at a (relatively) low cost. The T7 drives are $320 for a 2TB, $170 for a 1TB on Amazon currently. The T5 drives are (obviously) cheaper.

The T7 offers Reads up to 1,050 MB/s, Writes up to 1,000 MB/s on USB 3.2 gen 2 supported devices. The drives are tiny (slightly larger in width & length as the AirPods Pro case but not even half the thickness), light, and bus-powered. They also come with a USB-C to USB-C and a USB-C to USB-A cable, so you can use whichever you require. There is also a "touch" enabled version for the security-minded.

I've had too many Seagate drives go bad on me in the past (those were spinning HDs, though), so I'll never touch them again.

 

[HDFan]

I do teach and even just the waking up of the traditional HD drive when I need to access a track is money my students are spending just waiting to access the drive. Obviously a SS drive would hopefully be more instantaneous.

Have you considered not putting the disks to sleep? That would avoid the spin-up time.

My computer and hub are brand new so they are running USB C and thunderbolt 3 of course for a bit more info.

If you are using just one hard drive then thunderbolt is not necessary. USB-C 3.1 Gen 2 supports 10 Gbps which is way faster than any single hard disk, which can range from < 100 to around 150 MB/s.

yea its not really the speed once the drive is running its the winding up of the drive in the traditional HD so i think i'd like to get it on an SSD....

No need for an SSD if you can eliminate the spin-up problem. If you don't need the speed it is a waste of money.

This is dependent, of course, on what applications you are using. If you are using Logic Pro, Audition, etc. an SSD might be useful.

 

[sholto25]

So I'm in the process of upgrading almost all my work space world. Just got a new Mac which was the big part. Also got a new hub that is Thunderbolt 3 compatible. I'm a professional musician and use apple music (ugg that's confusing now but the native Music program)

I am using the ACTUAL files.. yup strangely that is now old school... but for my world very necessary. I have mp3, mp4, aiff, etc. My library is very large with over 155k tracks. About 1.7TB of iTunes (sorry gonna call it that for clarity) on an external hard drive.

I do teach and even just the waking up of the traditional HD drive when I need to access a track is money my students are spending just waiting to access the drive. Obviously a SS drive would hopefully be more instantaneous.

My father also needs a good drive for his backup so i'm looking to buy a new external drive to fit my needs and then move one of mine on to him.

Can anyone suggest a good drive for such an application of use? I currently am running a G drive off of a USB. I don't want to get ridiculous and break the bank but I need to figure out a solution hopefully.

Any help would be VERY much appreciated!

My computer and hub are brand new so they are running USB C and thunderbolt 3 of course for a bit more info. Love you all for the great help I get here!

What did you buy in the end? Did you consider a network drive?
I don’t think you got any really good advice, and I’m in the same situation. So I’m keen to know what you decided

 

[weaztek]

I don’t think you got any really good advice, and I’m in the same situation. So I’m keen to know what you decided

As I said "My iTunes library and photo archive, etc are on a 3TB standard external hard drive (HDD) over USB 3.1 connection. It is more than fast enough to play movies, music videos and music."

4k movies can easily be played over 5400rpm hard drives. Music uses far, far less bandwidth. I'll put it another way, you literally can't even buy a hard drive that isn't fast enough to run [formerly known as] iTunes movies and music.