external SSD as a boot drive?

[zoran]

Im thinking of getting the standard MacStudio, without upgrading the drive to the 1TB SSD. Better to save $300 and keep the 512GB drive that comes as standard cause i already have an external 1TB SSD and i was thinking of using it as a primary drive to boot connecting it using a MacStudio TBbolt port.
One of the reasons for doing this is to keep my data "safe" from a future tech services.
What do u think, can this be done with success? Will the system boot normally using an external SSD from the TBolt port?

 

[Chancha]

It can be done, abit with performance penalty, currently the base Studio's 512GB SSD gives about 5-6000MB/s read/write, while the best case scenario for a TB3/4 NVMe enclosure we are seeing <3000MB/s. Also you won't be able to use encryption (FileVault) easily, or you may end up having potential security related issues that at worst may bar the Mac from booting since its keychain is stored in the external instead of internal in this case.

If you havne't made the purchase yet I would advise you to revaluate; most of the Apple SSD BTO asking price are ridiculous I know, but the 1TB option isn't as hard to swallow if you ask me. Sticking to the internal saves you from some potential headaches and loss of performance from the get go. As for keeping the data safe, is hourly Time Machine not good enough for you? There are 3rd party backup solutions that offer more robust routines etc. Or if you are worried about privacy then I believe FileVault is supposedly unbreakable without your key, even if the drive is physically compromised.

 

[rworne]

I think FileVault will be OK as long as it is truly the boot drive. I went through this hell last week.

All I wanted to do was leave the Internal SSD with the OS/Apps and move my user directory to the external. That worked great until you wanted encryption. There were some utilities that claimed to load encrypted volumes at boot time prior to login, but none of them worked in Ventura - they all wanted to mount after login, even if the keys were stored in the system keychain. This was because there was a prompt after login asking permission to do so. *headslap*

So this leads to the system needing encryption keys stored on the encrypted drive to decrypt the drive: a lose- lose situation.

What I wound up doing was keeping my user directory on the internal, and making symlinks for Documents, Photos, Movies. I wanted to do downloads, but if you symlink that, Airdrop is broken - it wants a real folder on the boot drive. I have a script that moves everything from Downloads to the Downloads on the external, and point all the browsers to DL to the external. And don't try to symlink the Desktop. Finder don't play dat.

Encrypt your external, add the keys to the keychain and approve it when you log in. It mounts and ll your stuff shows up where it should.

Once setup, it works great.

But as said earlier, it's a royal pain to set up.

No idea why Apple would allow relocation of the user directory without a way to encrypt it if it were on an external drive. It seems like an obvious use-case.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP wrote:
"Im thinking of getting the standard MacStudio, without upgrading the drive to the 1TB SSD. Better to save $300 and keep the 512GB drive that comes as standard cause i already have an external 1TB SSD and i was thinking of using it as a primary drive to boot connecting it using a MacStudio TBbolt port.
One of the reasons for doing this is to keep my data "safe" from a future tech services."

You DO NOT WANT TO DO THIS.

REASON WHY:
The SSDs that are installed into the Studio are extremely fast -- up around 5,000MBps (or more), I believe.

On the other hand, the speed of USB3.1 gen2 drives is around 850MBps (reads).

Thunderbolt 3 is faster, up around 2,500MBps (on the right drives), but even this is only 1/2 of the speed (or less) than you'll get from the Studio's built-in drive.

And... Tbolt 3 SSDs tend to "run hot". And when they get TOO hot, they "throttle back" the speeds, sometimes sharply.

Well, do it if you want, but the extra $300 you spend for the 1tb SSD in the Studio will be "money well-spent".

There was a time when running a Mac from an external SSD (as a full-time option) made sense. I ran my 2012 Mini this way for 6 years (all it had internally was a slow platter-based drive).

But it doesn't make sense TODAY, with the fast drives that Apple is using.

 

[haralds]

I would absolutely use the internal drive for booting. You could move any "secret data" or voluminous content like media libraries to the externally mounted SSD. I tend to either set the apps to the new location or use Symbolic linking.

 

[ZMacintosh]

dont boot with an external drive on Macs, it can be done but native/internal storage is way more faster/reliable. move your libraries to the external where its not so dependent on performance rather accessibility. or save up an max out the storage and forget about external

 

[rworne]

Figured out the Airdrop issue:

Run Automator and create an automation that will move any file that appears in the Downloads folder on the Internal drive to the Downloads folder on the SSD. Replace the folder next to the recycle bin with the one on the SSD.

Airdrop works like a charm. Everything else you can either leave it as-is or set the downloads folder to the one on the external SSD.

 

[zoran]

Why encrypting the ext boot drive? There might be an issue only if stolen, isn’t that right?
And also, thinking more about it, can’t I encrypt the internal drive from the OS? Wouldn’t it be safe if needed to be take to Service at a possible repair?

 

[enterthemerdaverse]

OP wrote:
"Im thinking of getting the standard MacStudio, without upgrading the drive to the 1TB SSD. Better to save $300 and keep the 512GB drive that comes as standard cause i already have an external 1TB SSD and i was thinking of using it as a primary drive to boot connecting it using a MacStudio TBbolt port.
One of the reasons for doing this is to keep my data "safe" from a future tech services."

You DO NOT WANT TO DO THIS.

REASON WHY:
The SSDs that are installed into the Studio are extremely fast -- up around 5,000MBps (or more), I believe.

On the other hand, the speed of USB3.1 gen2 drives is around 850MBps (reads).

Thunderbolt 3 is faster, up around 2,500MBps (on the right drives), but even this is only 1/2 of the speed (or less) than you'll get from the Studio's built-in drive.

And... Tbolt 3 SSDs tend to "run hot". And when they get TOO hot, they "throttle back" the speeds, sometimes sharply.

Well, do it if you want, but the extra $300 you spend for the 1tb SSD in the Studio will be "money well-spent".

There was a time when running a Mac from an external SSD (as a full-time option) made sense. I ran my 2012 Mini this way for 6 years (all it had internally was a slow platter-based drive).

But it doesn't make sense TODAY, with the fast drives that Apple is using.

The boot up process doesn’t saturate the full 5000MB/s bandwidth. Boot up process is about 10X less than that. Launching apps is much less even. If an OS did load at 5000MB/s it would be almost instant load.

So if he just wants to boot from the drive and launch apps there isn’t much of a performance penalty.

If his apps use and transfer content that consumes a lot of bandwidth then that’s another story. He should do that with the internal drive.

 

[handheldgames]

Why encrypting the ext boot drive? There might be an issue only if stolen, isn’t that right?
And also, thinking more about it, can’t I encrypt the internal drive from the OS? Wouldn’t it be safe if needed to be take to Service at a possible repair?

OP wrote:
"Im thinking of getting the standard MacStudio, without upgrading the drive to the 1TB SSD. Better to save $300 and keep the 512GB drive that comes as standard cause i already have an external 1TB SSD and i was thinking of using it as a primary drive to boot connecting it using a MacStudio TBbolt port.
One of the reasons for doing this is to keep my data "safe" from a future tech services."

You DO NOT WANT TO DO THIS.

REASON WHY:
The SSDs that are installed into the Studio are extremely fast -- up around 5,000MBps (or more), I believe.

On the other hand, the speed of USB3.1 gen2 drives is around 850MBps (reads).

Thunderbolt 3 is faster, up around 2,500MBps (on the right drives), but even this is only 1/2 of the speed (or less) than you'll get from the Studio's built-in drive.

And... Tbolt 3 SSDs tend to "run hot". And when they get TOO hot, they "throttle back" the speeds, sometimes sharply.

Well, do it if you want, but the extra $300 you spend for the 1tb SSD in the Studio will be "money well-spent".

There was a time when running a Mac from an external SSD (as a full-time option) made sense. I ran my 2012 Mini this way for 6 years (all it had internally was a slow platter-based drive).

But it doesn't make sense TODAY, with the fast drives that Apple is using.

Internal VS External storage:
Although the Mac Studio's internal SSD has higher top end speeds, that's where the difference ends as an external Sabrent Rocket on Thunderbolt outperform the Studio's internal SSD with smaller files. While booting from thunderbolt in an option, the boot process takes a bit longer. Personally I agree - buy as much storage as you can afford.

Thunderbolt 3 Drives MAY RUN HOT depending on:

Brand/Model
The Hynix SHG P31 2TB Gold is claimed to be a lower temperature drive, yet it idles ~8C higher than the Sabrent Rocket and the Samsung 970 Pro in identical enclosures.

Enclosure Design makes a difference
Stand alone thunderbolt most 4x enclosures from Acasis(image below left) and others lack ventilation and active cooling, relying on thermal transfer to the case to maintain temps. So, in this situation the SSD is going to by much higher than a case with Active Cooling.

My NVMe SSDs are installed in two Highpoint SSD7101A-1s. Each card provides 4 x4 NVMe slots and has been modified with an external fan to make it silent while running in a Sonnet Breakaway Box (right images). Each SSD can saturate the Thunderbolt 3 bus when used independently.

+

Example Temperatures from my Mac Studio Ultra Setup
As you can see, the internal SSD on the Mac Studio are hovering around 24c. SSD's from Samsung, and Sabrent are hovering between 31c and 33c. Two Hynix 2TB P31 Golds are idling around 40c. These drives run hot as moving them between separate SSD7101A-1s, there is no change in temperature.