External SSD for Lightroom catalog & photo sharing between mac devices

[Chrisd999]

Hi All,

As stated in the thread title, I'm looking to buy and share an external SSD to host a Lightroom catalog and photos, which I would share between my 2019 16" MBP (I9 version with 4 x USB-C Thunderbolt 3 ports) and my new Mac mini Pro M2 with 32 GB RAM a 1TB internal SSD and 4 x USB-C Thunderbolt 4 ports). My understanding is the 1 TB internal SSD on the MMP M2 has a R/W speed around 5,000 GB/s.

My goal is to work off the laptop while traveling and off the desktop while at home, and use the same external SSD between both.

I was looking the the Sandisk Extreme Pro 2TB SSD, which supports 2,000 GB/s R/W speeds, but that speed won't work Mac's due to different USB standards, so only 1,000 GB/s will be realized.

I have read that building your own external SSD with an NVME chip and enclosure that supports Thunderbolt 3/4 will give a 2,700 GB/s, which is way faster than the Sandisk SSD. Building my own drive seems like a PITA, but I'm assuming that extra speed would be noticeable running Lightroom CC and photos off the external drive, so I'm willing to try it.

Has anybody set up an external SSD for Lightroom like this?
Or does anybody have advice on the belt solution for a fast external SSD for the Mac M2, which does not require AC power?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Fishrrman]

My recommendation is an off-the-shelf USB3.1 gen2 SSD.
For photo editing, it will be "all the speed you need".

I've had good luck with Samsung's T7 "Shield":

SAMSUNG T7 Shield 1TB, Portable SSD, up to 1050MB/s, USB 3.2 Gen2, Rugged, IP65 Rated, for Photographers, Content Creators and Gaming, External Solid State Drive (MU-PE1T0R/AM, 2022), Blue

Samsung T7 Shield Portable SSD delivers high performance on-the-go, not matter the terrain. It has an IP65 rating for water** and dust* resistance, with Dynamic Thermal Guard to manage heat control. Transfer huge files instantly. USB 3.2 Gen 2 and PCIe® NVMe™ achieve soaring sequential read/write...

www.amazon.com

The price is right, too.

One other thing:
Before you use any SSD, "wipe it clean", removing any factory-installed proprietary software.
I'd recommend using HFS+ (Mac OS extended, journaling enabled, GUID partition format) instead of APFS.

 

[Chrisd999]

My recommendation is an off-the-shelf USB3.1 gen2 SSD.
For photo editing, it will be "all the speed you need".

I've had good luck with Samsung's T7 "Shield":

SAMSUNG T7 Shield 1TB, Portable SSD, up to 1050MB/s, USB 3.2 Gen2, Rugged, IP65 Rated, for Photographers, Content Creators and Gaming, External Solid State Drive (MU-PE1T0R/AM, 2022), Blue

Samsung T7 Shield Portable SSD delivers high performance on-the-go, not matter the terrain. It has an IP65 rating for water** and dust* resistance, with Dynamic Thermal Guard to manage heat control. Transfer huge files instantly. USB 3.2 Gen 2 and PCIe® NVMe™ achieve soaring sequential read/write...

www.amazon.com

The price is right, too.

One other thing:
Before you use any SSD, "wipe it clean", removing any factory-installed proprietary software.
I'd recommend using HFS+ (Mac OS extended, journaling enabled, GUID partition format) instead of APFS.

Thanks for the SSD recommendation!
I'm curious - why do you recommend HFS+ over APFS for an external SSD?

 

[Alameda]

My recommendation is an off-the-shelf USB3.1 gen2 SSD.
For photo editing, it will be "all the speed you need".

I've had good luck with Samsung's T7 "Shield":

SAMSUNG T7 Shield 1TB, Portable SSD, up to 1050MB/s, USB 3.2 Gen2, Rugged, IP65 Rated, for Photographers, Content Creators and Gaming, External Solid State Drive (MU-PE1T0R/AM, 2022), Blue

Samsung T7 Shield Portable SSD delivers high performance on-the-go, not matter the terrain. It has an IP65 rating for water** and dust* resistance, with Dynamic Thermal Guard to manage heat control. Transfer huge files instantly. USB 3.2 Gen 2 and PCIe® NVMe™ achieve soaring sequential read/write...

www.amazon.com

The price is right, too.

One other thing:
Before you use any SSD, "wipe it clean", removing any factory-installed proprietary software.
I'd recommend using HFS+ (Mac OS extended, journaling enabled, GUID partition format) instead of APFS.

I have a 45 megapixel camera and sadly, there’s no such thing as “all the speed I need.”

 

[Chrisd999]

I have a 45 megapixel camera and sadly, there’s no such thing as “all the speed I need.”

I have a 61 MP Sony A7RV, with file sizes of 70+ MB. I am still on the fence between the USB 3.2 and Thunderbolt 4 external SSD. I'm still not clear if it makes a difference running LR catalog and photos from it, or not.

 

[jz0309]

while I actually have a sands pro 2 TB for a couple years now and no issues with it, I found this article and it appears only newer models are affected:

SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD Suffer Sudden Failures: WD Responds

The firm will issue a 4TB SSD firmware update "soon," but seems to have ignored the woes of 2TB users.

www.tomshardware.com

on my old iMac I used the external SSD to store my originals (mixture of RAW, TIF, jpg etc) but kept the index on the internal SSD, and that worked fine.
I know what you're trying to do is supposed to work, and I was considering that approach before I got my Mac Studio, and I chose a 4TB internal to keep my LRC all on internal. I have ~ 80k photos and just under 1TB so decided that I don't need all those when traveling. so instead will download the photos when traveling onto my MBAA and then load them onto the Studio when back home, not traveling much nowadays.

So given the link above I'd stay away form the Sandisk at the moment, Samsung is a good choice.

The only other recommendation in your case: have a good backup strategy.

 

[Chrisd999]

while I actually have a sands pro 2 TB for a couple years now and no issues with it, I found this article and it appears only newer models are affected:

SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD Suffer Sudden Failures: WD Responds

The firm will issue a 4TB SSD firmware update "soon," but seems to have ignored the woes of 2TB users.

www.tomshardware.com

on my old iMac I used the external SSD to store my originals (mixture of RAW, TIF, jpg etc) but kept the index on the internal SSD, and that worked fine.
I know what you're trying to do is supposed to work, and I was considering that approach before I got my Mac Studio, and I chose a 4TB internal to keep my LRC all on internal. I have ~ 80k photos and just under 1TB so decided that I don't need all those when traveling. so instead will download the photos when traveling onto my MBAA and then load them onto the Studio when back home, not traveling much nowadays.

So given the link above I'd stay away form the Sandisk at the moment, Samsung is a good choice.

The only other recommendation in your case: have a good backup strategy.

Thanks for the heads-up on the Sandisk SSD's. I think I will stay clear for now. I'm looking at going with a Crucial P3 Plus 4TB NVME in an Acacias Thunderbolt 3/4 enclosure. We'll see how that performs.

 

[jz0309]

Thanks for the heads-up on the Sandisk SSD's. I think I will stay clear for now. I'm looking at going with a Crucial P3 Plus 4TB NVME in an Acacias Thunderbolt 3/4 enclosure. We'll see how that performs.

share some numbers when you have it working please.
Also would be interested in your experience sharing the LRC catalog/photos between 2 computers

 

[ovbacon]

Hi All,

As stated in the thread title, I'm looking to buy and share an external SSD to host a Lightroom catalog and photos, which I would share between my 2019 16" MBP (I9 version with 4 x USB-C Thunderbolt 3 ports) and my new Mac mini Pro M2 with 32 GB RAM a 1TB internal SSD and 4 x USB-C Thunderbolt 4 ports). My understanding is the 1 TB internal SSD on the MMP M2 has a R/W speed around 5,000 GB/s.

My goal is to work off the laptop while traveling and off the desktop while at home, and use the same external SSD between both.

I was looking the the Sandisk Extreme Pro 2TB SSD, which supports 2,000 GB/s R/W speeds, but that speed won't work Mac's due to different USB standards, so only 1,000 GB/s will be realized.

I have read that building your own external SSD with an NVME chip and enclosure that supports Thunderbolt 3/4 will give a 2,700 GB/s, which is way faster than the Sandisk SSD. Building my own drive seems like a PITA, but I'm assuming that extra speed would be noticeable running Lightroom CC and photos off the external drive, so I'm willing to try it.

Has anybody set up an external SSD for Lightroom like this?
Or does anybody have advice on the belt solution for a fast external SSD for the Mac M2, which does not require AC power?

Thanks in advance!

I used the new sandisk pro 4Tb for a week when it failed.... returned it and made my own. Acasis (TBU405) 40Gbps M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosure (fits up to 8TB) USB-C with a Samsung 980 Pro 2TB PCIe NVMe Gen 4 M.2 SSD (Tests in Blackmagic on a mini M2: steady at W:2800+ MB/s, R:2700+/- MB/s)

I have my Lightroom catalog and photos on it and it really does have all the speed I need.

 

[Chrisd999]

I used the new sandisk pro 4Tb for a week when it failed.... returned it and made my own. Acasis (TBU405) 40Gbps M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosure (fits up to 8TB) USB-C with a Samsung 980 Pro 2TB PCIe NVMe Gen 4 M.2 SSD (Tests in Blackmagic on a mini M2: steady at W:2800+ MB/s, R:2700+/- MB/s)

I have my Lightroom catalog and photos on it and it really does have all the speed I need.

View attachment 2207586

Thanks - yours is a similar set-up as what I am moving to (Acacia enclosure + Crucial 4TB SSD). The Crucial chip is rated at 5,000/4,800 R/W, but users report around 2,500/2,500 which isn't far off the 980 Pro. I couldn't find a 980 Pro in a 4TB configuration, and the Crucial is about $200 less than the WD or Shark 4TB

 

[Chrisd999]

So my Acacis enclosure + 4TB Crucial P3 Plus SSD arrived today. All fit together nicely. Here are the speeds I am getting with my 2019 16" MBP. A little slower than expected, but not bad. I'll test it with my new MMP when it's delivered next week. Hopefully, we'll see it get up to around 2,700 MB/s.

 

[jz0309]

So my Acacis enclosure + 4TB Crucial P3 Plus SSD arrived today. All fit together nicely. Here are the speeds I am getting with my 2019 16" MBP. A little slower than expected, but not bad. I'll test it with my new MMP when it's delivered next week. Hopefully, we'll see it get up to around 2,700 MB/s.
View attachment 2208090

Thanks for the update, speed looks pretty good to me.
I don’t think you mentioned how you’re running LRC today but would be interested in your perception how the performance compares old to new, no benchmark, just perception…

 

[Chrisd999]

Thanks for the update, speed looks pretty good to me.
I don’t think you mentioned how you’re running LRC today but would be interested in your perception how the performance compares old to new, no benchmark, just perception…

I've started a new catalog and moved a 5 GB folder of photos over to the external SSD, and no noticeable performance difference just yet, although it did seems to take longer than normal to generate the 1:1 previews. For me, the LRC stress test is working on a 61MP Raw image with multiple masks and dozens of clone or heal brush edits. We'll see how this set-up handles it.

 

[cthompson94]

I've started a new catalog and moved a 5 GB folder of photos over to the external SSD, and no noticeable performance difference just yet, although it did seems to take longer than normal to generate the 1:1 previews. For me, the LRC stress test is working on a 61MP Raw image with multiple masks and dozens of clone or heal brush edits. We'll see how this set-up handles it.

could you please update the thread upon results? I too have the A7RV I do have the T7 2TB SSD, but with such large file sizes I do sometimes notice delay especially compared to the A7III I had previously

 

[Chrisd999]

could you please update the thread upon results? I too have the A7RV I do have the T7 2TB SSD, but with such large file sizes I do sometimes notice delay especially compared to the A7III I had previously

Gave LRC (30GB photo folder and catalog on external SSD) a bit of a work-out with some heavy edits this morning, and I could not tell the difference from running the folder and catalog on my internal SSD. So far so good.

 

[cthompson94]

Gave LRC (30GB photo folder and catalog on external SSD) a bit of a work-out with some heavy edits this morning, and I could not tell the difference from running the folder and catalog on my internal SSD. So far so good.

Woah! That is amazing news to read! I have seen a few YouTube videos about using this setup, but it is hard to sometimes distinguish between authentic and not sometimes especially the many that just show speed test results when real world use is all that most people care for. Thank you very much for the update! Going to be ordering this really soon

 

[ovbacon]

Woah! That is amazing news to read! I have seen a few YouTube videos about using this setup, but it is hard to sometimes distinguish between authentic and not sometimes especially the many that just show speed test results when real world use is all that most people care for. Thank you very much for the update! Going to be ordering this really soon

As I indicated above as well, I have my whole photo library on a external ssd and have not noticed any difference but I also was not expecting any difference as the speed tests of my external ssd are similar to the internal one. Speed tests are "real world" use as that is what it takes to read and write any type of file.

There are many threads on external ssd's where many different uses are discussed including photo and video editing (actually I would say that that seems to be the majority of uses)

 

[cthompson94]

As I indicated above as well, I have my whole photo library on a external ssd and have not noticed any difference but I also was not expecting any difference as the speed tests of my external ssd are similar to the internal one. Speed tests are "real world" use as that is what it takes to read and write any type of file.

There are many threads on external ssd's where many different uses are discussed including photo and video editing (actually I would say that that seems to be the majority of uses)

I did previously use the older threads and that is how I have my current T5 and T7, but with my recent camera upgrade the file sizes are much larger for both photo and video. I know that the Acasis doesn't support the Samsung M.2 with the built in heatsink, but do you have a recommended heat sink or do you think a thermal pad is sufficient to keep heat/throttling down.

 

[ovbacon]

I did previously use the older threads and that is how I have my current T5 and T7, but with my recent camera upgrade the file sizes are much larger for both photo and video. I know that the Acasis doesn't support the Samsung M.2 with the built in heatsink, but do you have a recommended heat sink or do you think a thermal pad is sufficient to keep heat/throttling down.

I just added multiple heat pads to make sure that the ssd was snug and the pads touched the case. the case gets nice and warm but it doesn't seem to be to bad nor have I noticed any problems. I did instal DriveDX to keep an eye on the overall ssd health but I do also have an additional HDD where daily backups are made of my internal and external ssds

 

[smirking]

I don't use Lightroom, but I use something similar enough that it's probably a good comparison. I spent a month working off of a 10Gbps 1TB Sandisk Extreme (lol).

I had 4 large CaptureOne Pro catalogs and everything together weighed in at about 900GB. The two laptops I worked off of were an 8GB 13" M1 MBP and a 2019 32GB i7 Vega20.

CaptureOne Pro accesses the catalog a lot. I was sure it was going to be a disaster, but to my surprise I really didn't find any drop in performance noticeable. I worked as I normally did for a month. It just worked.

Now, I was working with 24MP files instead of 61MP ones, but I did have large catalogs and a much slower USB interface with slower machines.

I can't say what your experience is going to be like, but just using mine as a baseline, I'd just say you're not crazy for thinking it might be OK.

 

[tarasis]

I'll test it with my new MMP when it's delivered next week. Hopefully, we'll see it get up to around 2,700 MB/s.

Curious if you had a chance to test? Currently considering that exact combo for my M1 Air (particularly for backups, offloading my photo library too, and VMs).

The 2300MBs results would please me no end, particularly over the old SSD's I have that thermal throttle when copying large files.

 

[Ben J.]

I have my image files on an external M2 2TB NVMe in a OWC Envoy Express enclosure that gives me about 1300MB/s r/w speeds. But my catalog and preview cache stays on my internal, which is a bit faster, so it makes sense.

Getting a Thunderbolt enclosure and putting a SSD blade in it is super-easy, and done in a couple of minutes.

Very happy with the performance I'm getting, even though my internal drive is only 256GB, so it's not more than around 1500MB/s.

 

[skasol]

So my Acacis enclosure + 4TB Crucial P3 Plus SSD arrived today. All fit together nicely. Here are the speeds I am getting with my 2019 16" MBP. A little slower than expected, but not bad. I'll test it with my new MMP when it's delivered next week. Hopefully, we'll see it get up to around 2,700 MB/s.
View attachment 2208090

Looking to potentially do this set up for my Lightroom, are you still happy with this? are there any other enclosures or drives you would recommend? Thank you kindly.

 

[skasol]

I used the new sandisk pro 4Tb for a week when it failed.... returned it and made my own. Acasis (TBU405) 40Gbps M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosure (fits up to 8TB) USB-C with a Samsung 980 Pro 2TB PCIe NVMe Gen 4 M.2 SSD (Tests in Blackmagic on a mini M2: steady at W:2800+ MB/s, R:2700+/- MB/s)

I have my Lightroom catalog and photos on it and it really does have all the speed I need.

View attachment 2207586

How big is your Lightroom catalog and photos? debating on this or the Crucial. Seems the Samsung 980 has better performance and reviews but I only find it in 2TB not 4TB. my photos and catalog are 1.8 which is very close to 2TB so looking for something a little larger for breathing room. does your Acasis TBU405 is the one without fans correct? do you find any issues with this? debating on this one of the pro with the fans.

 

[ovbacon]

How big is your Lightroom catalog and photos? debating on this or the Crucial. Seems the Samsung 980 has better performance and reviews but I only find it in 2TB not 4TB. my photos and catalog are 1.8 which is very close to 2TB so looking for something a little larger for breathing room. does your Acasis TBU405 is the one without fans correct? do you find any issues with this? debating on this one of the pro with the fans.

My Lr library is 1.2 TB and my ssd enclosure has no fans and it is not a issue at all. I have no doubt a Crucial ssd would be perfectly fine.