Picking an External SSD for storage (T7 vs NVMe)

[EternalZone]

Hi y'all!

After 14 years I upgraded from a MBP 13 inch i5 to a Mac mini m4 + Thunderbolt Display 27 inch (512 GB - 16GB)
It's been an amazing upgrade!

External storage is my next step, but it's been bogging me.
Mounting it on the aluminum back of my Thunderbolt Display will help a bit already with heat management ✌️

1. This mini will be used for:

- Hobby level Photo editing
- Editing old 1080 video footage for myself
- The usual web browsing, play a game maybe. Not to crazy.

2. My quest is external storage.
I have 6 - 7TB of old storage (audio, video (1080 HD) and pictures)
I can boil it down to 3 TB I think by sorting it down.

I will go for 4TB.

Option 1: Samsung T7/T7 shield
Option 2: NVMe + enclosure

To make it redundant I would buy either HDD or SSD for Time Machine, not sure yet.

Reported issues:

T7
- reported to have wax coming out when it's overheating to often.
T7 shield seems better at this?
- Lower speeds 1000 Mbs
- Disconnection (due to overheating?)

NVMe:

- Overheating due to bad passive enclosure. OWC 1M2 & Qwizzlab seem reliable.
- (to) Higher iddle temperatures
- disconnects
- Mac mini sleep mode doesn't work with some enclosures
- Hit and miss with enclosures

3. Choice:
My plan is either buy a T7/T7 shield or go for a 990 Pro + OWC 1M2/Qwizzlab enclosure.
Speed is not the most important, reliability is. (overheating + disconnection, no thanks...)
NVMe has higher speeds so more future proof.
Both options seem to be reliable, IF they operate fine.
There also have been reports of problems (see above)

The disk will not be pushed hard in general, more read then write.
All my apps and video projects will be done on the mini itself and then transferred to the disk once complete.
My entire photo library will be on the disc though, and using photo program to run it from Mac mini.

What is your experience with the T7 and/or NVMe enclosure regarding this setup?
I have a T7 and 990 Pro + (OWC 1M2 + Qwizzlab) laying around here already due to Black Friday deal on amazon.
All I have to do is pick the right option.

Thanks!
Greetings from the Netherlands

 

[Fishrrman]

Another option:
Crucial x9.

I have both the T7 shield and the X9.
X9 seems to have "the edge"... just a little better.

Crucial X9 Pro 4TB Portable SSD, Up to 1050MB/s Read & Write, 3.2 USB-C, External Solid State Drive, Durable Storage for PC and Mac, for Professional Creators, Silver - ‎CT4000X9PROSSD902

The Crucial X9 Pro 4TB Portable SSD – CT4000X9PROSSD902 offers exceptional speed, durability, and versatility, making it the perfect storage solution for professionals, content creators, and photographers. With read and write speeds of up to 1050MB/s, this external SSD ensures fast file transfers...

www.amazon.com

 

[Boyd01]

I had 3 of the older T3 disks going back 8 or 9 years now, used one as a boot drive on a 2012 Mini for heavy Logic and Final Cut Pro editing. Worked very well.

Starting in 2020 I moved to a 2018 Mini and now have four 2tb Samsung T7's, four 4tb Samsung T7 Shields and two 8tb Samsung T5 EVO's. All have been trouble-free - certainly nothing like "wax coming out when it's overheating"... that sounds crazy to me!

I pound on these disks very heavily. I develop maps and web apps, this kind of map consists of little 256x256 pixel images stored in nested directories. My site has over 100 million of these and I have two 4tb T7 shield backups. When I clone the original disk with CCC, it takes quite a few hours and the disk gets very warm. No wax comes out though! 🤣

The 8tb T5 EVO's are interesting, they have been criticized for their slow speed (around 500MB/sec, I think). But I have been impressed with Samsung's quality and the speed is fine for what I do with those disks. Some people complain they're no faster than a hard disk, but the experience is completely different and having 8tb in that little package is great. They don't seem to get as hot as my T7's, but that might have more to do with how I use them?

I was hoping for a Black Friday deal on another pair of the 8tb T5's but the "deals" were about $25 more than I paid in June. Maybe it's tariffs, AI chip demand or just plain inflation? Anyway, ended up not buying anything.

 

[herbert7265]

Okay, using
- Samsung T7 (2TB)
- Samsung T7 Shield (2TB)
- OWC Express 1M2 w/ WD Black SN850X (2TB)
- Acasis TBU405Pro w/ Samsung 990 Evo Plus (4TB)
for external storage, also mostly photos, I dare to state:

Both the Samsung T7 and the Samsung T7 Shield are nice external SSDs, but I would only go for it again when some mobility is necessary. Yes, under high load they get warm / hot, what also has some impact on the momentary transfer speed, but until now I have not observed any long term negative impact.

As well the OWC Express 1M2 as the Acasis TBU405Pro enclosures, with a good SSD inside, work okay and provide the higher transfer speeds compared to the Samsung T7 SSDs. They also get warm, but I have until now neither recognized a negative impact on the transfer speed nor any long term issues.

As mentioned, I use as well the Samsung 990 Evo Plus as the WD Black SN850X SSDs in my enclosures and I am happy with both of them. For me there was no need to go for a faster SSD, for example the Samsung 990 Pro, as the transfer speed is finally limited by the enclosure and its connection to the computer (TB4 / USB4). With both type of enclosures I reach transfer speeds in the area of 3,000 MB/s (depending on the enclosure and if connected via my TB4 hub or directly to the computer) and that’s okay for me. With the Samsung T7 the transfer speed is significantly slower, in the area of 800 MB/s.

Any questions left just feel free to ask!

Herbert

 

[EugW]

The problem with USB 3 drives is that some (but not all) people get occasional disconnect-at-sleep with reconnect-at-wake. When this happens, upon wake the Mac shows an error saying that the drive was not correctly ejected. For most usage, it's not a problem, but if your Photos Library is on that external USB 3 drive, Photos may stop syncing with iCloud. The only solution to this is to reboot, and then syncing will work again. For this reason, I never recommend using a USB 3 drive for a Photos Library. I recommend USB 4 / TB 4. The other reason I don't recommend USB 3 SSDs is because macOS doesn't support TRIM on them, whereas it does support TRIM on USB 4 / TB 4 SSDs. Thus my recommendation is:

- USB 4 / TB 4 enclosure, such as the Qwiizlab ES40UR / Hagibis MC40 / Colorii (all made by Colorii) or the OWC 1M2.
- NVMe SSD with DRAM. The NAND should be TLC (not QLC). No heatsink.

A lot of people seem to like the Samsung 990 Pro and Western Digital SN850X, and I do have the Samsung, but truth be told, these drives are overkill for this purpose. Some slower SSDs with TLC and DRAM can be advantageous because they often may have somewhat lower power utilization, while still being able to max out TB 4 bandwidth. That said, both the Samsung 990 Pro and WD SN850X are known to work well, both are TLC, both have DRAM, and both are widely available, so they are safe bets.

 

[whatnot]

Another option:
Crucial x9.

I have both the T7 shield and the X9.
X9 seems to have "the edge"... just a little better.

I have x9 pro 2tb, and it's been showing me the same capacity for over a month now, even though I've probably added like 300gb since, and I have nowhere to back it up, nor have I any idea of how much data there is on it.