Recommendations for SSD

[Philandream5]

Hello all

I have a late 2013 Mac and it’s running dreadfully slow

I want too buy a SSD for it to use as the boot drive but I’m going to use it externally via usb or thunderbolt (depending on housings available)

Im mainly drawn to the Samsung drives I know the 850/860/870 evo sata 2.5 can be mounted via usb

but can the m.2 devices be mounted via usb too?

 

[velocityg4]

There are m.2 to USB adapter. They only accept NVMe m.2 or SATA m.2. not both simultaneously. You must get the correct adapter for your selected m.2 drive.

There isn't any point to NVMe over USB 3.0. You should be looking at Thunderbolt for NVMe.

 

[hobowankenobi]

On a machine of that vintage, USB may be a bottleneck. Would have to look it up...do you know if it is USB 2 or 3?

No point in getting the fastest SSD you can, as you won't see the full performance if your Mac is USB 2. Might as well just a cheaper slower SSD if USB is a must.

Which model do you have? Is replacing the internal drive an option? Can you confirm it has USB 3?

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:

You didn't tell us WHICH Mac you have, but the fastest, cheapest, easiest way to get a very nice speed increase will be to buy an external USB3 SSD, plug it in, and set it up to be the new boot drive.

Things will go much faster, and I predict that if you do this, you'll be quite happy.
It won't cost too much, either.

DON'T BOTHER with m.2 -- you may pay more but I don't think you'll see any noticeable increase in speed.

Two ways to go forward:
1. Buy a "ready-to-go" USB3 SSD such as the Samsung t5. Then, erase it using disk utility, and use either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper (both are FREE to download and use for 30 days) to clone over the contents of the internal drive to the SSD (assuming that they fit)

2. Buy a "bare" 2.5" SATA SSD, then buy a USB3 enclosure such as this:

SABRENT 2.5 Inch SATA to USB 3.0 Tool Free External Hard Drive Enclosure [Optimized for SSD, Support UASP SATA III] Black (EC-UASP)

SABRENT 2.5 Inch SATA to USB 3.0 Tool Free External Hard Drive Enclosure [Optimized for SSD, Support UASP SATA III] Black (EC-UASP)

tinyurl.com

Then prep it with disk utility and clone over your stuff.

I've always preferred the "do-it-yourself" approach as in #2 above.

There's NOTHING MUCH to this.
What are you waiting for?

 

[ivnj]

I have mac mini 2014 2.6ghz 8gb ram.

I got a cheap lacie rugged external with thunderbolt and usb 3.0 for 60 dollars off ebay.

The internal spinner on my mac mini was about 80mbps and the lacie was 110mbps.

Warranty expired 2015 so I opened her up and replaced it with a sandisk 240gb plus ssd. Jumped to 324/329 read/write. Much better. Did not seem like much better but wow so much faster.

Not sure if its thunderbolt 1 or 2. But 2014 mini is thunderbolt 2. Anyhow plugin my thunderbolt port only no usb. And it boots catalina 10.15.4 in 23 seconds.

Used to be almost 2 minutes from internal. And 50 seconds with a clean install of HS. But from external 23 seconds. Not bad for external.

Maybe with a faster ssd even better. My HP ssd only gets like 20mbps so drive matters too. But for now not bad.