New Computer Migration + SSD?
Greetings,
I got a new Mac studio and need to get setup. Haven’t upgraded computers in many years so wondering if there are any tips for a smooth transition. Appreciate any feedback!
I know these macs are super powerful, but should I still consider using a separate ssd external drive for samples, or is that kind of antiquated given the modern processing power? It’s M1, 10-core cpu, 1 TB ssd, 64 GB ram.
Thanks!
Answers
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The external SSD is more about "do I have enough internal space otherwise?"
External SSD will be very slightly slower than the internal SSD, so if you can fit everything internally, not bothering with the external is more convenient.
With the current NI software suite, licensing is based on the login, not on any hardware dongle, so at least that is nice!
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I have a Mac studio as well. I ended up opting for an external drive too instead of more internal storage due to cost. I definitely recommend going with a thunderbolt 4 enclosure and a NVMe drive. Don't waste your time with SSD's, ie SATA interface, NVMe is light years ahead in terms of speed.
I went with a KONYEAD 40Gbps NVMe Enclosure, but there are other enclosures out there, it was the cheapest thunderbolt 4 enclosure I could find that I trusted. And a Crucial P3 Plus 4TB NVMe drive. Total cost was about $350, which I thought was pretty cheap compared to Apple's $900 upcharge for 4TB of internal storage. Is the setup as fast as Apple's internal storage? No, but compared to an external USB SSD, it's waaay faster.
Edit: Regardless of what external storage solution you decide is right for your budget, do NOT format the drive using Apple's case-sensitive filesystem. A lot of programs won't even install on a case-sensitive formatted drive, and it just causes tons of issues. I ended up having to backup my external drive and reformat it because it caused so many issues.
Speed test of my external drive + enclosure
Speed test of Apple's internal drive
Speed test of a typical SSD (SATA interface)
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Thanks for getting back! Yeah, I realize now I should have gone with a 2TB internal, but oh well. I'll likely be looking at about 75% storage use right out of the gate with my current software and sample library. So I can give that a try if I want to see how she flys, or just go ahead and invest in a quality external setup, bc I'll end up having to do that when I inevitably invest in more sample libraries.
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Wow, really appreciate the detailed response!
I don't have a ton of samples, but def regretting not getting at least 2 TB internal. So I think I might go ahead and invest in an external setup, bc I know I'll eventually need it and might as well avoid having to mess with moving it all over at some point. I have never used an external enclosure, as my older Mac took the upgraded ssds via internal docks, so I'm a little unfamiliar with some of the specs on these products you suggested.
If you had a bigger budget what would you have gone with to get closer to the Apple speeds, or is that even currently possible with an external?
I really only need an extra 2TB but can go with 4 if that makes more sense. But I'd rather invest in better speed than larger storage overall.
Would something like the CrucialT700 2TB Gen5 NVMe M.2 SSD work and would it be 'better'? I assume the potential speeds are dependent on the enclosures capabilities, but are there enclosures that offer higher speeds than the one you have?
In other werdz, how cans I best maximize them speeds?
Sorry for all the questions, but really want to get this moving to get setup asap.
Thanks again!
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Well my perspective might be a little biased because I remember being excited about mechanical disks being $1 per megabyte. I happily plopped down $500 from my high school job paycheck for a 500MB IDE hard drive.
I would opt for the largest drive you can afford, and not be too concerned with speed. The amount of time you're going to spend to upgrade your drive at a later time just isn't worth it. Pretty much any NVMe is going to be super fast. The Crucial drive I bought seemed like a good balance between speed, capacity and cost at the time. If you want better performance then hands down Samsung is among the top tier. In fact after looking at drives just now, I would go with the Samsung 990 Pro if I was buying a drive today.
Between NI libraries, Arturia virtual instruments, Ableton Live and a few video games, I very quickly have used about 2.4TB of my external drive. But that's doing everything I can to not install stuff on the internal drive, I'm still under 200GB used on the internal drive.
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Haha. '1$ Per Megabyte' would be a good username :)
Samsung EVO SSDs were all I used in my previous Mac, so I'm def on board with that suggestion.
Is the heatsink thing mostly relevant for gaming? I'm not a gamer, but I do some video editing. Also, looks like the Mac has a solid cooling system.
Is there an enclosure you would recommend to go with the Samsung?
It seems the enclosure speeds I'm seeing are about half the speed of the drives. Are they referring to the same speed specs to determine that? Like, the disk speeds you showed on your tests, are those dependent solely on the potential drive speed, or does the enclosure speed also play a role?
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Unfortunately with an external enclosure you're not going to get the same transfer speeds as the drive. Newer drives are PCIe 4.0 and 4 lanes, which is much faster than Thunderbolt 4, but TB4 is pretty darn fast.
Yes the enclosure will definitely play a part. At the end of the day your max speed will be capped at whatever the slowest component is. In my case the Crucial drive is not a very fast drive, hence the "slow" speeds. So that's why I would recommend going with an enclosure that can support the full 40Gb/s speed of Thunderbolt 4.
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Gotcha.
Guess I need to make sure it's compatible with the newer Macs as well, as some are 40GB/s but not necessarily M1 ready.
Looks like Samsung has been taking some heat over the 990s, which is kind of a bummer to read. My EVOs have been flawless for years. Guess there was some wear issues that many were complaining about, but seems there is some firmware that can fix that.
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I've seen reports about the newer PCIe 4.0 drives as well regarding heat. One of the reasons why I went with PCIe 3.0 for my Windows PC a few years back. I haven't really checked in on my Crucial though, the heat sink seemed to be adequate, but I probably should check on it.
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Think I will go with the 990 and the Acasis TBU05 Pro. It's 40gb, Thunderbolt and there are a few reviews saying it works great with the Studio.
It has to say Thunderbolt for the interface and not just Usb-c, right?
Do you ever get the warranty or 'protection plans' for these items?
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Looks like the necessary firmware updater is currently not compatible with Mac for the 990.
Bummer.
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For the best performance you want something that's thunderbolt 4 which is 40Gbp/s. I'm not sure what your background is so apologies if you're already familiar with some of this info, but the term "USB-C" can be a bit misleading. Basically it defines a physical standard, so there's nothing to prevent USB-C being used with older USB protocol standards. So without going down an IEEE rabbit hole, it's probably best to avoid anything that only says USB-C because the USB 3.2 standard is only rated up to 10Gbp/s which is only slightly faster than the latest SATA standard at 6Gbp/s.
As far as the protection plans, no not for most things. The only time I might opt for one of those is Apple Care for a laptop/phone, or whatever the Lenovo equivalent is for their laptops.
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Thanks.
After going down a rabbit hole I'm actually just considering going with the same setup you did, maybe a different enclosure, but the same ssd. I did chat with someone who has the P3+ whop said it ran really hot. You mentioned having not really checked on that. Do you think it could be an issue? Are you using the drive consistently without any obvious issues?
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Nah I haven't had an issues. I use it for pretty much everything including my home folder. I've hardly made a dent in my internal SSD. I've actually been thinking about buying another drive as this one is almost full.
As far as temps go, I've heard that PCIe 4.0 drives run hot but I'm not worried about this one. I think that's more of a concern for drives that are installed inside of small form factor cases like a NuC, or drives that mount on a PC motherboard and get stuck next to a giant GPU that blocks air flow. The case that I got for the drive ends up acting as a giant heat sink since the drive makes full contact with the bottom plate via a thermal interface pad. The case is sitting on top my Mac so there really is no heat build up. I checked the temps while running Blackmagic benchmark tool and even after several minutes of full speed reads and writes I could only get the drive up to 40c. I was checking the drive temps using smartctl as the test was running.
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Thanks for continuing to follow up, and letting me pester you a bit!
Interesting! The guy who told me he was overheating was using the Acasis brand I was thinking of going with. Maybe your option offers a little better protection.
Possible to send me a link to the one you picked up?
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