[terramex]

How good are modern external hard drives? Is it worth paying for more internal SSD storage or is it more reasonable to get high quality USB one?

[ErneX]

I have an NVME SSD on a TB enclosure and I get 2600MB/s read speeds on my Mac Studio.

[ayewo]

Mind sharing which brand you use for external storage?

[sib]

Not the OP but I use the following [1] enclosure and [2] NVME SSD on my MacBook Pro and get read / write speeds > 2,500MB/s.

[1] enclosure: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BB74BQVN/

[2] drive: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0B7CQ2CHH/

[ErneX]

Enclosure is: Acasis M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosure 40Gbps

The disk I put in there is a SK Hynix Gold P31 2TB, I am not getting its full speed with this enclosure so you can probably get a slower one and get the same results.

[anentropic]

I've been using external drives for years and would love to get rid of them now internal ones of a decent size are available

It's always been a slightly clunky experience - having to eject them before I can undock my laptop, or the way they never go to sleep (some issue with CalDigit TB dock...?)

I used to think of them as a backup, but since moving house a couple of years ago my internet is fast enough to make Backblaze viable

Next time I upgrade I'm just going to have less boxes on the desk, less power-drawing crap plugged in all the time

I hate the price of 8TB storage on these though :(

[kissiel]

I get 2GB/s+ with a USB4 NVME enclosure. If I buy this, this is where the main storage will be.

[ayewo]

Can you share more details about your external storage setup?

[kissiel]

Enclosure:

https://www.unitek-products.com/products/solidforce-reefer-p...

The SSD:

https://www.crucial.com/ssd/t500/CT2000T500SSD5?_gl=1*1g4r3l...

[sib]

I'm not the OP but I use this [1] enclosure and [2] NVME SSD on my MacBook Pro and get read & write speeds > 2,500MB/s.

[1] enclosure: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BB74BQVN/

[2] drive: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0B7CQ2CHH/

[vessenes]

What’s your use case?