DIY Fast External SSD
Well folks, a few months back I decided that I wanted to get a MacBook Pro 14" 2023 for editing my photos in Lightroom and Photoshop. All my files were in a RAID 1 HDD array in my Windows PC so I needed to get an external SSD that was fast enough to have a flawless photo/video editing/import/export experience.
After a lot of research I went with the following setup:
- Western Digital WD_BLACK SN850X 4 TB NVMe SSD with an advertised speed of 7300 MB/s (I paid 382.99 EUR new from Amazon)
- Acasis TVU401 40Gbps M.2 Nvme SSD Enclosure Compatible with Thunderbolt 3/4 (I paid 134.99 EUR new from Amazon)
After copying all my information and downloading the Blackmagicdesign Disk Speed Test I am able to say that I am very happy with the results. Here is the screenshot showing the speed of my DIY external SSD:
Here is the screenshot showing the speed of my internal SSD drive:
Write speeds are less than half my MacBook Pro's internal SSD and write speeds are a little over half of it.
However when it comes down to using it and actually importing my new photographs in Lightroom and editing large files, everything is super super fast. The delay is negligible, it's of course way way way less than reading/writing from/to RAID 1 HDD array.
For a total of 517.98 EUR (at the time of purchase) I think is a bit pricey but still well worth it. In my case, the price went up because I chose the 4 TB model.
I would recommend this combination of SSD and enclosure if you are in the market for something fast and reliable.