Cheapest way to get a really fast cross-platform external SSD?

MIDIBoss

Weaksauce
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Howdy folks,

What's the cheapest way to get an external hard SSD drive? I am assuming that it would be buying a SataIII SSD and putting it into a USB enclosure. Would the USB enclosure slow it down a lot? Is there a better option? I need something really fast for tansferring large audio work files (Pro Tools, etc.) between my systems and don't want to spend as much as buying a regular SSD external would cost. Is there any huge speed difference between the most expensive SATA III SSD's and the cheap(er) ones?

Also, I have a little 32gb thumb drive that my Mac and my Windows 10 computers can both read. This is super handy for transferring small files between the two machines. Is there a way I can setup an external SSD to run that way? I don't really understand why the thumb drive works that way because I thought Windows/Mac were two different formatting processes, but curious if anyone here would know!

Thanks,
M
 
A SATA SSD in an external enclosure works fine. I have a Silverstone USB 3.1 tool-less enclosure, cost about £25. Works fine with a MacBook Pro or a windows PC. Put in a SATA SSD, no config, away you go. The limiting factor is the SATA interface (and probably the drive itself), not the USB 3.1.

However - you asked for "cheapest" and "really fast". One of those has to give. If you want "really fast", you could take a look at the Glyph Atom Raid. Never used it but Gpyph claim a transfer rate of up to 860MB/sec. It's a RAID 0 array of two M.2 sticks, with a Thunderbolt3/USB-C external interface. https://www.glyphtech.com/product/atom-raid-ssd. It's definitely not in the "cheapest" category though.

Your 32GB thumb drive works because the Mac can read/write some of the Windows formats (Windows 10 doesn't support journaled HFS+ natively, but there are some utilities that can do it: https://www.techadvisor.co.uk/how-t...hfs-drives-in-windows-for-free-image-3369574/). Mostly, people use one of the formats that are common to both; there are probably loads of web pages on this topic - e.g. http://osxdaily.com/2012/04/22/format-drive-mac-pc-compatible/.
If you want to be bold, you can ttry the "experimental" NTFS write feature in MacOS. https://www.techrepublic.com/article/pro-tip-enable-ntfs-write-support-natively-for-os-x/
 
You can make a cheap/quick external ssd with the following and formatting it exfat or fat32. Though fat32 max's out at 4gb file sizes.

https://www.amazon.com/Silicon-Power-Endurance-Free-download-SP060GBSS3S60S25AE
https://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-2-5-inches-SATA-Drive-Enclosure/dp/B01N5RLG2C

I use this setup for a faster flash drive. You can get better speeds if you spend more money on a better ssd or use a usb 3.1/type c nvme enclosure and an nvme ssd but idk how fast you want and that gets into more $$$.


These are the speeds I see with the above combo. Much faster than my 64gb flash drive.
nrYQc8l.png[img]
 
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You can make a cheap/quick external ssd with the following and formatting it exfat or fat32. Though fat32 max's out at 4gb file sizes.

https://www.amazon.com/Silicon-Power-Endurance-Free-download-SP060GBSS3S60S25AE
https://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-2-5-inches-SATA-Drive-Enclosure/dp/B01N5RLG2C

I use this setup for a faster flash drive. You can get better speeds if you spend more money on a better ssd or use a usb 3.1/type c nvme enclosure and an nvme ssd but idk how fast you want and that gets into more $$$.


These are the speeds I see with the above combo. Much faster than my 64gb flash drive.
nrYQc8l.png[img]


Thank you for that info Frank Bello!

M
 
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I used an external Thunderbolt SSD to great effect, but you need to ensure your PC has a Thunderbolt port. It's not difficult if you plan for it, and it won't bottleneck your drive.
 
You can also find msata/m.2 ssd usb 3.0 enclosures if you got any of those laying around. And the bonus is they're smaller than the 2.5" options.
 
Howdy folks,

What's the cheapest way to get an external hard SSD drive? I am assuming that it would be buying a SataIII SSD and putting it into a USB enclosure. Would the USB enclosure slow it down a lot? Is there a better option? I need something really fast for tansferring large audio work files (Pro Tools, etc.) between my systems and don't want to spend as much as buying a regular SSD external would cost. Is there any huge speed difference between the most expensive SATA III SSD's and the cheap(er) ones?

Also, I have a little 32gb thumb drive that my Mac and my Windows 10 computers can both read. This is super handy for transferring small files between the two machines. Is there a way I can setup an external SSD to run that way? I don't really understand why the thumb drive works that way because I thought Windows/Mac were two different formatting processes, but curious if anyone here would know!

Thanks,
M
Fastest way is buying 2 10Gbit Mellanox Connectx-2 cards for $20 each and a DAC cable for maybe $10-$20 (assuming the machines are within a few feet of each other).
 
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