two external 2TB SSDs connected to the same Thunderbolt port (of course this option would be valid if the drives are not Thunderbolt, so they can share the bandwidth of the port). one external 4TB SSD on a single Thunderbolt port Yet, the price tag for getting the 8TB version is pretty high.ġ) Would I see any performance issues streaming libraries from the internal SSD rather than external? Is the “do not put your libraries in the same drive as the OS” still a thing?Ģ) If I decided to go with external SSDs:Ī) what minimum connection type (USB 3.1 / 3.2 / TB3) guarantees a good streaming performance? In other words, which SSD types will provide the QD1 4K speed needed for good streaming? I know a TB3 definitely will, but I don’t want to spend money on a TB3 drive if a 3.1 also will and will be half the price.ī) Which array will provide the best performance: But, I think 8TB would be the way to go in my particular case, also considering (as you can clearly see) that I don’t upgrade my MacBooks that often. Of course, one option would be to just copy my most used libraries and keep my least used ones in an external SSD should I happen to need it. Now, I’m debating myself whether to max out the internal SSD storage and stream libraries from there since it would be more convenient when travelling not to have to carry and plug external drives every time.Ĭurrently I have a total roughly under 3TB in libraries, so I think that going for the 4TB would be a bit tight (also considering that we should leave between 20% and 30% free space not to compromise performance). I am looking at getting one of the new M1 Max MacBook Pro’s for my travel rig to replace my 10-year old MacBook.

Fast external ssd for mac