Please Help Me Choose an SSD

LHayce Irri on 16/06/2022 - 21:43

Hi all

I finally figured out I could use my 500GB Samsung T5 as a boot drive in my late 2015 iMac. This change has basically given me a new computer
except 500GB isn't really enough space so Im wanting to go up to 1TB. After a bit of research I thought I would ask here with my options,

Note: I plan on using the drive as a boot drive until I upgrade my iMac to one that comes with an SSD, then ill use the drive as a media drive for backup etc

https://www.pbtech.co.nz/product/HDDSAM62730/Samsung-870-EVO…

or

https://www.pbtech.co.nz/product/HDDCRU30600/Crucial-MX500-1…

Either of these 2 options will be used inside an enclosure and my mac is usb3 (the first gen) so Im limited to 5Gbps anyhow as the usb doesn't
go any faster than the Sata drives

another option might be

https://www.pbtech.co.nz/product/HDDSAM981600/Samsung-980-1T…

In an nvme enclosure ill be limited by iMac usb3 but in the future plugged into another device I could get better speeds from the newer version of usb3 (provided the enclosure supports it)

Any advice here would be appreciated, this SSD stuff is all new to me…

Perhaps theres something i've overlooked?

Something about these SSDs makes them a bad option as a boot drive perhaps?

Maybe someone can recommend an enclosure they have experience with?

Thanks all

General Discussion

Comments

  • Toddy47 on 16/06/2022 - 22:42

    Overall the NVME is the best pick for longevity in terms of performance, of the other two options I have heard great things about the Crucial for heavy workloads, but I guess the real answer is either are fine and more than enough for the average user. The only kicker would be if you were writing lots, or were accessing a ton of small files at once, but more than likely not. If I were you I'd be going for the Crucial if reusing existing enclosure, or NVME for future proofing.

    • Hayce Irri on 17/06/2022 - 07:39

      thanks for the response

  • Drcspy on 17/06/2022 - 07:13
    +1

    You're using an SSD external drive as boot drive ?
    Why not just clone the system onto an appropriate drive and do a swap with the internal drive ?

    Oh yeah and "Im limited to 5Gbps anyhow" …….shouldn't matter when using the external as that's a lot faster than the drives read/ write speeds…..AND other factors may indeed reduce that 'advertised' USB transfer speed anyway. The best speeds you'll get will be with an internal drive.

    • Hayce Irri on 17/06/2022 - 07:42

      Hi, the newer imacs are pretty difficult to swap components. The RAM is actually soldered onto the board and to get access to swap the HDD requires popping the screen out and re-glueing it after

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