Which external SSD for iMac Pro?

[mhschmieder]

Taking a fresh look at this now that I am stripped down to just some clothes, some kitchen stuff, and my computer, in a hotel for the next three months while adapting to my unexpected career move to North Carolina after having no luck finding a job in the SF Bay Area six months after the lockdown put me out of work for the first time in my life.

I had to order a Focurite Scarlet today so that I can at least use my headphones to work at 96 kHz (the iMac's headphone jack is only good up to 48 kHz, and didn't bring active monitors due to my tiny car, theft risk, and wanting to be even quieter than I am at home).

So the other limiting factor now (I left all instruments back home except for one hollow body semi-acoustic bass), is that VSL keeps putting out more Synchron libraries that only work on SSD's. I've run out of stuff to bump to my HDD's, so tonight will be the night that I order a 4 TB SSD.

Much to my disappointment, neither prices nor specs have changed since I last looked. I would love to go with the recommended Samsung models, but they still seem to max out at 2 TB! I may be forced to spend $879 on the not-as-fast-as-they-should-be Glyph Atom Drive model after all, but have a few more to review from Mike's later replies.

OWC has a build-your-own coming, but it remains pre-order only, almost a year after it was first announced, so I can't really afford to wait any longer. Although maybe I can, as it now says "Ships in October".

https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/envoy-e ... nderbolt-3

It's going to be a bit of a bummer to ONLY be able to do MIDI based projects and maybe some bass DI, for the foreseeable future, but "less is more" and so I will at least be more narrowly focused for a while and also am finally once again working amongst actual peers (i.e. software engineers) and am already learning useful stuff about best-quality USB hubs and the like.

[mhschmieder]

There's also this one from OWC that is $1000 but seems to have the best performance at the moment so is a way better buy than the Glyph:

https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/owc-env ... nderbolt-3

I can afford it as I got a huge salary boost and career promotion (a weird feeling after six months of unemployment, which I had never before experienced unless you count the first few weeks after college graduation).

I'm having trouble finding the SanDisk model that Mike recommended, but will keep looking and then will compare that to the OWC model. I don't think it's critical to have the fastest possible; VSL Synchron mostly needs SSD due to so many mics being blended, so bang-for-buck at sufficient speed is ideal.

[mhschmieder]

Yeah, on Amazon at least, I'm not seeing those SanDisk models at anything bigger than 1 TB, which is smaller than my current 2 TB Glyph Atom SSD.

Also, Amazon doesn't seem to have Thunderbird versions of the WD models; just slow USB versions.

[mikehalloran]

There's also this one from OWC that is $1000 but seems to have the best performance at the moment so is a way better buy than the Glyph:

https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/owc-env ... nderbolt-3

I can afford it as I got a huge salary boost and career promotion (a weird feeling after six months of unemployment, which I had never before experienced unless you count the first few weeks after college graduation).

I'm having trouble finding the SanDisk model that Mike recommended, but will keep looking and then will compare that to the OWC model. I don't think it's critical to have the fastest possible; VSL Synchron mostly needs SSD due to so many mics being blended, so bang-for-buck at sufficient speed is ideal.

Congrats on finding a new gig. Too bad you have to relocate.

I lost mine, too but I'd just started receiving Social Security and picked up a couple of church gigs. CA Unemployment (what little there is after reduction for my church gigs) should run out the month that my wife's SSI kicks in. Hopefully, that keeps us here if I never get another bread & butter job.

4TB NVMe blades are finally creeping into the market—there's even an 8TB that Bob Ludwig has been testing but he can't keep it cool enough to avoid thermal shut down. That OWC looks to be a pretty good deal. I wish I had seen that last week.

I may still but first I need to replace my iMac Pro—the money cleared today so I need to ship on Monday. My replacement hasn't arrived yet so I'll be working on my MBP for a few days … ouch!

SanDisk and WD SATA III SSDs with 3D NAND are the same drive. Amazon has the 4TB <$500. Lower price, 5 yr warranty and 3D NAND makes it a much better buy than the 860 QVO.
https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Ultra-NA ... r=1-3&th=1

iMac Pros have come down in price. The $4.999 base model is now the 10 core and the only 8 cores are in the Refurb Store at lower prices. I'll be picking up a similar machine to the one I have but with a Vega 64X and 4TB onboard. The money is a wash so I'm going for it.

[mhschmieder]

Mike, best of luck to you both, for staying in CA as you head towards retirement years, and also surviving the awful air (I'm not missing that part, for sure!). I'm keeping my house (I only bought it last OCT anyway) and 99% of my stuff is still back there as well (if not more!). One never knows.

As for that SanDisk, it's a good buy, but is labeled an internal vs. external or portable SD, so I wasn't sure if there's a way to host that (as it isn't a blade) in a way that can also connect to my computer via Thunderbolt 3.

https://www.amazon.com/UGREEN-Enclosure ... 3B8P3QCEMZ

The one above wouldn't be fast enough, but I guess there are other enclosures that are specifically Thunderbolt 3 certified and thus maintain the highest available read/write rates for the SSD.

[mikehalloran]

…

As for that SanDisk, it's a good buy, but is labeled an internal vs. external or portable SD, so I wasn't sure if there's a way to host that (as it isn't a blade) in a way that can also connect to my computer via Thunderbolt 3.

https://www.amazon.com/UGREEN-Enclosure ... 3B8P3QCEMZ

The one above wouldn't be fast enough, but I guess there are other enclosures that are specifically Thunderbolt 3 certified and thus maintain the highest available read/write rates for the SSD.

Actually, it is as is a toaster style dock like this:
https://www.amazon.com/UNITEK-External- ... _1_16_sspa

SATA III is your bottleneck. As long as the port is USB 3 or faster, it won't make a difference to a SATA III SSD.

USB-C is just a port, not a protocol. There are USB 2 cables with USB-C plugs and those will be a lot slower so always check the specs.

[mhschmieder]

Ah, the formatting was so bad on that Amazon page that I didn't notice at first that the SSD is half as fast as my current Glyph Atom.

Checking VSL's own specs, they have specifically stated that 64k random read speed (the higher the better) is the critical spec for their multi-mic libraries.

Also they state that RAM usage and CPU load will be less of an issue (sometimes a bottleneck with Synchron Player) with NVMe SSD's.

The drive can't be FAT/exFAT formatted, but I've already been taking care of that with all of my drives anyway. And of course USB 2 is out of the question for the connection port.

Thanks for the dock ref; I had seen similar products but couldn't tell if the slot sizes matched these internal drives or not. Looks like they do.

[mikehalloran]

I use the Thunderbolt version of this.
https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/externa ... drive-dock
The claimed speed is possible with two drives configured to RAID 0. Otherwise, SATA III is still the bottleneck. I may go to RAID 0 or get that OWC TB3 4T — make that decision after the new iMP arrives and I see what 4TB onboard does for me.

The advantages to a twin TB2 dock are a) both drives are active b) I can turn the slots off and on to swap without powering down and c) TB supports TRIM after you run the Terminal command. As I shuffle VI libraries and older projects around to make just barely enough space work, TRIM lets me write new data to the SSD around 24 hours earlier than the drive firmware's Garbage Collection utility–never an issue if you've lots of space; a major PIA if you don't.

[mhschmieder]

Hmm, that could work for a lot of people. I'll think on this some more with a fresh mind tomorrow morning, as I think I've hit even bigger performance bottlenecks with the very few remaining non-VSL libraries that I have had to keep on my SSD drive.

Most likely I'll go for the $1000 solution from OWC, to future-proof for the next few years, but I think the SanDisk approach will be ideal for the majority of people on this forum.

I may order the OWC Drive Dock anyway though, as it could improve my overall setup and replace my two Kingwin TrueDock USB3 docks. I don't have enough ports to keep them both plugged in at the same time without removing either my iLok or eLicenser, so this could simplify, reduce wear and tear, and avoid errors when I forget what I unplugged. I also like dedicated on/off buttons.

[mhschmieder]

I just now placed the order for the dual drive dock (more ergonomic than my separate Kingwin True Docks), and the 4 TB SSD.

A bit surprised that NC sales tax is almost as high as CA's. I think each county and town adds quite a bit to the base rate for the state.

[mikehalloran]

I just now placed the order for the dual drive dock (more ergonomic than my separate Kingwin True Docks), and the 4 TB SSD.

A bit surprised that NC sales tax is almost as high as CA's. I think each county and town adds quite a bit to the base rate for the state.

Yes, true in CA, too, where the state sales tax is 7.25% — all else is county, city etc. There's about a $12 difference between having my new iMP delivered to me in Sunnyvale as opposed to picking it up from one of the Apple Stores in the Cupertino campuses, each about 3 mi away from me. Cupertino must have some sort of city tax that affects the rate.

Hmmm... save $12 and have it delivered to my house instead of the store… Let me think about this…

[mhschmieder]

This $1K 4TB SSD from OWC was worth the extra $100 over the one from Glyph as it is based on the PCIe standard and thus comes close to delivering true TB3 speeds.

I notice my older 2TB SSD from Glyph identifies itself in a way that makes me suspicious of its true I/O performance.

The hotel's wi-fi is super-slow, so it's taking me days to download and install my latest VSL purchases, but I am pleased as punch to finally have sufficient SSD space, and couldn't have done it without my huge salary boost (even if the job doesn't last, for any number of reasons).

I am plugging it into the second TB3 port on the back of my not-so-reliable OWC TB3 Dock (12-port edition), but for some reason that dock seems to be doing better in NC than it did in CA.

[mhschmieder]

Interesting: As I anticipate the new 4 TB SSD to fill up quickly due to the pace of VSL releases, I bumped the less demanding single-mic SYNCHRON-ized libraries to the Glyph 2TB SSD, then re-scanned everything in Synchron Player.

The VSL software shows the differential of load times between these two SSD's to be almost 3:1. I'll probably buy a second OWC 4TB SSD and re-sell the one from Glyph, as soon as I hit another wall. For now, I moved my Toontrack stuff from the HD to the Glyph SSD, and that in itself is a huge difference.

[mikehalloran]

I get you.

The main reason I upgraded my iMP was to get 4TB onboard. If I could have 8TB, I would have gone for it.

Side benefit is the increased speed of the 18 over the 14 Core which I did not expect. DP opens in half the time and I no longer wonder if stretching a long sound bite will finish in my lifetime—just rendered a 4 min. track that took only 7 minutes. I'm way good with that.

[joelfriedman]

Hi Mike,

I know this is an old thread but rather than starting a new one I hope I can simply tag onto this one. iMac Pro (2017), 3.2 GHz 8-Core Intel Xeon W, 32GB RAM, OS 12.6. I'm running out of space on my 2 Samsung external SSD T5s (each 1 TB) that I use for my VIs/sample libraries. I thought I'd look into at least 1 new 2TB and shift/recombine sample libraries between them. Can you suggest what to get that is cost effective: A 2TB T5 or a 2TB T7 or another brand entirely? Thanks!

Joel