What external storage solutions are you going to use with the Mac Studio

[Baja63]

I ordered a M1 Max Mac Studio with 1TB of storage. I’m wondering what others are going to use for external storage. I’ll be doing video editing 4K video so will need some kind of additional working space.

 

[Boil]

I want to see a matching TB4/USB4 storage expansion chassis that could hold numerous storage devices:

• M.2 NVMe SSDs (scratch disk)
• 2.5" SATAIII SSDs (project/media files)
• 3.5" SATAIII HDDs (Time Machine)

 

[MiG007]

I ordered a M1 Max Mac Studio with 1TB of storage. I’m wondering what others are going to use for external storage. I’ll be doing video editing 4K video so will need some kind of additional working space.

With the internal SSD speed out performing anything you can put on at TB4 port I am beefing up the internal drive to more than I normally would. Using the internal for working 4k/8k projects moving them offline to external drives when done.

 

[F-Train]

If the computer's drive is used as the sole workspace with all data brought into it, one's degree of patience with respect to the transfer of the data at the beginning and end of the session determines how fast the external drives have to be.

 

[Boomish69]

A popular problem for sure, I’ve ordered a Studio Ultra, I’m coming from a classic 2010 Mac Pro expanded & upgraded, But that’s got a myriad of drives in, NVMe, 2xSSD and 4 large spindles for storage, Where & how can I plug that lot in? I’ve looked at Thunderbolt HD docks and they are crazy money , I’m not sure why, maybe the connections are expensive to buy, but you can get a USB-C to SATA for less than £3! makes me wonder if we could make our own Storage dock.
I’m thinking I may well end up with a whole bunch of small external docks, it’s got quite a few thunderbolt ports. If anyone finds any good storage options that aren’t crazy money I’d be interested to know.

 

[Adult80HD]

I've tested out several difference external enclosures and right now the absolute fastest you can get is the Acasis USB4.0/TB3 NVMe enclosure. On my 16" M1 Max MBP I get 3100 MB/s Read and 2900 MB/s Write speeds--more than enough for editing 4K/8K footage. I use older PCIe 3.0 NVMe drives as you can't get the benefits of PCIe 4.0 with TB/USB and they're cheaper. A 4TB Sabrent TLC NVMe drive is less than $600, so for about $700 all in you get very fast and very portable external storage.

 

[hpnas]

I am coming from 256GB SSD where 40% of it is unused so going to 512GB SSD stock is a win for me. I keep all my media files on a Synology NAS with 2 10TB hard drives in it so local space is not a constraint for me

 

[majus]

I will be getting the base Ultra but before I order I want to see a teardown on it, and also hope someone will come out with a good external TB4 M.2 NVME storage expansion solution.

 

[symphony]

I ordered an 8TB Mac Studio. I will use it with my Synology NAS.

 

[Chancha]

I already got these working for my 2017 iMac + MBP 14”:

two 2TB NVMe SSDs in custom TB3 enclosures, these are for exchange and storing active project data.
16TB G-RAID in RAID0 for active assets.
A 60TB NAS with 20Gbps NIC, this is for backup and accessing the server for the rest of our (cold) data.

We seldom need any of our Macs having more than 512GB startup drive as a result since no data is permanently stored on them, especially for desktop.

 

[atonaldenim]

The Studio will be my first M1 model and it sounds like all current M1, Pro, Max computers have slower USB 3.1 read/write speeds than Intel Macs, even on the latest OS. Maybe because Apple's custom TB4/USB4 controller chips are targeting TB4/USB4 devices at the expense of USB 3.1 compatibility? (Fingers crossed the M1 Ultra will be better, but I doubt it.)

It seems like there are some workarounds like connecting the USB 3.1 devices through a Thunderbolt 3 dock / daisy chain, which can sometimes boost speeds back to normal. Hopefully my existing OWC Thunderbay 4 TB3 RAID will perform decently.

Something to be aware of, for fastest external storage look at Thunderbolt 4, USB4, I think Thunderbolt 3 devices, also 10Gbe NAS, but probably not USB 3.1. Anyone with more knowledge on this subject I'd be happy to hear from! I will definitely do some testing and share my findings.... sometime in May after mine arrives.

PS I also decided to up the internal storage on my M1 Ultra Mac Studio order to 2TB for video editing. I’ve been getting by with 512GB on my MBP but it’s tight. My Mac Pro 5,1s have 1TB boot drives which has been fine, but I figured the 2TB internal SSD for the Studio would be more future proof and be a nice quality of life improvement.

 

[Traverse]

Actually, my setup just arrived today. I’m using the OWC Thunderbay mini coupled with two Samsung 8TB SSDs and a 4TB Western Digital SSD that I already had.

My storage setup will be:

1. 2TB built into Mac Studio for files, music, photos, projects, etc.
2. 4TB SSD - no specific use yet will use for Carbon Copy Cloner folder backups and maybe photos if the library grows too large.
3. 8TB SSD - Media drive for TV Shows, Movies, and Plex
4. 8TB SSD - back up all other drives. Currently my data footprint (excluding backups) is about 4TB so I only need one Time Machine drive. The OWC will have one empty bay in case I ever need to add another 8TB and RAID-0 for a large backup drive.

I’m really excited about this setup and to have all the drives in a single enclosure rather than juggling multiple devices. I’ve toyed with the idea of a NAS, but I think I prefer the simplicity of just attaching a large bucket of storage to my system rather than managing an entirely different system.

 

[cpnotebook80]

@Boomish69 I have a similar setup as you with the Mac Pro 5.1 and also ordered the ultra MS and looked at some YouTube for external hd options. @Adult80HD mentioned about Acacias and I might also do that and did spot a vid on it also. However, not sure on the types of NVME to go with to get the best speed max speed. I have 5-6 tb of data I like to host on something moving out of the Mac Pro 5.1 and just have the ultra 1tb for applications and day to day files.

 

[JamesScheller]

I am coming from 256GB SSD where 40% of it is unused so going to 512GB SSD stock is a win for me. I keep all my media files on a Synology NAS with 2 10TB hard drives in it so local space is not a constraint for me

This.

I just put a 10GBe card in my DS1621+ and bought a small 10GBe switch.

Ready and waiting for my Studio to arrive and it'll plug right in.

 

[Renderdog]

I don't know much about them, but this DIY Thunderbolt 3 SSD looks pretty good. More speed than I need, since I'll just be using an external SSD for Time Machine and a clone.

 

[Adult80HD]

@Boomish69 I have a similar setup as you with the Mac Pro 5.1 and also ordered the ultra MS and looked at some YouTube for external hd options. @Adult80HD mentioned about Acacias and I might also do that and did spot a vid on it also. However, not sure on the types of NVME to go with to get the best speed max speed. I have 5-6 tb of data I like to host on something moving out of the Mac Pro 5.1 and just have the ultra 1tb for applications and day to day files.

Apparently the Orico USB 4.0 enclosure has similar performance. I would guess we will see more USB/TB3(4) NVMe enclosures shortly, especially from Sabrent (and I love their tool-less enclosures). Given the limits of USB4/TB4 any drive that sustain 3500 MB/s would be fine; in the Samsungs that's the Pro line. I use both the Samsung Pro drives and the Sabrent drives since Sabrent makes larger 4TB NVMe drives.

 

[norwaypianoman]

I am waiting for a good TB4/USB4 solution, preferrably DIY, which I can use with 2TB or 4TB SSD.
It makes no sense to buy anything now, which is not TB4/USB4 if you are going to work with it.

For backup it makes sense to buy anything, but any SSD would do, I would like to use SSD for backup.

 

[Adult80HD]

I am waiting for a good TB4/USB4 solution, preferrably DIY, which I can use with 2TB or 4TB SSD.
It makes no sense to buy anything now, which is not TB4/USB4 if you are going to work with it.

For backup it makes sense to buy anything, but any SSD would do, I would like to use SSD for backup.

Get an Acasis or Orico external USB4 enclosure. They both support higher speed transfer and are exactly what you are looking for.

 

[aurora_sect]

I have a 2TB NVMe in a USB enclosure that is hosting my entire system right now on my late 2012 27" iMac. I plan to keep using it for all files that aren't large and frequently opened, maybe upgrade the enclosure from USB to TB depending on how well it performs on newer gen USB. Ordered a 1TB SSD for my studio, plan to host apps, system, and large files (like active Logic projects) on that.

 

[CodeSpyder]

I have a 10TB La Cie for time machine backup. It's a hard drive. I currently have a 4TB SSD on my MacBook Pro which has 2.89TB available. I'm sure I can clean that up. I ordered an Ultra with 4TB SSD. Should be fine, especially with the clean up.
* Edit * I now have 3.11TB available. Found a bunch of stuff to delete.

 

[Baja63]

You all convinced me to upgrade to 2TB. I thought that extra 1TB was kind of expensive, but the internal SSD is so fast it’s worth it. It seems like high performance external storage is expensive anyway. The 2TB will give me a little breathing room though I’m going to look into these external storage solutions as well. I’ll still need some external space.

 

[AfterglowMP]

Am still editing away on my 2010 5,1 MP with High Sierra and Nvidia GTX1080 graphics card. Does okay with 4k footage but an upgrade after 12 years of long service is on the way and Mac Studio is the likely purchase.

Have asked this before, but there's the possibility of keeping the cMP with its 6 internal drives running as a reasonable storage enclosure, networking with the new Mac Studio using a 10Gb ethernet PCIe card like this one. Solo10G PCIe Card - Sonnet

The Mac Studio would have all the current project media on a 2TB drive and the cMP would be the back up. Any thoughts, critical or otherwise?

 

[cpnotebook80]

I also ordered the Acasis and liked the enclosure being able to dissipate the heat. I am wanting a 4tb nvme but looking at the reviews on some of the name brands, im scared off esp the Sabrent and WD ones. Will keep looking

 

[jihwoanahn]

Hello everyone, since this topic exists - I'd like to ask a question without making a new thread somewhere else.
I also got a Mac Studio with M1 Max and 2TB SSD, and looking for something like 2 or 4TB of external NVMe drive.

But for some reason, most of Thunderbolt 3 enclosures I find on Amazon says they support up to 2TB of storage (ones like ORICO or Sabrent) and I don't see that limitation written in enclosures for USB 3.1/3.2 Type C ones.
I was wondering does limitation really exists for Thunderbolt enclosure? I believe OWC Envoy EX doesn't seem to have any despite being TB3 enclosure. If possible, I kinda want to stay away from USB 3.1/3.2 enclosure, to get the maximum speed as much as possible.

My primary use for this external drives will be loading virtual instruments sample libraries such as Kontakt, SINE player and etc.
Thanks!

 

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