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#Best external hard drive for mac thunderbolt windows 10
#Best external hard drive for mac thunderbolt portable
#Best external hard drive for mac thunderbolt pro

Samsung’s X5 Thunderbolt 3 solid state drive currently costs $449 and proudly wears its premium status with an enclosure that’s fashioned like a sports car.

Time to transfer 13GB file from drive to Razer Blade Stealth Time to transfer 13GB file from Razer Blade Stealth

#Best external hard drive for mac thunderbolt pro

Time to transfer 13GB file from drive to MacBook Pro Time to transfer 13GB file from MacBook Pro

#Best external hard drive for mac thunderbolt windows 10

Observed maximum transfer rate on Windows 10 (sequential) Observed maximum transfer rate on macOS (sequential)Ģ,410MB/s read, 1,708MB/s write on average USB-C SSD performance comparison Comparisonġ,800MB/s read, 1,800MB/s write (when installed directly into motherboard)

Though, compared to the flash-based storage used in a 2016 MacBook Pro, another test machine that we used, the SATA-based storage in the Stealth had a significant negative impact on the maximum transfer speeds we saw from the X5 Thunderbolt 3 drive. One of the test machines, a 2019 Razer Blade Stealth, has a Thunderbolt 3 port, which should allow for incredibly fast transfer speeds. These bottlenecks became apparent in the course of my testing. As is the case with most computing components, your rig is only as fast as your slowest part. If you have a SATA drive (as many Windows laptops do), it may have a hard time keeping up with a fast external drive. However, the transfer speed of an external drive lives and dies based on what the storage type inside of your computer is capable of. This might seem trivial, since you’re shopping for an external drive, not a replacement for your internal drive. If your computer has a Thunderbolt 3 port, it will work with non-Thunderbolt 3 devices, but conversely, the $450 X5 won’t work at all on a USB-C port that doesn’t support Thunderbolt 3.įor this comparison, I tested a 1TB Thunderbolt 3 external SSD, a 1TB USB 3.1 Gen 2 external SSD, and a 1TB NVMe SSD that I installed into a USB 3.1 Gen 2 external enclosure.Īs if it weren’t complicated enough, you’ll also need to determine the type of storage that’s inside of your computer. For instance, plugging a USB 3.1 Gen 2 drive with a laptop that can only handle USB 3.1 Gen 1 will work, but it’s a recipe that will churn out disappointment, not fast transfer speeds. But the same can’t be said for drives themselves. The ports themselves are backwards compatible, so a Thunderbolt 3 port will work just fine with drives that use the slower interfaces.

USB-C ports with Thunderbolt 3 support up to 40Gbps bandwidth.

USB-C ports with USB 3.1 Gen 2 support up to 10Gbps bandwidth.

USB-C ports with USB 3.1 Gen 1 support up to 5Gbps bandwidth.

Though, you’ll likely continue to see products carry the following naming scheme for a while: USB interfaces are confusing as is, and with USB 3.2 set to launch later in 2019, the classifications listed below will change. This means that you’ll need to determine the USB interface of the drive you’re interested in, then compare it to your computer’s USB-C port. You also need to make sure that the macOS or Windows 10 machine that you’ll connect it to can take advantage of its speed. Unlike the buying process for most tech products, simply choosing the one that you think fits your workflow or budget isn’t the end of the road - or at least, it shouldn’t be. What you should know before buying a USB-C SSD Then, there’s a DIY external drive built with an Intel 660p NVMe 1TB SSD and a separate enclosure.

#Best external hard drive for mac thunderbolt portable

This includes two portable SSDs from Samsung that arrive ready to go out of the box: a Samsung X5 Thunderbolt 3 1TB SSD and a Samsung T5 1TB SSD. I tested a few 1TB USB-C solid state drives ranging in price from around $160 to $450. But thanks to the falling rates of SSD prices, you can get a fast external drive with a lot of storage capacity for less than you might expect. As you might expect, it can get very expensive to find a drive that ticks all of these boxes. But those who are looking for something smaller, particularly a more travel-friendly USB-C drive that doesn’t compromise on storage capacity or speed, have a few different roads to take. This is a great option for some, especially if lugging it around isn’t a big deal, or you rarely feel the need to unplug it. The price of an external storage drive is tied to a few factors: the amount of storage capacity you’re looking for, how fast the drive is at transferring your files, and its physical size.Īt this point, high-capacity external drives that require power adapters are surprisingly inexpensive.