Expand MacBook's storage with an external drive

[Leychee]

Hello! I recently bought a 2023 MBP 14" with a 512GB SSD, and it's more than enough for my use case. However, I'll travel overseas soon and I'm not sure I'll have a constant internet connection, so I'd like to store stuff to watch as well as the photos and projects I'll work on there. 

 

My idea was to buy an M.2 SSD and an enclosure for it (is that how it's called?) instead of a classic external SSD and get one of those attachments that you stick behind the laptop, so the drive isn't just sitting there. I just learned that those attachments existed, and believe it or not I prefer "customizing" my laptop like that instead of adding a bunch of stickers. 

 

I have a few questions about this: do you recommend going for an M.2 and an enclosure, or am I completely wrong and a "normal" SSD is better? If I go for the M.2, what kind of connectivity should I be looking for, if I'm to use the drive on my MBP as well as my Windows desktop (it has USB 3.0 and C ports)? Is it easy to install and run apps directly from that external drive?

 

Thank you all for your help!

 

[ToboRobot]

Just look for external, USB-C SSD drive.  Or a bunch of flash drives.

[Leychee]

5 minutes ago, ToboRobot said:

Just look for external, USB-C SSD drive.  Or a bunch of flash drives.

Flash drives aren't an option since I don't have a USB 2.0 or 3.0 port on my laptop. And yes, I know I have to go for an external drive, my post is about knowing which option is the best. 

[ToboRobot]

6 minutes ago, Leyf said:

Flash drives aren't an option since I don't have a USB 2.0 or 3.0 port on my laptop. And yes, I know I have to go for an external drive, my post is about knowing which option is the best. 

Three Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C) ports with support for:

https://support.apple.com/kb/SP889

 

USB-C Flash drives exist, here is an example, not a recommendation.

https://www.westerndigital.com/en-ca/products/usb-flash-drives/sandisk-ultra-dual-drive-luxe-usb-3-1-type-c

 

[johnno23]

2TB M.2s can be found for as little as 70USD today. the aluminium USB 3 M.2 enclosures are your best option as they are extremely cheap.

you macbook has Thunderbolt/USB-C ports.

[Leychee]

Perfect, thanks! Shopping time  

[DrMacintosh]

51 minutes ago, Leyf said:

do you recommend going for an M.2 and an enclosure

Absolutely. NVMe SSDs are so cheap these days. I recommend this combination of parts:

SSD: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B25LZGGW/ref=twister_B0B5FJCDGT?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

Enclosure: https://www.amazon.com/ORICO-NVMe-Enclosure-Gbps-Support/dp/B08G14NBCS/ref=sr_1_6?crid=FFMA8B61HGSO&keywords=m.2+nvme+ssd+enclosure&qid=1686524105&sprefix=m.2+nvme+ssd+enclosure%2Caps%2C179&sr=8-6

 

For compatibility between Mac and Windows machines, you'll have to format the SSD as exFAT.

[Leychee]

22 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

Absolutely. NVMe SSDs are so cheap these days. I recommend this combination of parts:

SSD: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B25LZGGW/ref=twister_B0B5FJCDGT?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

Enclosure: https://www.amazon.com/ORICO-NVMe-Enclosure-Gbps-Support/dp/B08G14NBCS/ref=sr_1_6?crid=FFMA8B61HGSO&keywords=m.2+nvme+ssd+enclosure&qid=1686524105&sprefix=m.2+nvme+ssd+enclosure%2Caps%2C179&sr=8-6

 

For compatibility between Mac and Windows machines, you'll have to format the SSD as exFAT.

Thank you so much! Funnily enough that was the exact same combination I was about to buy. The enclosure is Gen2 though, does it matter?

Last question, is there a difference in speeds between exFAT and APFS?

[DrMacintosh]

6 hours ago, Leyf said:

The enclosure is Gen2 though, does it matter?

That "Gen2" that you are referring to is actually just the USB standard that the enclosure uses, not the PCIe interface speed. The enclosure is USB 3.1 Gen2 which is theoretically up to 10Gbps (1.25 GB/s). The Crucial M.2 NVME SSD I recommended can go up to 3.5GB/s in an ideal workload. The drive will be bottlenecked, but not in any meaningful way considering the cost to removing the bottleneck is more than the drive is worth and the extra performance you would gain by getting an expensive thunderbolt M.2 enclosure is minimal. 

[Darkseth]

4 hours ago, Leyf said:

Last question, is there a difference in speeds between exFAT and APFS?

For an external drive, it doesn't matter - if there is any speed difference.

It's just some external Files, not an operating System.

 

exFAT makes sure, you can read and write on it from any System.

 

  

4 hours ago, DrMacintosh said:

That "Gen2" that you are referring to is actually just the USB standard that the enclosure uses, not the PCIe interface speed. The enclosure is USB 3.1 Gen2 which is theoretically up to 10Gbps. The Crucial M.2 NVME SSD I recommended can only go up to 3.5Gbps. There won't be a speed concern/bottleneck with this combo. 

You're confusing bit and byte there

 

The SSD can go up to 3.5 gb/s, gigabyte. 3500 Megabyte per Second.

USB 3.1 Gen 2 has 10 Gbit/s (not Gbyte), that is theoretical 10/8 =  1.25gb/s, but it will probably cap at close to 1.00, or 1000 mb/s.

 

The SSD will be bottlenecked by it, however, if you get a Samsung T7, SanDisk Extreme, they also run at 1050 mb/s only, so it's the same.

 

If anybody "needs" those 3500 mb/s speed, it has to be a Thunderbolt enclosure, they get close to 100 bucks without any SSD.

[DrMacintosh]

2 hours ago, Darkseth said:

You're confusing bit and byte there

You were correct, my reply was updated. 

[Darkseth]

However, if 1000 mb/s are enough for just regular things, i personally would not mind having a 3500 mb/s nvme SSD not beeing able to get more than 1000 mb/s.

If the Ssd + enclosure is cheaper than a Samsung T7 / SanDisk extreme, it's perfectly fine.