Fast, light, and compact external SSD.

oguruma
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Fast, light, and compact external SSD.

I currently have my lightroom catalog and previews on a Samsung SSD T5, but it's limited to a maximum of 540MBps.

I'd like to upgrade to something faster. The catch is that I really want it to be small and light. I like to use the T5 attached to the back of my laptop screen with a little magnet strip thing, so whatever I get can't be much heavier than the T5.

1TB would be plenty of storage. I only store the lightroom catalog, previews, and photos from one shoot on the drive (if I am editing on the go), after which they are uploaded to the NAS.

Jun 11, 2024 at 01:04 PM

sjms
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Fast, light, and compact external SSD.

can your computer ports throughput handle it? what ports do you have?

USB4/TB4 USB3 to 3.2 ?
USB C to C, C to A

the 2 sandisk gray cards are 1TB

the brick on the bottom will take up to a 4TB MvMe SSD internally and on the right machine will transfer fast. its a you add the SSD enclosure. mine it currently 2TB and exceed most devices like it. it runs between 154MB/s to 2.3GB/s depending on what its connected to. these are mine. the 2 sandisk grays in the pic have run from 154MB/s to 1.2GB/s with the same caveat's

other options are available too:

https://www.owc.com/solutions/envoy
https://www.owc.com/solutions/envoy-pro-elektron

there are variables involved between your computer and any device like these that will affect performance. proper cabling is extremely important.

after that it's all about cost.

addendum: the brick looking one is probably not advisable possibly for you as it is not real light. it's machined block aluminum to distribute heat off of high-speed usage. the faster you want things to go the more heat you need to dissipate. it is an extension of my base computer

NIKON Z 6 NIKKOR Z 24-70mm f/4 S lens 44mm f/6.3 1/125s 20000 ISO 0.0 EV

Jun 11, 2024 at 02:34 PM

userjjb
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Fast, light, and compact external SSD.

An excellent website for narrowing down drive options by price per TB: https://diskprices.com/?locale=us&condition=new&disk_types=external_ssd

A year ago I would have said get a Sandisk Extreme SSD. This might still be the best option, but sadly the price on these has trended up not down (in 2023 I bought a 2 TB for the same prices I bought a 1 TB in 2022).

Jun 22, 2024 at 02:04 AM

amv8
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Fast, light, and compact external SSD.

While I've not been happy with Sandisk's past shenanigans regarding their Extreme series SSDs, I have been using their Pro-G40 4TB for the last 18 months or so for my LrC catalog and primary image storage. It supports both USB 3.2 gen 2 and Thunderbolt 3 (I use Thunderbolt 3 on my MBP). It's faster than the Extreme series. It's spec'd at 3000 MB/S Read and 2500 MB/S Write, but I'm sure that's the "not to exceed rate" rather than sustained. I haven't personally benchmarked it.

Jun 22, 2024 at 10:53 AM

sjms
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Fast, light, and compact external SSD.

Hmm more Sandisk

Jun 24, 2024 at 05:49 AM

rscheffler
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Fast, light, and compact external SSD.

Just get a decent NVMe SSD and put it in a decent USB-C or Thunderbolt enclosure (if your computer supports Thunderbolt).

In my case I have a few WD SN850X in basic Sabrent USB-C enclosures. File transfers indeed hit the enclosure's limit of 10Gb/s (about 1GB/s). Mind you, that SSD is a lot faster and would reach the TB3/4 bandwidth limits, but for my purposes, 1GB/s transfers have been fast enough.

Most NVMes are the long 2280 size but there are some options available in the 2242 size that is much smaller and might suit what you want in a small, light form. The challenge might be finding an NVMe enclosure specifically for the 2242 form as most are for the longest 2280 that can then also take the shorter forms.

The benefit of building your own is you know exactly what the components are. If for example the USB/TB port on the enclosure breaks, you just swap out the SSD to a new enclosure. This is not necessarily possible with pre-made options like your Samsung T5.

Jun 27, 2024 at 05:09 PM

sjms
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Fast, light, and compact external SSD.

gee, sounds like something i did but they aren't the lightest. my laptop supports USB4 and it can warm things up in use.

Jun 27, 2024 at 05:26 PM

SpecFoto
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Fast, light, and compact external SSD.

oguruma wrote:
I currently have my lightroom catalog and previews on a Samsung SSD T5, but it's limited to a maximum of 540MBps.

I'd like to upgrade to something faster. The catch is that I really want it to be small and light. I like to use the T5 attached to the back of my laptop screen with a little magnet strip thing, so whatever I get can't be much heavier than the T5.

1TB would be plenty of storage. I only store the lightroom catalog, previews, and photos from one shoot on the drive (if I am editing on the go), after...Show more →

Your T5 at 540 MB/s is not that bad. Very few USB-C ports will get much more than this, possibly up to 800-900MB/s. I use both San Disk SSD Extreme V2 and Samsung T7 Shields. Unless they are JBOD'd or RAID'd together in pairs, I do both, the speeds won't get any higher and you won't see much difference than what you have now.

To go faster you will either need a USB-C 2x2 port, which is 2 USB C ports paired internally, no Macs support this, and as well as not many windows laptops. Then, and only then, will these drives approach their advertised speeds of approx. double the standard 800-900 MB/s. The other option is USB4/Thunderbolt. Then you can add an external enclosure and a super fast 2,500 MB/s + NVME, but this costs as you need both an enclosure and the NVMe drive. My external startup drive, speeds below, is USB4 Maiwo enclosure with a WD 4TB S850X Black and has 2,900- 3,050 MB/s speeds.

But for just catalog and preview storage as far as LR is concerned your T5 is OK. Simplest solution is to buy a Samsung 2TB T7, it will increase the speed and allow for extra catalog storage, just don't expect any miracles.

Jun 28, 2024 at 02:56 PM

bemei
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Fast, light, and compact external SSD.

I've been very happy with a Sabrent 10gb/s enclosure and do get speeds around 900MB/s with my laptop running a Samsung TLC NVME inside it.

Jul 08, 2024 at 11:51 AM

sjms
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Fast, light, and compact external SSD.

you all know that there is a point you get to called diminishing returns. i've been work shooting for a long time digitally. i have chilled out on chasing the ghost. it really doesn't help all that much when i'm either home or at an office.

Jul 08, 2024 at 12:07 PM


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