#Thunderbolt external hard drive for mac full#
#Thunderbolt external hard drive for mac series#

Again, each was verified by establishing SuperSpeed+ 10 Gb/s connections to an Intel Mac.Д¬onnection speeds were read from the SSDвЂ™s entry in the USB data given in System Information. Each was connected to an Intel Mac (including an iMac Pro) and it was verified that they established connection at SuperSpeed+ 10 Gb/s with those Macs.Д¬ables used included a certified Thunderbolt 4 model, and the USB-C (data) cables provided with the cases. In personal testing, these were mounted in basic UGREEN and similar cases claimed to be compatible with USB 3.1 Gen 2. Additional results used were obtained on other M1 models.ДЄ range of different external SSDs was used, using Crucial and Samsung SATA SSDs.

#Thunderbolt external hard drive for mac full#

Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch, 2021 with M1 Pro, 32 GB memory, 2 TB internal SSD, using its internal display.Д«oth were running macOS 12.3.1 in Full Security mode, with no extensions which might affect USB or Thunderbolt transfer speeds.

Apple Mac Studio with M1 Max, 32 GB memory, 2 TB internal SSD, connected to an Apple Studio Display.

Personal testing was performed using two M1 models ItвЂ™s common wisdom that external USB-C devices can normally be connected to USB-C format ports, including those capable of Thunderbolt 3 or 4, using either a USB-C (data) cable, or a Thunderbolt 3 or 4 cable. In normal testing, 5 Gb/s should yield around 500 MB/s, 10 Gb/s gives around 1200 MB/s, and 20 Gb/s about 2400 MB/s. The raw transfer speeds given arenвЂ™t achieved in practice, because of encoding and other overheads.

USB 3.2 adds two-lane SuperSpeed+ at 10 and 20 Gb/s.Д¬urrently, Apple makes no claims that any ports on its M1 models support USB 3.2, only the more widespread USB 3.1 Gen 2 standard.

USB 3.1 Gen 2 adds SuperSpeed+ at 10 Gb/s.

USB 3.0 onwards supports SuperSpeed USB at 5 Gb/s.

For the purposes of this article, IвЂ™ll gloss over a lot of detail and summarise the relevant features as:

Unfortunately, standards and terminology for USB 3.x are confusing.

This article examines why performance experienced by users falls short of AppleвЂ™s claim. However, many users have reported performance which doesnвЂ™t reach 10 Gb/s for directly connected external disks.

#Thunderbolt external hard drive for mac series#

Apple claims that all its new models using M1 series chips come with Thunderbolt ports which support вЂњUSB 3.1 Gen 2 (up to 10Gb/s)вЂќ.