Today we are going to be taking a look at some of our favorite options for storing our sample libraries and other files for content creation. No matter what it is we are creating, at some point or other, storage is a must, whether it’s for project assets, backups or archival purposes. While this particular roundup will be focusing mainly on music producers and their sample libraries, many of our suggestions will work with other applications as well.
Samsung Portable SSD T3 ( Top 10 Best SSD for Mac 2018 ) Samsung Portable SSD T3. External SSD. The Samsung Portable SSD T3 is a compact stockpiling drive minimal greater than the mSATA card inside, and now with ability to equal customary workstation hard plates. It comes in 250GB, 500GB, 1TB and 2TB limits. Overall, this is the list of best SSD for MacBook Pro to enhance the storage. If you’re confused over buying an external or internal SSD, the latter, that is internal SSD should be your choice. If you’re confused over buying an external or internal SSD, the latter, that is internal SSD should be your choice. SanDisk Extreme SSD. The SanDisk Extreme is the best combo of portability and rugged build of any of the SSDs we looked at. It's also our favourite portable SSD of the moment, with a few.
Now one thing to get out of the way off the top is that when it comes to choosing the perfect drive for individual needs, everyone is going to have a different opinion. Needless to say, budget plays a major factor in the decision making process here as well. I mean we would all have lightning fast Thunderbolt hubs with and an endless supply of SSD storage if we could. But because that is not the case, we are going to be breaking down some of our personal favorite options.
Keep in mind, these are just some of the options we have used personally at some point or another and have found to be extremely reliable, more than capable of streaming large sample libraries to your Logic Pro X projects and make for great time machine/back-up options in the process. As far we can tell, you can find a post online about any drive falling or ruining a recording session at some point or another. The same drive might work for years flawlessly for one person and be a complete dud for another after just a few months of work.
When it comes to your software instruments, sample libraries and things of that nature (big orchestral instruments, etc.), there are few main things to keep in mind. If you’re looking to save some cash here or just otherwise prefer typical hard disk drives, you’ll want to try to stick with a 7,200 RPM or better option. While it is certainly possible to stream Logic instruments with no issues with a 5400 RPM HDD, you will run into some lag and other issues when you start running larger third party instruments or more complicated projects with increasing track counts.
While SSD options seem to always be the best, fastest and most reliable (in most cases), they can be very expensive and out of the question for weekend hobbyists or those looking to get their carrier off the ground on a budget. Having said that, a reasonably priced HDD will more than suffice just about any home project studio.
HDD Externals:
First let’s tackle some solid HDD options. I personally lean on the side of caution and tend to opt for brand names. That’s not to say more budget friendly or lesser known brand names aren’t any good, it’s just what I prefer. LaCie and G-Drive have both been very good to me over the years in terms of external options.
Again, this is not a set in stone kind of rule, but for the purposes of this roundup we’re going to focus mainly on HDD externals, as I tend to prefer to use an SSD as my internal drive. That way you have the option of running intensive libraries and instruments from your internal, while still affording you lots of terabytes on your much less expensive external HDD. It’s worth considering most Macs these days come with a solid state storage device built-in.
Below you’ll find some of the 5400 and 7200 RPM HDDs we have had experience with. While faster and bigger is always better, I had a LaCie Porsche Design USB 3.0 drive turned on and plugged into my Mac for years. It has never failed and streams large sample libraries just fine. In fact I forget it’s there for months at a time.
- LaCie Porsche Design P’9233 USB 3.0 3TB Desktop Hard Drive $100+
- LaCie d2 Thunderbolt 2 4TB External Hard Drive $250+
- G-Drive Thunderbolt 3 4TB External Hard Drive $380+
- G-Drive USB 3.0 2TB External Drive $140+
SSD Solutions:
When it comes to SSD options, prices begin to soar through the roof. While I’m sure there are professionals out there that require an external SSD drive for field work and the like. The average home producer or mobile musician isn’t likely going to make use of it. If you’re going to go the SSD route, I find it’s usually better to upgrade your internal options and run as much from there as possible. Beyond that you’re going to pay some serious cash for mobile and external SSDs in most cases.
Another interesting option, and again only for those looking to make a serious investment in backups, storage and serious sample streaming for large music/content projects, would be an SSD hub of some kind. One product we have had some experience with is the Blackmagic Design MultiDock with Thunderbolt. This is essentially an external hub that connects loads of external solid state drives to your Mac via Thunderbolt. Clearly these kinds of solutions are ideal for serious content creators, but are more than likely overkill for everyone else. Even as someone that does professional recording and production work on a regular basis, this is still a little out of my league despite really needing it.
While I have spent some time with some of the much smaller and significantly less expensive external SSD docks, like those from Satechi, Anker and StarTech, I haven’t really had a chance to run them through their paces enough for a personal recommendation. It’s still hard to point others towards lesser expensive USB SSD docks at this point, especially for sample library/instrument streaming.
Below you’ll find some of the options we have heard great things about, our favorite external SSDs as well some of the best solid state solutions we have seen in action.
OWC Thunderbolt Dual Drive Dock $249
Blackmagic Design SSD MultiDock 2 w/ Thunderbolt 2 $595
SanDisk Extreme II 240GB SATA SSD $149+
Samsung 860 EVO 250GB SATA SSD $89+
Best Lightning Interfaces for iPhone & iPad
Best MIDI keyboardsfor Mac and Logic Pro 2017 Edition
Best wireless Bluetooth MIDI keyboards for iOS & Mac
See anything cool in the world of music production we missed? Let us know in the comments below.
The Logic Pros are: Justin Kahn and Jordan Kahn
Want more Logic Pros? Check out the archives here.
With so many things to store on your Mac, you need a reliable storage disk. While in the past Hard Drive Disks (HDDs) have been the norm, they are now being replaced by Solid State Disk drives (SSDs), and this is not without reason.
SSDs are more responsive in terms of their performance. It is faster to copy data from and save to SSDs than HDDs. The prior also operate quietly compared to the latter. If you want a drive that will not be crushing any time soon, then you better get a solid state drive. However, there are many SSDs out there that knowing the best one on your MacBook Pro may be hard.
In this article, you will find details on all the things you need to know about choosing a hard drive. You will also find the best recommendations. Without further ado, let us look at what makes the best SSD for MacBook Pro.
Considerations when looking for the best SSD for MacBook Pro
The disk controller of your MacBook Pro will determine what kind of SSD it is you can use. To find out what the controller for your MacBook is following these steps:
1. Click on the Apple icon at the top left.
2. Click on “About this Mac” and then “System report” button.
3. In the SATA Express/SATA section, check the Physical Interconnect line. What will be displayed is the SSD controller which can be PCIe or SATA.
2. Click on “About this Mac” and then “System report” button.
3. In the SATA Express/SATA section, check the Physical Interconnect line. What will be displayed is the SSD controller which can be PCIe or SATA.
To make this even easier for you, here is a reference table you can use to easily determine what the controller in your MacBook Pro is. Use this to determine what the ideal MacBook Pro upgrade for your Mac is.
Best Ssd 2018 Gaming
Early 2008 | Early 2011 to Mid 2012 | Late 2013 to late 2016 | |
---|---|---|---|
Controller type | SATA 2.0 | Mini PCIe | No support to upgrade |
1.5 Gbit/s Intuit quickbooks online for mac 2018. | 6.0 Gbit/s | > 8.0 Gbit/s | |
2.5” SATA SSD | 2.5” SATA SSD | PCIe SSD |
One of the biggest downsides of hard drives is their speeds. For instance, a HDD rated 5,400 RPM has data transfer speeds of 75 MB/s while that operating at 7,200 has 100MB/s data transfer rate. 2018 best games for mac. Even the fast revolving 10,000 RPM HDD has a sluggish data transfer speed of 140MB/s.
On the other hand a SATA 1.0 has data transfer speeds of 1.5Gbit/s which is equivalent to 187.5 MB/s. This is faster than the fastest hard drive yet it is the slowest SSD ideal for the MacBook Pro 2008. You can see the speeds of the other SATA drives from the table above. With speeds of up to 8.0 Gbit/s on the PCIe Gen 3, it is evident that SSDs have unbeatable speeds and speed is good in any device. You will accomplish things faster which save time.
Best Portable Ssd 2018 For Mac
These are the two main connection interfaces you will find in MacBook Pros. What are the differences? Serial ATA is an interface that has been around since 2003 and is the most widely used connection. It replaced the PATA connection used in the past. SATA offered faster speeds, native hot swapping and reduced cable size. This kind of connection is supported by many different MacBooks both new and old.
On the other hand, PCIe stands for peripheral component interconnect express. This is a kind of physical interconnect that has been recently developed and is used to plug in SSDs, network and graphic cards. It offers very fast data transfer speeds and better error detection and reporting. However, it is only supported in recent MacBook Pro computers.
SSD | Information |
2.5” SATA SSD | |
2.5” SATA SSD | |
2.5” SATA SSD | |
PCIe SSD | |
PCIe SSD | |
mSATA |
1. SanDisk SSD PLUS 480GB ($109)
Using the SATA Revision 3.0 interface, this SSD is supported by MacBook Pros made between early 2011 and mid 2012. Even the using earlier MacBook Pros with SATA 2.0 and 1.0 can still use this SSD. It has a capacity of 480GB which is a lot of storage for all your personal and business files. The sequential read speed is rated at 535MB/s whereas the sequential write speed is 445MB/s. This means that you will be able to save data to this hard drive very fast and retrieve it even faster.
These operations will be done quietly and without overheating the Mac. This means that the battery will serve you for a long time. The SSD will also last a long time because it is sturdy and has shock and vibration resistance. It is no wonder that many consider this the best SSD for MacBook Pro.
This SSD is meant for daily use and last a long time. The SATA 3.0 connection interface it uses is supported by MacBook Pro’s made in 2012 and earlier. This is available in the box. The write and read speeds are 520MB/s and 550MB/s respectively, and with these you can be assured of faster startup, gaming and every other activity. Even when multi-tasking, your Mac’s speed will not be sluggish.
The 250GB storage capacity is more than enough for the average Mac user. Even if you have files that occupy large spaces such as 4K videos and games, it will take a lot to fill up this space.
If you want fast and reliable storage then this is the one to get. This SSD adds 1TB of storage space to your Mac. This storage is not only huge, but the drive has a very good performance. The sequential read speed is up to 560MB/s while the write speed is up to 560MB/s. When you save a file to the drive, it will be done faster and so will opening a stored file. Having the OS X in this SSD will ensure that startup, launching apps, shutdown and all other activities are done fast.
Promising 1.75 million hours average time to failure, you can be sure that this drive will serve you for a long time. To emphasize on its durability, the manufacturer gives a 5-year warranty on every SSD. To ensure your battery serves a long item as well, the makers of this drive have made it draw up 25% less power than the previous generations. As for connectivity, it uses the SATA 6.0 GB/s interface.
This SSD is compatible with MacBook Pros made between late 2013 and late 2016. These are the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro Retina, Mac Mini and Mac Pro. This SSD uses the advanced PCIe Gen 3 x 2 interface which provides fast transfers. The fast read enhances the fast performances of this interface and write speeds which are each rated at 950MB/s made possible by the 3D NAND flash technology used in this SSD.
To easily transfer data into this SSD, users can use the aluminum alloy enclosure included in the box. This has thunderbolt technology with data transfer speeds of up to 10Gb/s. The JetDrive toolbox this drives comes with makers it very easy to monitor its status showing the health status of the drive and firmware upgrades among others. This drive has a storage capacity of 480GB but this can be easily upgraded up to 960GB.
This SSD is ideal for use with MacBook Pros made from late 2013 to late 2016. This is because it has a PCIe interface. This flash-based storage upgrade offers very fast read and write speeds of up to 726MB/s. How to get sims 4 for free mac 2018. To make it easy to transfer data between this SSD and the original one your Mac came with, the OWC Aura SSD comes with an Envoy Pro enclosure that fits both SSDs perfectly.
This SSD has a total capacity of 1TB with 960GB usable space whereas 64GB is allocated to error correction and real time data redundancy. This is much higher than the SSD you had originally. Plus; with the enclosure, you can still use the initial SSD as an external drive.
Best Ssd For Mac Mini
6. Samsung 860 EVO 500GB mSATA & Mini PCIe SATA SSD Converter Card
This is the best SSD upgrade for MacBook Pro made between mid 2012 and early 2013. Using mSATA 6Gb/s interface, this SSD can reach sequential write and read speeds of up to 520MB/s and 550MB/s respectively. The fast speeds this SSD has are consistent even when the Mac is multi-tasking. But how long will it last? With a 5-year warranty on each SSD, you can see that the makers are sure about its durability.
This drive has a storage capacity of 500GB, but if you need a larger or smaller one you will find it.
When you decide to upgrade the storage of your MacBook Pro, it is not in doubt that your aim will be to get more storage. The considerations should, however, not stop there. It is good to choose an SSD which provides storage space that is fast to read and write on. SSDs also last a long time and reliable. But what is the best SSD for MacBook Pro?
This depends on what kind of MacBook Pro it is you are using. If it was made in 2013 or earlier, you will need a SATA SSD while those using MacBook Pros made later require PCIe SSDs. There are many in each category but above we have looked at the best. Think of what capacity it is you want and choose one that suits you from the picks above and upgrades your Mac’s storage.