M.2 SSD question

[Jerry1]

I bought the wrong SSD. It’s too slow. Not a big deal, but when I load an external file (it’s in an external box attached through a C port), I get the spinning wheel. In looking at faster SSD’s, the thought of a heat sink comes into play. My question is whether or not I need a heat sink. I know one would be better, but the enclosure has heat sink properties, being all aluminum and I installed heat sink tape when I put it in the enclosure. But, if I get a really fast SSD, I’m thinking I’ll run into heat problems.

Questions - Will the SSD run hot if it’s used very little. I’m not gaming. I just want the files I use to load quickly. A good example is my Turbo Tax file. It loads and then minutes to several minutes later, I save it. Wouldn’t that be a use case where the drive doesn’t really heat up?

If it does heat up, wouldn’t it just slow down until it cools? I know that isn’t great for the drive, but I’m hoping it wouldn’t happen, or if it did, it would be rare.

Or, do they just stay hot while they’re in the computer - in my case plugged in, which is its normal state in my case.

 

[Sunset]

It likely is the connection to the external box (not clear if that is where the SSD is connected).

If you are saying it takes minutes to load , does it take minutes to copy to your internal drive ?

What OS, RAM, etc do you have ?

 

[Jerry1]

It likely is the connection to the external box (not clear if that is where the SSD is connected).

If you are saying it takes minutes to load , does it take minutes to copy to your internal drive ?

What OS, RAM, etc do you have ?

The enclosure is rated at 10Gbps and is plugged into the C ports on my iMac labeled as thunderbolt. The drive is rated at 3500MB/s. Sorry for being casual with my description - the files load in seconds. I wouldn’t even notice it, but it’s just slow enough to show the spinning wheel (waiting) for a brief moment. And yes, it’s an external drive loaded in the enclosure.

My OS is iOS 14 and I have a base unit iMac with 8GB of ram.

 

[Sunset]

I don't really use any apple products, at one job, they gave me a nice all in 1 apple computer (don't know what it was exactly).

I installed Linux to dual boot on it and ran my VM development off the linux.

I did notice that folks in the office would leave their Apple computers running day and night, and never actually close/kill any apps.

I'm wondering if it's due to memory swapping going on.
So if you turn off the machine and then turn it on and then first thing , open whatever program you are using and try to load the file, does it still load slow ?

 

[target2019]

Maybe the enclosure is at fault? I'm guessing the M2 has thermal protection routine. Really guessing...

https://sabrent.com/products/ec-t3ns

 

[mountainsoft]

The enclosure is rated at 10Gbps and is plugged into the C ports on my iMac labeled as thunderbolt. The drive is rated at 3500MB/s. Sorry for being casual with my description - the files load in seconds. I wouldn’t even notice it, but it’s just slow enough to show the spinning wheel (waiting) for a brief moment. And yes, it’s an external drive loaded in the enclosure.

My OS is iOS 14 and I have a base unit iMac with 8GB of ram.

I'm not a Mac person, but how do you know the drive is running slow? Have you tried running an actual speed test on the drive? I use Crystal Disk Mark on Windows, but I don't know if a Mac version is available. I'm sure there's something similar for the Mac.

I assume you're talking about a USB-C connection to your external SSD drive? If I remember right that's rated for 10 giga "bit" per second, which would translate to something like 1.25 gigabytes per second. Real world speeds are often much lower and could be affected by the cable you are using and/or the drive's interface. It's possible the drive itself is faulty too.

Or, everything might be functioning normally...

 

[Jerry1]

Or, everything might be functioning normally...

This appears to be the case. I found some information about the actual throughput between the drive and the computer and it’s a lot slower than the advertised speed of the drive. Then I found an app to test the drive speed and it came in within specs. Glad I didn’t go out and buy a faster drive. Its throughput would have been the same. Thanks.

 

[SecondCor521]

As an aside, it's been a while since I worked on them, but I wouldn't use heat sinks or tape to prevent drive damage. Most drives should have temperature sensing and temperature throttling to avoid damage to themselves. A heat sink or tape could help with performance, but even that would only be in extreme usage scenarios IMHO. Normal day-to-day usage it should be fine (and probably won't temperature throttle anyway).

 

[target2019]

Thunderbolt is not USB-C. The enclosure and cable must meet Apple specs.

I don't have any Apple devices, but a TurboTax file probably won't appear instantly on screen.

 

[braumeister]

Thunderbolt is not USB-C.

Thunderbolt is faster.
Thunderbolt vs. USB-C: What's the Difference?

 

[target2019]

Thunderbolt is faster.
Thunderbolt vs. USB-C: What's the Difference?

Good article for those who read. Lol.

My point was that Thunderbolt and USB-C are different. See other comment, too.

So, the enclosure and cable may not be Thunderbolt-compatible. Maybe it is, and there's another suspect.

 

[braumeister]

A good example is my Turbo Tax file. It loads and then minutes to several minutes later, I save it. Wouldn’t that be a use case where the drive doesn’t really heat up?

That's a very special case. I have a very fast machine, and TurboTax is always slow to load because whenever you launch it, it goes out to its home and looks to see if any new updates have become available before it shows itself to you.

 

[MdaPetralia]

I have a very fast machine, and TurboTax is always slow to load because whenever you launch it, it goes out to its home and looks to see if any new updates have become available before it shows itself to you.

I disconnect from WiFi when launching TurboTax so it bypasses checking for updates and opens quicker. I'll get the updates on my time.

 

[Route246]

I have an extensive external storage setup attached to Mac Studio (same H/W as yours for all intents and purposes). Here is how I would troubleshoot it.

1. Is it slow for reads? Sounds like it. Solid state storage has zero seek time so it should be spiffy.

2. Are you using a cable or is it directly connected to the enclosure via dongle or integrated cable?

3. How is the SSD formatted? ExFAT, APFS, etc.?

4. Is it encrypted?

5. What size is the M.2 device?

6. Is it SATA or NVME?

7. What brand is the M.2 device? Is it reputable? A lot of counterfeit memory is out there now.

8. Do you have Spotlight and/or Antivirus enabled for the device?

9. Does the M.2 device have DRAM cache?

10. Does the case run hot?

Lastly, how does the drive perform for normal copies, reads, writes, etc.?

I made some mistakes trying to save money on non-DRAM cache NVME and it ends up being slower than my high-performance USB 3.0 thumb drives, believe it or not.

 

[Jerry1]

I have an extensive external storage setup attached to Mac Studio (same H/W as yours for all intents and purposes). Here is how I would troubleshoot it.

1. Is it slow for reads? Sounds like it. Solid state storage has zero seek time so it should be spiffy.

2. Are you using a cable or is it directly connected to the enclosure via dongle or integrated cable?

3. How is the SSD formatted? ExFAT, APFS, etc.?

4. Is it encrypted?

5. What size is the M.2 device?

6. Is it SATA or NVME?

7. What brand is the M.2 device? Is it reputable? A lot of counterfeit memory is out there now.

8. Do you have Spotlight and/or Antivirus enabled for the device?

9. Does the M.2 device have DRAM cache?

10. Does the case run hot?

Lastly, how does the drive perform for normal copies, reads, writes, etc.?

I made some mistakes trying to save money on non-DRAM cache NVME and it ends up being slower than my high-performance USB 3.0 thumb drives, believe it or not.

I haven't done all of that but I'm sure the drive does not have DRAM cache. It is NVME and I formatted it APFS. I think it's the enclosure. I'd consider taking my lumps and getting a SSD with DRAM, but I think I'll just live with it. Any lag seems to be with Turbo Tax and if that's the only program where this occurs, I'll be fine. It loads pictures and music from the disk as quick as I can look at them or listen to them.