The previous one was a 500GB SSUBX.Īpple couldn't provide me with a new 1TB SSD, so I had to look for a used one. Furthermore, since it's TB3, I'll be able to use it if/when I buy a new Mac Pro. Even with Apple's TB2/3 adapter I'd have speeds around 1300mb/sec. That's why I bought the OWC Thunderblade. That would justify the expense of Thunderbolt 3 peripherals. I do have a long term plan to go NVME as those prices drop, since NVME SSDs are 5 times faster than SATA SSDs. But that might not be an issue if you are only using Photoshop most of the time. Maybe it would be worth if what you're concerned about is simultaneous constant high volume data transfer across multiple drives or peripherals that would justify more bandwidth. I'm just questioning whether the additional expense and troubleshooting hassle is worth rigging a Thunderbolt 3 solution through Thunderbolt 2, given that Thunderbolt 2 probably isn't going to get you much real world speed benefit as long as you are still limiting yourself to SATA SSDs with a max throughput of under 550MB/sec. It supports USB 3.1 Gen 2 10Gb/sec, but of course your Mac Pro uses Gen 1 and that's still fast enough for SATA SSDs. I put hard drives in it and an SSD in one bay, designated for scratch. My Mac has Thunderbolt 3, but to solve the similar problem, I decided the OWC Mercury Elite Pro Quad, plugged in through USB 3, would be fast enough. USB 3.1 Gen 1 (5Gb/s), supported by the ports on your Mac Pro, is fast enough for the speed of a common SATA SSD. It may be an overkill, but I won't be bothered for the next 3 years at least and it's future proof, since I'll be able to use it if/when I buy a new MP.īut you're not finding many options because you're only considering Thunderbolt, right? Because I'm not sure Thunderbolt is a necessary expense to solve this problem. Furthermore, it has a 3 year warranty, it's portable, the SSDs are upgradeable and it doesn't have a fan. You can use each one separately, or in a RAID array, which is what I'm going to do. It's compatible with the trashcan and also has four 250GB SSDs preinstalled. That's about £650 including the cost of the Apple adapter. However, after reading countless posts, articles and product reviews, I decided to go for an OWC Thunderblade 1TB. That's about £600, including the cost of four 250GB SSDs and the Apple TB3>TB2 adapter.

I'd have up to 4 SSDs and it's compatible with TB2. My second option was to buy an OWC Express 4M2. That's just over £400 and I'd have one SSD. My first option was to buy a Samsung X5, connect it to a Thunderbolt 3 dock and use an Apple adapter to connect the TB3 dock to the trashcan. There aren't many options that are compatible with the MP 6.1.

Mac pro 2013 hard drive