If you have a Mac and you’re a bit short on storage this unassuming little black box could be a cheap but effective fix.
It cost me £13.99 on Amazon UK but they have regular promotions (I know this because I already have its big brother). What makes it special? There is painfully little support for the new USB-C connectors because most people can still use a conventional USB cable or a neat unobtrusive USB-C to USB adapter, but if you want to get all the performance a state of the art USB 3.1 over USB-C interface promises, you need to find a device that connects robustly with a proper cable and the proper electronics (called UASP). It took a while, but I found one so let me save you the effort.
UGREEN 2.5 inch hard drive caddy. Fast and cheap!
I have a super fast 1TB Samsung EVO SSD that I have just ripped out of my old PC, so getting every last grain of performance from the iMac’s USB-C (Aka Thunderbolt) connection is important to me. I will need to run some tests when I get a moment to see how the figures look but it’s already fast for video editing and my Apple Photos library which a spinning disk in a USB 2 caddy might have struggled to do.
Beware of assuming I’ve hit peak performance without running tests, and indeed that you can simply plug and play hardware and expect it to deliver the best results. If you’re a techie Will Haley will give you chapter and verse on hit-and-miss UASP support.
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Listen to this spot (experimental)
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