Need for Speed - External Hard Drive Comparison
One of the biggest struggles I’ve had over the past year was finding time to just get things done. With an almost two year old, a 7 month old, working full time and several shoots a week, every minute counts. . . literally. Sometimes I edit in my office on my iMac, or in the dining room on my MacBook, occasionally I’ll edit in my car between sessions.
For me, the flexibility to edit from anywhere is a must. Having files stored locally on one machine isn’t going to cut it, so I needed to find an external drive solution that was going to give me the speed, reliability, and durability (I break stuff. . . all the time). The three drives I looked at are the SanDisk Extreme v2 2TB , the SanDisk Extreme Pro v2 2TB, and the OWC Envoy Pro FX. They are all USB-C and I tested them on a 2021 MacBook Pro. Just for fun, I also did a benchmark test on my MacBook Pro’s hard drive. The software I used for my speed test was the Blackmagic Disk Speed Test. Stress level was set to 5 gb.
Since I don’t want this to drag on like a recipe blog, here we go!
SanDisk Extreme v2 2TB - $240
I picked this up for $185 on Black Friday. It’s a little bit smaller than the Pro. Definitely not as rugged. The case is plastic and rubberized plastic. It has a nice little loop for a large keyring or a carabiner. The case is a little squishy. I’m willing to bet that if I stepped on it, it would be done for. The specs say up to 1000 mb/s read and write, mine rang in at 737.5 mb/s write and 726.5 mb/s read.
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SanDisk Extreme Pro v2 2TB - $330
The Pro is definitely a step up in ruggedness from the Extreme. Picked this one up from Best Buy on Black Friday for around $250. The housing is aluminum and silicon and is rated to withstand a drop from 6 feet. I’m only 5’7” so that works for me. It’s rated up to 2000 mb/s read and write. Mine came in at 897 mb/s write and 907 mb/s read. I was hoping for faster speeds based on the specs.
OWC Envoy Pro FX 1TB - $350
I’ve owned this drive for a while. Part of the reason I did this little experiment was to see how other drives compared. OWC is a pretty cool company, they make all kinds of docks, external drives and even sell refurbished Macs (they’re super environmentally friendly too!) It’s definitely the heaviest of the three. The solid aluminum chassis makes you feel like you could use it to defend yourself against a puma. I never hit the 2800 mb/s speeds that they claim, but from my experience in working with the drive, it’s crazy fast and does not disappoint. 1760 mb/s write and almost 2600 mb/s read.
2021 MacBook Pro M1 Pro
I recently traded in my old 2016 (not that old!) MacBook Pro towards one of the new MB Pros with the integrated chip. It’s ridiculously fast.
Final thoughts: The OWC Envoy Pro Fx is hands down the winner in build and speed, but definitely not in price. For 1TB, you’re looking at dropping $350 on an external drive. The SanDisk Extreme Pro is a good option, but IMO only if you get it on sale. The Extreme is a good option for external storage, but for working on active projects, just a little too slow for my taste.
If you have a favorite external drive, let me know! I’m always into checking out new gear and getting stuff done faster!
Cheers!
-Steve