How is the Samsung T5 SSD Drive?

[Thenewexhibit]

I’m considering picking up a couple of Samsung T5 SSD drives. I like that they’re so portable and bus powered. How are these? I remember someone telling me a bit ago (maybe Daryll?? I could be wrong, forgive me if I am) that these are nice drives. I’m looking to have some for backing up my system as well as general recording and sample drives. What’s the scoop?

[originalscottyg]

They've been working great for me. I can run large sessions off of them without using Disk Cache, if needed. But I usually keep Disk Cache on unless I need to free up RAM for some reason.

[Thenewexhibit]

Originally Posted by originalscottyg

They've been working great for me. I can run large sessions off of them without using Disk Cache, if needed. But I usually keep Disk Cache on unless I need to free up RAM for some reason.

Cool! Thank you for the reply! I got a 2 TB T5 for a live church recording I did on Sunday and it worked out great! I think I will pick up more!

Do you know if these have to use TRIM or anything like that? I remember hearing about that back in the day when SSD’s were fairly new.

[BScout]

All SSDs have TRIM but it is triggered by the operating system it is connected to. (All recent macOS and Windows version automatically do it.)

This was only a problem during the transition period for when the drives were being put to use and the operating systems hadn't planned for that yet. Windows 10 and as early as High Sierra have that already part of its daily task keeping when dealing with attached SSDs.

[Thenewexhibit]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

It's more complicated with USB SSDs. Even though the T5 is supports TRIM over USB, and that works with recent Windows versions (if using NTFS) I don't believe Macs support TRIM to USB drives, and it looks from the OP's info they are using a Mac.

The T5 are great. The T7 faster still since they are NVMe over USB.

But if you want TRIM on a Mac I'd be looking at a Samsung X5 or other Thunderbolt SSDs that do support TRIM on Macs.

For casual use it may does not matter much, but for high performance after lots of writes, and to reduce long term wear on the disk yes TRIM is great... but if you are in that performance segment then maybe an X5 or similar is a better choice. Personally I use multiple X5, T5 and T7 drives.

Got ya! Thank you for the great info! So, I have a mac pro that I’m using the usb slots for my ssd drives. I actually planned to use the T5 as my recording drive. Will that be a problem or is that not ideal? Do I need TRIM? I’m just so unfamiliar with it. I haven’t even done this with my external samsung evo ssd drives on my laptop.

[Will Russell]

I have and use several Samsung T5 drives for various purposes. I use them as portable clone back ups of various system and work drives as well as overflow/sample drives on Mac's that have smaller internal system drives. I also use a Samsung T5 as an audio work drive as do several of my professional audio friends. In all situations we use them hanging off of USB3/C Ports and they are fast and reliable in all applications.

Personally try to never record to an internal drive because I like to be able to take my project recording drive around to various systems and the Samsung T5 is perfect for that application.

[Thenewexhibit]

Thanks everyone for the replies! I do appreciate it! I went with the Samsung T5. My plan was to use it as a record drive. My question about it is do I need to use TRIM with this? I seem to be finding different information about this. It's the Samsung T5 SSD USB 3.0 drive.

I don't know much about TRIM at all and what's recommended.

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by Thenewexhibit

Thanks everyone for the replies! I do appreciate it! I went with the Samsung T5. My plan was to use it as a record drive. My question about it is do I need to use TRIM with this? I seem to be finding different information about this. It's the Samsung T5 SSD USB 3.0 drive.

I don't know much about TRIM at all and what's recommended.

Just use trim and be done with it. Don't even think about it. Your drive will last longer.

[Thenewexhibit]

Originally Posted by musicman691

Just use trim and be done with it. Don't even think about it. Your drive will last longer.

Got ya! My problem is I have NO idea how to do that haha

I've been using my other SSD drives without it (I think??) so if this is something that helps the drives, I would to enable it, but I just don't know how to do it. Do you enable it drive by drive? Is it a 3rd party program? How does it work? I'm on Mac Catalina 10.15.7.

I appreciate your patience!

Mike.

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by Thenewexhibit

Got ya! My problem is I have NO idea how to do that haha

I've been using my other SSD drives without it (I think??) so if this is something that helps the drives, I would to enable it, but I just don't know how to do it. Do you enable it drive by drive? Is it a 3rd party program? How does it work? I'm on Mac Catalina 10.15.7.

I appreciate your patience!

Mike.

Ever heard of Google or DuckDuckGo? Try your favorite search engine to find the answer. Trim has existed as a part of OSX for years now.