Hello. Which is faster just an Apple M.2 NVME SSD (say 1TB) or Apple M.2 NVME SSD 1TB + SATA 500GB or 1TB SSD into a Fusion Drive (or will the SATA SSD hold down the NVME SSD?
Thank you.
God bless.
iMac 27″, macOS 11.5
First, I would not use "M.2" to represent Apple propriety NVME SSD -- even both have blade shape.
At your leisure, you can find the link for Apple's propriety SSD.
Fusion drive with 2 SSDs (1 PCI-e + 1 SATA) - for my past experience -- I did not see much difference, in speed (read & write) between Fusion drive (2 SSDs) and PCI-e alone. My setup was 256GB PCI-e SSD (PCI-e x 4 speed) + 1T SATA SSD.
For your entertainment, you can see the following picture:
The bottom left indicated the speed of the PCI-e x 4 (SSD) speed. With Fusion drive setup (with internal SATA 1T SSD) - the speed almost remained the same. However, I did this exploration on my own, with luxury of 256GB PCI-e SSD.
Final thought, Speed looked good on Fusion (2 SSDs) drive, BUT the stability was less desirable. My Mail App did not like this setup. I ended with 2 independent internal SSDs, and am much happier now.
The technology has moved forwards and currently M1 machines' internal SSDs speed are even faster. My external TB3 SSD can outperform PCI-e x 2 and comfortable with PCI-e x 4 speed.
First, I would not use "M.2" to represent Apple propriety NVME SSD -- even both have blade shape.
At your leisure, you can find the link for Apple's propriety SSD.
Fusion drive with 2 SSDs (1 PCI-e + 1 SATA) - for my past experience -- I did not see much difference, in speed (read & write) between Fusion drive (2 SSDs) and PCI-e alone. My setup was 256GB PCI-e SSD (PCI-e x 4 speed) + 1T SATA SSD.
For your entertainment, you can see the following picture:
The bottom left indicated the speed of the PCI-e x 4 (SSD) speed. With Fusion drive setup (with internal SATA 1T SSD) - the speed almost remained the same. However, I did this exploration on my own, with luxury of 256GB PCI-e SSD.
Final thought, Speed looked good on Fusion (2 SSDs) drive, BUT the stability was less desirable. My Mail App did not like this setup. I ended with 2 independent internal SSDs, and am much happier now.
The technology has moved forwards and currently M1 machines' internal SSDs speed are even faster. My external TB3 SSD can outperform PCI-e x 2 and comfortable with PCI-e x 4 speed.
Be careful in testing Fusion drive vs an SSD (M.2) alone setup. With the Fusion setup as the file size and or quantities of files increase there will be more swapping between the SSD and the mechanical drive which will result in slower processing time. If you were to do a quick Black Magic test then it would probably show little difference.
Hi. By the way, if I have to manually drag and drop my files onto the upgraded NVME (after researching for almost a week I settled with a1TB Teamgroup MP34 w/ 5 years warranty 3900 read/ 2900 write + an Apple Blade NVME connector to M.2 NVME SSD adapter), I most likely won't be restoring using my Time Machine backup because I plan to trim decades of not really important files (photos, videos, install files, that don't have sentimental value or are not that hard to find now or are many versions too old to keep as backup versions should OS updates don't work right with the latest) but are my Documents, Desktop, Pictures, Download, Movie, Music alls stored in the Fusion's hardisk or some are scattered in the 128GB SSD (by the way any suggestions with the what will later be an extra Apple 128GB Blade, what can it be good for?).
Thank you.
One SSD drive is always faster than two drives connected as a fusion.
Perhaps you could find a dock or enclosure that the Apple 128GB Blade would work with and use as an external drive.
Is a Pure Apple M.2 NVME SSD Faster or Apple M.2 NVME SSD + SATA SSD into a Fusion Drive?
