Hello! Can anyone help me find an NVME SSD along with its enclosure that is compatible with Macbook Air M4? It will be used specifically for gaming storage. A specific brand and model will do and reasons why it is good on my use case. Thank You!
MacBook Air 13″, macOS 26.1
xHailey wrote:
why is there a "maybe"? 😭
Well, different products will be best for different people. I've personally used many NVMe SSDs from WD/SanDisk and have found them very serviceable. I've heard good things about Crucial and Samsung as well but haven't used them myself. Something to consider, however, is that your M4 MacBook Air's Thunderbolt 4 ports only support speeds up to 40 Gbps (that's gigabits, about 5000 Mb/s), making anything faster unnecessary- your actual real-world transfer speeds will be more like 3800 Mb/s anyway.
If you want the fastest possible data transfer, the most I'd go with is the WD Blue SN5000, with just over 5000 Mb/s maximum read speed- most other M.2 NVMe SSDs are overkill in the 6000-7000 Mb/s range.
As for M.2 2280 enclosures, OWC makes fine products. I have limited experience with enclosures but make sure you're getting one that supports Thunderbolt 4 (40 Gbps, or rather the real-world speed of about 3800 Mb/s).
If you're just looking for ease of use (plug and play), the SanDisk Extreme PRO is excellent- very portable, no enclosure or extra cables needed, and about as fast as portable external SSDs get (3800 read / 3700 write). It's a little more expensive then buying an internal SSD and enclosure separate but may be a good option if you value portability and convenience.
xHailey wrote:
why is there a "maybe"? 😭
Well, different products will be best for different people. I've personally used many NVMe SSDs from WD/SanDisk and have found them very serviceable. I've heard good things about Crucial and Samsung as well but haven't used them myself. Something to consider, however, is that your M4 MacBook Air's Thunderbolt 4 ports only support speeds up to 40 Gbps (that's gigabits, about 5000 Mb/s), making anything faster unnecessary- your actual real-world transfer speeds will be more like 3800 Mb/s anyway.
If you want the fastest possible data transfer, the most I'd go with is the WD Blue SN5000, with just over 5000 Mb/s maximum read speed- most other M.2 NVMe SSDs are overkill in the 6000-7000 Mb/s range.
As for M.2 2280 enclosures, OWC makes fine products. I have limited experience with enclosures but make sure you're getting one that supports Thunderbolt 4 (40 Gbps, or rather the real-world speed of about 3800 Mb/s).
If you're just looking for ease of use (plug and play), the SanDisk Extreme PRO is excellent- very portable, no enclosure or extra cables needed, and about as fast as portable external SSDs get (3800 read / 3700 write). It's a little more expensive then buying an internal SSD and enclosure separate but may be a good option if you value portability and convenience.
xHailey wrote:
can I replace it with Crucial T500 as it is marketed as good for gaming? or WD is more reliable?
Sure, Crucial is a very reliable brand. I would get whichever option is cheapest for the size you want- although the T500 is quite a bit faster than the WD SN5000, Thunderbolt 4's 40 Gpbs is the limiting factor either way.
why is there a "maybe"? 😭
can I replace it with Crucial T500 as it is marketed as good for gaming? or WD is more reliable?
NVMe SSD/enclosure for MacBook Air M4?
