In this article, we will talk about the five best external hard drives for Mac Studio. We have picked the best Mac Studio external hard drives based on their transfer speed, read speed, write speed, and other features.

Mac Studio comes with two varied storage variants: 512GB and 1TB. Apple lets you upgrade the Mac Studio after the purchase. However, to upgrade it, you need to pay a hefty amount. While, for that hefty amount, you can easily get blazing fast and bigger external SSD storage.

Today, we will share the best external hard drives for Mac Studio. We will also discuss their features and pricing. Read ahead to know the top Mac Studio external hard drive. 

Best External SSDs and Hard Drives for Mac Studio

1. Glyph Technologies Atom Pro Thunderbolt SSD

Glyph Atom Pro Thunderbolt SSD

Interface Thunderbolt 3
Storage Type NVMe SSD
Read speeds 2800 MB/s
Write speeds 2450MB/s
Capacity 8TB

$1,899.95 at Amazon

Glyph Technologies Atom Pro is a portable external SSD for Mac Studio. The Atom Pro NVMe comes with 8TB of storage. You can easily store large video files without any storage issues now. This hard drive is specially designed for multi-streaming, easily storing 4K, 5K, 6K, and 8K videos.

Talking about its most essential characteristic, its read and write speed. Its read and write speed is up to 2800 MB/s and 2450 MB/s, respectively. In addition, this hard drive is MIL-STD 810F certified. It means it is shock, water, and dust resistant. You also get a rugged case to protect it from any external damage.

Atom Pro NVMe Thunderbolt 3 SSD features Thunderbolt 3 technology with a transfer speed of up to 250 MB/s. This storage is compatible with all Mac devices, even on M1 Chips.

2. LaCie 4TB Rugged SSD PRO

LaCie 4TB Rugged SSD PRO Thunderbolt 3 External SSD

Interface Thunderbolt 3
Storage Type NVMe M.2 SSD
Read speeds 2800 MB/s
Write speeds 2350MB/s
Capacity 4TB

$999.99 at Amazon

LaCie Rugged Pro is the best external hard drive for filmmakers to musicians. The LaCie Rugged Drive is further divided into two physical drives. Either you can use the whole 4TB storage to speed up the transfer. Else, you can go with 2TB at a time for regular and safe transfer.

The LaCie Rugged 4TB Drive is IP54 Certified, i.e., dust and water-resistant. It can survive four feet underwater. It is one of the best rugged Mac Studio hard drives.

By default, LaCie Rugged NVMe write speeds up to 2350MB/s and 5-year Warranty with Data Recovery. This hard drive has a few exception features like password protection. You can password protect your hard drive to protect it from unauthorized access.

With the LaCie Rugged 4TB, you also get a one-month membership to Adobe Creative Cloud All Apps Plan.

3. OWC 4TB Envoy Express Thunderbolt External SSD

OWC 4TB Envoy Express Thunderbolt External SSD

Interface Thunderbolt 3
Storage Type NVMe M.2 SSD
Read speeds 1553 MB/s
Write speeds 1239 MB/s
Capacity 4TB

Price not available at Amazon

OWC 4TB Envoy Express Thunderbolt 3 External SSD is a pocket-sized and easy to carry Mac external hard drive. It features a Thunderbolt 3 port, which is much faster than a USB-C port. Thunderbolt 3 port can transfer data at the speed of up to 40Gbps, also two times faster than USB-C.

OWC 4TB Envoy Express Thunderbolt 3 External SSD has a premium, compact, and rigid build. It is encased with removable rubber to protect it from any kind of external damage. The OWC 4TB Envoy Express Thunderbolt 3 External SSD has quoted a maximum speed of 2.5GBps, which is 39% faster than its predecessor. It has clocked a 1553 MB/s read and 1239 MB/s write speed.

4. LaCie 4TB 1big Dock

LaCie 4TB 1big Dock

Interface 2 x Thunderbolt 3, USB 3.0, DisplayPort
Storage Type FireCuda NVMe SSD
Read speeds 2800 MB/s
Write speeds 2100 MB/s
Capacity 4TB

$2,499.00 at Amazon

The LaCie 4TB 1big Dock is another the best SSD external hard drives for Mac Studio you will find on the list. Let's talk about its connection features. This hard drive has two powerful Thunderbolt 3 ports, much faster than USB-C. In addition, it also features a USB 3.0 Type-A port, a DisplayPort 1.4 output for 8K / 60 Hz, 4K / 120 Hz, 1080p, and 720p video.

The LaCie 4TB 1big Dock has 2800MBps read, and 2100MBps write speed. One of its highlighting features is that you can easily charge a Mac with the help of a Thunderbolt 3 port. This hard drive is quite large as it has multiple ports and includes a 4TB FireCuda NVMe SSD. 

5. SanDisk Professional 18TB

SanDisk Professional 18TB

Interface USB-C (5Gbps)
Storage Type SATA HDD
Read speeds 260 MB/s
Write speeds 260 MB/s
Capacity 18TB

$379.99 at Amazon

SanDisk Professional 18TB G-DRIVE Enterprise-Class is another great option for creators to store their large files easily. This is one of the best external hard drives for Mac Studio that is rich in features. This hard drive features a minimal design, solid build, and lightning-fast speed.

This hard drive has a USB 3.2 Gen 1 port to fasten the backup process. Talking about its read and write speed now. It has recorded a 260MB/s read and 260MB/s write speed. Here, MB/s refers to Million Bytes Per Second.

One of the highlighting features of this hard drive is that it comes with 256-bit AES hardware-based encryption. It protects your data from unauthorized users with password protection in a few steps.

It is compatible with Mac devices and is specifically designed for them. In addition, this SSD external storage is Time Machine ready. You can easily generate backups quickly without speed issues and errors.

These are some of the best Mac Studio external Thunderbolt SSD we picked out of hundreds. We talked about each hard drive along with its features and pricing. It’s now the final time to select the best SSD for Mac Studio.

If your work is related to movie editing, filmmaking or storing huge files, then you need one big external storage. For this, we recommend you go with the LaCie 4TB 1big Dock External Storage. It has a huge storage with some useful ports, like Thunderbolt 3, USB port, and Display Port.

If you have a decent budget to invest in the hard drives. In this case, we recommend you go with the OWC 4TB Thunderbolt External SSD and 8TB Atom Pro NVMe Thunderbolt SSD storage. So, these are the best external ssd and hard drives for Mac Studio.