From choosing cables and hubs to connecting displays, fast SSDs and other devices. Everything you wanted to know about Thunderbolt.
SSD
What happens to read and write speeds of three SSDs connected to the same hub, and working at the same time? Can they exceed the maximum of 3 GB/s?
If you have more than a couple of Thunderbolt peripherals, should you be thinking of getting a Thunderbolt 4 hub?
What happens when you connect two fast SSDs to your Mac and they both write or read at the same time? How do they perform when connected through a hub? And how does it pay to be a winner?
You pay hundreds of $$ for a high-speed Thunderbolt SSD, then connect it to a hub. Will it still deliver the same performance? Maybe not when writing.
Do fast Thunderbolt SSDs slow down when connected via a Thunderbolt hub? How fast are they when reading at the same time? Does connecting a display affect them?
Making sense of the SMART indicators for NVMe SSDs, including all recent models fitted by Apple to Macs.
The life of an SSD should be more predictable than a hard disk. All you need is its TBW, and the total amount of data written to it so far.
In extreme cases, excessive use of swap space on an internal SSD could lead to its premature death, and the end of life for that Mac. How could you assess that?
Writing to the Data volume in a VM is dismally slow. Is using shared storage any quicker? What happens when you copy a VM to an external SSD, or to another Mac?
The Eclectic Light Company 