I put “make” in quotes because it’s like two steps.
First, you buy these two things — a super fast, internal, NVME SSD, like this one (affiliate link).
Second you get an enclosure, one that his highly rated and can disperse some heat, like this (affiliate link).
Once you have them both, make sure to touch some metal so that you discharge any static electricity you have on you — then open the SSD, open the enclosure, and click the SSD inside.
Then you tighten it down with a little tool that comes with the enclosure.
Then, plug that into your computer (using the cord that comes with the enclosure), and click on “initialize” when it pops up, or open "Disk Utility” on a mac, select the new drive, click “erase,” and format the drive.
and voila, you have an insanely fast, 4TB, external SSD — we are talking crazy transfer speeds, like 2 to 6 times faster than you are used to.
Not super off brand for me, I oversimplified this topic a bit — here is an update I just wrote in the description of the video:
** UPDATE: Read this about NVME SSDs before you buy **
1. there is a difference between QLC drives and TLC drives - a QLC (which is the Inland one that I am using in is video) are best for reading from and struggle when you try to write to them for a sustained period of time. TLC drives are better for writing continuously, but are more expensive.
2. The enclosure that I am using makes it so that you don't get nearly the read or write speed advertised. The fastest enclosure you can get now is Thunder Bolt 3, but even then, you aren't going to get the speeds you would get if you put one of these inside a computer. (it is still about 2x faster than I am used to, unless you hit that heat/write cache limit then it slows way down)
3. There is a nightmare story in the comments where someone bought this kit, it fried after a transfer, and inland is blaming the enclosure, and Asus is blaming inland. absolute nightmare. You wouldn't have this issue with a Sandisk, because there is no other company to blame. here is the comment: Lunarburn Studios writes, "This so didn't work. After formatting, tried to transfer files and the drive wrote super slow then overheated and fried. Inland saying it was because of the enclosure, Asus say it's the drive. ie. i'm screwed."
*Always, Always make sure your important stuff is backed up on multiple drives.*
Thanks to all the commenters who set me straight!
These are all affiliate links, which means I may earn a commission if you use them -- as always, it does no affect the price you pay.
Here is a considerably more expensive solution for a 4TB NVME SSD and a Thunderbolt 3 enclosure:
Thunderbolt 3 Enclosure: https://amzn.to/3mkTqWO
4TB *TLC * NVME SSD: https://amzn.to/3AWWIn1
2TB TLC NVME SSD: https://amzn.to/3j5MsTz
It's more cost effective to go 2TB at this point, but I don't think that's enough space for my workflow
Here is what I use in the video:
Enclosure: https://amzn.to/37xOjtE
4TB *QLC * NVME SSD: https://amzn.to/3iyE9zh