My photo archive has ballooned into something obscene—thousands of shots, terabytes of chaos—so I had to expand the digital warehouse. And because I edit directly off these drives in Lightroom, they can’t be lazy. I need speed. Responsiveness. No stuttering, no spinning beach balls of death.

Thunderbolt 5 just landed, but my Mac doesn’t give a damn—and neither does my wallet. So Thunderbolt 4 it is. For the enclosure, I went with the OWC Express 1M2. Fanless, whisper-quiet, and blessedly cool. I suspect the chunkier form factor and all those heat-dissipating fins are doing God’s work. $90 well spent.

As for the drive, sure, everyone drools over the Samsung 990 Pro—but I’m not made of gold and bourbon. I pocketed the extra $50 and grabbed the 990 Evo Plus instead. 4TB for $250.

The result? I’m clocking over 3000MB/s for under $400. That’s a hell of a deal, boys. Run it till it melts.