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Dell XPS 9550 compatible with Samsung X5 Thunderbolt 3 SSD
Hello!
I'm looking for a really fast external drive for video editing and post production in general and stumbled upon the Samsung X5 Thunderbolt 3 SSD. To avoid any disappointment: Is this drive "compatible" to my XPS 9550 from 2017 in terms of chipset? I dont want to spend this much money only to find out that for whatever reason the drive runs at 50% of its performance
Thanks
Jan
jphughan
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14K Posts
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September 21st, 2019 06:00
The XPS 15 9550's Thunderbolt 3 port only has a PCIe 3.0 x2 interface, not a PCIe x4 interface as found on newer systems. PCIe 3.0 x2 has a maximum theoretical bandwidth of 2000 MB/s, so it will impose a bit of a bottleneck on the X5 in some situations, but it will still be far faster than an SSD connected via typical USB. As for whether it will work, I don't see why it wouldn't, but I'd recommend updating your BIOS, Thunderbolt software, and Thunderbolt controller firmware (in that order) just to be safe. If you're still concerned about compatibility issues, your best bet is probably to see if you can get confirmation from someone who's actually tried the X5 specifically with a 9550.
VernonRobinson
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June 30th, 2021 16:00
I must concur. I have a Dell and it only runs at a fraction of the quoted speed. Faster than a normal external HDD but not anywhere near the speed that they advertise. This is on a 2017 and a 2019 Dell. It is disappointing actually.