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have been doing some research via wirecutter, and was set on trying to find some cheap (ebay) crucial p5 plus', or samsung 980 pro's or wd black sn750 se then the pcie 4 vs 3 came up, so was going to swap to samsung 980s, or crucial p3's.
Previously I've used these enclosures
https://uk.ugreen.com/collections/computer-accessory/products/ugreen-10gbps-m-2-nvme-ssd-hard-drive-enclosure-with-2-cablesbut as these are going to be for shoot drives (moving big video files on location) I'm looking to get them to move data as fast as possible, hence the pcie 3 vs 4 vs tb vs usb - c questions.
Know they'll probably be faster than the 2.5" sata ssd's in usb c enclosures I've currently got but want to make sure they're as fast as they can be without spending on future specifications that I won't currently be getting the most out of..
cornelius_blackfoot-
As per my last post, TB3/4 both use PCIe3.0 x4, so a PCIe4.0 drive will fall back to 3.0 when run via TB PCIe tunnelling.
Max effective bandwidth is ~2.8GB/s.
If you want best sequential speeds, don't bother with USB-only, of any version. Refer to my previous post for enclosure & drive recommendations.
Don't use shit low/mid-range consumer SSDs; these have tiny caches beyond which write speeds fall off a cliff, and terrible write endurance.
ectoplasmosis
Which exact SSDs are you looking to use?
Thunderbolt 3/4 both use 4-lane PCIe3.0 links in PCIe tunnelling mode, giving ~2.8GB/s effective bandwidth for read and write when used with a suitable NVMe SSD inside a suitable Thunderbolt external chassis.
I have several drives set up like this; a couple using 2TB Samsung 980 Pro M.2, and one using a 2TB WD SN850. All three achieve 2.8GB/s sequential read/write speeds via TB, which is limited by the TB interface.
I used to buy Jeyi/Yottamaster branded TB-NVMe chassis off Ali Express, but they’re on Amazon now also. They all use the same Intel controllers. Last one I assembled, I used an Acasis TBU405 enclosure, which supports dual-mode Thunderbolt and USB4, so works with any USB port as well, not just Thunderbolt.