I've lost count of the number of times I've rolled my eyes in frustration when Lightroom has been slow. To resolve this issue, I purchased a new Mac with the M1 chip, and also invested in a SANDISK SSD 4TB external hard drive connected via USB-C. However, Lightroom was still slow, despite my photo library being quite substantial. I had only purchased 16GB of memory, which was a bad idea, and even after testing the SANDISK SSD with Blackmagic, I was still not satisfied with the speed.
After conducting some research, I decided to build a DIY external SSD using an ORICO 40Gbps hard drive enclosure connected via Thunderbolt 4 and USB4 (USB-C), and a high-speed hard drive designed for gamers, the WD Black 4TB. When I assembled the hard drive, I was blown away by the results - it was four times faster than the SANDISK SSD, which was a massive improvement. As a result, Lightroom now runs much faster, and I'm extremely satisfied with the outcome.
