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Aboo

macrumors 65816
Jul 7, 2008
1,017
110
One other question - what formatting do people have their external drives in?
 

ricebunny

macrumors newbie
Dec 9, 2020
3
0
I have the SCM2T3-G40 Orico aluminum enclosure. Combined with 1TB Samsung 970 Evo Plus I get about 2700R/800W with Amorphous on Mac M1 mini. I get almost the exact same results on a Windows machine with CrystalMark, so it doesn't seem to be a MacOS problem but rather some compatibility issue between Orico and 970 Evo Plus.

I also tried the Kingston KC2500 SSD with the same enclosure, and got about 1200 on write. Better than the Samsung, but still far short of the actual write potential. When paired with the Kingston drive, the enclosure is merely warm and not hot to the touch as with the Samsung drive.
 

haddy

macrumors 6502a
Nov 5, 2012
543
236
NZ
I had tested numerous NVMe adapters before and during the pandemic. Personally found this one below to be the fastest performing with best heat dissipation for the vast majority of uses. It is one of the few "new" generation that truly offers 40Gbps support. Several of the previous generation had issues with read/write limits, especially if using certain blades. Personally have been using for 3+ months with Samsung NVMe without any issues at all.

Yes I have two of these......very very good. One is my external startup drive..Samsung 970 EVO M.2 SSD... 1TB.
 

WallyL

macrumors newbie
Dec 3, 2020
12
0
I have the SCM2T3-G40 Orico aluminum enclosure. Combined with 1TB Samsung 970 Evo Plus I get about 2700R/800W with Amorphous on Mac M1 mini. I get almost the exact same results on a Windows machine with CrystalMark, so it doesn't seem to be a MacOS problem but rather some compatibility issue between Orico and 970 Evo Plus.

I also tried the Kingston KC2500 SSD with the same enclosure, and got about 1200 on write. Better than the Samsung, but still far short of the actual write potential. When paired with the Kingston drive, the enclosure is merely warm and not hot to the touch as with the Samsung drive.

For my case, I think the problem started when a larger 2TB NVMe SSD is used.

I have good benchmark (read/write more than 2000Mbps) on a 1TB WD SN750 NVMe SSD. However, the write speed would drop to 800Mbps on a 2TB WD SN750 NVNe SSD, read is ok. Both tests are done on the same Wavlink Thunderbolt 3 enclosure. Tried several different type of TB3 enclosure and the results are the same.

The problem can be in MacOS or the enclosure chipset not able to support a larger 2TB NVMe SSD.
 

haddy

macrumors 6502a
Nov 5, 2012
543
236
NZ
For my case, I think the problem started when a larger 2TB NVMe SSD is used.

I have good benchmark (read/write more than 2000Mbps) on a 1TB WD SN750 NVMe SSD. However, the write speed would drop to 800Mbps on a 2TB WD SN750 NVNe SSD, read is ok. Both tests are done on the same Wavlink Thunderbolt 3 enclosure. Tried several different type of TB3 enclosure and the results are the same.

The problem can be in MacOS or the enclosure chipset not able to support a larger 2TB NVMe SSD.
Okay, I have this as well... it works just fine with a Samsung 2TB 970 EVO Plus SSD

 

WallyL

macrumors newbie
Dec 3, 2020
12
0
Okay, I have this as well... it works just fine with a Samsung 2TB 970 EVO Plus SSD


@haddy - Thanks for the tips. Let me checkout the enclosure on OWC site. :D
 

DRDR

macrumors regular
Jul 23, 2008
210
195
I did not experience any performance problems using different kind of SSD and enclosures and Macs (Macbook Pro 2016, MacMini 2011, MacMini 2018, MacPro 2013). Two years ago I compared some disks:


I am still using this setup, now connected to a Mac Pro 2013 with 1.2 GByte/s transfer rates. I am also using the Envoy Express and can recommend it. The NVME I am using: 970 Evo (2TB), 970 Pro (256 GB and 512 GB),
 

joevt

macrumors 604
Jun 21, 2012
6,967
4,262
One other question - what formatting do people have their external drives in?
HFS+. I don't use APFS except for macOS installations.

I have the SCM2T3-G40 Orico aluminum enclosure. Combined with 1TB Samsung 970 Evo Plus I get about 2700R/800W with Amorphous on Mac M1 mini. I get almost the exact same results on a Windows machine with CrystalMark, so it doesn't seem to be a MacOS problem but rather some compatibility issue between Orico and 970 Evo Plus.

I also tried the Kingston KC2500 SSD with the same enclosure, and got about 1200 on write. Better than the Samsung, but still far short of the actual write potential.
I think it's not just Orico. Any Thunderbolt enclosure with those Gen 3 NVMe drives seems to have a problem.

Nah the ORICO Transparent I found to be hopeless....it is not Thunderbolt 3. I had one but discarded it.
ORICO makes Thunderbolt and USB-C enclosures. Did you buy the wrong one?

For my case, I think the problem started when a larger 2TB NVMe SSD is used.

I have good benchmark (read/write more than 2000Mbps) on a 1TB WD SN750 NVMe SSD. However, the write speed would drop to 800Mbps on a 2TB WD SN750 NVNe SSD, read is ok. Both tests are done on the same Wavlink Thunderbolt 3 enclosure. Tried several different type of TB3 enclosure and the results are the same.

The problem can be in MacOS or the enclosure chipset not able to support a larger 2TB NVMe SSD.
Other 2 TB NVMe SSDs work fine (for example, the Sabrent Rocket 4.0 2TB I tested at 2600 MB/s write/read with AJA System Test Lite, and 2800 MB/s with AmorphousDiskMark).

Okay, I have this as well... it works just fine with a Samsung 2TB 970 EVO Plus SSD

The Envoy Express is limited to 1553 MB/s (PCIe 3.0 x2?). Most everything else can do 2800 MB/s. What speed are you getting?
 

haddy

macrumors 6502a
Nov 5, 2012
543
236
NZ
ORICO makes Thunderbolt and USB-C enclosures. Did you buy the wrong one?
My ORICO Transparent/Plastic was USB-C worked for a while then stopped mounting.
Put the Samsung M.2 into the ORICO metal Thunderbolt 3 enclosure and this works very well.
Did I buy the wrong one? Yes the plastic one I found just too cheap and worthless.
 

WallyL

macrumors newbie
Dec 3, 2020
12
0
Other 2 TB NVMe SSDs work fine (for example, the Sabrent Rocket 4.0 2TB I tested at 2600 MB/s write/read with AJA System Test Lite, and 2800 MB/s with AmorphousDiskMark).

The Sabrent Rocket 4.0 2TB is a Gen4 NVMe SSD and is cost much more than the Gen3 NVMe SSD.

Do you know of any 2TB Gen3 NVMe SSD that work fine? Thanks!
 

ricebunny

macrumors newbie
Dec 9, 2020
3
0
The Sabrent Rocket 4.0 2TB is a Gen4 NVMe SSD and is cost much more than the Gen3 NVMe SSD.

Do you know of any 2TB Gen3 NVMe SSD that work fine? Thanks!
A few days ago I found the Sabrent Rocket 1 TB selling for roughly the same as the Samsung 970 Evo Plus 1TB. I have one on the way and am eager to see if moving to gen4 indeed makes a difference on Orico.
 

Aboo

macrumors 65816
Jul 7, 2008
1,017
110
So I can confirm same issues on an Orico, Jeyi, and OWC external thunderbolt 3 enclosures with 2TB Samsung EVO Plus. I have checked formatting in APFS and Mac OS Extended Journaled and still seeing write speeds of only 800-1000 MB/sec...

Really frustrating as I just dropped quite a bit of $$$ on four Samsung 2TB NVME drives.
 

joevt

macrumors 604
Jun 21, 2012
6,967
4,262
Here's a couple links to some Thunderbolt 3 NVMe tests with >2000 MB/s write:
Sandisk Extreme Pro: https://egpu.io/forums/thunderbolt-enclosures/wavelink-ute02-nvme-m-2-thunderbolt-3-enclosure
WD Black SN750: https://egpu.io/forums/laptop-computing/ice-lake-cpu-on-die-thunderbolt-3-controller-bandwidth
There's also the PCIe gen 4 Corsair MP600 which does well also.

An ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro does less then 2000 MB/s in one of those threads. The threads talk about low performance for some NVMe devices. Here's another one of those:
 

WallyL

macrumors newbie
Dec 3, 2020
12
0
Here's a couple links to some Thunderbolt 3 NVMe tests with >2000 MB/s write:
Sandisk Extreme Pro: https://egpu.io/forums/thunderbolt-enclosures/wavelink-ute02-nvme-m-2-thunderbolt-3-enclosure
WD Black SN750: https://egpu.io/forums/laptop-computing/ice-lake-cpu-on-die-thunderbolt-3-controller-bandwidth
There's also the PCIe gen 4 Corsair MP600 which does well also.

An ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro does less then 2000 MB/s in one of those threads. The threads talk about low performance for some NVMe devices. Here's another one of those:

@joevt - Thanks for sharing the links. Actually, my issue is with the 2TB NVMe SSD from WD and Samsung. I have both 1TB and 2TB of the WD SN750 NVMe SSD. The write speed is over 2000Mbps for the 1TB and only around 800Mps for the 2TB. I tried 2TB Samsung 970 EVO Plus from my cousin and the write speed is also slow around 800Mbps.

During the weekend, I managed to get a Sabrent 2TB Rocket PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD and the write/read speed is above 2000Mbps on the Wavlink TB3 enclosure. Very impressive performance. However, the Sabrent PCIe 4.0 Rocket NVMe SSD cost 30% than other similar WD and Samsung.

One thing I noticed is that the Sabrent 2TB Rocket PCIe 4.0 NVMe is a double sided NVMe. Both the 2TB Samsung 970 EVO Plus and 2TB WD SN750 are single sided NVMe SSD. Not sure if there is anything to do with the density of the memory chip and special handling in the OS for these controllers.
 

joevt

macrumors 604
Jun 21, 2012
6,967
4,262
One thing I noticed is that the Sabrent 2TB Rocket PCIe 4.0 NVMe is a double sided NVMe. Both the 2TB Samsung 970 EVO Plus and 2TB WD SN750 are single sided NVMe SSD. Not sure if there is anything to do with the density of the memory chip and special handling in the OS for these controllers.
I would look at the controllers themselves, first. Do the 1 TB and 2TB SN750 use the same controller?
 

Megabass

macrumors member
Nov 5, 2020
42
16
Moscow, Russia
I have the SCM2T3-G40 Orico aluminum enclosure. Combined with 1TB Samsung 970 Evo Plus I get about 2700R/800W with Amorphous on Mac M1 mini. I get almost the exact same results on a Windows machine with CrystalMark, so it doesn't seem to be a MacOS problem but rather some compatibility issue between Orico and 970 Evo Plus.

I also tried the Kingston KC2500 SSD with the same enclosure, and got about 1200 on write. Better than the Samsung, but still far short of the actual write potential. When paired with the Kingston drive, the enclosure is merely warm and not hot to the touch as with the Samsung drive.
On Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/ask/questions/Tx2S7R4LITM50Z5/ref=ask_dp_dpmw_al_hza), I found a review of the owner of the same case as mine (Thunderbolt 3 - Orico TOM2T3-G40 transparent), which indicated the speed of work 1321MB/s 2602MB/s. He also tested with Mac mini M1 with Samsung 970EVO Plus
 

Megabass

macrumors member
Nov 5, 2020
42
16
Moscow, Russia
After upgrading Big Sur to the latest version, I again decided to measure the speed of my Samsung 970 EVO Plus 1TB in the ORICO box and received almost 1100MB/s when recording, instead of 800MB/s earlier. I don't even know what affected it. Although this is much less than expected, it is already better than 800MB/s :)
 

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funkahdafi

Suspended
Original poster
Mar 16, 2009
377
112
Planet Earth
After upgrading Big Sur to the latest version, I again decided to measure the speed of my Samsung 970 EVO Plus 1TB in the ORICO box and received almost 1100MB/s when recording, instead of 800MB/s earlier. I don't even know what affected it. Although this is much less than expected, it is already better than 800MB/s :)
Can't confirm that. Same 850 MB/s as before, sadly (macOS 11.1).
 

Aboo

macrumors 65816
Jul 7, 2008
1,017
110
After upgrading Big Sur to the latest version, I again decided to measure the speed of my Samsung 970 EVO Plus 1TB in the ORICO box and received almost 1100MB/s when recording, instead of 800MB/s earlier. I don't even know what affected it. Although this is much less than expected, it is already better than 800MB/s :)
I had the same experience bit it quickly slowed down after a few days
 

ricebunny

macrumors newbie
Dec 9, 2020
3
0
Other 2 TB NVMe SSDs work fine (for example, the Sabrent Rocket 4.0 2TB I tested at 2600 MB/s write/read with AJA System Test Lite, and 2800 MB/s with AmorphousDiskMark).
I tested the 1TB Sabrent Rocket 4th gen NVMe on my Orico TB3 aluminium enclosure.

On BlackMagic disk speed test I get:
2520 MB/s write, 2560 MB/s read

On AJA System Test Lite I get:
1742 MB/s write, 2561 MB/s read

Amorphous paints a very different picture:
Sabrent Rocket 4.0 1TB : Apple M1.png
 

joevt

macrumors 604
Jun 21, 2012
6,967
4,262
I tested the 1TB Sabrent Rocket 4th gen NVMe on my Orico TB3 aluminium enclosure.

On BlackMagic disk speed test I get:
2520 MB/s write, 2560 MB/s read

On AJA System Test Lite I get:
1742 MB/s write, 2561 MB/s read

Amorphous paints a very different picture:
Sometimes there's a slow down. Have all three apps open at once. Cycle through each test one at a time a few times in each app until the numbers are more reasonable.

Amorphous -> AJA -> Blackmagic -> Amorphous -> AJA -> Blackmagic -> ...
 
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