Fastest Enclosure for an NVMe SSD to a 2020 iMac TB3

[ItsAShaunParty]

I can see that similar questions have been asked in the past... but not this one exactly.

I have a 2020 iMac 27". Got it at an okay price and didn't realize the SSD was soldered until it was too late to return. It was very upsetting. So now, I'm trying to get the fastest external SSD set-up I can for as cheap as possible.

On Black Friday, I purchased two SSDs. They are:

• Sabrent 2TB Rocket Q NVMe PCIe M.2 2280 SSD Gen 3 (not Gen 4)
• Samsung 2 TB 970 EVO Plus.

I need to buy an enclosure for one of these. The Sabrent was a bit cheaper, so Ideally, I'd like to use that. Yes, it's been almost two months and I have yet to purchase an enclosure. Every time I'm about to buy one, I read a horror story or some reason it won't perform well with my set-up.

TL;DR:
What enclosure/s would you recommend I purchase for the Sabrent 2TB Rocket Q to achieve advertised speeds of R/W 3200/2900MB/s in my 2020 iMac (TB3)? Is under $100? possible?

Thanks!

 

[mj_]

First of all you need to be aware that advertised speeds for SSDs are like MPG for a car. Purely theoretical and only achievable under very specific and narrow conditions that can only be reproduced in the lab (or, in case of VW, if you're cheating). Second, you will unavoidably lose some performance when connecting an SSD externally as you add an extra component, the bridge chip that translates between NVMe/SATA on the one side and Thunderbolt/USB on the other.

With that in mind you basically have two options with the 2020 iMac. You can get a Thunderbolt 3 enclosure that will get you around 2,000 MB/s for around $80 (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07YB4DDRB) or a USB 3.2 Gen 2 enclosure that will get you around 1,000 MB/s for around $20 (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MNFH1PX).

 

[ItsAShaunParty]

First of all you need to be aware that advertised speeds for SSDs are like MPG for a car. Purely theoretical and only achievable under very specific and narrow conditions that can only be reproduced in the lab (or, in case of VW, if you're cheating). Second, you will unavoidably lose some performance when connecting an SSD externally as you add an extra component, the bridge chip that translates between NVMe/SATA on the one side and Thunderbolt/USB on the other.

With that in mind you basically have two options with the 2020 iMac. You can get a Thunderbolt 3 enclosure that will get you around 2,000 MB/s for around $80 (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07YB4DDRB) or a USB 3.2 Gen 2 enclosure that will get you around 1,000 MB/s for around $20 (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MNFH1PX).

Thanks so much for your response.

This is what I was thinking!

But why is it that some TB3 enclosures advertise faster speeds? For example, some are 10 Gbps vs 40Gbps...

Also, are you saying that either SSD will do?

Thanks!

 

[ignatius345]

You can get a Thunderbolt 3 enclosure that will get you around 2,000 MB/s for around $80 (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07YB4DDRB)

This link is broken, unfortunately.

 

[mj_]

Thanks so much for your response.

This is what I was thinking!

But why is it that some TB3 enclosures advertise faster speeds? For example, some are 10 Gbps vs 40Gbps...

Also, are you saying that either SSD will do?

Thanks!

Because advertising is never honest and never tells the entire story but only those parts that are useful and convenient for the message at hand. Thunderbolt 3 is capable of transferring 40 Gbit/s, that's correct. That bandwith is, however, shared between all connected devices per bus and does include protocol overhead meaning that in reality you will never get the entire 40 Gbit/s but only a subset thereof depending on what exactly it is that you're transfering over the Thunderbolt bus.

Long story short: external SSDs have quite a bit of overhead caused by the bridge chip that needs to translate between SATA/NVMe on one side and Thunderbolt or USB on the other. You will always lose some performance, however a faster SSD will still perform better than a slower SSD, even in an external enclosure.

This link is broken, unfortunately.

You're correct, that item was delisted and relisted under a different URL for some reason. I had it saved in my wish list and it seems to have completely disappeared from my lists. The new listing is here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08QF3J5X4 (Update 12/27/21: that link no longer works either, it seems that the Wavlink TB3 enclosure is no longer available in the US)

 

[Pug72]

I researched for a while to find a T3 enclosure and NVME to use as a bootable drive for an iMac with a failed Fusion drive.
In the end I went with a ready made one, the Samsung X5. Wasn't much more expensive and didn't have to worry about enclosure/NVME compatibility, etc.

Works perfectly.

 

[ItsAShaunParty]

I researched for a while to find a T3 enclosure and NVME to use as a bootable drive for an iMac with a failed Fusion drive.
In the end I went with a ready made one, the Samsung X5. Wasn't much more expensive and didn't have to worry about enclosure/NVME compatibility, etc.

Works perfectly.

I'm actually surprised at how expensive those are. I'm seeing $300 for 1tb on Amazon. My 2tb setup should end up having speeds in that neighborhood for $250.

I'll confirm tomorrow.

 

[Pug72]

@ItsAShaunParty How'd it go?

 

[Chancha]

I have tried a few TB3 NVMe enclosures, so far the WAVLINK gen1 gave the best R/W performance and stability. I know there are ones with newer TB controllers and better cooling methods nowadays, but with TB3 you are not going to get more than 2.5GB/s sustained performance anyway.

btw I currently also have a Black Friday purchased 2TB 970 EVO plus inside the WAVLINK, but it performs worse than when I had a 1TB WD SN750 in the same enclosure before, no idea why.

 

[Jack Neill]

I have a Trebleet Dual Slot NVMe enclosure that I use with some older Macs with TB1 and its a great solution. I have not tried with a TB3 Mac yet but its advertised to have 2k+ speeds. I got mine for 199 off Amazon plus the price of whatever blade you choose.

 

[ItsAShaunParty]

To update everyone, I set up this ORICO enclosure TB3 40 Gbps (I think it was $79) with a Sabrent Rocket Q Gen 3 I got for $180. And it's super fast. My Blackmagic speeds are great. I get a read/write of about 1900/2500.

That may not sound great but my internal hard drive (which I bitterly remind you is soldered) gets around 1900/2350.

So this 2TB super-fast external cost me $260ish. Not bad. Not great but not bad.

I feel like it could be a fluke. I might clean a few things up and try again. IN any case, trying to figure out what to keep on the external and what to keep on the internal.

 

[Pug72]

That combo works out at about £310 so only £40 more than I paid for my 1TB X5, very similar speeds also.

I spent way to long searching for enclosures and SSDs and when I would settle on something a poor review would put me off. Hence settling for the X5 at a premium.

Looks like you chose well there. ??

 

[Jack Neill]

That combo works out at about £310 so only £40 more than I paid for my 1TB X5, very similar speeds also.

I spent way to long searching for enclosures and SSDs and when I would settle on something a poor review would put me off. Hence settling for the X5 at a premium.

Looks like you chose well there. ??

The X5 is nice, I bought a 512 X5 off eBay and took it apart and put a Samsung 980 1TB in it. I get around 1800's both ways.