2 are, the WD SN750 and the MSI M470. Between NVMe controller chips, host controller chips, enclosure controller chips and cables, the compatbility and stability issues are a nightmare. Glad I got 1 TB internal on my Studio Max, but above that it gets expensive.... I have 4 levels of storage: 1) Internal mac @ 7 GB/s ;2) Fast thunderbolt 3 @ 1.5GB/s for video and photos ;3) Slower storage for files @ .5 GB/s; 4) RAID 6 @ 1 GB/sec for backup. The slower storage is currently a Dual Sata SSD and given how old it is, I want to replace that with USB NVMe @ 1GB/s. Getting something fast and stable for the thunderbolt and USB NVme have been a pain. On my 3rd thunderbolt 3 enclosure testing, and you know about the USB part. So far, the thunderbolt 3 enclosures I have are slow and stable (OWC envoy express) and fast and unstable (Orico); the stable one is not that fast.
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Issues with USB ports on M1 Max
- Thread starter whodiini
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So I received my $20 SSK NVMe HE-370 RTL9210 chip with SSK proprietary firmware 20.01 enclosure today and ran thru the paces. So far, have only tested it on my M1 Studio Max. I took the Samsung 970 Evo NVMe drive out of my JM based enclosure and put it into this new enclosure so I can compare apples to apples. As a reminder, the JM SSK enclosure ran at 680/710 write/read speeds MB/sec direct from the USB C port on the back of the Studio max. Just switching to the RTL enclosure, the speed jumped to 900/900 MB/sec. This is more like it! That is about a 32% increase, just swapping the enclosure USB controller! I then started moving the enclosure up the line thru hubs. The first hub was a caldigit USB 4/thunderbolt hub. Connecting the enclsoure to the USB C connector, I got 860/820 W/R speed MB/sec. Then I attached the enclosure to the front USB A 3.1Gen2 connectors using the SSK supplied cable. I got 820/400 speed. Huh????? Well it turns out that SSK supplied 2 cables with their enclosure, a USB C - USB C cable and a USB C - USB -A cable, and the USB C- USB A cable doenst work at 10 Gbit/s! Replacing that cable with another one brought the speed back up to the same as hte USB C - USB C cable connected to the back of the Caldigit hub. While testing, I also used hte USB C - USB C cable and put an active USB-C to USB A adapter on it and the htroughput crashed, indicating an incompatibility of the RTL with active USB C to USB A converters. Did not have that issue with JM controllers. Like I said earlier, USB C is a mess.
Bottom line here is that the RTL9210 based NVMe I used (SSK) plays well with my M1 Studio Max. This $20 enclosure is the cheapest well performing USB 3.1Gen2 that works well with the Studio Max. I will try a few different NVMe before buying another enclosure.
As a postscript, I simply had to try it on hte front USB port of the Studio max. I got 750/750 MB/sec W/R speeds. This is absolutely consistent with the maximum speed through the crippled front ports. Note that even those speeds beat the JM controller speeds of 600 MB/sec on the front USB port with the same NVMe, so the RTL again performed 25% faster than the JM.
Bottom line here is that the RTL9210 based NVMe I used (SSK) plays well with my M1 Studio Max. This $20 enclosure is the cheapest well performing USB 3.1Gen2 that works well with the Studio Max. I will try a few different NVMe before buying another enclosure.
As a postscript, I simply had to try it on hte front USB port of the Studio max. I got 750/750 MB/sec W/R speeds. This is absolutely consistent with the maximum speed through the crippled front ports. Note that even those speeds beat the JM controller speeds of 600 MB/sec on the front USB port with the same NVMe, so the RTL again performed 25% faster than the JM.
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ELECTOP Double Sides 10Gbps, USB 3.1 GEN 2 Male to Type-C Female Adapter, Support Both 10Gbps Charging & Data Transfer, USB A to USB C 3.1 Converter for PC, Laptop, Charger, Power Bank, Quest Link
ELECTOP Double Sides 10Gbps, USB 3.1 GEN 2 Male to Type-C Female Adapter, Support Both 10Gbps Charging & Data Transfer, USB A to USB C 3.1 Converter for PC, Laptop, Charger, Power Bank, Quest Link
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I think all USB-A (male) to USB-C (female) adapters are against the USB spec. Does adding a chip change that? Maybe - it would be like a one port hub. When you used the adapter, did you try flipping the USB-C male connector of the USB-C cable upside down at the USB-A to USB-C adapter end?
yes. When I use my JM controller based enclosure, it works the same (low speed) with this active converter as a cable. When I use the RTL controller based enclosure, it writes fast, but chokes on the reads and hangs. So there is some incompatibility with the chip (havent been able to identify) and the RTL. The active converter doesnt show up on system info. But this is a minor issue. I found my USB 3.1Gen2 enclosure for the Studio Max and now I am onto thunderbolt 3 enclosures now. I tried another NVMe on the RTL controller enclosure and the speed was about the same. I suspect most of the NVMe will limit at 900MB/sec on the RTL enclosure. Even if an ASM controller was 10% faster, it wouldnt be worth the effort because there are so few ASM based enclosures out there.
I was testing an OWC Envoy Express thunderbolt 3 enclosure and didnt understand why it was only 1500MB/sec. Then I looked inside and they use an intel JHL6240 chip, which uses only 2 PCie lanes and therefore limited to 20Gbps. So while it is cheap, its still 4x more than the RTL USB enclosure and 1.4 - 1.7x faster.
I was testing an OWC Envoy Express thunderbolt 3 enclosure and didnt understand why it was only 1500MB/sec. Then I looked inside and they use an intel JHL6240 chip, which uses only 2 PCie lanes and therefore limited to 20Gbps. So while it is cheap, its still 4x more than the RTL USB enclosure and 1.4 - 1.7x faster.
After much research and purchasing a number of USB C hubs, cables and USB C 3.1r2 NVME enclosures, i have learned quite a few things about getting 10Gbps speeds. Basically, its a crap shoot in terms of compatibility unless you follow some strict guidelines.
1. You stand ~ 90% chance of having things work if you purchase USB-IF certified products. Many vendors esp from China do not get their products certified and I have found that you stand ~ 10% chance of getting them to work reliably.
2. You should start with USB-IF certified cables and if you can find a review from someone who has tested them with a $10k USB C cable tester, even better! I got very unreliable results and compatibility issues until I started using a decent USB-IF certified cable. For example, out of about 20 cables that I purchased on Amazon, Aliexpress, and other vendors, that were not USB-IF certified, I found ONE cable that was reliable. Good USB-IF certified cables I purchased were from
USB C - USB C 10Gbps 3.1rev2: https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=27923 comes in .5m, and 1m
This was also tested by someone with a $10k cable tester
USB C - USB A 10Gbps 3.1rev2: https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=27934 and https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01GGKYR2O?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details
So once I got these cables, I had to redo all my enclosure tests again with the different hubs I purchased because some hubs were more compatible with enclosures and cables and some were less. I will post the hubs and enclosure tests later.
1. You stand ~ 90% chance of having things work if you purchase USB-IF certified products. Many vendors esp from China do not get their products certified and I have found that you stand ~ 10% chance of getting them to work reliably.
2. You should start with USB-IF certified cables and if you can find a review from someone who has tested them with a $10k USB C cable tester, even better! I got very unreliable results and compatibility issues until I started using a decent USB-IF certified cable. For example, out of about 20 cables that I purchased on Amazon, Aliexpress, and other vendors, that were not USB-IF certified, I found ONE cable that was reliable. Good USB-IF certified cables I purchased were from
USB C - USB C 10Gbps 3.1rev2: https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=27923 comes in .5m, and 1m
This was also tested by someone with a $10k cable tester
USB C - USB A 10Gbps 3.1rev2: https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=27934 and https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01GGKYR2O?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details
So once I got these cables, I had to redo all my enclosure tests again with the different hubs I purchased because some hubs were more compatible with enclosures and cables and some were less. I will post the hubs and enclosure tests later.