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whodiini

macrumors regular
Aug 16, 2021
157
63
Hi everyone. On a friend's advice, I bought an 2tb internal SSD drive and connected it to an enclosure. The SSD drive (a Rocket NVME 4.0) is supposed to get write speeds up to 7000 mb. I bought a high end enclosure (Orico M.2. SSD Enclosure - compatible with M.2 NVME SSD/40 gbs). I installed the SSD and mounted it via the enclosure. I clocked the speed on my front Mac Studio USB port (this year's base model) - and using Black Magic Speed test - the drive is clocking around 800mb write and 700mb read speed.

My enclosure is not as fast as the SSD, but it should be coming in near 3000 mb write speed via a USB C cable. I tried to use one of the rear "USB C/Thunderbolt 4" ports, and the enclosure/drive will not mount, although the front ports do mount. I then tested the enclose on my MacBook Pro - 13" 2019 - and the SSD drive runs at around 1800 mb a second - over twice as fast at the Mac Studio. I don't know what's going on at this point. Clearly I want as much speed as the enclosure can generate on my Mac Studio. For these slower speeds I could have paid 1/4 the cost on a lower end drive/enclosure.

Any suggestions/input would be great.

Thanks!
Dave

Below are the SSD drive/enclosure:

SSD Drive:

M.2 Enclosure:
Hi

I skimmed thru this thread and hope to offer some info and experience for you. I have a Mac Studio and a Mac mini 2018 AND a Orico thunderbolt 3 enclosure with a MSI 4.0 drive that is rated at 7000 mb. So this is similar to your setup. First recommendation - if you havent past the return deadline, return the Orico. Their hardware is not very good and their support is non-existent. They do not answer any emails, they do not post firmware updates and their hardware has the most issues of these Chinese brands according to Chinese online sites. The connection is unstable on my computer and drops in and out. That said, let me update you on some basic info.

These enclosures have a limited transfer speed, usually in fine print somewhere. My orico with an intel Ash Creek controller is limited to about 2000 write and 2500 read if I recall approximately. It doesnt matter how fast your NVMe is. This is a thunderbolt 3, and the ports on the front of the Mac Studio Max are not thunderbolt. The back ones are. Plug it into the back and you should get the speeds I mentioned. Your link to the Amazon Orico shows write of 2500 and read of 3100. Use the cable that came with the Orico and plug it into the back of the studio max. If it doesnt work, return it. My orico drops in and out, and sometimes I have to wiggle the connector on the case to connect.

This headache with Orico has made wary of buying these Chinese brand stuff. I also purchased an external encloure from OWC thunderbolt 3. (Envoy express is the name) Its slower - 2000 read, 1600 write if I recall, but they back it wiht customer support and service. And its only $70. I havent found a decent thunderbolt 3 enclosure from a US firm other than this one. It is rock stable.

Finally, there is an issue with the front USB ports on the Studio. They are rated to be 10gbps USB 3.1 rev2. I have tried several drives that transfer 1 GB/sec on my mac mini 2018 and on the Studio, they only work to .6 - .7 GB/sec. On the back ports of the Studio, they go to .7 - .8 GB/sec. Tried several drives with different USB controllers and same result.

Good luck - just return the Orico, it isnt worth the trouble!

FYI. My Orico once again disconnected from my Studio. I plugged it into the back port of the Studio - and nothing happened. I wiggled the connector - nothing. I disconnected and flipped the cable connection to the Orico. Plugged it back in. Showed up. Ran Blackmagic, got 2200 read, 2200 write. Like I said, return it. I cant because I purchased it a while ago and didnt use it until after the return window expired. It is supposed to have a warranty from Orico, but like I said, they dont respond to any emails. I even tried to email their main office in China and nothing. I bought it on ebay and emailed them as well - no response either. Their warranty is worthless.
 
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