Thunderbolt 3 M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosures

[thunderstruck]

Has anyone seen or tried these combo TB3 enclosure/docks? From their descriptions, they both use Titan Ridge JHL7440 chips.

JEYI Thunderbolt 3 Dock (US$189)

JEYI ThunderDock 7 (US$109)

They appear to be very good value considering some TB3 enclosures are about $100.

 

[mackiemesser2]

The last one is nice! And cheap regarding other enclosures. But I just don't like the fan.

 

[PavT]

Thanks for your comments guys.

1. All TB3 cables are performing well.
2. I’ve attached screenshots of the TB link info for each enclosure. I connected them to the same TB Bus slot each time for consistency. They look the same - link width 0x2 but showing that 40Gb/s x1 is available?

Right, next I decided to open up the Samsung enclosure and put the Samsung nvme into the Orico enclosure.
The Samsung nvme performs more or less the same as in its own enclosure. Good!

Then put the Crucial nvme into the Samsung enclosure.
The Crucial nvme is just the same as when in the Orico enclosure.

Conclusion: the Crucial is not compatible so will seek to get it exchanged by Amazon - I’ve tried to raise a support incident with Crucial but their site appears to be wonky at the moment.

Update as of 23 Oct.

OK, I raised a support ticket with Crucial. I had to explain what I was doing in detail and reported my conclusions. Their response was "We cannot guarantee the speeds unless the drive is connected to a motherboard". I pointed out that this is not really a good enough response and that I will be returning the drive for a replacement that does work.

 

[MauriceG]

I have bought the transparent Orico NVME/Thunderbolt 3 enclosure. I planned to buy an SX6200 SSD because they are affordable and fast. Various messages in this post learned me that this is not a good marriage.
Now my question is: What would be a good choice?
Requirements:
- connect to iMac 2020 for additional storage (don’t want disconnects)
- reasonable price (Below Samsung price level)
- 1 or 2 TB
- speed 2000/2000 or better
- low power usage (low heat)
- presumably single sided.
I’m considering the Intel 665p.
I found a lot of information about Thunderbolt devices on:

TOM2T3-G40-BL TBT3 SSD | Thunderbolt Technology Community

thunderbolttechnology.net

I would really appreciate to hear about your succes stories👍🏼

Ok, no replies. I bought a WD Blue SN550 1TB. Found a positive review (combined with a Thunderbolt enclosure). Reason: Modest price, reasonable performance and, most important, modest power usage.

My Test results (on iMac 2020):
Refer to the photos (1960/2180 MBs with Blackmagic)
Idle temperature 43 degrees Celcius. (Room: 20 degrees). I’m considering to drill some holes in the Orico to enhance the internal air flow. The heat sink becomes very warm (so it does what it has to do).

 

[aurieg92]

Has anybody gotten a OWC 4M2 Quad M.2 box? How does it compare to the single-drive boxes like the Orico and Sabrent and others in terms of benchmarks? In theory one Thunderbolt 3 / four PCI-e v3 lanes is a bit bigger than what a single NVME drive can do today (e.g. an 970 evo plus). There aren't many 2-drive boxes out there that I've seen, and then there's this OWC box. Curious if OWC is using a good chipset.

 

[joevt]

Has anybody gotten a OWC 4M2 Quad M.2 box? How does it compare to the single-drive boxes like the Orico and Sabrent and others in terms of benchmarks? In theory one Thunderbolt 3 / four PCI-e v3 lanes is a bit bigger than what a single NVME drive can do today (e.g. an 970 evo plus). There aren't many 2-drive boxes out there that I've seen, and then there's this OWC box. Curious if OWC is using a good chipset.

The OWC Express 4M2 isn't using any chipset except the Alpine Ridge Thunderbolt controller which provides four PCIe 3.0 lanes.
The difference between this enclosure and single drive enclosures is:

1) x1x1x1x1 connections instead of x4 connection (a free feature of Alpine Ridge; it also supports x2x2 and x2x1x1)
2) DisplayPort output (a free feature of Alpine Ridge)
3) Not bus powered because it needs more power for four NVMe devices.

One lane per NVMe means you can't get over ~800 MB/s without using Software RAID. The point of this configuration is capacity: it allows 4 NVMe devices to be used at the lowest price (adding the DisplayPort output is a bonus - but it costs very little compared to a 20+ lane PCIe switch).

x1x1x1x1 does not mean more bandwidth compared to x4. Anyway, some single NVMe drives can saturate Thunderbolt 3 without doing RAID. Actually, I don't know if anyone has proven that yet for both read and write. It may be that x1x1x1x1 gets better writes compared to x4 because write speed is usually slower than read speed so a RAID is required to saturate Thunderbolt 3. I guess we need to find a single NVMe than can do 2800 MB/s write (while in a Thunderbolt enclosure).

 

[aurieg92]

Oh wow thanks for the details about the lane splitting! That's not explained very well in the OWC docs.

I think the 2TB 970 Evo Plus has been benchmarked at over 3000 MB/s sequential write. But I thought I saw some videos a few pages back where in a Thunderbolt enclosure it's only clocking like 1500-2000. That made me really suspicious of the impact of the chipsets...

 

[joevt]

Oh wow thanks for the details about the lane splitting! That's not explained very well in the OWC docs.

I think the 2TB 970 Evo Plus has been benchmarked at over 3000 MB/s sequential write. But I thought I saw some videos a few pages back where in a Thunderbolt enclosure it's only clocking like 1500-2000. That made me really suspicious of the impact of the chipsets...

Yes, I posted some numbers at #2 . I should redo the tests with the NVMe drives in my Z-170X Gaming 7 motherboard (CPU slot and PCH slot comparison) so they can be compared with the Thunderbolt numbers.

 

[thunderstruck]

Another quad M.2 box (Century) but it's only been announced. I don't think it's actually on sale yet. I think it too uses a x1x1x1x1 connection.

 

[MauriceG]

I have bought the transparent Orico NVME/Thunderbolt 3 enclosure. I planned to buy an SX6200 SSD because they are affordable and fast. Various messages in this post learned me that this is not a good marriage.
Now my question is: What would be a good choice?
Requirements:
- connect to iMac 2020 for additional storage (don’t want disconnects)
- reasonable price (Below Samsung price level)
- 1 or 2 TB
- speed 2000/2000 or better
- low power usage (low heat)
- presumably single sided.
I’m considering the Intel 665p.
I found a lot of information about Thunderbolt devices on:

TOM2T3-G40-BL TBT3 SSD | Thunderbolt Technology Community

thunderbolttechnology.net

I would really appreciate to hear about your succes stories👍🏼

Ok, no replies. I bought a WD Blue SN550 1TB. Found a positive review (combined with a Thunderbolt enclosure). Reason: Modest price, reasonable performance and, most important, modest power usage.

My Test results (on iMac 2020):
Refer to the photos (1960/2180 MBs with Blackmagic)
Idle temperature 48 degrees Celcius.

Very happy with the price/performance. About 65 Euro (enclosure) plus 109 (SSD 1 TB); and more than twice max. speed of a T7.

 

[gnohz]

Has anyone tried Fledging Shell Thunder enclosure (Thunderbolt 3)? Can't really find reviews of it other than Amazon.

Shell Thunder SSD Enclosure (0GB) with Active Cooling - PCIe NVMe Portable External Enclosure m3

Shell Thunder SSD Enclosure (0GB) with Active Cooling - PCIe NVMe Portable External Enclosure m3

www.amazon.com

Wondering how the quality is like and overall impression. It also has active cooling (built-in fan) to help prevent thermal throttling.

The company claims 2700 read/2000 write, but I'm wondering why it can't achieve higher speeds for something like WD SN750 (since the enclosure is Thunderbolt 3). Has it anything to do with the controller?

Thank you.

 

[gwerhart0800]

Has anyone tried Fledging Shell Thunder enclosure (Thunderbolt 3)? Can't really find reviews of it other than Amazon.

Shell Thunder SSD Enclosure (0GB) with Active Cooling - PCIe NVMe Portable External Enclosure m3

Shell Thunder SSD Enclosure (0GB) with Active Cooling - PCIe NVMe Portable External Enclosure m3

www.amazon.com

Wondering how the quality is like and overall impression. It also has active cooling (built-in fan) to help prevent thermal throttling.

The company claims 2700 read/2000 write, but I'm wondering why it can't achieve higher speeds for something like WD SN750 (since the enclosure is Thunderbolt 3). Has it anything to do with the controller?

Thank you.

I have an Inland 1TB "premium" NVME drive (Micro Center house brand) in a Thundershell enclosure that is serving a my boot drive on my 2017 iMac. I chose it specifically because it had active cooling. Huge improvement over the 1TB "Fusion" drive that the iMac came with. Micro Center specs the drive at 3100MB/s read and 2800MB/s write. So, I am not getting that, but I am very pleased with how it performs. I have yet to find an external TB3 enclosure that delivers the maximum speed spec by the NVME manufacturer.

 

[gnohz]

Thanks for sharing @gwerhart0800 !
From what I understood from Fledging's customer support, it seems like the speed ceiling for the Shell Thunder is around 2700 read/2000 write. Probably it'll be some time before we see any external TB3 enclosures that can deliver the maximum speeds.

I have an Inland 1TB "premium" NVME drive (Micro Center house brand) in a Thundershell enclosure that is serving a my boot drive on my 2017 iMac. I chose it specifically because it had active cooling. Huge improvement over the 1TB "Fusion" drive that the iMac came with. Micro Center specs the drive at 3100MB/s read and 2800MB/s write. So, I am not getting that, but I am very pleased with how it performs. I have yet to find an external TB3 enclosure that delivers the maximum speed spec by the NVME manufacturer.

View attachment 1400073

 

[MauriceG]

On this site you can find specs of various products: https://thunderbolttechnology.net/p...l&field_prod_tb_version_value_many_to_one=All
Those who specify the speed, all mention something near 2700 MB/s. Seems to be a Thunderbolt 3 limitation.

The following document explains the PCIe gen3 overhead and speed:

https://www.xilinx.com/support/documentation/white_papers/wp350.pdf

Result: 4x8Gbps = 32 Gbps (minus overhead about 31.8 Gbps)

Page 7 in the following document

https://thunderbolttechnology.net/sites/default/files/Thunderbolt3_TechBrief_FINAL.pdf

Shows that the max. one direction data speed for TB3 is 22 Gbps.

Max. Performance according to Orico and some other suppliers: 2700 MB/s, that equals 21.6 Gbps. This is exclusive some small PCie gen3 overhead.

So it seems to be correct. But I still don’t understand why the speed of a single direction in Thunderbolt 3 is limited to 22 Gbps (it seems to be “as designed” by Intel). The (18 Mbps) spare bandwith might be reserved for daisy chaining of TB3 devices. I have read that, if you use daisy chaining, the most bandwidth demanding device should be the first in the chain.

 

[gnohz]

On this site you can find specs of various products: https://thunderbolttechnology.net/p...l&field_prod_tb_version_value_many_to_one=All
Those who specify the speed, all mention something near 2700 MB/s. Seems to be a Thunderbolt 3 limitation. My best guess is that part of the bandwidth is reserved for other services (e.g. an extra monitor). It’s a serial bus that supports daisy chaining.

Thanks for your reply! That makes a lot of sense!

 

[mackiemesser2]

FYI (that is if anybody is getting a bluescreen while plugging in an external SSD):

Nach dem Update auf oder der Installation von Windows 10, Version 20H2 oder Windows 10, Version 2004 erhalten Sie möglicherweise einen Abbruchfehler beim Anschließen eines Thunderbolt NVMe-SSD - Microsoft-Support

Erfahren Sie mehr zu Problemen mit Thunderbolt NVMe-SSDs unter Windows 10, Version 20H2

support.microsoft.com

Anybody here with/without probs (which driver Microsoft/Samsung)?

 

[tyc0746]

FYI (that is if anybody is getting a bluescreen while plugging in an external SSD):

Nach dem Update auf oder der Installation von Windows 10, Version 20H2 oder Windows 10, Version 2004 erhalten Sie möglicherweise einen Abbruchfehler beim Anschließen eines Thunderbolt NVMe-SSD - Microsoft-Support

Erfahren Sie mehr zu Problemen mit Thunderbolt NVMe-SSDs unter Windows 10, Version 20H2

support.microsoft.com

Anybody here with/without probs (which driver Microsoft/Samsung)?

My 1TB WD Blue in an OWC Envoy Express TB3 enclosure works fine on both an Intel NUC and Bootcamp using W10 20H2 (installed it over a week ago).

I haven't installed any other software for the drive, so I assume it's whatever is installed by Windows as default.

 

[gnohz]

My 1TB WD Blue in an OWC Envoy Express TB3 enclosure works fine on both an Intel NUC and Bootcamp using W10 20H2 (installed it over a week ago).

I haven't installed any other software for the drive, so I assume it's whatever is installed by Windows as default.

Can I check, what type of speeds can you get with the OWC?

 

[MauriceG]

Transparent Orico with WD blue Sn550. Latest Windows 10. Bootcamp on iMac 2020. The Thunderbolt is not the boot drive. Fully stable.

 

[BeatCrazy]

Transparent Orico with WD blue Sn550. The Thunderbolt is not the boot drive.
View attachment 1659541

I assume that Orico is the Thunderbolt 3 version? Will it also work on a standard USB-C port, or is it only recognized on a true TB3 port?

 

[MauriceG]

I assume that Orico is the Thunderbolt 3 version? Will it also work on a standard USB-C port, or is it only recognized on a true TB3 port?

Yes, it’s the TB3 version. I’ve tried to connect it via the USB protocol for you. Method: connected to USB-A port on iMac 2020 (USB3.0 protocol). I used a cable of a Samsung T7 portable SSD. It failed with Windows 10 (bootcamp) and MacOS Catalina.
If you want cross system operability, the T7 might be a good option. Up to 900 MBps read & write if connected to a USB-C/Thunderbolt port on a Mac (uses USB3.1 protocol) and 450MBps when connected to a USB-A connector. Comes with 2 cables. Don’t forget to upgrade the firmware.
Some T7 figures: T7 connected to USB-A and USB-C/TB3

 

[BeatCrazy]

I’ve tried it for you. Method: connected to USB-A port on iMac 2020 (USB3.0 protocol). I used a cable of Samsung T7 portable SSD. Failed in Windows and Catalina.
If you want cross system compliancy the T7 is a good option. Up to 900 MBps if connected to a USB-C/Thunderbolt port on a Mac (uses USB3.1 protocol) and 450MBps when connected to a USB-A connector. Speeds are measured on an iMac 2020.

Thanks. That is as I expected. For the Orico to work on both TB3 and USB-C (non TB3), the enclosure would need a Titan Ridge controller, not the older Alpine Ridge. I don't know of any M.2 NVMe TB3 enclosure that uses Titan Ridge.

 

[MauriceG]

Thanks. That is as I expected. For the Orico to work on both TB3 and USB-C (non TB3), the enclosure would need a Titan Ridge controller, not the older Alpine Ridge. I don't know of any M.2 NVMe TB3 enclosure that uses Titan Ridge.

Rocket XTRM-Q External SSD

Automatically detects USB or Thunderbolt 3 connections. Thunderbolt 3 transfer speeds of up to 2,700 MB/s. (actual performance varies by capacities, host device, user applications, and other factors) USB 3.2 mode transfer speed up to 900 MB/s. Solid aluminum construction for durability and...

www.sabrent.com

Rather expensive....

 

[BeatCrazy]

Rocket XTRM-Q External SSD

Automatically detects USB or Thunderbolt 3 connections. Thunderbolt 3 transfer speeds of up to 2,700 MB/s. (actual performance varies by capacities, host device, user applications, and other factors) USB 3.2 mode transfer speed up to 900 MB/s. Solid aluminum construction for durability and...

www.sabrent.com

Rather expensive....

Whew! That's what I'm after... but I just want the enclosure.

 

[MauriceG]

Whew! That's what I'm after... but I just want the enclosure.

There is also an 8TB version 🥳. Someone reports that it runs too hot when he tried to copy 700GB 😂