Thunderbolt 3 M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosures

[aurieg92]

umm is that "Sabrent Rocket XTRM-Q" item featuring the same enclosure as their tool-free aluminum enclosure? ( https://www.amazon.com/Thunderbolt-Certified-Tool-Free-Enclosure-EC-T3NS/dp/B08FT59SB6 ). Because I got the latter plus a sabrent NVME drive and while it works with thunderbolt 3, I tried plugging it into a USB-C on a linux laptop and it did NOT see the disk at all, even when I formatted it with exFAT. which I guess is to be expected because it's alpine ridge?

amazon comments for the XTRM-Q don't say what chipset it uses, but appears some users have trouble with the USB / Thunderbolt interop.

 

[MauriceG]

umm is that "Sabrent Rocket XTRM-Q" item featuring the same enclosure as their tool-free aluminum enclosure? ( https://www.amazon.com/Thunderbolt-Certified-Tool-Free-Enclosure-EC-T3NS/dp/B08FT59SB6 ). Because I got the latter plus a sabrent NVME drive and while it works with thunderbolt 3, I tried plugging it into a USB-C on a linux laptop and it did NOT see the disk at all, even when I formatted it with exFAT. which I guess is to be expected because it's alpine ridge?

amazon comments for the XTRM-Q don't say what chipset it uses, but appears some users have trouble with the USB / Thunderbolt interop.

No....
“PLEASE NOTE: NOT compatible with USB-C ports. Your device must have a compatible Thunderbolt 3 port, otherwise the enclosure will not work!”
(Quote from Amazon)

 

[verycoolcat]

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

hi MauriceG,
Thanks for sharing your experience, learned a ton.
Are you still happy with the transparent Orico?
It looks like the radiator is not fully aligned with the ssd. Is it possible to rotate the lid to align?
65 euro is damn cheap, where did you find such price?

 

[MauriceG]

hi MauriceG,
Thanks for sharing your experience, learned a ton.
Are you still happy with the transparent Orico?
It looks like the radiator is not fully aligned with the ssd. Is it possible to rotate the lid to align?
65 euro is damn cheap, where did you find such price?

I’m happy with it. The lid cannot be rotated, it’s a slider. I bought the Orico enclosure via AliExpress; quick delivery from a warehouse in Belgium (I live in the Netherlands). Fortunately I didn’t had to pay for customs; that’s always a lottery (above 22 Euro they can charge you BTW (VAT)).
There is one significant issue: the device contains some extremely bright green LEDs. I guess they have used these SMD (surface mounted) LEDs to reduce the voltage from 5.0 volts to 3.3 volts (cheap but effective method).
I’m using a single sided WD blue SN550 SSD. There are only chips on the outer edges of this sSD. The chips make good contact with the cooler via the blue silicon tape (the double sided adhesive tape that is used to pass heat)
I’m considering some small adjustments:
- make some small holes in the housing; that would enable some airflow inside
- put some blue silicon tape on the LEDs; that would disable the annoying bright light; but would that also heat-up the (very small) LEds ? (... and possibly harm them)

 

[Brian33]

- put some blue silicon tape on the LEDs; that would disable the annoying bright light; but would that also heat-up the (very small) LEds ? (... and possibly harm them)

I've used a black Sharpie (permanent-ink felt-tipped marker) to "color" on bright LEDs. It didn't block the light completely but worked pretty well.

 

[- rob -]

I have a topped out 2018 mini w 64 gb of ram. It is hooked up to a black magic 580 egpu and the xdr pro display.

Regrettably, I only got 500 gbs on the internal drive.

I have a large slow external drive for cold storage, but want a performance drive to stay connected to and augment my internal.

I am planning to upgrade the entire mini to the second gen apple silicon next year. Provided it has the performance and some solid as yet announced egpu compatibility.

Given this context, I was thinking I would get a 1Tb Samsung 980 and drop it in the newish owc express enclosure.

Realizing the 980 will be limited by that enclosure, I would upgrade to some future TB4 nvme enclosure perhaps at the same time I replace the mini itself.

Curious if anyone has feedback on this. I realize the 4 slot owc enclosure would get much more out of the 980 but space silence and simplicity are valuable to me.

I had also considered the Samsung X5. That seems like it would be $100 more, but simpler and perhaps a less good thermal situation.

 

[adonis3k]

I have an 2TB Sabrent NVME, which enclosure would give me best speeds with the new Mac Mini M1?

 

[verycoolcat]

I’m happy with it. The lid cannot be rotated, it’s a slider. I bought the Orico enclosure via AliExpress; quick delivery from a warehouse in Belgium (I live in the Netherlands). Fortunately I didn’t had to pay for customs; that’s always a lottery (above 22 Euro they can charge you BTW (VAT)).
There is one significant issue: the device contains some extremely bright green LEDs. I guess they have used these SMD (surface mounted) LEDs to reduce the voltage from 5.0 volts to 3.3 volts (cheap but effective method).
I’m using a single sided WD blue SN550 SSD. There are only chips on the outer edges of this sSD. The chips make good contact with the cooler via the blue silicon tape (the double sided adhesive tape that is used to pass heat)
I’m considering some small adjustments:
- make some small holes in the housing; that would enable some airflow inside
- put some blue silicon tape on the LEDs; that would disable the annoying bright light; but would that also heat-up the (very small) LEds ? (... and possibly harm them)

Thanks! Too bad it is not available now with shipping from EU, only form China. Anyways, ordered from Amazon for 85 euro, cant wait to test it with SN750 and my future M1 mini 16Gb (delivery Dec 24).

I've used a black Sharpie (permanent-ink felt-tipped marker) to "color" on bright LEDs. I didn't block the light completely but worked pretty well.

Great idea, will give it a spin!

 

[MauriceG]

I've used a black Sharpie (permanent-ink felt-tipped marker) to "color" on bright LEDs. I didn't block the light completely but worked pretty well.

Thanks for the hint!

 

[aurieg92]

Not sure if anybody has posted yet about the Orico Dual NVME **USB** but I got one and the numbers sadly are not as good as the Thunderbolt 3 enclosures for random I/O. I knew sequential would be limited, but random I/O gets hurt a lot too. Here are the results in case it helps anybody.

The product:

ORICO Dual-Bay NVME Enclosure External Hard Drive Enclosure Aluminum USB3.1 Gen2 10Gbps M.2 Type-C SSD Docking Station for PCIe M-Key B&M Key 2230/2242/2260/2280 SSD Up to 4TB-M2P2J-Update

【Good Heat Dissipation】By adapting aluminum alloy striped rib shell to expand the heat dissipation area and increase the heat dissipation air duct can effectively reduce the damage casued by heat generated by the high-speed work of the SSD. (Note: SSD will generate a lot of heat during high-speed...

www.amazon.com

Here are the benchmarks with dual 970 2TB EVO Pluses:

https://imgur.com/a/3iS1XbC

 

[joevt]

Not sure if anybody has posted yet about the Orico Dual NVME **USB** but I got one and the numbers sadly are not as good as the Thunderbolt 3 enclosures for random I/O. I knew sequential would be limited, but random I/O gets hurt a lot too. Here are the results in case it helps anybody.

The product:

ORICO Dual-Bay NVME Enclosure External Hard Drive Enclosure Aluminum USB3.1 Gen2 10Gbps M.2 Type-C SSD Docking Station for PCIe M-Key B&M Key 2230/2242/2260/2280 SSD Up to 4TB-M2P2J-Update

【Good Heat Dissipation】By adapting aluminum alloy striped rib shell to expand the heat dissipation area and increase the heat dissipation air duct can effectively reduce the damage casued by heat generated by the high-speed work of the SSD. (Note: SSD will generate a lot of heat during high-speed...

www.amazon.com

Here are the benchmarks with dual 970 2TB EVO Pluses:

How do the two drives appear in System Information.app? Is there a USB hub, or are they two separate mass storage interfaces under the same USB device?

 

[aurieg92]

I can't screenshot it now (Im gonna return it), but in Disk Utility it looks like one storage interface with two disks. It looked similar to how a 2-bay 3.5 inch USB enclosure looks. As shown in the screenshots, the controller was "ASMT USB3.1". I was using Apple software RAID.

FWIW the enclosure doesn't have screws for the ends of the NVME disks (!!!) it just holds them in place using the enclosure chassis. Never seen that before. The whole thing gets too hot to touch under full load. Not a huge fan of it

 

[joevt]

I get good speeds with PCIe gen 4 NVMe:

External TB3 NVMe SSD - only 800 MB/s write speed

I believe the problem is with the combination PCIe gen 3 NVMe and Thunderbolt 3 enclosure. I can get 2636/2602 MB/s write/read speed (write is slightly faster than read) with a PCIe gen 4 NVMe (Sabrent Rocket 2 TB) in a Trebleet NVMe enclosure https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07N67P39W...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[aurieg92]

I get good speeds with PCIe gen 4 NVMe:

External TB3 NVMe SSD - only 800 MB/s write speed

I believe the problem is with the combination PCIe gen 3 NVMe and Thunderbolt 3 enclosure. I can get 2636/2602 MB/s write/read speed (write is slightly faster than read) with a PCIe gen 4 NVMe (Sabrent Rocket 2 TB) in a Trebleet NVMe enclosure https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07N67P39W...

forums.macrumors.com

what sort of random read did you get?

I had tested a Sabrent Rocket 4 in a Sabrent (single drive) TB3 enclosure and also 970 Evo Plus in same enclosure. Results were consistent with Anandtech / etc benchmarks-- sequential for the Rocket 4 was a little higher but 970 Evo Plus had better random r/w speed. I also tried the Sabrent Rocket 4 in the OWC 4M2 and saw both sequential and random perf drop off similar to the Evo Plus (as discussed likely because of the single PCIe lane).

 

[joevt]

what sort of random read did you get?

I had tested a Sabrent Rocket 4 in a Sabrent (single drive) TB3 enclosure and also 970 Evo Plus in same enclosure. Results were consistent with Anandtech / etc benchmarks-- sequential for the Rocket 4 was a little higher but 970 Evo Plus had better random r/w speed. I also tried the Sabrent Rocket 4 in the OWC 4M2 and saw both sequential and random perf drop off similar to the Evo Plus (as discussed likely because of the single PCIe lane).

Do these make sense?


Not sure what the sizes mean.

 

[aurieg92]

TIL you can post images inline O_O

I also found my screenshot for my Rocket 4 test. I think this is a Sabrent enclosure.. I also tried a Trebleet briefly but I couldn't get it to work with Linux so I sent it back.

Interesting in my test I get about double the random write at queue depth 64 but less random write throughput with queue depth 1. Also my sequential reads are much less than TB3 theoretical max. We're both using the same data size (64MB) though I only have 3 runs instead of your 5. Sucks that the enclosures have such an impact here.

I'm not sure how much DRAM the Sabrent Rocket 4 2TB has but the poor write perf in the 1GB test might explain the discrepancy. I think the 970 Evo Plus has 1GB of DRAM for the 2TB chip and would outperform in that individual benchmark. (Actually I'm not sure if the write buffer is DRAM or something else I forget... I think the Samsung drives do best on benchmarks because they also make DRAM and so can include extra on the drives for cheap [to them]).

 

[eightace]

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).

I have the same enclosure and get a stonking 580 MB/s write and 760 MB/s with my Adata XPG SX8200 Pro M.2 2TB. Not sure what is amiss.

 

[joevt]

I have the same enclosure and get a stonking 580 MB/s write and 760 MB/s with my Adata XPG SX8200 Pro M.2 2TB. Not sure what is amiss.

Check Thunderbolt connection for 40 Gbps x1, Link width x2.
Check PCIe connection for 8 GT/s, x4.

 

[eightace]

Check Thunderbolt connection for 40 Gbps x1, Link width x2.
Check PCIe connection for 8 GT/s, x4.

Not sure what you mean - a cable is a cable? I have ordered another enclosure to see what is amiss.

 

[joevt]

Not sure what you mean - a cable is a cable? I have ordered another enclosure to see what is amiss.

a cable may be the wrong type or it may be broken.

 

[joevt]

#41

 

[BeatCrazy]

None with JHL7440 Titan Ridge (which gives you USB3.1 Gen2 + Thunderbolt3) afaik.

So we still don’t have any enclosures with the JHL7440 or complete TB3 drives with the JHL7440 that are actually shockable?

 

[joevt]

So we still don’t have any enclosures with the JHL7440 or complete TB3 drives with the JHL7440 that are actually shockable?

The Sabrent Rocket XTRM-Q (already discussed in this thread) uses JHL7440 and are bus powered but there's no zero GB version? It's supposed to work with USB-C or Thunderbolt:

Sabrent Rocket XTRM-Q Portable TB3 SSD Review: Sleek, Spacious and Speedy

Sabrent’s Rocket XTRM-Q is a modern data hoarder’s best friend

www.tomshardware.com

Sabrent Rocket XTRM-Q 16TB External Aluminum SSD (SB-DXMQ-8X2) | SB-DXMQ-8X2

The <b>Sabrent</b> Rocket XTRM-Q <b>16TB</b> External Aluminum SSD takes high-powered external storage solutions to the next level! <b>DESIGN</b>: Solid aluminum construction for durability and maximum heat dissipation. Integrated temperature and health monitoring system. Tool-free magnetic...

www.sabrent.com

The LaCie Rugged SSD Pro is similar and also does not have a zero GB version:

LaCie’s fast portable SSD makes USB-C less confusing

Stop worrying if your drive is compatible with that USB-C port

www.theverge.com

The JEYI ThunderDock 7 mini is not bus powered but it's interesting because it uses all the features of the JHL7440 while remaining relatively small:

Page Not Found - Aliexpress.com

The JEYI Thunderbolt 3 dock adds to that with some USB stuff (but replaces DisplayPort 1.4 with HDMI 2.0 which is sad):

Page Not Found - Aliexpress.com

I've done testing with an OWC Mercury Helios 3S which uses a JHL7440 connected to a Mac mini 2018.
BMD: Blackmagic Disk Speed Test
ADM: Amorphous Disk Mark
AJA: AJA System Test Lite
numbers are Read/Write MB/s


Samsung 950 Pro 512GB (1M cable port 4 with eGPU on port 3):
ADM: 2507/1229
AJA: 2423/1168
BMD: 2380/1128

Samsung 950 Pro 512GB (1M cable port 1 with other disks on port 2):
ADM: 2502/1251
AJA: 2425/1196
BMD: 2405/1168


Samsung 960 Pro 1TB (1M cable port 1 with other disks on port 2)
ADM: 2806/901
AJA: 2806/889
BMD: 2735/868


XPG SX8200 Pro 2TB (1M cable port 4 with eGPU on port 3):
ADM: 2339/1570
AJA: 1974/1366
BMD: 1877/1291

XPG SX8200 Pro 2TB (1M cable port 1 with other disks on port 2):
ADM: 2447/1563 (started out slower at 1614/1548 but became faster after a few iterations)
AJA: 2003/1390
BMD: 1937/1348


Sabrent Rocket 4.0 2TB (1M cable port 4 with eGPU on port 3):
ADM: 2714/2870 (started out slower at 2432/1067 but became faster after a few iterations)
AJA: 2506/2597 (started out slower at 2508/1723)
BMD: 2398/2306

Sabrent Rocket 4.0 2TB (OWC cable port 1 with other disks on port 2):
ADM: 3026/2913 (started out slower at 2597/1062)
AJA: 2803/2715
BMD: 2704/2617 (started out slower but became faster after a couple iterations)

Sabrent Rocket 4.0 2TB (1M cable port 1 with other disks on port 2):
ADM: 3028/2902
AJA: 2805/2716
BMD: 2710/2620


Conclusions:
the JHL7440 doesn't help the Samsung 960 Pro write speeds in a Thunderbolt enclosure.

Other possible conclusions (not sure about these):
- Sabrent is the fastest, and therefore is most affected by PCIe traffic to/from the eGPU (results using iGPU instead of eGPU may be interesting...)
- Cable length doesn't change results much.

 

[BeatCrazy]

The Sabrent Rocket XTRM-Q (already discussed in this thread) uses JHL7440 and are bus powered but there's no zero GB version? It's supposed to work with USB-C or Thunderbolt:

Sabrent Rocket XTRM-Q Portable TB3 SSD Review: Sleek, Spacious and Speedy

Sabrent’s Rocket XTRM-Q is a modern data hoarder’s best friend

www.tomshardware.com

Sabrent Rocket XTRM-Q 16TB External Aluminum SSD (SB-DXMQ-8X2) | SB-DXMQ-8X2

The <b>Sabrent</b> Rocket XTRM-Q <b>16TB</b> External Aluminum SSD takes high-powered external storage solutions to the next level! <b>DESIGN</b>: Solid aluminum construction for durability and maximum heat dissipation. Integrated temperature and health monitoring system. Tool-free magnetic...

www.sabrent.com

The LaCie Rugged SSD Pro is similar and also does not have a zero GB version:

LaCie’s fast portable SSD makes USB-C less confusing

Stop worrying if your drive is compatible with that USB-C port

www.theverge.com

The JEYI ThunderDock 7 mini is not bus powered but it's interesting because it uses all the features of the JHL7440 while remaining relatively small:

Page Not Found - Aliexpress.com

The JEYI Thunderbolt 3 dock adds to that with some USB stuff (but replaces DisplayPort 1.4 with HDMI 2.0 which is sad):

Page Not Found - Aliexpress.com

I've done testing with an OWC Mercury Helios 3S which uses a JHL7440 connected to a Mac mini 2018.
BMD: Blackmagic Disk Speed Test
ADM: Amorphous Disk Mark
AJA: AJA System Test Lite
numbers are Read/Write MB/s


Samsung 950 Pro 512GB (1M cable port 4 with eGPU on port 3):
ADM: 2507/1229
AJA: 2423/1168
BMD: 2380/1128

Samsung 950 Pro 512GB (1M cable port 1 with other disks on port 2):
ADM: 2502/1251
AJA: 2425/1196
BMD: 2405/1168


Samsung 960 Pro 1TB (1M cable port 1 with other disks on port 2)
ADM: 2806/901
AJA: 2806/889
BMD: 2735/868


XPG SX8200 Pro 2TB (1M cable port 4 with eGPU on port 3):
ADM: 2339/1570
AJA: 1974/1366
BMD: 1877/1291

XPG SX8200 Pro 2TB (1M cable port 1 with other disks on port 2):
ADM: 2447/1563 (started out slower at 1614/1548 but became faster after a few iterations)
AJA: 2003/1390
BMD: 1937/1348


Sabrent Rocket 4.0 2TB (1M cable port 4 with eGPU on port 3):
ADM: 2714/2870 (started out slower at 2432/1067 but became faster after a few iterations)
AJA: 2506/2597 (started out slower at 2508/1723)
BMD: 2398/2306

Sabrent Rocket 4.0 2TB (OWC cable port 1 with other disks on port 2):
ADM: 3026/2913 (started out slower at 2597/1062)
AJA: 2803/2715
BMD: 2704/2617 (started out slower but became faster after a couple iterations)

Sabrent Rocket 4.0 2TB (1M cable port 1 with other disks on port 2):
ADM: 3028/2902
AJA: 2805/2716
BMD: 2710/2620


Conclusions:
the JHL7440 doesn't help the Samsung 960 Pro write speeds in a Thunderbolt enclosure.

Other possible conclusions (not sure about these):
- Sabrent is the fastest, and therefore is most affected by PCIe traffic to/from the eGPU (results using iGPU instead of eGPU may be interesting...)
- Cable length doesn't change results much.

Very helpful!

Here's where the confusion sets in:

For the Sabrent XTRM-Q, it supposedly uses the JHL7440, but documentation is explicit that it doesn't work with USB-C (non TB3) devices. Which negates the benefit of the JHL7440.

The LaCie Rugged SSD Pro seems to meet most requirements, but can you replace the drive? I will take a one-time hit to overpay for the included SSD if I can upgrade it, later.

I'm not too interested in non-bus-powered versions, but your links and test results are helpful.

 

[joevt]

For the Sabrent XTRM-Q, it supposedly uses the JHL7440, but documentation is explicit that it doesn't work with USB-C (non TB3) devices. Which negates the benefit of the JHL7440.

Which documentation? Everything I've seen says it does support both USB-C and Thunderbolt. The links I posted were clear about that. The tom's HARDWARE review says it uses the Realtek 9108B for USB functionality.

The LaCie Rugged SSD Pro seems to meet most requirements, but can you replace the drive?

I couldn't find info on taking apart the LaCie. The tom's HARDWARE review has some pictures of the internals but no instructions.

LaCie Rugged SSD Pro Portable SSD Review: Fast, Compact and Durable

Potent performance at a high price

www.tomshardware.com