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quietmind

macrumors newbie
Jun 3, 2021
2
0
Yes it needs power input. Strange that they don't sell it with a power brick, but that seems to be more and more common. That other Dock will also need power even though you can buy it without.

I tried as just a NVME only but it won't work. From what I can tell, having it powered seems to help performance a bit anyway, in comparison to plain enclosures.

My LG phone charger (output 3V-5A) works fine, but I bought the one from Amazon in case I needed more output.
Looks like they sell this one on aliexpress with or without power brick (149 vs 139). Also looks like they have other enclosures just for the NVME. Wish they were also available on Amazon.... Any idea how it is to order from aliexpress? Also, look at where you put the NVME, on the bottom? Interesting. Do you think that enables better cooling?
 

macjunkie2013

macrumors member
Jun 9, 2013
87
77
You Ess Eh
I got mine from Aliexpress. It took ~ 3 weeks to arrives, because it was not in stock. Yes the NVME is installed in the bottom by removing the bottom plate, very easy. Don't know about cooling, it never seems to get very warm.
 
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mackiemesser2

macrumors member
Sep 17, 2020
71
26
Looks like they sell this one on aliexpress with or without power brick (149 vs 139). Also looks like they have other enclosures just for the NVME. Wish they were also available on Amazon.... Any idea how it is to order from aliexpress? Also, look at where you put the NVME, on the bottom? Interesting. Do you think that enables better cooling?

If you look closely at the pictures I think that "with power" simply means an USB C to pin - AC Adapter.

Edit: I could swear I saw that earlier. Now the pictures in the review show a power brick ??? Anyways this seems to have superseeded the previous docking station from Jeyi.
 

Rock Star

macrumors newbie
May 5, 2021
25
15
Well, what's better than a late night benchmark along with some 20 yo Armagnac?

First 2 images: Mac Mini 2018 Intel i7, 512GB Apple SSD, then the TB3 external Sabrent Rocket in the Orico TB3 enclosure.

View attachment 1766844 View attachment 1766845

Next 2 images: MacBook Air M1, 512GB Apple SSD, then the same Sabrent/ Orico setup as above:

View attachment 1766846

View attachment 1766847

What do you notice? The external SSD is nowhere near as fast when used with the M1 Mac (it's not a problem for me as it was just a wee experiment - the M1 will never likely have any ext drives attached).

I think I've read in plenty places that the TB architecture in the M1 system has some speed deficits compared to the more mature Intel platform, but who knows what might evolve in the future...???
How did the 5456.17 MB/s RND4K QD1 speed (in the "Apple SSD AP0512Q / Apple M1" screenshot) happen ?
 

Rock Star

macrumors newbie
May 5, 2021
25
15
Haha that’s very understandable—Apple has already given us so much already.

I need to be able to boot my whole system externally, in case my Mac goes down, so I can just plug my external macOS into a new machine to get back up and running. I love an external boot too for when I have to jump between macOS iterations and will need to for the inevitable Rosetta removal. Thanks for the response!

About you wanting to "boot the whole system externally" and your requirement to "plug my external MacOS into any new machine to get back up and running". The following might be interesting reads.

"An M1 Mac Can’t Boot from an External Drive If Its Internal Drive Is Dead"
— Source: "https://tidbits.com/2021/05/27/an-m...external-drive-if-its-internal-drive-is-dead/"

"..... When you start up an M1 Mac from an external disk, the first part of the boot process still runs from internal storage and the iBoot System Container, ....."
— Source: https://eclecticlight.co/2021/01/14/m1-macs-radically-change-boot-and-recovery/

"Booting an M1 Mac: external disks and local boot policy"
— Source: https://eclecticlight.co/2021/05/12/booting-an-m1-mac-external-disks-and-local-boot-policy/
 

Ndaa75

macrumors member
Apr 8, 2016
43
2
Are we talking of this?


I recommend the TB3 only version. Works on TB4 ports too.
Seems only the USB 4.0 version of this enclosure is available locally (in UK) - so have ordered one from Amazon to test with an Addlink S90 2tb on an iMac 2020 i7 - hopefully will be OK - worked great with the Orico T3 which I sold (mistake) & replaced with the Sabrent dual rugged Thunderbolt 3 - massive mistake. Been through 2 of those enclosures. First one damaged but worked, albeit suffering from random disconnections, replacement arrived but had same issue with disconnections. Back to the Orico if this one doesn't work.
 
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Ndaa75

macrumors member
Apr 8, 2016
43
2
So just tested the Acasis USB 4 enclosure with an Addlink S90 2TB & pretty much blown away by the performance...
Beats my Orico T3 enclosure.....attached is the BM 5GB test. Test machine is an iMac 2020 i7

DiskSpeedTest.png
 

joevt

macrumors 604
Jun 21, 2012
6,971
4,262
So just tested the Acasis USB 4 enclosure with an Addlink S90 2TB & pretty much blown away by the performance...
Beats my Orico T3 enclosure.....attached is the BM 5GB test. Test machine is an iMac 2020 i7
Did your Orico T3 have the same Addlink S90 2TB? If you posted results before, can you update your post with a link to the previous post?
 

Ndaa75

macrumors member
Apr 8, 2016
43
2
Did your Orico T3 have the same Addlink S90 2TB? If you posted results before, can you update your post with a link to the previous post?
Yep, same drive. Didn't post the results but if I recall read was approx 2500, write 2350, but with with what appears to be throttling. No such issues with this enclosure. As a comparison, AmorphousDiskMark gave different results.

Screenshot 2021-08-03 at 07.46.55.png
 
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Realityck

macrumors G4
Nov 9, 2015
11,477
17,290
Silicon Valley, CA
I been looking at the Acasis USB4, and ORICO USB4 NVme m.2 enclosures online which are generally in very short supply. Are both using the older Intel® JHL7440 Thunderbolt™ 3 Controller that doesn't support USB4?

Reference
Intel JHL7440 - (launched Q1'18) - This is a Thunderbolt 3 controller with native USB 2.0, USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbs), USB3. 2 Gen 2 (10 Gbs) support. No Thunderbolt 4 or USB 4.0 support in that it isn't in the spec, but will certainly work on those ports due to backward compatibility.

Comparably the more recent
Intel® JHL8440 Thunderbolt™ 4 Controller - (launched Q3'20) - this offers Thunderbolt™/USB4 peripheral support at 40G + Native USB Type-C interface capabilities: USB2, USB3 (10G), DP1.4 Alt-mode

The M1 24" iMac specs show it uses a controller that supports
  • Thunderbolt 3 (up to 40Gb/s)
  • USB 4 (up to 40Gb/s)
thanks for insight you guys can supply, yes I know about that Indiegogo Gigadrive that claimed to use a JHL8440. :)
 

joevt

macrumors 604
Jun 21, 2012
6,971
4,262
I been looking at the Acasis USB4, and ORICO USB4 NVme m.2 enclosures online which are generally in very short supply. Are both using the older Intel® JHL7440 Thunderbolt™ 3 Controller that doesn't support USB4?

thanks for insight you guys can supply, yes I know about that Indiegogo Gigadrive that claimed to use a JHL8440. :)
The amazon pages for the ACASIS and ORICO both show JHL7440 in their pictures.

There aren't any enclosures that use anything newer than the JHL7440 (Titan Ridge) as far as I know. Well, except maybe that Gigadrive.
https://www.techradar.com/reviews/gigassd-gigadrive-1tb-external-thunderbolt-4-ssd

The only issue using JHL7440 might have that I can think of is that it won't work at 40 Gbps when connected to a USB4 host that does not support Thunderbolt. I don't think any such hosts exist yet. If they did exist, you might be able to get 40 Gbps to the enclosure anyway by connecting it to a Thunderbolt 4 dock.
 

Rock Star

macrumors newbie
May 5, 2021
25
15
EDIT: Forget what I posted below. It's not going to give you the NVMe enclosure functionalilty.

I been looking at the Acasis USB4, and ORICO USB4 NVme m.2 enclosures online which are generally in very short supply. Are both using the older Intel® JHL7440 Thunderbolt™ 3 Controller that doesn't support USB4?

Reference


The M1 24" iMac specs show it uses a controller that supports
  • Thunderbolt 3 (up to 40Gb/s)
  • USB 4 (up to 40Gb/s)
thanks for insight you guys can supply, yes I know about that Indiegogo Gigadrive that claimed to use a JHL8440. :)
There is also the Razor Thunderbolt 4 Dock:
"The Razer Thunderbolt™ 4 Dock Chroma is USB4™ compliant, compatible with legacy Thunderbolt™ devices, and works on both Windows and Mac systems."
— Source: https://www.razer.com/gaming-pc-accessories/razer-thunderbolt-4-dock/RC21-01690100-R3U1
According to this review (in German) it uses a JHL8440 controller: https://www.computerbase.de/2021-05/razer-thunderbolt-4-dock-chroma-test/
 
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joevt

macrumors 604
Jun 21, 2012
6,971
4,262
Any one of them that stand out in build quality?
Hard to say without buying them all. There's 3 configs that I've seen:
1) hub - one hub for all four ports. (OWC, Zikko, etc)
2) CalDigit Element Hub - I don't think I've seen others with this config - it uses two hubs.
3) dock - three hubs. (Kensington, OWC, Razor, Sonnet, etc.)

#1 and #3 appear to all use the same design. Some of the hubs and docks might have a power button.
 
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Zackmuc

macrumors newbie
Mar 21, 2016
9
1
I have a caldigit element hub and an acasis with an wd750 but the ssd is slower when connected to the hub then diretly to my m1 (1000 mb/s write to 600 mb/s) .
Are there any other experiences?
 

joevt

macrumors 604
Jun 21, 2012
6,971
4,262
I have a caldigit element hub and an acasis with an wd750 but the ssd is slower when connected to the hub then diretly to my m1 (1000 mb/s write to 600 mb/s) .
Are there any other experiences?
Is the Acasis shown to be connected with Thunderbolt or USB in System Information.app?
 
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joeriggs

macrumors member
Jun 14, 2020
79
16
I'm on a Intel Mac running Catalina.

I installed the 4TB WD_Black SN750 (WDS400T3X0C) in the Fledging shell thunderbolt 3 enclosure.

I'm getting 1100 MB/s write in BM speed test. I also transferred 100 GB and was getting a sustained 1100 MB/s.

That seems slow to me, I would figure I would get closer to 2000 MB/s, or at least 1500 MB/s.

Any ideas?
 
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mackiemesser2

macrumors member
Sep 17, 2020
71
26
Maybe caldigit element hub splits the total bandwith for each of his ports? So 40Gbit\s divided by 4 (3x TB each 10GBit\s + 4x USB with 10GBit\s in total) would be 10Gbit\s which is roughly your seen total bandwith on the connected ssd... Or it's nevertheless recognized as USB 10Gbit\s. Both seems possible looking at your speeds. No info on Caldigit site but they can only support 40GBit\s in total and no more...
Any other methods to test for the max bandwith of a single port on the calidigit element hub?
 
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