Thunderbolt 3 M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosures

[400]

Learning lots in this thread and may have found a solution for me problem and being reluctant to accept that stuff moves on (and a curmudgeon with respect the upgrade). I need to put my hand in my pocket gain but future proof a tad.

Only thing I am stuck on at the mo is the power supplied by the iMac M1 port to power the external case/nvme one assume that just plug it in and let it get on with it but is the power split across the M1 ports or same for all. I know the ssd pulls less power than the HD. At some point my other drives will be replaced but not yet.

 

[ekwipt]

I've been searching for hours but haven't found a clear answer,
i think i will go with the acasis and a samsung 980 pro 2TB,
the ideal would be a 4tb but in fact i might have this solution in passing until thunderbolt 4 home comes out, and cheaper 4tb disks..

It’s a waste of money getting a PCIe Gen 4 m.2 disk and you’ll likely get worse results from what I’ve read. Save your money

 

[eonaeon]

Hi All,

Just wondering if anyone might have any ideas with my following issue:

Equipment:
Acasis USB 4.0 enclosure - https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003020717936.html
1TB WD SN750 (for most compatibility)
Belkin Thunderbolt Dock Pro (Titan Ridge chipset): https://www.belkin.com/au/business/...r-business/thunderbolt-3-dock-pro/p/p-f4u097/
Late 2018 Intel Mac mini.

Enclosure connected via included thunderbolt cable to Mac mini rear thunderbolt port - NOT detected.
Enclosure connected via usb-c cable to Mac mini rear thunderbolt port - detected, 900/900 MB/s write/read.
Enclosure connected via included thunderbolt cable to Belkin Dock rear thunderbolt port - detected, 855/2670 MB/s write/read

Any ideas why not might be getting detected by my Mac mini, but is by my thunderbolt dock? That read speed definitely implies thunderbolt speeds, although the write speeds aren't great.

Is there some incompatibility that I missed when I was reading this thread earlier and decided to get the Acasis enclosure?

Edit: ok worked it out, if I unplug the USB SSD connected to the second port on my Mac mini, the Acasis detects properly. I can then plug in the USB SSD on the second port and both work ok. On my Mac mini the first two ports share a Thunderbolt Bus, and the last two ports share a Thunderbolt Bus, so something weird there.

Also interesting, I got 1176/2454 MB/s write/read speeds, so I wonder if my SSD is one of the slower ones mentioned on the previous pages.

 

[joeriggs]

Hi All,

Just wondering if anyone might have any ideas with my following issue:

Equipment:
Acasis USB 4.0 enclosure - https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003020717936.html
1TB WD SN750 (for most compatibility)
Belkin Thunderbolt Dock Pro (Titan Ridge chipset): https://www.belkin.com/au/business/...r-business/thunderbolt-3-dock-pro/p/p-f4u097/
Late 2018 Intel Mac mini.

Enclosure connected via included thunderbolt cable to Mac mini rear thunderbolt port - NOT detected.
Enclosure connected via usb-c cable to Mac mini rear thunderbolt port - detected, 900/900 MB/s write/read.
Enclosure connected via included thunderbolt cable to Belkin Dock rear thunderbolt port - detected, 855/2670 MB/s write/read

Any ideas why not might be getting detected by my Mac mini, but is by my thunderbolt dock? That read speed definitely implies thunderbolt speeds, although the write speeds aren't great.

Is there some incompatibility that I missed when I was reading this thread earlier and decided to get the Acasis enclosure?

Edit: ok worked it out, if I unplug the USB SSD connected to the second port on my Mac mini, the Acasis detects properly. I can then plug in the USB SSD on the second port and both work ok. On my Mac mini the first two ports share a Thunderbolt Bus, and the last two ports share a Thunderbolt Bus, so something weird there.

Also interesting, I got 1176/2454 MB/s write/read speeds, so I wonder if my SSD is one of the slower ones mentioned on the previous pages.

Seems like you figured it out, it has something to do with the amount of power required to bus power both devices.
That one shared thunderbolt bus does not have enough power to power both devices.

 

[hceuterpe]

So even though I'm an exclusive Windows/Linux user and don't have any Macs, wanted to give a shout out to this rather lengthy post to figure out a workable combo of enclosure and SSD.

I've concluded that if you want to built a 2TB Thunderbolt 3, you pretty much have to suck it up and get a Samsung 980 Pro or possibly settle with QLC? (which I didn't try). I went through 3 different Titan Ridge enclosures (with the dual TB3/USB operation mode capability), and the following SSDs and each one I ended up with the slow write problem, that can stuck at a little under 10Gbps:
SN750 2TB (PCIe 3.0 based, not the SE model)
Sabrent Rocket 4 (non-plus, non QLC, but TLC based) 2TB (this wouldn't even be recognized, but the enclosure got CRAZY hot).
Silicon Power 2TB A80 (which some controller i've never heard before)

However, with the 980 Pro 2TB, wow the combo flies, almost 3.0GB/s sequential both writes and read, and humorously the writes sometimes beating the reads. Hopefully some folks got in on the 980 Pro 2TB deals over Black Friday.

 

[masotime]

I've gotten some pretty good results with the transparent Orico Thunderbolt 3 enclosure and the 2TB P31 NVMe drive. This is on a 2020 M1 MacBook Air.

The only strange part is that it takes about a minute for the write speeds to ramp up to 2GB/sec - it starts off very slow initially, like 300MB/sec.

 

[ekwipt]

So even though I'm an exclusive Windows/Linux user and don't have any Macs, wanted to give a shout out to this rather lengthy post to figure out a workable combo of enclosure and SSD.

I've concluded that if you want to built a 2TB Thunderbolt 3, you pretty much have to suck it up and get a Samsung 980 Pro or possibly settle with QLC? (which I didn't try). I went through 3 different Titan Ridge enclosures (with the dual TB3/USB operation mode capability), and the following SSDs and each one I ended up with the slow write problem, that can stuck at a little under 10Gbps:
SN750 2TB (PCIe 3.0 based, not the SE model)
Sabrent Rocket 4 (non-plus, non QLC, but TLC based) 2TB (this wouldn't even be recognized, but the enclosure got CRAZY hot).
Silicon Power 2TB A80 (which some controller i've never heard before)

However, with the 980 Pro 2TB, wow the combo flies, almost 3.0GB/s sequential both writes and read, and humorously the writes sometimes beating the reads. Hopefully some folks got in on the 980 Pro 2TB deals over Black Friday.

I don't think this is correct info, the Samsung 980 Pro is not compatible on some enclosures with macOS, you're better off with a Gen 3 device, they will be cheaper and actually run faster. I'm hoping soon we get a portable PCIe gen 4 m.2 encolure soon

 

[steve123]

I've gotten some pretty good results with the transparent Orico Thunderbolt 3 enclosure and the 2TB P31 NVMe drive. This is on a 2020 M1 MacBook Air.

View attachment 1921865

The only strange part is that it takes about a minute for the write speeds to ramp up to 2TB/sec - it starts off very slow initially, like 300MB/sec.

2TB/sec? Where did you get one of those? ;-)

 

[masotime]

2TB/sec? Where did you get one of those? ;-)

Lol good catch - I meant 2GB/sec, will fix the typo.

 

[hyh]

Does this seem like a good plan? I'm considering getting Acasis Thunderbolt 3 USB 4.0 Mobile M.2 Nvme Enclosure ...
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003020717936.html

to be used with Samsung 980 (1 TB) -- not 980 PRO. I am not completely sure that this will work well with M1 Macbook. I note that the adverts mention compatibility with 980 PRO rather than plain 980. If it's stable and fast, I'm thinking that I could end up with several 1 TB SSDs of same model to be swapped as needed using the same enclosure.

​

 

[wills11]

Can you transfer 300 GB worth of material and monitor it via istats? I'm curious to see if the speed maintains that speed over that amount of data transfer or does it drop to 700 MB/s

I'm not quite sure what you mean by "transfer"—won't the speed be limited by the read/write speed of the other drive?

 

[hceuterpe]

I don't think this is correct info, the Samsung 980 Pro is not compatible on some enclosures with macOS, you're better off with a Gen 3 device, they will be cheaper and actually run faster. I'm hoping soon we get a portable PCIe gen 4 m.2 encolure soon

That's definitely news to me. My understanding is that all the Titan Ridge based NVMe enclosures, by in large are effectively the same. At least with the 3 I tried, all behaved identically. The 980 Pro (even @ 2TB) was the one drive that stood out among all the reviews and user reported benchmarks on both Mac (including M1) and Windows systems, of achieving and maintaining the higher end write speeds. Do you happen to have any examples where that wasn't the case? You have peaked my curiosity now. 😁

Until Thunderbolt somehow manages to bump over PCIe gen 3 and move past 40Gbps (which seems to already be quite a feat using the USB-C connector). I think it's going to be a while before we see speeds past this. Perhaps a Goshen Ridge based enclosure would help a bit here?

 

[joevt]

Perhaps a Goshen Ridge based enclosure would help a bit here?

Goshen Ridge only has one PCIe 3.0 lane (≈800 MB/s)

 

[ekwipt]

Goshen Ridge only has one PCIe 3.0 lane (≈800 MB/s)

That’s right something I didn’t know as well, you’re better off with Alpine ridge for most things other than Thunderbolt 4 for monitors. Check out this video:

 

[ekwipt]

That's definitely news to me. My understanding is that all the Titan Ridge based NVMe enclosures, by in large are effectively the same. At least with the 3 I tried, all behaved identically. The 980 Pro (even @ 2TB) was the one drive that stood out among all the reviews and user reported benchmarks on both Mac (including M1) and Windows systems, of achieving and maintaining the higher end write speeds. Do you happen to have any examples where that wasn't the case? You have peaked my curiosity now. 😁

Until Thunderbolt somehow manages to bump over PCIe gen 3 and move past 40Gbps (which seems to already be quite a feat using the USB-C connector). I think it's going to be a while before we see speeds past this. Perhaps a Goshen Ridge based enclosure would help a bit here?

Sorry when i said not compatible I should be saying not running the fastest compared to Gen 3 devices such as WD 750. I can’t find the product where it wasn’t compatible with (I might have made a mistake on this)

But I think you’re still wasting money putting a Gen 4 device into a Gen 3 enclosure

 

[eonaeon]

Hi All,


Equipment:
Acasis USB 4.0 enclosure - https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003020717936.html
1TB WD SN750 (for most compatibility)
Belkin Thunderbolt Dock Pro (Titan Ridge chipset): https://www.belkin.com/au/business/...r-business/thunderbolt-3-dock-pro/p/p-f4u097/
Late 2018 Intel Mac mini.


Also interesting, I got 1176/2454 MB/s write/read speeds, so I wonder if my SSD is one of the slower ones mentioned on the previous pages.

So in the interest of getting fast speeds (which was the whole point of going this route), I picked up a Samsung 980 Pro and tried it today with my Acasis USB 4.0 enclosure.

Connected to the Thunderbolt Port on my Belkin Dock:
Write: 2539 MB/s Read: 2402 MB/s

Connected to port 1 on my Mac Mini:
Write: 2359 MB/s Read: 2632 MB/s

Now that's what I was after, awesome.

Just wondering what peoples thoughts were on the thermal pad situation? The drive came with a 0.5mm and 1mm thick thermal pad to stick to the SSD, however one of the YouTube videos I watched suggested getting a thicker one. From my reading around, it seems the thermal pad would only be useful if it bridges the gap between the SSD and the Chassis? If there is no contact, then there is no point for the thermal pad?

 

[Mike Boreham]

I am looking for a Thunderbolt NVMe enclosure which handles a single 4TB blade. The two I already have (OWC Envoy Express and Orico) are limited to 2TB, as are most of the ones I can find to buy.

The only one I have found is this Yottamaster.

Any recommendations?

Thanks

ArrrGH Just seen on this page that the Yottamaster above says 4TB in one place and 2TB in another! (EDIT Yottamaster Support has confirmed 2TB max, in spite of the web page).

EDIT again: Just found this page which says my OWC Envoy Express will handle 4TB.

I am getting the impression that the capacity limit is not a clear cut limit, but more a matter of what has been tested. Heat might be part of it, and the Envoy is a slow TB enclosure, so maybe more tolerant of larger capacities.

 

[Mike Boreham]

I can confirm the Trebleet will work with a 4TB NVME, I have one in there currently.

@joeriggs Thanks very much for this.

I assume that your 4TB NVMe is double sided which makes it thicker (than 2TB blades) and hence incompatible with many TB enclosures.

Does the Trebleet have room for a thermal pad inside with the 4TB NVMe?

I have an Envoy Express which has this problem with my 4TB Sabrent. As you can see in my reply there I now have it fitted and working without the heat pad, which may be OK, but I am looking for options and the Trebleet looks a good contender.

Thanks for any input.

 

[Wags]

So in the interest of getting fast speeds (which was the whole point of going this route), I picked up a Samsung 980 Pro and tried it today with my Acasis USB 4.0 enclosure.

Connected to the Thunderbolt Port on my Belkin Dock:
Write: 2539 MB/s Read: 2402 MB/s

Connected to port 1 on my Mac Mini:
Write: 2359 MB/s Read: 2632 MB/s

Now that's what I was after, awesome.

Just wondering what peoples thoughts were on the thermal pad situation? The drive came with a 0.5mm and 1mm thick thermal pad to stick to the SSD, however one of the YouTube videos I watched suggested getting a thicker one. From my reading around, it seems the thermal pad would only be useful if it bridges the gap between the SSD and the Chassis? If there is no contact, then there is no point for the thermal pad?

One or both included didn’t reach? How hot can this get. ?

 

[Mad Davey]

Hi all, sorry if I missed this somewhere, I'm going from an old 5,1 to an M1 mini, I have a PCI card, HPT 7101 card full of NVME drives, can I purchase an external thunderbolt 3 pci card enclosure and get 2500mbs+ speeds per each singular drive and just use this as my external 4port NVME solution? I purchased and am sending back the OWC Express 4M2 due to it limiting the speed to each drive to about 1/3. While I realize this may be an expensive way to go, I already have the 7101A, and would like to use several NVME drives in my M1 mini at full speed. Here are some examples of the enclosures I would consider: https://appleinsider.com/articles/21/11/08/how-to-add-pci-e-expansion-to-your-new-macbook-pro.

 

[joevt]

Hi all, sorry if I missed this somewhere, I'm going from an old 5,1 to an M1 mini, I have a PCI card, HPT 7101 card full of NVME drives, can I purchase an external thunderbolt 3 pci card enclosure and get 2500mbs+ speeds per each singular drive and just use this as my external 4port NVME solution? I purchased and am sending back the OWC Express 4M2 due to it limiting the speed to each drive to about 1/3. While I realize this may be an expensive way to go, I already have the 7101A, and would like to use several NVME drives in my M1 mini at full speed. Here are some examples of the enclosures I would consider: https://appleinsider.com/articles/21/11/08/how-to-add-pci-e-expansion-to-your-new-macbook-pro.

That should work fine. Each drive will be limited to 2500 MB/s (up to 3000 MB/s) and that will also be the total for all drives.

 

[Mike Boreham]

Anyone know why the Orico Thunderbolt enclosure is limited to 2TB drives?

I am using mine with a 4TB Sabrent Rocket and it seems fine.

What risk am I taking?

I have contacted Orico with the question but no reply.

Thanks

 

[joevt]

Anyone know why the Orico Thunderbolt enclosure is limited to 2TB drives?

I am using mine with a 4TB Sabrent Rocket and it seems fine.

What risk am I taking?

I have contacted Orico with the question but no reply.

Because that's all they had to test with? Because 4TB requires more power? heat? space?
Hard to say. I guess if it's working then it's fine [ominous music] ... for now ... [/ominous music]

 

[joevt]

It would be horrible if the problem were something dumb like a 2TB access limit. Even if you partition the drive into four 1TB partitions and write files to each partition, can you be sure that all partitions are being written correctly? Probably. There would have to be some magic to pass that test if there were a 2TB limit. But to be absolutely sure, you would have to write a unique number to every block and read them all back.

Actually, the four 1TB partitions idea shouldn't be necessary. A GPT formatted partition has a GPT at the beginning of the disk and at the end. So verifying that those are the same would be an equivalent test. Something like First Aid in Disk Utilities.app should be able to check that.

This kind of limit problem is something you would see with counterfeit flash drives which have firmware that pretend to be one size but are actually smaller. I wonder if those would pass the GPT test? Usually flash drives are formatted as MBR or FAT without partition table.

 

[Mike Boreham]

It would be horrible if the problem were something dumb like a 2TB access limit. Even if you partition the drive into four 1TB partitions and write files to each partition, can you be sure that all partitions are being written correctly? Probably. There would have to be some magic to pass that test if there were a 2TB limit. But to be absolutely sure, you would have to write a unique number to every block and read them all back.

Actually, the four 1TB partitions idea shouldn't be necessary. A GPT formatted partition has a GPT at the beginning of the disk and at the end. So verifying that those are the same would be an equivalent test. Something like First Aid in Disk Utilities.app should be able to check that.

This kind of limit problem is something you would see with counterfeit flash drives which have firmware that pretend to be one size but are actually smaller. I wonder if those would pass the GPT test? Usually flash drives are formatted as MBR or FAT without partition table.

Thanks very much. I don't really understand this ! I have my 4TB Sabrent in the Orico with 3.2Gb of data and it seems to be behaving. What would I look for if this was a problem?

Actually the history is a bit more complex. I actually had it in an Envoy Express TB enclosure initially. It was a very tight fit as the Sabrent is double sided and 4mm thick, but worked apparently fine. Then I saw this thread and removed the heat pad. But felt uneasy so tried it in the Orico I already had. It fits comfortably in the Orico, with heat pad. Then saw that Orico say 2TB max.

Sabrent say their toolfree enclosure is compatible but it is a 20GB/s device, like the Envoy Express.

It seems the Trebleet accepts the 4mm Sabrent and is a 40GB/s device. There is 2 in 1 version (Thunderbolt and USB) of this now.