Thunderbolt 3 M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosures

[MediaGary]

The heat sink on the enclosures is an interesting idea. Are you just attaching it just via the silicon pad?
Has it been successful in lowering temps, how about without the additional fan?

It has absolutely been successful in lowering temperatures. The fan wasn't truly necessary, but was leftover from a lovely setup I made when I had my M1 Max Studio (yeah, returned it, long story). The heat sink alone (no fan) on the TBU401 was enough to take it down from about 95F/35C to about 88F/31C. Ambient is ~76F/24C. Yes, the silicone pad is a very good level of stickiness, and holds the heatsink to the enclosure very well.

The dual NVMe Sabrent enclosure was the real heat problem. It has two Western Digital 4TB SN700 drives in there. The WD site doesn't overtly state their power consumption in watts, but (sneakily?) states the 10-microsecond power peak as 2.8 amps, leaving us to calculate that at 3.3v, that's 9.24 watts ... each. Based on how quickly that enclosure got hot (I didn't let it cook after it went near 105F/41C and was still rising) I believe that that 9-watt figure per drive is probably pretty frequent/constant, rather than a peak. Without the fan the 'index finger test' is still uncomfortable, and with the fan it's just a bit above ambient ~82F/28C.

EDIT: I added a photo of the M1 Max Studio setup. The 92mm fan thingie was behind the little shelves and you can see the TBU401 peeking out in the center of the top shelf. My laser thermometer is over 10 years old, and it's time for a replacement to get more reliable temperature figures, but you get the idea.

 

[thestudentisrea]

The heat sink on the enclosures is an interesting idea. Are you just attaching it just via the silicon pad?
Has it been successful in lowering temps, how about without the additional fan?




FYI, I wasn't able to completely close the Shell w/ a double sided 4TB drive inside.
I could get 2 of the 4 screws on but not all 4.

Damn. Question was asked and answered very specifically on Amazon. In fact, they sell a 4Tb Phison pre-installed version. That may be a problem.

Were you using thermal pad, or is that just the bare drive not fitting?

 

[thestudentisrea]

Oh, and... I've been researching, but still not clear:

Is the reduced write speed via TB3 if no TB monitor used thing still an issue with latest OS upgrade? Planning on using single HDMI monitor only (don't have other connectors, and wouldn't want to tie up only remaining TB3 port).

If so, what's the best fix at this point? If I don't want to lose that port for nothing, do I really need to buy a TB3 dock? Software fix?

If the Acasis usb4 (confirmed TB3 no longer available anyway) is "tunneling" and actually operating via usb4 protocol rather than tb3, does that mean it bypasses this issue even though it's using same port?

 

[joeriggs]

Were you using thermal pad, or is that just the bare drive not fitting?

With a thermal pad, it will close without the thermal pad but I was concerned about temps even with the built in fan.

 

[thestudentisrea]

Did you find another enclosure that does fit it with thermal pad?

With a thermal pad, it will close without the thermal pad but I was concerned about temps even with the built in fan.

 

[joeriggs]

Did you find another enclosure that does fit it with thermal pad?

So I actually ended up using it with only 2 screws, not ideal but it works fine.

 

[thestudentisrea]

Got the m1 mini, the Shell Thunder enclosure, and the 4Tb SN750. It's a snug fit, but the drive is in the enclosure with the thermal pad and fully tightened screws. It doesn't seem to be undue stress, and I'd rather have all screws in so there's no movement as I'd guess dynamic stress would be worse if back of case moved in transit. Seems ok.

If the fan is coming on at all, I can't hear it over ambient noise, though I'm not exactly in an anechoic chamber.

I'm getting 2550 or so read and 1180 or so write on BlackMagic.

While read speeds are more important to me than write speeds, I would at least like to make sure that if it's possible to up the write speed at some point, this setup is capable.

So... is this now down to still having to use a Tb3 dock or display? (Currently using HDMI). Is there any way to confirm this without having to buy more stuff? Some kind of software dummy? Or, have I missed something about this particular pairing having limited write speed?

 

[Brian33]

So... is this now down to still having to use a Tb3 dock or display? (Currently using HDMI). Is there any way to confirm this without having to buy more stuff? Some kind of software dummy? Or, have I missed something about this particular pairing having limited write speed?

Just to confirm, you are using the original M1 chip? Not the M1 Max or M1 pro? According to this posting, the slow write speed issue apparently only occurs with the original M1 chip: https://eclecticlight.co/2022/05/04/does-it-matter-which-thunderbolt-ports-you-use/
If so, it appears you would need to connect a monitor via thunderbolt. I have not heard of any other solution.

 

[thestudentisrea]

Yes. Original m1 mini. That was my original understanding too... either hookup monitor via tb3 (I don't have tb3 to hdmi adapter) or a tb3 dock (which I've run out of money for after drive, etc.

I came across snippets of forum chatter before about some kind of dummy dongle or software dummy for other similar problems, so wanted to make sure I hadn't missed some similar fix here.

 

[TightLines]

Since I am owning a great new MacBook Pro, I have been searching the web for a worthy external storage to go with it.

So far, I only know of stationary Thunderbolt 3 drives (mainly in the form of full-size PCIe boxes with NVMe SSDs in them or large RAID systems that weigh upwards of 5 kg), but I am wondering, whether there's such a thing as an M.2 NVMe SSD enclosure that uses Thunderbolt 3 to connect to the computer.
I could not find anything like that up until now, with the closest match being a bulky M.2 enclosure from Sonnet that is called a "Windows Edition" (probably due to an incompatible TB3 chipset, I guess).

On the other hand, there are some cheap USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-C enclosures on Amazon, that can house an M.2 SATA SSD, which will not get you the highest transfer speeds possible (in fact, they are pretty limited at the 480 MB/s that USB 3.1 Gen1 supports), with NVMe and Thunderbolt being able to transfer data much faster (theoretically 5 GB/s, but at this point in time the highest rates I could find for desktop drives were about 2400 MB/s).
And last but not least there are the Glyph Atom (RAID) SSDs, which get closer (~800 MB/s) to the speed I desire, but still use USB 3.1 Gen2, and they are rather expensive at 1 TB at ~ $ 420. (usual prices for M.2 NVMe SSDs range from 450 to 600 bucks and they are way faster at ~1600 to 3200 MB/s read speed).

So my question is: Did I miss something, or are there just no portable Thunderbolt 3 external SSDs/SSD enclosures?

Something like this is what you’re looking for?

ACASIS USB4.0 M.2 NVME SSD Enclosure (40Gbps) to NVME PCI-E M-Key Solid State Drive External Enclosure Aluminum Shell Compatible with Thunderbolt 3/4 USB3.2/3.1/3.0/2.0/Type-C

ACASIS USB4.0 M.2 NVME SSD Enclosure (40Gbps) to NVME PCI-E M-Key Solid State Drive External Enclosure Aluminum Shell Compatible with Thunderbolt 3/4 USB3.2/3.1/3.0/2.0/Type-C

Get it now:

geni.us

 

[Beglitched]

After reading through the whole thread, I decided to give the Jeyi Thunderbolt 3 enclosure a try. I had purchased the Envoy Express and was pretty sure that the Jeyi would give me faster speeds for about the same money.

I have an M1 MacBook Pro and an M1 Mac Mini. Test results on both computers were comparable so pictured are the Mac mini results. I used a 1TB WD Black SN 770 drive connected via thunderbolt port. I included the results from an $18 USB C Orico M2PJM as a baseline.





The Jeyi Thunderbolt 3 arrived from Aliexpress in less than 3 weeks. I feel no heat coming from it when the drive is connected. I didn't run hard tests on it to see if it heated up while working, but I did compare to the Envoy Express under the same conditions. The Envoy Express had noticeable heat where the Jeyi has no noticeable heat.

Jeyi store link to drive:

Page Not Found - Aliexpress.com

 

[orpheus1120]

The Jeyi Thunderbolt 3 arrived from Aliexpress in less than 3 weeks. I feel no heat coming from it when the drive is connected. I didn't run hard tests on it to see if it heated up while working, but I did compare to the Envoy Express under the same conditions. The Envoy Express had noticeable heat where the Jeyi has no noticeable heat.

Was the test done with the included thunderbolt 3 cable?

The product description said it supports up to 2TB nvme only. What a shame.

 

[Beglitched]

Was the test done with the included thunderbolt 3 cable?

The product description said it supports up to 2TB nvme only. What a shame.

It came with the short cable and another longer cable that was thick and nice. I used the longer cable for the tests.

 

[orpheus1120]

Thanks. Are you using any thunderbolt displays?

 

[Beglitched]

Thanks. Are you using any thunderbolt displays?

Yes. My Mac mini supports two thunderbolt devices. I have my display plugged into one thunderbolt port and the hd in the other. I have a second display using the hdmi port.

 

[thestudentisrea]

Since I'm getting half the write speed due to nothing plugged into other TB3 port...

Does anyone know if using a usbc to hdmi adapter from that same port fixes the issue, or does it technically have to be a Tb3 to hdmi?

 

[roflc0pter]

Looks like ACASIS just released a new model several days ago

TBU405

Acasis 40Gbps Tool-free M.2 NVMe Thunderbolt 3/4 USB 4 SSD Enclosure

TBU405 VS TBU405ProM1TBU405 is base version (Tool-free Installation), while TBU405ProM1 (Tool-free Installation + Built-in Silent Fan) is an upgraded version of TBU405. The main difference is that TBU405ProM1 is additionally equipped with a built-in silent cooling fan. According to tests...

www.acasis.com

 

[dominatorhn]

Looks like ACASIS just released a new model several days ago

TBU405

Acasis 40Gbps Tool-free M.2 NVMe Thunderbolt 3/4 USB 4 SSD Enclosure

TBU405 VS TBU405ProM1TBU405 is base version (Tool-free Installation), while TBU405ProM1 (Tool-free Installation + Built-in Silent Fan) is an upgraded version of TBU405. The main difference is that TBU405ProM1 is additionally equipped with a built-in silent cooling fan. According to tests...

www.acasis.com

I'm about to order one but I am wondering if anyone know what is the different between TBU401 and TBU405? The only thing that I can tell is the casing. Does TBU405 has better heat dissipating?

I also see there is TBU42 which has Display port, USB-A port and 1 more USB-C port. The only thing I see is that with this one, it has to be plugin to use which might not work well for some situations.

 

[mackiemesser2]

Seems the TBU405 finally uses screws for the case again and also has a proper metal nut and screw for fixing the drive itself. Nice design. I was not a big fan of the TBU401 because everybody could just pull open the case with bare hands and the rubber plug for holding down the ssd is likely prone to heat over time...

The TBU405 looks like a legit successor for my TB34 which serves me well here.

Tell us about it when it arrives.

 

[dominatorhn]

FYI, there is now $10 coupon off for either TBU401 or TBU405 on acasis.com

 

[EncryptedUser]

I’ve been using the TBU401 for some time with the WD SN750 with stellar performance on my MBP M1.
I thought I would get me another one for my Mac mini M1 as well but saw the new TBU405.
I was on my way to buy one but actually found a couple of 401’s open boxes/used for 50% off so I went with the trusted one I know.

But another question is if anyone here have tried the wicked fast Kingston KC3000 drive in it?

 

[EncryptedUser]

I went ahead and ordered the Kingston KC3000 and can confirm that it performances quite well.
Natively it's way faster than when used in the Acasis TBU401.

Mac mini M1 2020 16/512
Akasis TBU401 & WD SN750 1TB
Read: 2739
Write: 2593

Akasis TBU401 & Kingston KC3000 1TB
Read: 2799
Write: 2779

 

[mackiemesser2]

@EncryptedUser

That tells me two things:

a: the TBU401 and more important the new TBU405 (which use the same chipsets/PCB) do not throttle the bulit in NVMe in any way (that was already expected)

b) 2.645 GiB/sec= 2.84GB/sec (- some overhead) ist the absolute max performance you can get in any TB3/4 enclosure atm.

https://macperformanceguide.com/blog/2019/20190128_1352-understanding-Thunderbolt3-bandwidth.html

I got a feeling some people still get that wrong here.

c) I have never seen a sh*ttier package for an NVMe in my life. Looks like you could get it at any gas station next to chewing gums
I would never ever trust that package (bending, tossing, handling form packers etc.)

Cheers

 

[EncryptedUser]

mackiemesser2
Haha. I kind of laughed when I saw the package myself as well.

 

[Mr. Titanium]

Hello. Has anyone here tried converting block size from 512 bytes to 4k sector size on external thunderbolt SSDs? I wonder if this could improve performance. From what I see, native block size for internal Mac Silicon SSDs are 4096