Thunderbolt 3 M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosures

[orpheus1120]

It seems the M series Macs are having issue with these drives with slow read speeds. No issues with Intel Macs however. There are various posts on the internet about this issue.

I don't think it's hardware problems with your mba or the T7. Perhaps driver issue.

Read more here: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/samsung-t7-2tb-slow-r-w-speeds.2379268/

 

[themaxxmtl]

Hi all,
Question about dual bay nvme + RAID0.
Does anyone have any experience with this enclosure or can recommend an alternative?

Sabrent Dual NVME to TB 3

Here is a review which shows seq read /write of ~2800/2500 MB/s when put into RAID0


Context:

I'm interested in getting two nvmes to put into RAID0, purely to increase random read/write times.
I'm aware of RAID0 risks - i'm not wildly concerned with dataloss, consider it more a large scratch disk - (I have a networked RAID6 HDD box currently) but have achieved some good software RAID0 performance gains in the past with HDDs and software RAID.

I have an m1 max 16'' macbook pro.
The general consensus seems to be: get an Acasis or Orico and that sabrent is generally fine, but can be a bit dodgy.

It seems to be very difficult to find many real alternatives to this dual bay / 2 drive enclosure, and I'm wondering if maybe there is a reason for this?

I've read that I'm not really going to get close to thunderbolt bus bandwidth saturation on my MBP unless I can make use of 2 PCIe lanes, enabled by RAID0.

My application: I'm doing audio post production, I use a lot of sample libraries, my bottle neck is generally loading lots and lots (1000s, 10s of thousands) of small audio files (few hundred kb to 1MB) into memory as fast as possible which is why i'm more interested in random read/write than sequential.


So, can any of you experienced people set me straight?
Should I just be getting a TBU405 and a WD 850x and call it a day?
Or maybe this new one from satechi that uses TB4?

 

[steve123]

It seems to be very difficult to find many real alternatives to this dual bay / 2 drive enclosure, and I'm wondering if maybe there is a reason for this?

OWC has some multi blade enclosures. They seem kind of pricey but they likely do not sell many of them so that is probably why they are expensive. OWC does not have a stellar reputation around here with regard to enclosures though. Enclosure makers have been exclusively using Intel's TB controllers. There are a few new USB4 controllers in the pipeline so we might see some price competition by the end of the year.

 

[joevt]

I'm interested in getting two nvmes to put into RAID0, purely to increase random read/write times.

How can RAID0 improve random read/write times?

 

[joevt]

How can RAID0 improve random read/write times?

I suppose the latency will be the same but RAID0 will read twice as many blocks?

 

[themaxxmtl]

I suppose the latency will be the same but RAID0 will read twice as many blocks?

Yes this was my general understanding, and of course someone more knowledgeable can feel free to jump in and correct this, but block location latency does not improve, in fact it can go up.
But there is a significant improvement on read times for the files themselves, as long as queue depth is greater than 1.
They are small but not like 1 byte small.
I guess specifying random performance was not really accurate, my bad.

 

[steve123]

Found a SSD enclosure on Amazon about 33% less expensive than the ACASIS and ORICO enclosures. The device claims to be TB4/USB4 with a JHL 7440 controller.
- MacBook Pro M2 Max
- MacOS Ventura 13.3
- INDMEM U4001A TB4/USB4 enclosure, connected via the supplied cable directly to MBP TB4 port.
- Samsung 980 PRO 1TB PCIe Gen 4 NVMe SSD
- Disk is formatted as APFS(not encrypted)

System Information shows the device enumerates as a Thunderbolt device with 40 Gbps speed. Vendor Name is Intel.

 

[joevt]

TB4/USB4 with a JHL 7440 controller

It supports Thunderbolt 3 and USB.

It uses the Intel Titan Ridge controller for Thunderbolt support. It has a separate USB to NVMe controller for USB support.

It will be limited to USB 10 Gbps if connected to a USB4 host that does not support Thunderbolt (since Thunderbolt support for USB4 hosts is optional).

 

[MacStudioDude]

FYI, Acasis Enclosures Specs.

 

[orpheus1120]

That's not the latest.

 

[orpheus1120]

Incidentally, does anymore know if it's possible to update WD SN850x firmware using a TB enclosure on a Windows laptop that has Type-C port? I have no access to a PC desktop that I can install the ssd internally. I've read that the WD Dashboard app cannot update the SSD via USB connection, but I'm throwing this out here anyway to see if anyone has an idea how I can update the firmware with no access to a Windows desktop and machine with Thunderbolt.

 

[MacStudioDude]

Incidentally, does anymore know if it's possible to update WD SN850x firmware using a TB enclosure on a Windows laptop that has Type-C port? I have no access to a PC desktop that I can install the ssd internally. I've read that the WD Dashboard app cannot update the SSD via USB connection, but I'm throwing this out here anyway to see if anyone has an idea how I can update the firmware with no access to a Windows desktop and machine with Thunderbolt.

Yes, can confirm that you can do this. I hooked up the WD SN850X using an Acasis enclosure on an Intel i5 iMac running bootcamp.

 

[orpheus1120]

Thanks.

 

[PLin]

Yes, can confirm that you can do this. I hooked up the WD SN850X using an Acasis enclosure on an Intel i5 iMac running bootcamp.

I've done that too, but a Mac running BootCamp would still have Thunderbolt. I think the question was if you can update the firmware using a PC with a non-Thunderbolt USB-C port.

 

[orpheus1120]

Yes to USB-C Port. I really think it's not possible, at least not via USB connection. I'm about to find out soon.

 

[duck apple]

Your laptop has a battery that will last much longer than 10s when power is lost so it’s irrelevant.

By your comment about not carrying a UPS around. It suggest you’re not using it on a desktop (where a UPS would be better)

Right!
And even he is on a desktop, that 10s won't make any good since the desktop was dead when power was cut.

 

[orpheus1120]

Update: No it didn't work via Type C port. The WD dashboard can only read from PCI-E connection.

 

[VitoBotta]

Hi all, I am thinking of replacing my Samsung X5 since it's thermal throttling is ridiculous and it slows down too much even under not so heavy load. Even when cool, write speeds don't go above 1500MB/sec and too often when I am doing some database operations drops to even less than 200MB/sec which is ridiculous. I have read many reports of the same issues with this drive and the overheating.

After reading the last 10 pages of he thread I am interested in one of these two enclosures:

Acasis

ACASIS 40Gbps M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosure, NVMe Enclosure Compatible with Thunderbolt 4/3, USB 4/3.2/3.1/3.0/2.0, Thunderbolt Hard Drive Enclosure Compatible with MacBook M1 M2 Pro/Max

Features: 40Gbps external hard drive flash drive compatible with Thunderbolt 3/4 USB 3.2/3.1/3.0/2.0 and other USB-C devices. Acasis M.2 SSD external drive with 1 foot Thunderbolt cable (the speed of the Thunderbolt 3 is 8 times that of USB-C cable), compatible with Thunderbolt 3 Dock or Thunderb...

www.amazon.de

or Orico

ORICO NVME Enclosure 40 Gbit/s M.2 SSD Hard Drive Enclosure, up to 2700 MB/s PCIE Adapter for 2280 M-Key NVMe PCIe SSD Compatible with Thunderbolt 3/4 USB 3.2/3.1/3.0/Type-C Interface - M2V01

Product name: ORICO 40 gbps M.2 SSD enclosure. Product model: M2V01-C4. Weight: 2.5 kg. Product material: aluminium alloy. Output interface: 40gbps type C Transfer rate: 40Gbps Supports SSDs: PCIe M-Key and B+M Key SSD size: 2280 Support capacity: max. 2TB Product size: 12.2 x 5.0 x 1.7 cm. Insta...

www.amazon.de

And for the SSD either

Seagate Firecuda

Seagate FireCuda 530 NVMe SSD 1 TB, for PS5/PC, M.2 PCIe Gen4 × 4 NVMe 1.4, up to 7300 MB/s, 3D TLC-NAND, 640 TBW, 3 Year Rescue Service Model No.: ZP1000GM3A013.

With stunning performance of up to 7300 Mbps, the FireCuda 530 SSD utilises the full potential of the 4th generation PCIe 2 times faster than SSDs with 3rd generation PCIe and 12 times faster than SATA SSDs. The FireCuda 530 is rounded off by unrivalled durability for continuous use and intensive...

www.amazon.de

or

Samsung 980 Pro

Samsung 980 PRO 1 TB PCIe 4.0 (up to 7,000 MB/s) NVMe M.2 (2280) Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) (MZ-V8P1T0BW)

Achieve a high power level: Unleash all the power of the Samsung SSD 980 PRO - and take the performance of your computer to the next level. Thanks to the PCIe interface of the 4th generation, the 980 PRO can achieve the double data transfer rate compared to NVMe SSDs with PCIe 3.0 interface. Gene...

www.amazon.de

Which combination do you recommend? Or do you recommend something different? Also can you please confirm that the Acasis enclosure in the link is the one many of you talk about? Unfortunately the descriptions on Amazon Germany are not that great so I am confused as to whether it's the same unit mnetioned here so often.

I hope I can get some clarification soon because I am keen to order. Thanks!

 

[kretek]

Hey all,

Currently looking at a new 20Gbs Orico external enclosure.

Would using in this instance a Thunderbolt 3 cable make a difference compared to a standard USB C cable when connected to the thunderbolt port on a 2020 27" iMac.

Thanks.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B097T5CGXN/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?smid=A2E1FT04RF13XV&psc=1

 

[MacStudioDude]

Hi all, I am thinking of replacing my Samsung X5 since it's thermal throttling is ridiculous and it slows down too much even under not so heavy load. Even when cool, write speeds don't go above 1500MB/sec and too often when I am doing some database operations drops to even less than 200MB/sec which is ridiculous. I have read many reports of the same issues with this drive and the overheating.

After reading the last 10 pages of he thread I am interested in one of these two enclosures:

Acasis

ACASIS 40Gbps M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosure, NVMe Enclosure Compatible with Thunderbolt 4/3, USB 4/3.2/3.1/3.0/2.0, Thunderbolt Hard Drive Enclosure Compatible with MacBook M1 M2 Pro/Max

Features: 40Gbps external hard drive flash drive compatible with Thunderbolt 3/4 USB 3.2/3.1/3.0/2.0 and other USB-C devices. Acasis M.2 SSD external drive with 1 foot Thunderbolt cable (the speed of the Thunderbolt 3 is 8 times that of USB-C cable), compatible with Thunderbolt 3 Dock or Thunderb...

www.amazon.de

or Orico

ORICO NVME Enclosure 40 Gbit/s M.2 SSD Hard Drive Enclosure, up to 2700 MB/s PCIE Adapter for 2280 M-Key NVMe PCIe SSD Compatible with Thunderbolt 3/4 USB 3.2/3.1/3.0/Type-C Interface - M2V01

Product name: ORICO 40 gbps M.2 SSD enclosure. Product model: M2V01-C4. Weight: 2.5 kg. Product material: aluminium alloy. Output interface: 40gbps type C Transfer rate: 40Gbps Supports SSDs: PCIe M-Key and B+M Key SSD size: 2280 Support capacity: max. 2TB Product size: 12.2 x 5.0 x 1.7 cm. Insta...

www.amazon.de

And for the SSD either

Seagate Firecuda

Seagate FireCuda 530 NVMe SSD 1 TB, for PS5/PC, M.2 PCIe Gen4 × 4 NVMe 1.4, up to 7300 MB/s, 3D TLC-NAND, 640 TBW, 3 Year Rescue Service Model No.: ZP1000GM3A013.

With stunning performance of up to 7300 Mbps, the FireCuda 530 SSD utilises the full potential of the 4th generation PCIe 2 times faster than SSDs with 3rd generation PCIe and 12 times faster than SATA SSDs. The FireCuda 530 is rounded off by unrivalled durability for continuous use and intensive...

www.amazon.de

or

Samsung 980 Pro

Samsung 980 PRO 1 TB PCIe 4.0 (up to 7,000 MB/s) NVMe M.2 (2280) Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) (MZ-V8P1T0BW)

Achieve a high power level: Unleash all the power of the Samsung SSD 980 PRO - and take the performance of your computer to the next level. Thanks to the PCIe interface of the 4th generation, the 980 PRO can achieve the double data transfer rate compared to NVMe SSDs with PCIe 3.0 interface. Gene...

www.amazon.de

Which combination do you recommend? Or do you recommend something different? Also can you please confirm that the Acasis enclosure in the link is the one many of you talk about? Unfortunately the descriptions on Amazon Germany are not that great so I am confused as to whether it's the same unit mnetioned here so often.

I hope I can get some clarification soon because I am keen to order. Thanks!

Hi there.
If you want to save money and can wait, I would get this.

Acasis

And get a 2TB SSD, for future proofing.

WD SN850X 2TB

I found that the WD was faster than the 980PRO.

Hope this helps!

 

[VitoBotta]

Hi there.
If you want to save money and can wait, I would get this.

Acasis

And get a 2TB SSD, for future proofing.

WD SN850X 2TB

I found that the WD was faster than the 980PRO.

Hope this helps!

It's 20 euros difference buying from China and I would have to wait one month so it's not worth it for me. For the drive I only use 500GB now so 1TB will be enough for a while. What kind of speeds do you think I would get with this enclosure and drive you recommend? Also how is the cooling with the Acasis? That's one thing I am worried about because the Samsung X5 I got now thottles at a ridiculous level.

 

[Ifti]

Hi all,
Question about dual bay nvme + RAID0.
Does anyone have any experience with this enclosure or can recommend an alternative?

Sabrent Dual NVME to TB 3

Here is a review which shows seq read /write of ~2800/2500 MB/s when put into RAID0


Context:

I'm interested in getting two nvmes to put into RAID0, purely to increase random read/write times.
I'm aware of RAID0 risks - i'm not wildly concerned with dataloss, consider it more a large scratch disk - (I have a networked RAID6 HDD box currently) but have achieved some good software RAID0 performance gains in the past with HDDs and software RAID.

I have an m1 max 16'' macbook pro.
The general consensus seems to be: get an Acasis or Orico and that sabrent is generally fine, but can be a bit dodgy.

It seems to be very difficult to find many real alternatives to this dual bay / 2 drive enclosure, and I'm wondering if maybe there is a reason for this?

I've read that I'm not really going to get close to thunderbolt bus bandwidth saturation on my MBP unless I can make use of 2 PCIe lanes, enabled by RAID0.

My application: I'm doing audio post production, I use a lot of sample libraries, my bottle neck is generally loading lots and lots (1000s, 10s of thousands) of small audio files (few hundred kb to 1MB) into memory as fast as possible which is why i'm more interested in random read/write than sequential.


So, can any of you experienced people set me straight?
Should I just be getting a TBU405 and a WD 850x and call it a day?
Or maybe this new one from satechi that uses TB4?

I had this drive a while back…..here are my thoughts…..

 

[Ifti]

Hi all, I am thinking of replacing my Samsung X5 since it's thermal throttling is ridiculous and it slows down too much even under not so heavy load. Even when cool, write speeds don't go above 1500MB/sec and too often when I am doing some database operations drops to even less than 200MB/sec which is ridiculous. I have read many reports of the same issues with this drive and the overheating.

After reading the last 10 pages of he thread I am interested in one of these two enclosures:

Acasis

ACASIS 40Gbps M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosure, NVMe Enclosure Compatible with Thunderbolt 4/3, USB 4/3.2/3.1/3.0/2.0, Thunderbolt Hard Drive Enclosure Compatible with MacBook M1 M2 Pro/Max

Features: 40Gbps external hard drive flash drive compatible with Thunderbolt 3/4 USB 3.2/3.1/3.0/2.0 and other USB-C devices. Acasis M.2 SSD external drive with 1 foot Thunderbolt cable (the speed of the Thunderbolt 3 is 8 times that of USB-C cable), compatible with Thunderbolt 3 Dock or Thunderb...

www.amazon.de

or Orico

ORICO NVME Enclosure 40 Gbit/s M.2 SSD Hard Drive Enclosure, up to 2700 MB/s PCIE Adapter for 2280 M-Key NVMe PCIe SSD Compatible with Thunderbolt 3/4 USB 3.2/3.1/3.0/Type-C Interface - M2V01

Product name: ORICO 40 gbps M.2 SSD enclosure. Product model: M2V01-C4. Weight: 2.5 kg. Product material: aluminium alloy. Output interface: 40gbps type C Transfer rate: 40Gbps Supports SSDs: PCIe M-Key and B+M Key SSD size: 2280 Support capacity: max. 2TB Product size: 12.2 x 5.0 x 1.7 cm. Insta...

www.amazon.de

And for the SSD either

Seagate Firecuda

Seagate FireCuda 530 NVMe SSD 1 TB, for PS5/PC, M.2 PCIe Gen4 × 4 NVMe 1.4, up to 7300 MB/s, 3D TLC-NAND, 640 TBW, 3 Year Rescue Service Model No.: ZP1000GM3A013.

With stunning performance of up to 7300 Mbps, the FireCuda 530 SSD utilises the full potential of the 4th generation PCIe 2 times faster than SSDs with 3rd generation PCIe and 12 times faster than SATA SSDs. The FireCuda 530 is rounded off by unrivalled durability for continuous use and intensive...

www.amazon.de

or

Samsung 980 Pro

Samsung 980 PRO 1 TB PCIe 4.0 (up to 7,000 MB/s) NVMe M.2 (2280) Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) (MZ-V8P1T0BW)

Achieve a high power level: Unleash all the power of the Samsung SSD 980 PRO - and take the performance of your computer to the next level. Thanks to the PCIe interface of the 4th generation, the 980 PRO can achieve the double data transfer rate compared to NVMe SSDs with PCIe 3.0 interface. Gene...

www.amazon.de

Which combination do you recommend? Or do you recommend something different? Also can you please confirm that the Acasis enclosure in the link is the one many of you talk about? Unfortunately the descriptions on Amazon Germany are not that great so I am confused as to whether it's the same unit mnetioned here so often.

I hope I can get some clarification soon because I am keen to order. Thanks!

ORICO Drive tested here with a 980 Pro SSD:

 

[VitoBotta]

ORICO Drive tested here with a 980 Pro SSD:

You have an awesome channel! Since you have tested a lot of stuff, which enclosure+drive would you recommend that doesn't suffer from overheating and guarantees stable performance? Also, are you aware of any solution to improve the cooling of the Samsung X5 which I could try before replacing it? Even when it's not too hot and the read speeds are around 2800 MB/sec as advertised, the writes hardly go above 900-1000 MB/sec

 

[themaxxmtl]

I had this drive a while back…..here are my thoughts…..

I was looking at that! All sold out for now!
Appreciate the review and feedback