Thunderbolt 3 M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosures

[AAPLGeek]

My TBU 405 now has arrived along with a SN 850X😀
i wonder how do you guys measure the temperature of the SSD.
is there an app or something?

TG Pro or Smartmontools

 

[mogens]

deleted.

 

[lazaj30]

I've just purchased an Acasis TBU405 + Kingston NV2 NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD 2To.
It is recognized as a TB3 device on a mac mini m2.
It is right ?

 

[joevt]

I've just purchased an Acasis TBU405 + Kingston NV2 NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD 2To.
It is recognized as a TB3 device on a mac mini m2.
It is right ?

Seems correct to me.
40 Gbps x1.
Link Width x2.

 

[.maxx]

I'm searching for an enclosure with:

- 4x u.2/u.3 slots
or
- 8x m.2 slots
- Thunderbolt

Any links?

 

[EncryptedUser]

Startech have a 4-bay case with additional ports.

4 Bay Thunderbolt 3 NVMe Enclosure - External Drive Enclosures | Hard Drive Accessories | StarTech.com Europe

4 Bay Thunderbolt 3 NVMe Enclosure, For M.2 NVMe SSD Drives, 1x DisplayPort Video and 2x TB3 Downstream Ports, 40Gbps | Europe

www.startech.com

OWC have their Thundeblade.

OWC ThunderBlade - The Fastest Production Drive in the Universe

Work faster and smarter. Achieve speeds up to 2949MB/s, storage capacities up to 32TB, fanless chassis, and SoftRAID for advanced RAID control.

www.owc.com

 

[joevt]

I'm searching for an enclosure with:

- 4x u.2/u.3 slots
or
- 8x m.2 slots
- Thunderbolt

Any links?

Search for stuff from Sonnet or OWC?

Here's something:
https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/TB3F1U4N016
but I don't know how the 4 PCIe lanes are divided or what kind of PCIe switch it has besides the one of the Thunderbolt controller. It says "Bays 1-2 each support x4 lanes PCIe, bays 3-4 each support x1 lane PCIe" which doesn't make sense.

 

[Pressure]

I'm searching for an enclosure with:

- 4x u.2/u.3 slots
or
- 8x m.2 slots
- Thunderbolt

Any links?

The iodyne Pro Data.

 

[AAPLGeek]

light does not go out on the Acasis enclosure when in sleep mode, so it is still on, but the case is not as warm, so it looks like so far it goes into a low power mode during sleep. Not totally sure yet (just got it), but will do some testing to see.

You can use coconut battery to estimate the battery power draw. Note the "discharging with" value without the enclosure connected and check it when the enclosure is connected and idle for a few minutes.

Hi. Were you able to test this out?

 

[loby]

Hi. Were you able to test this out?

Not yet..had some projects to finish. I have my MacBook Pro 2021 attached to the Apple Display Monitor, so not running on battery. I will check it out next week when I have a lesser load. Will report back after.

 

[masotime]

The iodyne Pro Data.

From $4450 😱

Definitely for professionals

 

[Pressure]

From $4450 😱

Definitely for professionals

Yes, who else would really need that many NVMe drives?!

Good 8TB NVMe drives are around $999 now.

 

[lecar]

I bought with a good discount Orico M208C3-U4.
To check, until my KC3000 2TB arrived, I installed the 970evo plus 1TB. And I'm generally happy with the result.

 

[masotime]

I bought with a good discount Orico M208C3-U4.
To check, until my KC3000 2TB arrived, I installed the 970evo plus 1TB. And I'm generally happy with the result.

How much did you get it for? Cheapest I can find is $110 at Walmart - https://www.walmart.com/ip/ORICO-m-...hunderbolt-3-4-USB3-2-3-1-3-0-Type/2444332793

 

[mogens]

So my WD SN850X 4TB arrived, I put it in the TBU-405 Pro M1 for some tests.

Speed:
See the AmorphousDiskMark screenshot(s), I have 2 sticks of SN850X 4TB, the left in dark was tested in just TBU-405 and the right in light mode is the new stick in TBU-405 Pro M1. More or less identical.

(Interestingly I used ATTO Disk Benchmark for testing too and they gave me very different graphs, I suspect I did something wrong or the app has changed something but I didn't investigate further.)


Temps:
The test was done in this environment: everything inside a network cabinet with ambient temp of 31C when the test started, host is Mac Studio, transferring 1.8TB of RAW photos and some Lightroom catalogues from a JEYI with SX8200pro 2TB to the TBU-405ProM1 with SN850X 4TB. (I wish I still have the TBU-405 with me, but it was taken by my colleague on a trip to another country)

I think the image explains better than what I can type, so I will only say the takeaway:
1) the enclosure is bigger than average, at low activity the passive cooling alone is adequate
2) somehow the JEYI starts higher but doesn't get as hot as the Acasis, but it may have to do with one of them reading while the other writing, and of course being different SSDs also
3) I switched the fan on half way, but the fan seems really weak and close to useless. May be if the ambient temp is at room temp or even lower it will matter more, but not for my setting. My Mac Studio have to permanently sit inside a cabinet along with its peripherals.

During the hottest moments I used an IR gun to read the enclosure external temp:
JEYI: 55.2C
Acasis: 43.9C

P.S. the Acasis box came with 2 thermal pads and I had to stack them on top of each other in order for the NVMe stick to touch the chassis

I wonder about my results using TBU-405/SN850X 4TB. I get significantly worse write speeds than you in Amorphous diskmark, but it looks fine in Blackmagic Disk Speed?

 

[Chancha]

I wonder about my results using TBU-405/SN850X 4TB. I get significantly worse write speeds than you in Amorphous diskmark, but it looks fine in Blackmagic Disk Speed?
View attachment 2254661 View attachment 2254662

Your drive is already half full, while it shouldn't affect write performance that much but it may contribute a bit. And then by default, the BlackMagic test uses 5GiB chucks for endless passes until you click STOP, wheres the CrystalDisk shows you the options in the drop downs you can see, the default is 5 passes 1GiB that you didn't change.

I am not so sure what is happening, but at least try to match both test parameters then see if there's still differences. BlackMagic is quite simplistic in what it can do, it just looks pretty and easier to understand that's why people use it. Nowadays AmorphousDisk is the go to for a brief test, and for detailed test uses ATTO.

 

[mogens]

Your drive is already half full, while it shouldn't affect write performance that much but it may contribute a bit. And then by default, the BlackMagic test uses 5GiB chucks for endless passes until you click STOP, wheres the CrystalDisk shows you the options in the drop downs you can see, the default is 5 passes 1GiB that you didn't change.

I am not so sure what is happening, but at least try to match both test parameters then see if there's still differences. BlackMagic is quite simplistic in what it can do, it just looks pretty and easier to understand that's why people use it. Nowadays AmorphousDisk is the go to for a brief test, and for detailed test uses ATTO.

I have now tried to connect it to the USB port on my iMac and now I get 870 mb/s write/read. This indicates that it is not the disk that is faulty? Is there a way to reset the thunderbolt ports?

 

[micheloupatrick]

I remember some people reporting slow write speeds over thunderbolt on M1 Macs (Macbook air, Mac mini), like here for example : https://discussions.apple.com/thread/253097384

The question is : how does the drive perform in real world tests ? Try copying a 400 GB folder (with large files like raw files or movies) to the sn850x and check the actual write speed in activity monitor.

This is what I get for the TBU-405/SN850X 4TB combo :

'Données lues/s' = data read/sec
'Données écrites/s' = data written/sec
'Go' = GB

That's 2.70 GB/sec read/write performance in finder copy.

And these are my AmorphousDiskMark results for the TBU-405/SN850X 4TB combo, on a M2 Ultra Mac Studio :

 

[mogens]

I remember some people reporting slow write speeds over thunderbolt on M1 Macs (Macbook air, Mac mini), like here for example : https://discussions.apple.com/thread/253097384

The question is : how does the drive perform in real world tests ? Try copying a 400 GB folder (with large files like raw files or movies) to the sn850x and check the actual write speed in activity monitor.

This is what I get for the TBU-405/SN850X 4TB combo :

View attachment 2254779
'Données lues/s' = data read/sec
'Données écrites/s' = data written/sec
'Go' = GB

That's 2.70 GB/sec read/write performance in finder copy.

And these are my AmorphousDiskMark results for the TBU-405/SN850X 4TB combo, on a M2 Ultra Mac Studio :
View attachment 2254784

I tried it with a 110 GB folder from the desktop of my iMac m1 to ext. TBU-405 with an SN 850x and got this. I guess it looks OK?

 

[micheloupatrick]

I tried it with a 110 GB folder from the desktop of my iMac m1 to ext. TBU-405 with an SN 850x and got this. I guess it looks OK?
View attachment 2254817

Looks perfectly fine to me, I wouldn't worry about the AmorphousDiskMark result.

 

[mogens]

Looks perfectly fine to me, I wouldn't worry about the AmorphousDiskMark result.

Thanks for the tip.

 

[Ifti]

Startech have a 4-bay case with additional ports.

4 Bay Thunderbolt 3 NVMe Enclosure - External Drive Enclosures | Hard Drive Accessories | StarTech.com Europe

4 Bay Thunderbolt 3 NVMe Enclosure, For M.2 NVMe SSD Drives, 1x DisplayPort Video and 2x TB3 Downstream Ports, 40Gbps | Europe

www.startech.com

OWC have their Thundeblade.

OWC ThunderBlade - The Fastest Production Drive in the Universe

Work faster and smarter. Achieve speeds up to 2949MB/s, storage capacities up to 32TB, fanless chassis, and SoftRAID for advanced RAID control.

www.owc.com

I have 3 ThunderBlade drives. Great, but every time you have an OSX update you have to wait for SoftRAID to catch up, otherwise the drives just wont work. Now I just use them as expensive backup drives, and use a couple of Glyph Atom Pro drives as my main work drives.

 

[miric]

Got my pair of Acasis TBU405 + Kingston Fury Renegade 4TB yesterday. I use it with my Mac mini M1 with APFS encrypted formatting. I'm copying my entire external HDD data (~ 2TB) with breaks in order to cool the enclosure/SSD. The max noticed temperature during copying in TG Pro 149°F/65°C. The absolute max noticed temperature at all 160°F/71°C (short-term increase in idle with the following fast decrease).
Yesterday I got the message about improper drive disconnect with the following kernel panic and the immediate Mac reboot. Today I continued tests and got the second improper disconnection with 144°F/62°C with following kernel panic and Mac's reboot. After reboot, I got 5 times SSD disconnections without kernel panics. The SSD is mounted with the default 0.5mm silicon pad. Any thoughts? Did anybody experience similar behavior?

 

[AAPLGeek]

Got my pair of Acasis TBU405 + Kingston Fury Renegade 4TB yesterday. I use it with my Mac mini M1 with APFS encrypted formatting. I'm copying my entire external HDD data (~ 2TB) with breaks in order to cool the enclosure/SSD. The max noticed temperature during copying in TG Pro 149°F/65°C. The absolute max noticed temperature at all 160°F/71°C (short-term increase in idle with the following fast decrease).
Yesterday I got the message about improper drive disconnect with the following kernel panic and the immediate Mac reboot. Today I continued tests and got the second improper disconnection with 144°F/62°C with following kernel panic and Mac's reboot. After reboot, I got 5 times SSD disconnections without kernel panics. The SSD is mounted with the default 0.5mm silicon pad. Any thoughts? Did anybody experience similar behavior?

1) Those temps are on the higher side. Make sure the thermal pad is actually making contact with the top cover.

2) Do those disconnections only happen during an intense R/W activity? If yes, the enclosure is probably drawing more power (>15w) than TB3 allows.

3) Try a different drive. That drive is rated to draw upto 10.2W for writes and it's probably drawing 1-2W more inside this enclosure.

 

[miric]

1) Those temps are on the higher side. Make sure the thermal pad is actually making contact with the top cover.

2) Do those disconnections only happen during an intense R/W activity? If yes, the enclosure is probably drawing more power (>15w) than TB3 allows.

3) Try a different drive. That drive is rated to draw upto 10.2W for writes and it's probably drawing 1-2W more inside this enclosure.

Thank you for your response.
1. Absolutely agree. I'm pretty sure the thermal pad is in contact with both the top cover and the SSD because the top cover is a fraction of mm higher than it was on the empty enclosure. I saw a life hack here from somebody to put it on Mac mini body. So I did it and got lower operation temperatures: ~98F°/37°C in idle and ~131°F/55°C under heavy load. I ordered ID-Cooling ZERO M15 heatsink to improve heat dissipation. I know it does not fit with double-sided SSDs out of the box but I'm going to customize it.

2. The first disconnection/kernel panic happened on the first day after a long time of intensive writing to it. I thought it might happen due to the chain: the SSD becomes hot > the enclosure tries to dissipate the heat but it can't due to its small size > Intel JHL7440 controller becomes extremely hot > Fail? My conclusion is based on the next-day observation: I continued copying my data from the HDD the next morning and pushed the SSD to ~149°F/65°C and it failed with a reboot. And right after rebooting, I got multiple disconnects in a row. After that, I put the enclosure on the edge of my Mac mini's body and didn't experience crashes during the rest of the day.

3. Not my case, it's impossible. I already spent money on the Fury Renegade and didn't realize before making this decision this SSD is one of the most power-greedy SSDs. There are not so many 4TB options with the official warranty at my location to choose from. In fact, I'd say, only Kingston is represented officially. I don't know who sells Seagate and WD here. SSDs are such kind of parts I'd rather not risk with them in a long-term perspective. So now I'm considering returning the SSD, leaving TBU405 for further usage with less demanding SSDs, and buying something like Kingston XS2000 4TB or Samsung T7 Shield 4TB (again, no official 4TB options here). As I see, I really don't require NVMe speeds, I think, ~1000MB/s with XS2000 will be more than enough for my use case - storing the photo archive and developing digital negatives in Lightroom Classic. One more option is to find the connection option where I'll get USB3 10Gb/s to simulate XS2000 operation mode.

Separately about max draw of 10.2W. I suppose it is stated for full speeds up to 7000MB/s which this drive is intended. But the enclosure limits the data rate to ~2800MB/s, so I don't think the SSD is able to consume the maximum amount of power.