Yeah, it's not such good news. I should look at the temperature while it's unmounted.
What other software do people use to see the external SSD temperature. I use Mac Fan Control because it's free.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Thunderbolt 3 M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosures
- Thread starter oreggero
- WikiPost WikiPost
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
- Status
What other software do people use to see the external SSD temperature. I use Mac Fan Control because it's free.
"shared" doesn't require reservation. "shared" means if bandwidth isn't being used by one port then it can be used by a different port. A device connected to a port doesn't use bandwidth unless data is being transmitted.
A display uses mostly transmit bandwidth (from the upstream host) but receive bandwidth isn't affected much (to the upstream host).
The reason for sub 2000 MB/s bandwidth with no display connected is probably something else (first make sure the NVMe is being connected at gen 3 speed, 4 lanes).
Yes, that's consistent with a reduced write speed (to the external NVMe), correct?
Here's what the system info looks like for this drive (it's the same whether connected directly, or through the dock, with the exception of the "Route String" field:
Just noticed another oddity with my Intel iMac. Drive speed is halved after waking up from sleep or when the drive is unmounted and remounted again. I have to physically disconnect the drive and reconnect it to get the full speed again.
Link width remains unchanged from x2.
Edit: Could you also check if you experience this speed anomaly on your Intel iMac?
Last edited:
Pretty impressive review that covers lots of details like power consumption and temperature:
www.reddit.com
From the UsbCHardware community on Reddit
Explore this post and more from the UsbCHardware community
www.reddit.com
A new option from OWC... not sure I like the physical design though. I mean in terms of size and keeping clean, it's probably quite good thermally:
eshop.macsales.com
OWC Express 1M2 - The Fastest Single Portable SSD We Offer
Ultra-fast, compatible, and reliable portable USB4 NVMe SSD with speeds up to 3151MB/s. Build your own or choose ready-to-run solutions for your Mac or PC.
A new option from OWC... not sure I like the physical design though. I mean in terms of size and keeping clean, it's probably quite good thermally:
OWC Express 1M2 - The Fastest Single Portable SSD We Offer
Ultra-fast, compatible, and reliable portable USB4 NVMe SSD with speeds up to 3151MB/s. Build your own or choose ready-to-run solutions for your Mac or PC.
Great job on the design considering how hot this chip runs.
Thunderbolt 3 backward compatibility is artificially limited to 10GBps to conform to Intel's power certifications.
Last edited:
Wow. So if used on for example MBP 2019 16" with TB3 ports.... the speed would be limited to 10gbps?? Whereas non-Intel-certified devices eg Acasis woudl be faster?
This is a USB4 enclosure, so requires USB4 or TB4 for full 40Gpbs speeds (eg any Apple Silicon computer at this point).
The other device you mention is a TB3 enclosure and non certified. In this case, you'd want a TB3 device for your TB3 machine. FYI, here is a TB3 enclosure that would give you the 40Gbps on a 2019 16'' Mac: https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/TB3ENVPSX0T .
Yeah, better to go with JEYI or any other available options if you're gonna be using it with your 2019 Intel MBP and want the full 40GB/s throughput.
Last edited:
Did someone test any of the ASM2464PD enclosures with a Thunderbolt host (any Intel Mac with Thunderbolt 2 or 3) and get > 10 Gbps?
OWC Express 1M2 says that the US4EXP1M2 can't do > 10 Gbps for Thunderbolt hosts. If that's true then it's because the ASM2464PD doesn't support Thunderbolt transmission (41.25 Gbps) and is limited to USB4 (40 Gbps). Or ASM2464PD does support Thunderbolt transmission and OWC is disabling that for reasons.
The ASM2464PD product page says it supports Thunderbolt:
https://www.asmedia.com.tw/product/802zX91Yw3tsFgm4/C64ZX59yu4sY1GW5/ASM2464PD
Searching some previous posts, some reports noted issues with Intel Macs such as connecting at x1 at x2 link rate instead of x4:
#1,314 #1,317
Maybe OWC disabled Thunderbolt for those reasons or to make it cheaper? Does it cost more to add the Thunderbolt 41.25 Gbps capability?
Maybe OWC's ASM2464PD based US4EXP1M2 can work with a Thunderbolt host if there's a Thunderbolt 4 hub or dock between the Thunderbolt host and the USB4 device? Thunderbolt 4 docks/hubs should support USB4 transmission (40 Gbps) to downstream devices and allow Thunderbolt transmission (41.25 Gbps) to the host?
Hmmm... I used this sequence - connect, benchmark, unmount, mount, benchmark, but there's no significant change in the benchmark results.
If you go back a few pages, you'll see my screenshots of benchmarks with a 2020 Intel iMac. Thunderbolt 3 speeds are just as fast if not faster than the USB4/TB4 speeds.
Aside from some minor issues with the current firmware, ASM2464PD fully supports thunderbolt 3 transmission.
The user you're quoting here has a faulty enclosure and he tested it on Apple silicon Macs with USB4 ports, not any Intel ones. The x2 link width issue posted by me and @masotime is just an anomaly with the most recent firmware. The actual transmission speed remains unaffected, at least with my Gen4 drives.
OWC's enclosure isn't any cheaper than the current ASM2464PD solutions so no, it has nothing to do with the cost. Also, I don't think there are any additional costs involved in adding the thunderbolt 3 support.
Interestingly, OWC's page for US4EXP1M2 was updated from a few hours ago.
Here's an earlier version from google cache:
What it looks like now:
Maybe OWC's implementation of thunderbolt 3 backward compatibility is limited to USB 10GB/s because:
a) they don't want it to exceed Intel's power spec for bus powered thunderbolt at 40GB/s or b) they don't want to cannibalize the sales of their Intel based TB3 solutions that work at 40GB/s.
Last edited:
Thanks. Are you on Sonoma? I'm still on Ventura so it guess it could be the OS, or maybe even the specific drive.
Could you post the thunderbolt firmware version you see in system report?
Yeah, I'm growing more and more concerned about the reported heat of the Zike... wish I had researched that more before ordering. Mine is supposed to arrive soon, and I think I'm just going to send it back as soon as it gets here, and am going to try this OWC instead, as it looks like a substantially more aggressive thermal design (I'd prefer a fan, but the large heatsink surface of this one will probably be effective).
What caught my eye is the protrusion on the inside of the top cover... it appears to be a heatsink connection directly to the controller chip.
I just pulled the trigger placing the order on the OWC enclosure. I'll report back once I got it and tested. I have Samsung Pro 990 1TB and Crucial P3 Plus 2 TB that I'll be testing with.
Quote: @joevt "Did someone test any of the ASM2464PD enclosures with a Thunderbolt host (any Intel Mac with Thunderbolt 2 or 3) and get > 10 Gbps?
OWC Express 1M2 says that the US4EXP1M2 can't do > 10 Gbps for Thunderbolt hosts. If that's true then it's because the ASM2464PD doesn't support Thunderbolt transmission (41.25 Gbps) and is limited to USB4 (40 Gbps)."
On the linked ASMedia page it is written:
"The ASM2464PD USB connection is able to provide data rate at a speed of USB4/Thunderbolt 20Gbps x2...
ASM2464PD integrates USB4/Thunderbolt Gen3 x2, and PCI Express Gen4..."
So isn't that stating that 20Gbps x2 (=40Gbps) is available to USB4 hosts,
and Thunderbolt Gen3 x2, ie 2 channels, at <800MBps each (=<1600MBps), is what's available to TB3 hosts?
Since Intel Macs are not USB4 compliant, if USB-C port power restrictions (<15w) are preventing TB transfer, the Mac is then connecting at USB 3.2 Gen2 10Gbps.
The thread about Apple Mac Studio bus powered SSD performance has demonstrated that if two TB4/3 SSDs are connected to two ports, plugging in another TB4 SSD into a third port only connects at USB 3.2 Gen2 10Gbps speeds, presumably because of power demand from all the ports is overloading, preventing the third SSD from connecting as a TB4 device.
[Edited to get the correct linked pages.]
OWC Express 1M2 says that the US4EXP1M2 can't do > 10 Gbps for Thunderbolt hosts. If that's true then it's because the ASM2464PD doesn't support Thunderbolt transmission (41.25 Gbps) and is limited to USB4 (40 Gbps)."
On the linked ASMedia page it is written:
"The ASM2464PD USB connection is able to provide data rate at a speed of USB4/Thunderbolt 20Gbps x2...
ASM2464PD integrates USB4/Thunderbolt Gen3 x2, and PCI Express Gen4..."
So isn't that stating that 20Gbps x2 (=40Gbps) is available to USB4 hosts,
and Thunderbolt Gen3 x2, ie 2 channels, at <800MBps each (=<1600MBps), is what's available to TB3 hosts?
Since Intel Macs are not USB4 compliant, if USB-C port power restrictions (<15w) are preventing TB transfer, the Mac is then connecting at USB 3.2 Gen2 10Gbps.
The thread about Apple Mac Studio bus powered SSD performance has demonstrated that if two TB4/3 SSDs are connected to two ports, plugging in another TB4 SSD into a third port only connects at USB 3.2 Gen2 10Gbps speeds, presumably because of power demand from all the ports is overloading, preventing the third SSD from connecting as a TB4 device.
[Edited to get the correct linked pages.]
Last edited:
Here's the screenshot of the Thunderbolt bus info on my iMac:
I'm on macOS Sonoma 14.1.2
USB Gen1 is 5 Gbps per channel. 1 channel for USB 3.0 and USB 3.1. 1 or 2 channels for USB 3.2.
USB Gen2 is 10 Gbps per channel. 1 channel for USB 3.1. 1 or 2 channels for USB 3.2.
USB4 supports Gen2 and Gen3 speed 10 Gbps and 20 Gbps per channel. 2 channels.
Thunderbolt Gen2 is 10.3125 Gbps per channel. Thunderbolt 1 supports this as 2 channels that are separate. Thunderbolt 2 adds the ability to combine the Channels.
Thunderbolt Gen3 is 20.625 Gbps per channel.
I think you're confusing Thunderbolt Gen 3 with PCIe gen 3.
PCIe gen 3 is 8 GT/s per lane. = 984.6 MB/s which is < 800MB/s in benchmarks.
A Thunderbolt controller usually supports PCIe gen 3 x4 but Thunderbolt bandwidth limits the PCIe bandwidth even though 40 Gbps > PCIe gen 3 x4.
The ASM2464PD supports PCIe gen 4 x4 but USB4 bandwidth limits that similarly though not as much as Thunderbolt.
Thanks. It actually turned out to be the drive itself. Interestingly, 58.2 version is what I remember having in Monterey. Got updated to 63.3 in Ventura 13.6.1.
Btw, do you have 2020 or 2019 iMac? Your amorphous screenshot shows 10th gen Core i9 10910 which was only available with the 2020 release.
Ah good catch - it's a 2020 iMac... my sense of time during the pandemic is distorted 😅
Intel Macs with thunderbolt 3 only ports running Ventura or later are fully compatible and compliant with the USB4 spec. ASMedia has been working with Apple and other OEMs to ensure that older thunderbolt 3 hardware receives firmware update with added USB4 compatibility.
Last edited:
Apple would actually provide hardware updates for their now outdated models? Well maybe that would explain how system updates seem to take forever these days
Mine was due to arrive today, but for some unknown reason, after it made it to the nearby USPS regional sorting facility yesterday, they decided to then send it in the opposite direction instead of to my town's facility. Maybe tomorrow.
Just wanted to put this up, these are test screens from the JEYI-2464FAN enclosure. Pretty much the same as the Hyper enclosure, with the exception that the 2464 is directly identified. The firmware was updated to the 10_05 revision on JEYI's website.
These speed tests were done with the original JEYI USB4 cable and an Inland Performance Plus 2 TB SSD.
Don't have an infrared thermometer handy, but the fan does seem to make some difference as the enclosure still gets pretty hot, but not as hot as the Hyper.
If you hold your hand about a 1/4th to 1/3rd of an inch away from the fan exhaust, you can feel a steady stream of heat pouring out. Also using the thermal pads supplied with the JEYI.
Seems weird that the 2464-FAN is not listed on JEYI's own website but does appear as a choice on AliExpress.
Will try doing some Time Machine backups and see how things work out.
These speed tests were done with the original JEYI USB4 cable and an Inland Performance Plus 2 TB SSD.
Don't have an infrared thermometer handy, but the fan does seem to make some difference as the enclosure still gets pretty hot, but not as hot as the Hyper.
If you hold your hand about a 1/4th to 1/3rd of an inch away from the fan exhaust, you can feel a steady stream of heat pouring out. Also using the thermal pads supplied with the JEYI.
Seems weird that the 2464-FAN is not listed on JEYI's own website but does appear as a choice on AliExpress.
Will try doing some Time Machine backups and see how things work out.
Attachments
Last edited: