Thunderbolt 3 M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosures

[joevt]

Two 4TB NVMEs in 40GB/s Thunderbolt 3/4 enclosures on Mac Mini 2018 - 4GBs speed!

I've used two (2) Acasis 40Gbps NVMe SSD enclosures, with two (2) Nextorage Japan 4TB NVMe M.2 2280 PCIe Gen 4 (similar performance and quality as Samsung 990 PRO 4TB, however for much less - I've also got them on sale in Nov/2023 for about $180 a piece).

I've used this with my Mac Mini 2018 connecting it into two separate Thunderbolt channels, and I've setup software RAID 0 (data stripping across both drives).

The total usable capacity I got with the two drives is 8TB of storage space. Results are 4gb/s RW transfer speeds. Compared to 2.5gb/s for the built-in Apple stock drive, I'm super satisfied with the result.

Separate Thunderbolt channels - you mean separate Thunderbolt buses?
Mac mini 2018 has two discrete Thunderbolt controllers (buses) with two ports each. Each controller is limited by PCIe gen 3 x4 upstream to the CPU (≈3500 MB/s). I would expect ≈2700 MB/s (up to ≈2800 MB/s) for a single drive, slightly more than that for two drives connected to two Thunderbolt ports of the same Thunderbolt bus, and ≈4000 MB/s (up to ≈4500 MB/s) for two drives connected to separate Thunderbolt buses like in your setup.

MacBook Pro with Intel IceLake CPU has integrated Thunderbolt controllers which means they are not limited by PCIe gen 3 x4 upstream to the CPU. Each side of the MacBook Pro is a separate Thunderbolt bus but you can get ≈4500 MB/s from a single Thunderbolt bus. The max is ≈4700 MB/s from using three or four ports.

Apple Silicon has a separate integrated Thunderbolt controller for each Thunderbolt port.

 

[crowe-t]

Not sure if there's a free option, but I use iStat Menus and DriveDX.

Thanks, these are reasonably priced.

 

[foo2]

Not sure if there's a free option, but I use iStat Menus and DriveDX.

Stats would probably do it. Install via brew with "brew install stats" or download the binary normally. https://github.com/exelban/stats

Free.

 

[foo2]

I thought some may be interested in some benchmarks. These are large file copy operations - 2 files, about 70GB:

1.5GB/s, copying from Studio 1TB SSD to WD Black 850X 2TB SSD in the above Acasis enclosure.

3.1GB/s, copying from same source to (a different) WD Black 850X 2TB SSD in the above AS246X enclosure.

Sure, just a write op test, but it's something. I am surprised at how slow the Acasis enclosure is.

And BlackMagic's test, of the new AS246X enclosure:

It's a bit faster...

 

[Ifti]

Its not all about speed - these are crazy fast speeds that you would hardly notice in day to day usage over a standard USB3.1 Gen 2 SSD enclosure, unless you're moving around large files often - its more about dealing with heat generation, dissipating that heat, and ensuring your drive doesn't throttle in order to sustain a decent speed throughout your session.

 

[Levina]

I purchased the Acasis TBU401E last year, with a 2TB blade and I'm very happy with the results. But I need something bigger now, so I'm looking at 4TB blades. What would be the better choice: WD Black SN850X or Samsung 990 Pro?

TIA!

 

[Ifti]

Purchased the Express 1M2 and put in a Samsung 990 4TB SSD.
Pretty happy with the results! Ive created a review video over on my channel
Ordered myself a second 8TB unit to use with FCPX…..

 

[Levina]

What's a good program to use to see the temperature of the SSD in an external enclosure?

I use Macs Fan Control. It's free.

 

[crowe-t]

I use Macs Fan Control. It's free.

I downloaded it and it's showing the temperature of the internal SSD. How can I see the temperature of the external SSD?

 

[crowe-t]

Its not all about speed - these are crazy fast speeds that you would hardly notice in day to day usage over a standard USB3.1 Gen 2 SSD enclosure, unless you're moving around large files often - its more about dealing with heat generation, dissipating that heat, and ensuring your drive doesn't throttle in order to sustain a decent speed throughout your session.

I just recently got a WD SN850X 4TB and put it in an SSK enclosure(link below) I already had to transfer some files. I should get an enclosure like the OWC Express 1M2 to ensure the WD SN850X 4TB stays cool and it doesn't throttle in order to sustain a decent speed?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07MNFH1PX/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[mogens]

I purchased the Acasis TBU401E last year, with a 2TB blade and I'm very happy with the results. But I need something bigger now, so I'm looking at 4TB blades. What would be the better choice: WD Black SN850X or Samsung 990 Pro?

TIA!

 

[Levina]

I downloaded it and it's showing the temperature of the internal SSD. How can I see the temperature of the external SSD?

You can set that in Preferences, or Settings (not sure what it is in English:

 

[Ifti]

I just recently got a WD SN850X 4TB and put it in an SSK enclosure(link below) I already had to transfer some files. I should get an enclosure like the OWC Express 1M2 to ensure the WD SN850X 4TB stays cool and it doesn't throttle in order to sustain a decent speed?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07MNFH1PX/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

You're not really going to get any bigger heatsink then that on the 1M2! That and the fact that it comes with a great chipset is an easy win for me. Using mine with FCPX and haven't experienced any issues at all.

Have ordered a pre-populated 8TB version - I think it comes with the OWC Aura Pro IV SSD, so will be interesting to see how that performs......

 

[Ifti]

Any ideas on how I can stack multiple Express 1M2 drives?

 

[macphoto861]

Any ideas on how I can stack multiple Express 1M2 drives?

Sure seems like that would at least partially defeat the purpose of the heat-dispersing design.

 

[Ifti]

Sure seems like that would at least partially defeat the purpose of the heat-dispersing design.

No - you leave a gap in between.
I us the Thunderblade Spacer X between my 3 Thunderblade drives, although I place mine horizontally rather then vertically as shown here : https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/TB3TBV4SPCER/
I may 3D print something similar for my 1M2 drives......

 

[Ifti]

Received my 8TB 1M2 drive today.
My first drive was an enclosure in which I placed a Samsung 990 4TB.
The second is a pre-populated 8TB drive, so comes with the OWC Aura inside already (attached).
No difference in speed whatsoever when doing a disk speed test.

 

[Lounge Deluxe]

Today my Hagibis Usb 4.0 40Gbps M.2 Nvme enclosure arrived and I tested it with a WD SN850X 4TB drive connected to an M3 Pro using an Apple TB4 cable.

BlackMagic Disk Test gave approx. 3050 MB/s read/write, en then I tried AmorphousDiskMark. Unfortunately during the test the drive disconnected and that's where trouble began... Sonoma would not allow any operation to this drive anymore (read or write) due to 'insufficient permissions' and DiskUtility could not perform DiskAid or deletion of the 2 volumes on the drive. I even tried my Dell XPS which has 4 TB4 ports but even Windows 11 could not do anything with this drive and even re-partitioning was impossible.

So this little Hagibis drive of 68 Euro bricked a SN850X 4TB of 245 Euro

On top of the above the Hagibis enclosure is quite noisy when connected and it smelled really bad during operation, like toxic. I've learned my lesson on going cheap, but YMMV of course.

 

[Ifti]

Today my Hagibis Usb 4.0 40Gbps M.2 Nvme enclosure arrived and I tested it with a WD SN850X 4TB drive connected to an M3 Pro using an Apple TB4 cable.

BlackMagic Disk Test gave approx. 3050 MB/s read/write, en then I tried AmorphousDiskMark. Unfortunately during the test the drive disconnected and that's where trouble began... Sonoma would not allow any operation to this drive anymore (read or write) due to 'insufficient permissions' and DiskUtility could not perform DiskAid or deletion of the 2 volumes on the drive. I even tried my Dell XPS which has 4 TB4 ports but even Windows 11 could not do anything with this drive and even re-partitioning was impossible.

So this little Hagibis drive of 68 Euro bricked a SN850X 4TB of 245 Euro

On top of the above the Hagibis enclosure is quite noisy when connected and it smelled really bad during operation, like toxic. I've learned my lesson on going cheap, but YMMV of course.

Ouch!
One thing I never want to go too cheap on is storage and enclosures!
Also highlights the importance of data backups.

 

[maximit]

Today my Hagibis Usb 4.0 40Gbps M.2 Nvme enclosure arrived and I tested it with a WD SN850X 4TB drive connected to an M3 Pro using an Apple TB4 cable.

BlackMagic Disk Test gave approx. 3050 MB/s read/write, en then I tried AmorphousDiskMark. Unfortunately during the test the drive disconnected and that's where trouble began... Sonoma would not allow any operation to this drive anymore (read or write) due to 'insufficient permissions' and DiskUtility could not perform DiskAid or deletion of the 2 volumes on the drive. I even tried my Dell XPS which has 4 TB4 ports but even Windows 11 could not do anything with this drive and even re-partitioning was impossible.

So this little Hagibis drive of 68 Euro bricked a SN850X 4TB of 245 Euro

On top of the above the Hagibis enclosure is quite noisy when connected and it smelled really bad during operation, like toxic. I've learned my lesson on going cheap, but YMMV of course.

Sorry to hear. Mine is chugging along just fine, but I guess quality can be hit or miss. I would contact the seller, im sure they will replace the defective unit or offer a refund. If you bought through Ali, they will refund fur sure.

 

[foo2]

Today my Hagibis Usb 4.0 40Gbps M.2 Nvme enclosure arrived and I tested it with a WD SN850X 4TB drive connected to an M3 Pro using an Apple TB4 cable.

BlackMagic Disk Test gave approx. 3050 MB/s read/write, en then I tried AmorphousDiskMark. Unfortunately during the test the drive disconnected and that's where trouble began... Sonoma would not allow any operation to this drive anymore (read or write) due to 'insufficient permissions' and DiskUtility could not perform DiskAid or deletion of the 2 volumes on the drive. I even tried my Dell XPS which has 4 TB4 ports but even Windows 11 could not do anything with this drive and even re-partitioning was impossible.

So this little Hagibis drive of 68 Euro bricked a SN850X 4TB of 245 Euro

On top of the above the Hagibis enclosure is quite noisy when connected and it smelled really bad during operation, like toxic. I've learned my lesson on going cheap, but YMMV of course.

Did you try diskpart ?

 

[Lounge Deluxe]

Sorry to hear. Mine is chugging along just fine, but I guess quality can be hit or miss. I would contact the seller, im sure they will replace the defective unit or offer a refund. If you bought through Ali, they will refund fur sure.

Yes, I'll try for a refund but I already threw away the packaging, let's see how customer friendly they are 😬

Did you try diskpart ?

Yes I did, and unfortunately it did not work. I also tried the free version of Partition Wizard but no luck. Did an intensive search on the Web and found many others in the same situation, the read-only state seems permanent so I need to RMA the drive.

The thing is though, this drive contains a CCC copy of my main drive, and all this data is still readable so I'm hesitant to sent it to Amazon/WD. I've been looking into using a strong magnet on the drive to 'erase' it, but that only seems to work for hard disk drives so that leaves me with a huge dilemma.

 

[foo2]

Yes, I'll try for a refund but I already threw away the packaging, let's see how customer friendly they are 😬


Yes I did, and unfortunately it did not work. I also tried the free version of Partition Wizard but no luck. Did an intensive search on the Web and found many others in the same situation, the read-only state seems permanent so I need to RMA the drive.

The thing is though, this drive contains a CCC copy of my main drive, and all this data is still readable so I'm hesitant to sent it to Amazon/WD. I've been looking into using a strong magnet on the drive to 'erase' it, but that only seems to work for hard disk drives so that leaves me with a huge dilemma.

So if you stick the NMVE WD into a PC, what happens? IE ignore the USB4/TB4 interface.

 

[mogens]

Yes, I'll try for a refund but I already threw away the packaging, let's see how customer friendly they are 😬


Yes I did, and unfortunately it did not work. I also tried the free version of Partition Wizard but no luck. Did an intensive search on the Web and found many others in the same situation, the read-only state seems permanent so I need to RMA the drive.

The thing is though, this drive contains a CCC copy of my main drive, and all this data is still readable so I'm hesitant to sent it to Amazon/WD. I've been looking into using a strong magnet on the drive to 'erase' it, but that only seems to work for hard disk drives so that leaves me with a huge dilemma.

I had some permission errors too with my sn850x 4tb. I fixed it with "ignore ownership on this volume" in the get info dialog. This happened after I made a clone from another ssd using CCC. After reformatting I copied the folders one by one. this fixed it.

 

[Earl Urley]

Someone might want to go to the first post and edit the Hagibis entry with a DO NOT BUY tag.

Looked at the Amazon page for the Hagibis enclosure and there are a number of low star reviews for the unit, some reviews complain the fan is too loud and mentioned the smell as well.