Thunderbolt 3 M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosures

[Earl Urley]

It looks like there is now a newer firmware available for the ASM2464 enclosures; JEYI has the 2310_05 firmware still available on their website, but Station Drivers now lists 2312_04 firmware available.

Will likely try the 12_04 drivers on another JEYI I have coming in..

 

[mogens]

Theres a new firmware upgrade on jeyi site (the green one), has anyone tried it?

 

[Earl Urley]

Can't get the newest ASM2464PD_FW_231218_85 firmware to update from the ver. 1005 version, the utility sees the device but refuses to flash or update anything.

Was able to run the updater before on a BootCamped 2018 rMBP..

 

[mogens]

Can't get the newest ASM2464PD_FW_231218_85 firmware to update from the ver. 1005 version, the utility sees the device but refuses to flash or update anything.

Was able to run the updater before on a BootCamped 2018 rMBP..

I think you should move the AS_USB4_231218_85_00_00.bin file to the 20231221_ASM246xMPTool_v1.0.4.1 folder and delete the BrowsedBINPath.txt file (it's a path to another PC:
C:\Users\hugh_yu\Desktop\246xbin\intPD\AS_USB4_231218_85_00_00.bin
AS_USB4_231218_85_00_00.bin").
Please rapport how it goes.
I don't have a PC at the moment, so I can't test the firmware.

 

[mactp]

I recently purchased the Jeyi (Feb 2024) and in testing it I am seeing slower speeds than I would expect. The main reason is that I seem to have only 2 PCIe lanes (ie link width of x2) in my Macbook Pro M1's System Information NVME panel.

Is there a firmware update for the Jeyi to address this? In System Information the Thunderbolt/USB4 panel for the Jeyi/ASMedia 264x reports the firmware as 35.25. I have access to a windows machine with USB C 3.1 ports to do the firmware update, but that machine lacks TB/USB 4 for testing it.

Note that my primary machine is a Macbook Pro / M1 Pro CPU purchased in early 2022. I have also tested on my 2023 M2 Mac Mini / M2 (ie not pro) CPU, and I am seeing the same x2 lane width and experiencing slower speeds than expected.

I have tested using two spare SSDs: a PCIe 3.0 1TB Sabrent Rocket and a 500GB PCIe 4.0 Kingston SNV. I've also tested using two USB4 cables. Nothing seems to change the lane width, although and as expected the link speed on the PCIe drive is higher (though because that Kingston's a crappy SSD model that came with a computer, it actually writes slower than the Sabrent!)

Speeds in the Jeyi max out at 1600MB/s r/w for the Sabrent [tho it does 3500 MB/s r/w in a desktop], which makes sense given each PCIe 3.0 lane has a theoretical max of 985 MB/s (8 GT/s) and there is USB overhead. The Kingston has an additional problem with write speeds, and it reports a 2700 MB/s read but only a 1200 MB/s (best case, often lower) write speed. But again the max for higher Kingston read speed makes some sense given each of the 2 PCIe lanes are double the bandwidth (1970 MB/s or 16 GT/s) of the ones on the gen 3 Sabrent and given system information still reports the Kingston as using only 2 lanes.

But as I understand the SSDs and the Jeyi specs, I should be seeing x4 lanes for data, not x2!

Any advice or thoughts? Will a firmware flash on the Jeyi help? Or is this an Apple problem?

 

[mactp]

I recently purchased the Jeyi (Feb 2024) and in testing it I am seeing slower speeds than I would expect. The main reason is that I seem to have only 2 PCIe lanes (ie link width of x2) in my Macbook Pro M1's System Information NVME panel, as you can see in the pics.

Is there a firmware update for the Jeyi to address this? In System Information the Thunderbolt/USB4 panel for the Jeyi/ASMedia 264x reports the firmware as 35.25. I have access to a windows machine with USB C 3.1 ports to do the firmware update, but that machine lacks TB/USB 4 for testing it.

Note that my primary machine is a Macbook Pro / M1 Pro CPU purchased in early 2022. I have also tested on my 2023 M2 Mac Mini / M2 (ie not pro) CPU, and I am seeing the same x2 lane width and experiencing slower speeds than expected.

I have tested using two spare SSDs: a PCIe 3.0 1TB Sabrent Rocket and a 500GB PCIe 4.0 Kingston SNV. I've also tested using two USB4 cables. Nothing seems to change the lane width, although and as expected the link speed on the PCIe drive is higher (though because that Kingston's a crappy SSD model that came with a computer, it actually writes slower than the Sabrent!)

Speeds in the Jeyi max out at 1600MB/s r/w for the Sabrent [tho it does 3500 MB/s r/w in a desktop], which makes sense given each PCIe 3.0 lane has a theoretical max of 985 MB/s (8 GT/s) and there is USB overhead. The Kingston has an additional problem with write speeds, and it reports a 2700 MB/s read but only a 1200 MB/s (best case, often lower) write speed. But again the max for higher Kingston read speed makes some sense given each of the 2 PCIe lanes are double the bandwidth (1970 MB/s or 16 GT/s) of the ones on the gen 3 Sabrent and given system information still reports the Kingston as using only 2 lanes.

But as I understand the SSDs and the Jeyi specs, I should be seeing x4 lanes for data, not x2!

Any advice or thoughts? Will a firmware flash on the Jeyi help? Or is this an Apple problem?

Update: I found and flashed the latest firmware (3b.2) on the Jeyi website.
[Edit: the 3b.2 is listed as the ASM2464 2024 January 01 firmware on their website. Link in post below, see mogens screenshot a few posts ago.]

I now normally see a x4 link width in system information NVME and PCI panel (once it was listed as x1 but unplugging the cable and plugging it in again seemed to fix the issue).

More importantly, speeds increased to 3000 MB/s r and 2000 MB/s w on my PCIe 3.0 Sabrent Rocket on the Macbook Pro with the M1 Pro. It was even faster on the M2 Mac Mini. Very respectable for such an old SSD.

However, the PCIe 4.0 Kingston SNV SSD still read very fast but wrote very slowly, so something is quirky about this particular SSD in the Jeyi... and it was poorly reviewed elsewhere. I am planning to use it in an older 10 Gbps usb enclosure. (That's the reverse of what I expected when I began testing.)

All in all, I am quite pleased with the Jeyi now.

 

[mogens]

Update: I found and flashed the latest firmware (3b.2) on the Jeyi website.

I can‘t find a firmware by that name on their site? Do you have a link?

 

[Earl Urley]

The 1005 firmware solved an issue with the JEYI refusing to mount and then being real unstable when it did on an M1 Pro machine. Is that the firmware you used?

Yeah I have no idea what you're talking about with .3b2 unless you found a hidden page on JEYI's website.

JEYI discontinued the model I got that has the built in fan on AliExpress. But you can still get it direct from JEYI if you select the COLOR 2464-Fan.

 

[mactp]

I can‘t find a firmware by that name on their site? Do you have a link?

The 1005 firmware solved an issue with the JEYI refusing to mount and then being real unstable when it did on an M1 Pro machine. Is that the firmware you used?

Yeah I have no idea what you're talking about with .3b2 unless you found a hidden page on JEYI's website.

JEYI discontinued the model I got that has the built in fan on AliExpress. But you can still get it direct from JEYI if you select the COLOR 2464-Fan.

Link: https://www.jeyi.com/pages/downloads?spm=..page_7954303.header_1.1

The firmware isn't listed by that name on the Jeyi website. "3b.2" is what I now see for the JEYI firmware version in the System Information -> Thunderbolt/USB4 panel. See attached screenshots, including the second one which now shows the Jeyi with as PCI NVME controller with a x4 link width (used to report as a x2 with the stock "35.25" firmware). As each lane has a theoretical max of roughly 985 MB/s (for PCIe 3.0 @ 8 GT/s, twice that for 4.0), my results are much better with the Jeyi having four lanes. (At least that's my current working theory of what's going on here.)

I installed the most recent (2024 Jan 01?) and downloaded it from the page linked at the top of post, which I think you [mogens] screenshot a few posts here ago (Feb 9). I did have extract to the zip once, and then again to get to the tool, and then move the bin inside the extracted tool folder to flash it from a PC (not to mention using a USB C 3 cable instead of a 4).

For all I know this firmware may even be a beta from ASMedia (the "b" could stand for beta?). But it is working for me... at least with one of my SSDs...

Anyway I do think that these USB4/TB3/4 enclosures are very finicky right now. It might be the case that an older firmware update, like the October? 1005 works better or with your vs my macs, ssds, etc.

Thanks to both mogens and Earl Urley. Yours were among some of the posts here that were invaluable in tracking down what my problem and apparent solution might be (x2 lane width and firmware update). I'm just hoping this solution continues to work.

Also, in some more real world cli tools testing than Amorphous or Black Magic, I tried a "time dd if=/dev/zero of=/Volumes/YourVolumeNameHere/test1.img bs=1G count=100" 100GB write test and achieved a little over 2000 MB/s and an elapsed time of about 51s with the new firmware, which was about a 50% improvement for my use case over stock (and that was measured on the slower m1 pro).

I also tried a rsync -Pa transfer of a 70 GB file that measured at only around 350 MB/s, but rsync does have a lot of overhead...

Best of luck tweaking your systems.

 

[Earl Urley]

Also invest in a good PCIe 4.0 NVMe module, I picked up an Inland Performance Plus 2 TB from Micro Center and it's much faster than the Hynix PCIe 3.0 P31 I got before, especially with writes.

 

[Just Ivan]

Hello, I'm fairly new to Mac. I have a 2017 Imac Thunderbolt3. I have the Jeyi TB2464wFan and a 2TB samsung 970EVOPlus. I have added the latest firmware from Jeyi Jan,2024 (3c.18 in sys report) But Im Only getting half the transfer speeds others are reporting. Is this as fast as my older TB3 machine can access the drive or do I have a setting off someplace? My 2018 MBpro Can write about 300MB/s faster but reads are the same.

 

[Earl Urley]

Pretty sure if you get a PCIe 4.0 SSD like the Samsung 980 Pro you'll see better write speeds

 

[Just Ivan]

I think it has to do with the link width being X2. I see others are able to get it to hook up with X4.

 

[Brian33]

I have a 2017 Imac Thunderbolt3. I have the Jeyi TB2464wFan and a 2TB samsung 970EVOPlus. ... Im Only getting half the transfer speeds others are reporting. Is this as fast as my older TB3 machine can access the drive or do I have a setting off someplace?

I think your 2017 iMac supports Thunderbolt 3 but not USB4. The enclosure you bought, I think, has a USB4 chipset that can "fall back" to TB3 and work. However, I read (somewhere?) that in this fallback mode in this chipset does not transfer as fast as a real TB3 chipset would. I remember the poster saying it was misleading to say this chipset supported TB3. Wish I could remember where I read that, though.

I think that's why its connecting at X2. If I'm right, you might have bought the wrong enclsosure for your 2017 iMac.

Hopefully others will correct me or clarify!

I think it has to do with the link width being X2. I see others are able to get it to hook up with X4.

Go back and check -- did the others you've seen have newer Macs that fully support USB4 (I think any of the M-series Macs do).

I could be completely wrong, though.

 

[Loco Sock]

I posted my results in this thread when I was running an Acasis TBU401 enclosure with a Samsung 990 Pro 2TB.

In fact, here's a link: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/thunderbolt-3-m-2-nvme-ssd-enclosures.2027925/post-32668247

 

[mogens]

Link: https://www.jeyi.com/pages/downloads?spm=..page_7954303.header_1.1

The firmware isn't listed by that name on the Jeyi website. "3b.2" is what I now see for the JEYI firmware version in the System Information -> Thunderbolt/USB4 panel. See attached screenshots, including the second one which now shows the Jeyi with as PCI NVME controller with a x4 link width (used to report as a x2 with the stock "35.25" firmware). As each lane has a theoretical max of roughly 985 MB/s (for PCIe 3.0 @ 8 GT/s, twice that for 4.0), my results are much better with the Jeyi having four lanes. (At least that's my current working theory of what's going on here.)

I installed the most recent (2024 Jan 01?) and downloaded it from the page linked at the top of post, which I think you [mogens] screenshot a few posts here ago (Feb 9). I did have extract the zip once, and then again to get to the tool, and then move the bin inside the extracted tool folder to flash it from a PC (not to mention using a USB C 3 cable instead of a 4).

For all I know this firmware may even be a beta from ASMedia (the "b" could stand for beta?). But it is working for me... at least with one of my SSDs...

Anyway I do think that these USB4/TB3/4 enclosures are very finicky right now. It might be the case that an older firmware update, like the October? 1005 works better or with your vs my macs, ssds, etc.

Thanks to both mogens and Earl Urley. Yours were among some of the posts here that were invaluable in tracking down what my problem and apparent solution might be (x2 lane width and firmware update). I'm just hoping this solution continues to work.

Also, in some more real world cli tools testing than Amorphous or Black Magic, I tried a "time dd if=/dev/zero of=/Volumes/YourVolumeNameHere/test1.img bs=1G count=100" 100GB write test and achieved a little over 2000 MB/s and an elapsed time of about 51s with the new firmware, which was about a 50% improvement for my use case over stock (and that was measured on the slower m1 pro).

I also tried a rsync -Pa transfer of a 70 GB file that measured at only around 350 MB/s, but rsync does have a lot of overhead...

Best of luck tweaking your systems.

I think they have changed the .bin file I've just updated my Jeyi 2464 with the FW form their site and it says:
Firmware Version: 3c.18 (I did not notice any changes in r/w speeds from FW 34.12)

 

[mactp]

I think they have changed the .bin file I've just updated my Jeyi 2464 with the FW form their site and it says:
Firmware Version: 3c.18 (I did not notice any changes in r/w speeds from FW 34.12)

Hmmm. And as I recall you have a x2 link width?

For me the the speed difference is definitely the result of now seeing x4 (as opposed to x2) link width. I find the easiest place to spot that for the Jeyi is in the System Information / PCI panel, and for the SSD if you click on the NVME drive by name in the NVME panel.

Two other reasons why the firmware might not increase the speed: if you have an SSD that is only x2; if you have already maxed out the speed your mac is capable of... I think some older ones have older TB3 but not USB4 and that appears to have a limit of ~3400 GB/s.

 

[mogens]

Hmmm. And as I recall you have a x2 link width?

For me the the speed difference is definitely the result of now seeing x4 (as opposed to x2) link width. I find the easiest place to spot that for the Jeyi is in the System Information / PCI panel, and for the SSD if you click on the NVME drive by name in the NVME panel.

Two other reasons why the firmware might not increase the speed: if you have an SSD that is only x2; if you have already maxed out the speed your mac is capable of... I think some older ones have older TB3 but not USB4 and that appears to have a limit of ~3400 GB/s.

I have a wd sn850x 4tb (pci4) on a m1 imac. Realworld test with a 450gb mixed file folder gives +3000gb/s r and 2500gb/s w. amorphous gives 3500 gb/s r and 1200 gb/s r.
blackmagic gives + 3000gb/s r/w. I suspect that amorphous has a problem with some disks.

 

[mactp]

I have a wd sn850x 4tb (pci4) on a m1 imac. Realworld test with a 450gb mixed file folder gives +3000gb/s r and 2500gb/s w. amorphous gives 3500 gb/s r and 1200 gb/s r.
blackmagic gives + 3000gb/s r/w. I suspect that amorphous has a problem with some disks.

That drive is plenty fast enough to fully saturate a USB4 connection, so that seems a little low.

After installing the new firmware, is the link width x4 in the System Information / PCI and the NVME panels?

If so, the other likely limiting factor is that your m1 imac treats the Jeyi as TB3 device, and not as a USB 4 device. If that's an issue with Apple's design, it's less likely that a Jeyi/ASMedia firmware update could fix it.

With either a pci4 x2 link width or a TB3 device max speeds are ~20% slower than with USB 4. (This is for different reasons, but the numbers work out about the same for either limiting factor.)

 

[mogens]

That drive is plenty fast enough to fully saturate a USB4 connection, so that seems a little low.

After installing the new firmware, is the link width x4 in the System Information / PCI and the NVME panels?

If so, the other likely limiting factor is that your m1 imac treats the Jeyi as TB3 device, and not as a USB 4 device. If that's an issue with Apple's design, it's less likely that a Jeyi/ASMedia firmware update could fix it.

With either a pci4 x2 link width or a TB3 device max speeds are ~20% slower than with USB 4. (This is for different reasons, but the numbers work out about the same for either limiting factor.)

PCI looks like this:

 

[mactp]

PCI looks like this:
View attachment 2357176

That (x4 @ 16 GT/s) looks correct for the Jeyi and a PCIe 4.0 SSD. With no apparent performance increase from updating the firmware, I'd guess you were already running at x4 on the older firmware.

I suspect those speeds are as fast as you are likely to see, and any limits stem from the TB/USB 4 controller in the m1 imac rather the Jeyi firmware. The port controller could either be forcing TB 3 mode or maybe the USB 4 ports on the m1 imac aren't capable of full speed data transfers.

If it's TB 3, TB 3 reserves 20% of the 40gbps bandwidth for video, or 8 gbps. As each 1 gbps is ~125 MB/s, that drops the max theoretical bandwidth to ~4000 MB/s from ~5000 MB/s. Take off another ~20% for data transfer protocol overhead and you get a practical max of around ~3200-3400 MB/s. Given your highest read speeds are a bit above that mark and the write is a bit below it, I'd hazard that is the case.

It's also possible that the USB 4 controller on the m1 imac just isn't capable of faster speeds. There are reports I've read of older (pre 12th gen) Intel USB 4 controllers that also maxed out at around the ~3200-3400 MB/s level, while the more recent gens seem to reach ~4000 MB/s.

Maybe someone with a M3 Mac and a Jeyi (or another ASMedia 2464 based enclosure) with a fast pci4 SSD will report results closer to the what the latest Intel gen chips seem to achieve.

In any case, I'm impressed enough with your reported speeds that I would consider that WD SSD when I upgrade from my old 1TB pci3 sabrent rocket... though I am pretty happy with the speeds I am seeing from such an old SSD!

 

[MrTed]

Hey guys, I need help to find a 4 bay enclosure for my new Mac Studio M2 Ultra. It is for professional use.
I need a lot of storage but also quality enclosure that lasts in time.
It has to be quiet because it’s for a music production studio. Is there a 4 bay Nvme that would fits these needs ? It can runs hot but I don’t want to break the 4x 4tb drives. Are the Samsung 990 pro with heatsink working any good ? If not what 4tb drive do you recommend?
I need around 500mb/s for each drive
Thank you very much

 

[Ifti]

Hey guys, I need help to find a 4 bay enclosure for my new Mac Studio M2 Ultra. It is for professional use.
I need a lot of storage but also quality enclosure that lasts in time.
It has to be quiet because it’s for a music production studio. Is there a 4 bay Nvme that would fits these needs ? It can runs hot but I don’t want to break the 4x 4tb drives. Are the Samsung 990 pro with heatsink working any good ? If not what 4tb drive do you recommend?
I need around 500mb/s for each drive
Thank you very much

I have several OWC Thunderblade drives - completely silent, good performers, and run cool. You can even open them up and easily upgrade/replace drives as and when needed.

 

[MrTed]

I have several OWC Thunderblade drives - completely silent, good performers, and run cool. You can even open them up and easily upgrade/replace drives as and when needed.

They seem great but no empty enclosure to add our own drives, is available ! Any idea of read speed when used in independent drives mode ? thanks
[EDIT: I chat with OWC guy and he says changing the drives isn't easy because of thermal paste...
thunderblade is installed with 4 2280 drives whatever the size you choose and thunderblade X8 with 8 2280 drives whatever the size you choose !

 

[Just Ivan]

I think In my case Brian33 might be right in that the Jeyi does not fully support TB3 and it defaults to x2 link width. I might go look for a true TB3 enclosure to see if it hooks up with x4. I will report back either way. If it works I'll sell the Jeyi.