Thunderbolt 3 M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosures

[Black Diesel]

Occasionally the Samsung T series 8 TB drives are on sale for a bit less, but they won’t be as fast.

OTOH, the Samsung T series drives require no assembly, run significantly cooler, and are much smaller and lighter.

Are you talking about these? If yes, how much slower are they?

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1792964-REG/samsung_mu_ph8t0s_am_8tb_t5_evo_portable.html

And are the Samsung T5 drives faster than these Sandisk SSD's? I'm asking because I have a ton of these Sandisk SSD's so I'm familiar with the speeds:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1769361-REG/sandisk_sdssde61_4t00_g25b_4tb_extreme_portable_ssd.html

 

[EugW]

Are you talking about these? If yes, how much slower are they?

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1792964-REG/samsung_mu_ph8t0s_am_8tb_t5_evo_portable.html

And are the Samsung T5 drives faster than these Sandisk SSD's? I'm asking because I have a ton of these Sandisk SSD's so I'm familiar with the speeds:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1769361-REG/sandisk_sdssde61_4t00_g25b_4tb_extreme_portable_ssd.html

The fastest T series drives are the T7 Shield and the T9. The T9 is faster on some Windows machines but on Macs would be about the same as the T7 Shield.

I’m not as familiar with the SanDisk drives but my understanding is that latest version of the Extreme Portable is roughly in the class of the T7 Shield, and the Extreme Pro competes with the T9. Again on Macs, the extra speed of the Extreme Pro is lost, however, because both the Extreme Pro and the T9 depend upon USB 3.2 gen 2x2, which Macs (and most Windows machines for that matter) don’t support.

The T5 is significantly slower and I believe the older versions of the SanDisk Extreme are also slower.

 

[Idgit]

Well, that was disappointing. I was patiently waiting for the 4 TB Samsung 990 EVO Plus to drop in price, but that CA$400 sale price is underwhelming. These are in Canadian dollars and CA$1 = US$0.709.

The 4 TB 990 Pro is CA$630 retail, but third party vendors have it at CA$490 shipped. I'm hoping the retail pricing will drop below CA$400 by Black Friday. I suspect it won't considering the retail price is so high, but there's always the third party vendors and hopefully they can take down a notch to say CA$350ish.

Otherwise, maybe I should just consider the Western Digital SN850X when it goes on sale.

I'm in Canada as well. Are these SSDs the recommended choices for NVME Thunderbolt enclosures? I've read good things about the Lexar NM790 series and they're more affordable in Canada. But is the performance of the Samsung or WD much, much better?

​

 

[EugW]

I'm in Canada as well. Are these SSDs the recommended choices for NVME Thunderbolt enclosures? I've read good things about the Lexar NM790 series and they're more affordable in Canada. But is the performance of the Samsung or WD much, much better?

I'm no expert, but here are my 2¢:

The Lexar NM790 is rated as a good DRAM-less drive, and therefore competes against the Samsung 990 EVO Plus. Amazon.ca currently has these two models in the 4 TB size at $324.98 and $399.99 respectively, so the Lexar is the better deal I guess. However, Lexar doesn't make its own flash and is using flash from China's YMTC, which doesn't have a long track record yet. (Also, Chinese flash was sanctioned in the US, and some claim that YMTC stole some intellectual property to create that flash.)

The benefits of both of these is low power utilization, but the fact they do not have DRAM mean that they are dependent upon HMB for performance. Unfortunately, HMB is disabled within these SSD enclosures, so the benchmarks you seen in various reviews do not apply. I have been waiting for the SSD-performance-inside-USB4-enclosures review from TechTesters, but they said it's a long and tedious process and it may be a while before they will release their video.

Both the WD SN850X and the Samsung 990 Pro have DRAM, and therefore in theory should perform better than the Lexar NM790 and Samsung 990 EVO Plus within SSD enclosures. I'm not talking about sequential transfer speeds, but small random writes, since without HMB or DRAM, latency increases. However, I say "in theory" since I haven't seen any major reviews yet that actually test this in any sort of systematic fashion. That's why I've been waiting for the TechTesters review. The drawback of both the WD SN850X and the Samsung 990 Pro is that they are considerably more expensive (although the WD is cheaper than the Samsung), and they run quite hot, so if you use these, you'd better get an SSD enclosure that can handle heat under extended usage. Cuz if the SSD overheats, it will throttle, destroying performance.

Anyhow, Samsung Canada has been rotating the sales on their SSDs. I believe the week before last, the 1 TB Samsung 990 Pro was on sale. Last week it was the 2 TB 990 Pro. This week it's the 4 TB EVO Plus. I'm hoping next week it's the 4 TB 990 Pro.

 

[SpecFoto]

Are you talking about these? If yes, how much slower are they?

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1792964-REG/samsung_mu_ph8t0s_am_8tb_t5_evo_portable.html

And are the Samsung T5 drives faster than these Sandisk SSD's? I'm asking because I have a ton of these Sandisk SSD's so I'm familiar with the speeds:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1769361-REG/sandisk_sdssde61_4t00_g25b_4tb_extreme_portable_ssd.html

Samsung or SanDisk USB-C 3.2 Drives are rated at 1,000MB/s (10Gb/s), but usually clock out around 775-825 MB/s R/W speeds. I use Samsung T7 Shield and SanDisk Extreme V2 4TB SSD's in 2 or 3 set JBOD configurations (8 or 12TB total) and they run maybe 10% faster than a single drive, but still under 1,000 MB/s. The advantage is that these can run off a USB 10Gb/s port, using a TB 3 or 4 port does not increase the speed however.

Samsung T5's, being USB 3.1, are 5 Gb/s and therefore are slower. About 1/2 the speed of the 3.2 drives. (Edit, not familiar with these, so I looked these drives up)

The WD Black 850X 4TB in a Maiwo K1717 is 3 times faster than the 3.2 drives, mine runs at 2,950-3,150 R/W speeds. It must be via a TB3 or 4 port though to achieve these speeds.

 

[Idgit]

I'm no expert, but here are my 2¢:

The Lexar NM790 is rated as a good DRAM-less drive, and therefore competes against the Samsung 990 EVO Plus. Amazon.ca currently has these two models in the 4 TB size at $324.98 and $399.99 respectively, so the Lexar is the better deal I guess. However, Lexar doesn't make its own flash and is using flash from China's YMTC, which doesn't have a long track record yet. (Also, Chinese flash was sanctioned in the US, and some claim that YMTC stole some intellectual property to create that flash.)

Both the WD SN850X and the Samsung 990 Pro have DRAM, and therefore in theory should perform better than the Lexar NM790 and Samsung 990 EVO Plus within SSD enclosures. I'm not talking about sequential transfer speeds, but small random writes, since without HMB or DRAM, latency increases. However, I say "in theory" since I haven't seen any major reviews yet that actually test this in any sort of systematic fashion. That's why I've been waiting for the TechTesters review. The drawback of both the WD SN850X and the Samsung 990 Pro is that they are considerably more expensive (although the WD is cheaper than the Samsung), and they run quite hot, so if you use these, you'd better get an SSD enclosure that can handle heat under extended usage. Cuz if the SSD overheats, it will throttle, destroying performance.

Interesting, thanks for that inforamtion.

I found out about the Lexar from this reddit thread and the accompanying Google sheet with test results.

I've just started looking into NVME Thunderbolt enclosures and I'm frankly overwhelmed. There are a lot of products but not a lot of good data, it seems. All these enclosures seem to run very, very hot. The OWC one is often recommended but it would cost me at least $200 CAD.

The MAIWO and Hagibis are both currently on sale on AliExpress but I can't find any reliable test results for these enclosures and buyer comments are contradictory with some saying they run great and others saying they run too hot and that the thermal pads don't touch the exterior case. Likewise with the Quiizlab which is more expensive but still cheaper than the OWC.

I honestly don't know which one to buy. I guess I could say "Screw it" and just pick one and see what happens.

 

[OWC_TAL]

Interesting, thanks for that inforamtion.

I found out about the Lexar from this reddit thread and the accompanying Google sheet with test results.

I've just started looking into NVME Thunderbolt enclosures and I'm frankly overwhelmed. There are a lot of products but not a lot of good data, it seems. All these enclosures seem to run very, very hot. The OWC one is often recommended but it would cost me at least $200 CAD.

The MAIWO and Hagibis are both currently on sale on AlieExpress but I can't find any reliable test results for these enclosures and buyer comments are contradictory with some saying they run great and others saying they run too hot and that the thermal pads don't touch the exterior case. Likewise with the Quiizlab which is more expensive but still cheaper than the OWC.

I honestly don't know which one to buy. I guess I could say "Screw it" and just pick one and see what happens.

Have you checked OWC Canada or OWC Canada Amazon? You might be able to find lower rates there:

OWC Express 1M2 USB4 (40Gb/s) Bus-Powered Portable... at MacSales.com

US4EXP1M2 OWC Express 1M2 USB4 (40Gb/s) Bus-Powered Portable External Storage Enclosure for NVMe M.2 SSDs. Add an NVMe M.2 SSD, and build your own portable USB4 drive for daily storage, backup, production-level audio, design, and photography workflows.

ca.macsales.com

OWC Express 1M2 Portable NVMe Thunderbolt (USB-C) SSD USB4 Ultra Fast External SSD Drive with Aluminum Heat Sink Enclosure (Enclosure Only)

Give yourself the ultimate in creative power by building the portable drive of your dreams or choosing an advanced technology OWC Aura SSD powered OWC Express 1M2. Whether repurposing a drive, starting with a new drive, or wanting the convenience of a ready-to-run solution, you will infuse your w...

www.amazon.ca

 

[EugW]

Samsung or SanDisk USB-C 3.2 Drives are rated at 1,000MB/s, but usually clock out around 775-825 MB/s R/W speeds. I use SanDisk Extreme V2 and Samsung T7 Sheild 4TB in 3 set JBOD configurations (12TB total) and they run maybe 10% faster than a single drive, but still under 1,000 NMB/s. Samsung T5's I believe are a bit slower, but I don't have any.

The WD Black 850X 4TB in a Maiwo K1717 is 3 times faster, mine runs at 2,950-3,150 R&W speeds approximately.

For the 2 TB Samsung T7 Shield, I got over 800 MB/s on my M1 Mac mini, but over 1000 MB/s on my 2017 Core i5 iMac. (See pics.) Random writes on the Intel Mac seemed to be better too. So, it seems the controller on the Intel Macs was much faster than on the M1. (I haven't benched the M4 with these drives.) The 1 TB Samsung T7 was a bit slower. My T5 runs considerably slower, but I don't remember the exact numbers.

Apple M1 + 2 TB T7 Shield:

Intel i5 + 2 TB T7 Shield:

 

[Idgit]

Have you checked OWC Canada or OWC Canada Amazon? You might be able to find lower rates there:

OWC Express 1M2 USB4 (40Gb/s) Bus-Powered Portable... at MacSales.com

US4EXP1M2 OWC Express 1M2 USB4 (40Gb/s) Bus-Powered Portable External Storage Enclosure for NVMe M.2 SSDs. Add an NVMe M.2 SSD, and build your own portable USB4 drive for daily storage, backup, production-level audio, design, and photography workflows.

ca.macsales.com

OWC Express 1M2 Portable NVMe Thunderbolt (USB-C) SSD USB4 Ultra Fast External SSD Drive with Aluminum Heat Sink Enclosure (Enclosure Only)

Give yourself the ultimate in creative power by building the portable drive of your dreams or choosing an advanced technology OWC Aura SSD powered OWC Express 1M2. Whether repurposing a drive, starting with a new drive, or wanting the convenience of a ready-to-run solution, you will infuse your w...

www.amazon.ca

Thanks, looks like the OWC from MacSales is back on Amazon.ca. For the past few weeks it was only available through sketchy 3rd party Amazon sellers. Still going to be around $200 but a little cheaper than ordering from OWC Canada directly because they charge for shipping.

 

[EugW]

I found out about the Lexar from this reddit thread and the accompanying Google sheet with test results.

Thanks, but the problem with that spreadsheet is that it doesn't list random read/write speeds. Those are more important for many people, and are what will likely suffer the most without HMB support inside these enclosures. The Lexar NM790 does not have DRAM, and won't have HMB support either. The WD SN850X and Samsung 990 Pro have DRAM.

 

[Black Diesel]

Samsung or SanDisk USB-C 3.2 Drives are rated at 1,000MB/s (10Gb/s), but usually clock out around 775-825 MB/s R/W speeds. I use Samsung T7 Shield and SanDisk Extreme V2 4TB SSD's in 2 or 3 set JBOD configurations (8 or 12TB total) and they run maybe 10% faster than a single drive, but still under 1,000 MB/s. The advantage is that these can run off a USB 10Gb/s port, using a TB 3 or 4 port does not increase the speed however.

Samsung T5's, being USB 3.1, are 5 Gb/s and therefore are slower. About 1/2 the speed of the 3.2 drives. (Edit, not familiar with these, so I looked these drives up)

The WD Black 850X 4TB in a Maiwo K1717 is 3 times faster than the 3.2 drives, mine runs at 2,950-3,150 R/W speeds. It must be via a TB3 or 4 port though to achieve these speeds.

Thanks. I don't know what I'm doing, but I downloaded the speed test app and tested my 4TB Sandisk SSD on my M1 Air. This is the result. Does my M1 Air have TB3 or TB4 ports capable of getting the speeds your Maiwo K1717 is running? And, would the Mail K1717 be any faster on a base M4 mini?

 

[EugW]

@Idgit, BTW, I think that spreadsheet refers to the WD SN850, which is an old drive. The current version, which is faster, is the SN850X.

Thanks. I don't know what I'm doing, but I downloaded the speed test app and tested my 4TB Sandisk SSD on my M1 Air. This is the result. Does my M1 Air have TB3 or TB4 ports capable of getting the speeds your Maiwo K1717 is running? And, would the Mail K1717 be any faster on a base M4 mini?

View attachment 2451773

You need to be more specific. What 4 TB Sandisk SSD? If it's the external USB 3.2 SanDisk Extreme, then that's normal.

Yes, the M1 Air does have USB 4 ports that can handle faster speeds, but you won't get those speeds out of an external USB SanDisk Extreme. And plus, sequential speeds aren't necessarily the best measure for a lot of workloads.

 

[SpecFoto]

...
The MAIWO and Hagibis are both currently on sale on AliExpress but I can't find any reliable test results for these enclosures and buyer comments are contradictory with some saying they run great and others saying they run too hot and that the thermal pads don't touch the exterior case. Likewise with the Quiizlab which is more expensive but still cheaper than the OWC.

I honestly don't know which one to buy. I guess I could say "Screw it" and just pick one and see what happens.

Might be due to the user not following the instructions, see below, though this graphic is not in the box, but on the website. The Maiwo includes 3 heat pads, 1 Silicone on the under side with another silicone one on the top, then the aluminum pad on top of that. My K1717 has been just great for 10 months, running 8 hours or more per day and remains cool.

 

[Idgit]

@Idgit, BTW, I think that spreadsheet refers to the WD SN850, which is an old drive. The current version, which is faster, is the SN850X.

I was wondering about that. Anyway, based on your comments, I'll stick to SSDs with DRAM for external enclosures.

 

[SpecFoto]

Thanks. I don't know what I'm doing, but I downloaded the speed test app and tested my 4TB Sandisk SSD on my M1 Air. This is the result. Does my M1 Air have TB3 or TB4 ports capable of getting the speeds your Maiwo K1717 is running? And, would the Mail K1717 be any faster on a base M4 mini?

Yes, as @EugW mentioned the Extreme V2 speed you have is normal for a USB 3.2 drive. Your M1 Air, if I remember right, needed an Apple FirmWare update to correctly get faster speeds with the TB ports. Others with your M1 Air may sees R speeds of 2,000+ MB/s, but W speeds of maybe half that without the FW update and it caused a lot of confusion. My K1717 when used as the startup drive for my M1 14" MBP Pro obtains the same R/W speeds I posted for the M2 Studio Max and did not require the FW update.

Far as running faster on a M4 Mini, most likely as the internal SSD's in the Mini are faster than the M1's. ( the 256GB version run slow, strongly suggest minimum of 512GB as base).

 

[Idgit]

Might be due to the user not following the instructions, see below, though this graphic is not in the box, but on the website. The Maiwo includes 3 heat pads, 1 Silicone on the under side with another silicone one on the top, then the aluminum pad on top of that. My K1717 has been just great for 10 months, running 8 hours or more per day and remains cool.

I just noticed that the MAIWO is USB 4.0 instead of Thunderbolt 4. Are there any drawbacks to using USB 4 enclosures? Does Mac OS support TRIM and S.M.A.R.T. natively on USB 4 enclosures or is that only reserved for Thunderbolt 4 enclosures?

 

[Black Diesel]

@Idgit, BTW, I think that spreadsheet refers to the WD SN850, which is an old drive. The current version, which is faster, is the SN850X.


You need to be more specific. What 4 TB Sandisk SSD? If it's the external USB 3.2 SanDisk Extreme, then that's normal.

Yes, the M1 Air does have USB 4 ports that can handle faster speeds, but you won't get those speeds out of an external USB SanDisk Extreme. And plus, sequential speeds aren't necessarily the best measure for a lot of workloads.

These are the Sandisk SSD's I have:

SanDisk 4TB Extreme Portable SSD V2​

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/prod...sde61_4t00_g25m_4tb_extreme_portable_ssd.html

 

[SpecFoto]

I just noticed that the MAIWO is USB 4.0 instead of Thunderbolt 4. Are there any drawbacks to using USB 4 enclosures? Does Mac OS support TRIM and S.M.A.R.T. natively on USB 4 enclosures or is that only reserved for Thunderbolt 4 enclosures?

None that I have seen... The manufactures of the enclosure get around paying Intel a fee for using TB in the name. My Acasis 405 and now Maiwo K1717 both support trim and are S.M.A.R.T.. verified on my M2 Studio Max with the WD 850X 4TB Black.

 

[Black Diesel]

Yes, as @EugW mentioned the Extreme V2 speed you have is normal for a USB 3.2 drive. Your M1 Air, if I remember right, needed an Apple FirmWare update to correctly get faster speeds with the TB ports. Others with your M1 Air may sees R speeds of 2,000+ MB/s, but W speeds of maybe half that without the FW update and it caused a lot of confusion. My K1717 when used as the startup drive for my M1 14" MBP Pro obtains the same R/W speeds I posted for the M2 Studio Max and did not require the FW update.

Far as running faster on a M4 Mini, most likely as the internal SSD's in the Mini are faster than the M1's. ( the 256GB version run slow, strongly suggest minimum of 512GB as base).

My M1 Air is a 16gb 1TB version. So if I buy a Mini M4, I should upgrade and pay $200 extra for the 512gb SSD because it will run faster than the base M4 Mini 256gb SSD?

And I should get those 3K R/W black magic speeds with your K1717?

 

[Loco Sock]

My M1 Air is a 16gb 1TB version. So if I buy a Mini M4, I should upgrade and pay $200 extra for the 512gb SSD because it will run faster than the base M4 Mini 256gb SSD?

And I should get those 3K R/W black magic speeds with your K1717?

Supposedly the M4 Mini 256GB uses 2 128GB chips. Still though, I think 512GB is kind of a sweet spot. That's what I have in my M2 Studio and it holds all my apps and email/icloud/photos... and then I have a 4TB 990 Pro that has all of my video projects, finished and work in progress. Will go to 8TB or another 4TB depending on where I'm at. I'm set to get a new Mac in November of 26.

 

[SpecFoto]

My M1 Air is a 16gb 1TB version. So if I buy a Mini M4, I should upgrade and pay $200 extra for the 512gb SSD because it will run faster than the base M4 Mini 256gb SSD?

And I should get those 3K R/W black magic speeds with your K1717?

Short answer; Yes and Yes

Long answer; it is well documented that the Apple M series Internal SSD speeds goes up significantly with each step-up in size. While Apple has finally put 2 SSD's on 1 card for all news Minis, the 512GB still should be a lot faster than the 256GB version (which is 2 @ 256GB vs 2 @ 128GB) In the past the 256 GB versions were as low as 1/3 as fast in R/W speeds vs. a 1TB version of the same Mac.

Be on the lookout for some YouTube speed results for the new Minis, they should be posting about now. The dual sided SSD may mean improvements, but still I would go with 512GB as a minimum as the Mac will slow down when the SSD starts to get near full.

PS, I just looked up a test that showed the base M4 Mini with 256GB SSD and 16GB of Ram was 2,300 R and 1,650 W +/- out of the box. Way less than the 512GB will get you. 1TB M4 Mini speed tests I looked at yesterday had internal SSD R/W speeds in the 4,500 to 5,200 MB/s range!

 

[Black Diesel]

View attachment 2450604
Actual speed test to an M4 Pro MBP, with I think Samsung 990 PRO.

Acasis 80Gbps Thunderbolt 5 SSD Enclosure with Intel JHL9480 Chip

Note: 1. Confirm Thunderbolt Port AvailabilityMake sure your computer has a Thunderbolt port. All Apple computers released in 2015 or later with Thunderbolt 4 ports are compatible. For Windows computers, those released after 2016 with Thunderbolt 4/5 or USB4.0 ports will also work. 2. Choosing...

www.acasis.com

Global site is also up, listed price $299 USD.
There is a huge list for SSD compatibility and tested speed in there.

I'm just seeing this now and it looks like they are out of stock. If I were to buy an Mini M4 Pro that has the TB5 ports along with this enclosure and the Samsung SSD 990 PRO 4TB I would get the 6K read/write speeds they are advertising in their test results? Sounds like that's twice as fast as the other option I'm looking at in my posts above. Does anyone have this in the field yet hooked up to an Mini M4 Pro?

 

[EugW]

Short answer; Yes and Yes

Long answer; it is well documented that the Apple M series Internal SSD speeds goes up significantly with each step-up in size. While Apple has finally put 2 SSD's on 1 card for all news Minis, the 512GB still should be a lot faster than the 256GB version (which is 2 @ 256GB vs 2 @ 128GB) In the past the 256 GB versions were as low as 1/3 as fast in R/W speeds vs. a 1TB version of the same Mac.

Be on the lookout for some YouTube speed results for the new Minis, they should be posting about now. The dual sided SSD may mean improvements, but still I would go with 512GB as a minimum.

PS, I just looked up a test that showed the M4 Mini with 256GB SSD and 16GB of Ram was 2,300 R and 1,650 W +/- out of the box. Way less than the K1717 will get you.

The M4 256 gets 3000 MB/s in Black Magic.



However, the M4 512 is faster.

 

[SpecFoto]

The M4 256 gets 3000 MB/s in Black Magic.

However, the M4 512 is faster.

That is quite a difference from the YT short from today I found and reposted above??
Is that test from your MM with 24GB of Ram and the 256GB SSD?

 

[EugW]

For the 2 TB Samsung T7 Shield, I got over 800 MB/s on my M1 Mac mini, but over 1000 MB/s on my 2017 Core i5 iMac. (See pics.) Random writes on the Intel Mac seemed to be better too. So, it seems the controller on the Intel Macs was much faster than on the M1. (I haven't benched the M4 with these drives.) The 1 TB Samsung T7 was a bit slower. My T5 runs considerably slower, but I don't remember the exact numbers.

Apple M1 + 2 TB T7 Shield:

Intel i5 + 2 TB T7 Shield:

So I just tested this on my M4. I didn't do a lot of testing, but I get the impression the rear Thunderbolt 4 ports may be a bit faster than the front USB 3.2 ports, despite all of these drives being USB 3.2.

Samsung T7 Shield 2 TB - 865 MB/s write
Samsung T7 2 TB - 785 MB/s write
Samsung T5 1 TB - 510 MB/s write

Note however that the T7 Shield is 60% full, and after I would do stuff with it, sometimes it would slow right down, like RIGHT down, to under 400 MB/s and once even below 200 MB/s. This is my bigger concern with these drives. They don't seem to behave consistently under load, especially when they are partially full. They test well when empty though.

I've noticed occasional lagginess in Photos, and since my Photos Library is on this drive, I'm thinking it's the drive and not something else. Also, I wanted to put some more data on the external drive, so that's why I'm keen on going with a 4 TB NVMe drive. My Qwiizlabs ES40UR giant heatsink type SSD enclosure should arrive early next week, and I'll pick up a decent NVMe drive once they go on sale. I think I've scrapped the DRAM-less idea once and for all and will go with either a WD SN850X or else a Samsung 990 Pro, depending upon what is well priced. Luckily the Black Friday sales have begun, so there should be some decent pricing in the next couple of weeks.

That is quite a difference from the YT short from today I found and reposted above??
Is that test from your MM with 24GB of Ram and the 256GB SSD?

No, that's from Reddit, but I've seen several posts here at MacRumors with similar numbers. However, the numbers really vary. Some of the M4 256 numbers are much slower, but other numbers are similar. None are much above 3000 though.

For the M4 512 numbers, they also really vary, with some well below 3000 or even below 2000, but several above 4000.

Given my very variable results with my drives above, I'm not surprised the reported numbers for the internal drive vary too. Plus I suspect some of them may have done the testing right after they set up their machines, before all the indexing or whatever has finishedd.