Thunderbolt 3 M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosures

[SpecFoto]

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.

Something to keep in mind about the twin front ports. On my M2 Mac Studio Max, which has 4 TB ports in the back and 2 USB-C 3.2 port in the front, I have come to find the 2 front ports are split off from 1 USB 10Gb/s controller, so R/W speeds with both ports in use can at times be 10-20% less what a single 10Gb/s port can do. I had planned to pair up 2 Samsung T7 Shield 4TB drives and run them as a 8TB RAID pair off these ports and hopefully get at least R/W comparable to what a TB port can produce. Now instead I have a OWC TB hub with 3 TB ports, using 1TB port to feed it, and hook them up to this. Speeds are a bit faster off the Hub at 850-900 Mb/s vs 750-800 MB/s with the front ports.

Would not be surprised to see the M4 Mini use this same setup for the front ports.

 

[EugW]

Something to keep in mind about the twin front ports. On my M2 Mac Studio Max, which has 4 TB ports in the back and 2 USB-C 3.2 port in the front, I have come to find the 2 front ports are split off from 1 USB 10Gb/s controller, so R/W speeds with both ports in use can at times 10-20% less what a single 10Gb/s port can do. I had planned to pair up 2 Samsung T7 Shield 4TB drives and run them as a 8TB RAID pair off these ports and hopefully get at least R/W comparable to what a TB port can produce. Now instead I have a OWC TB hub with 3 TB ports, using 1TB port to feed it, and hook them up to this. Speeds are a bit faster off the Hub at 850-900 Mb/s vs 750-800 MB/s with the front ports.

Would not be surprised to see the M4 Mini use this same setup.

Yeah, it would make sense they would behave differently than the rear Thunderbolt ports. However, just to be clear, when I did the testing above, only one of the front ports was populated. I deliberately kept one port empty just in case. But when I discovered they may be slower, I moved the testing to the rear ports.

 

[Chancha]

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?

They are too new to even have been shipped yet, the site probably just want the product page up first, so list it as out of stock.

The speed is not surprising, competing makers also show similar speed with the same JHL chip.

 

[splifingate]

I put it on the top of MacStudio, which acts as a larger heat sink

I have been doing the same, until this afternoon . . . I was concerned that the aluminum-on-aluminum contact was gana scratch my Lovely Beast.

Previously. my Externals have been hovering ~42C

So--after a deep-clean of my Workspace this morning--I attached 4x felt pads to bottoms of both my TBU405's, and my Maiwo K1695

I was like "No_Scratch == Yay!"

Unfortunately, these little buggers soon gots-some-hots!

So, I divested these units of their felt-pads...

I let things simmer-down for a while, then captured the temps:

I ain't in Rocket Science, but I do understand when Less is More (and I see no scratching on Her lovely surface)

 

[Chancha]

Guys the SN850X 8TB on Amazon is now lowered to $599. This is incredibly hard to resist.

 

[EugW]

I got the Qwiizlab ES40UR enclosure today (without a drive to put in it). Chip is confirmed to be ASM2464PD. It is extremely robust, very heavy and well built. Includes extra screws, extra screw mount for SSD, screwdrivers, USB 4 cable, two thermal pads for the SSD + two thermal pads for the controller chip, and soft bag. I put some coins in the fins to illustrate the depth of the fins.

Guys the SN850X 8TB on Amazon is now lowered to $599. This is incredibly hard to resist.

You can also get 2 x SN850X 4 TB at SanDisk.com for additional discount. The Samsung 990 Pro is supposed to use a bit less power, but this deal is very tempting.

Getting two of them is probably overkill, but I can use the second one as a fast backup. I don't think I'll see as good of a deal for the Samsung 990 Pro by Black Friday.

EDIT:

This video shows the 4 TB one to be double-sided. I wonder if that would be a problem for an external enclosure.

Here's the Qwiizlab enclosure showing the depth of the SSD slot:

 

[Donka]

Just received the OWC Express 1M2 enclosure this evening. Added a WD SN770 2TB drive and copied over my data. Black Magic showing read and write speeds > 3000MB/s. Copied about 180GB of data and it remained just warm to the touch, not hot in the slightest.
Impressed with this combination.

 

[EugW]

Just received the OWC Express 1M2 enclosure this evening. Added a WD SN770 2TB drive and copied over my data. Black Magic showing read and write speeds > 3000MB/s. Copied about 180GB of data and it remained just warm to the touch, not hot in the slightest.
Impressed with this combination.

Did it slow down at all during that transfer? I’m also curious about the latency. Could you run AmorphousDiskMark?

 

[Donka]

Did it slow down at all during that transfer? I’m also curious about the latency. Could you run AmorphousDiskMark?

No signs of slowdown although the copy was from another external drive in an older USB 3 enclosure so it's max speed was the limiting factor of around 1GB/s. I'll share benchmark screens in the morning. 👍

 

[splifingate]

Latest ADM's for my units:

Oh

I don't tax 'em like I probably could, but I just can't regularly muster the brain-energy to conduct major re-imaging of all my Projects.

My two TBU405'a cost me USD88 each (DS from Acasis), and my Maiwo (DS from Ali) cost me USD50. Each of the SkH 2TB P31's cost me ~USD120

Phenomenal little External Creatures

For comparison, this is what the 2TB internal storage is like on my BTO '23 M2 Studio:

I don't really (subjectively) notice the difference between Int&Ext.

 

[EugW]

This video shows the 4 TB one to be double-sided. I wonder if that would be a problem for an external enclosure.

Here's the Qwiizlab enclosure showing the depth of the SSD slot:

View attachment 2452939

Uh oh. Somebody on another forum says his 4 TB SN850X - double sided - does NOT fit in most of his external enclosures, because it's too thick. I don't know what enclosures he has, but nonetheless, I'd prefer to stick with single-sided especially since I will be using more than one enclosure.

 

[EugW]

This video shows the 4 TB one to be double-sided. I wonder if that would be a problem for an external enclosure.

From Qwiizlab:

Dear Customer
Yes, it supports double-sided SSDs. And we recommend that you use the brands and models listed as below.

As for M.2 SSD, it supports both SATA and NVMe PCIe protocols up to 8TB. Verified M.2 SSD models are listed as below (to be updated):

Samsung: 990 Pro/990 EVO/990 EVO Plus, 980 Pro/980, 970 Pro/970 EVO/970 EVO Plus/970
Western Digital: Black SN850X/SN850/SN770/SN750, Blue SN5000/SN570/SN550, Green SN350, Red SN700/SA500
Seagate: BarraCuda Q5/510, FireCuda 520/510, IronWolf 525
Crucial: P5/P5 Plus, P3/P3 Plus, P2/P2 Plus, T500
fanxiang: S500/S501, S690, S880
Kingston: NV3, NV2, NV1, DC1000B, KC3000, A400
Lexar: NM620, NM710/NM790, NM800 Pro
Sabrent: Rocket 4 Plus/Rocket Q/Rocket
SanDisk: Extreme Pro M.2/Z400S/X400
SK Hynix: Platinum P41, Gold P31
Silicon Power: A60, UD90, US75
acer: FA100, Predator GM7000
Teamgroup: MP33/MS30
PNY: CS2130/CS1030

Best Regards

Customer Support Dept.
Shenzhen Qwiizlab Technology Limited

 

[Donka]

Here are some benchmarks of my Mac mini M4 base model and the OWC 1M2 with WD Black SN770 2TB.

M4 Internal drive:

---

OWC 1M2 w/ WD SN770:

 

[EugW]

OWC Thunderbolt 5 drive is a disappointment for sustained large file transfers.

It starts out at around 5.3 GB/s, but seems to have a relatively small cache so after a few seconds, it drops down to 1.8 GB/s.

Also, it has a permanently attached Thunderbolt 5 cable.

 

[mogens]

OWC Thunderbolt 5 drive is a disappointment for sustained large file transfers.

It starts out at around 5.3 GB/s, but seems to have a relatively small cache so after a few seconds, it drops down to 1.8 GB/s.

Also, it has a permanently attached Thunderbolt 5 cable.

thanks. I think I'll wait for USB4 version 2 and see how it performs.

 

[lotech]

Also, it has a permanently attached Thunderbolt 5 cable.

If it's anything like the older RJ45 10GB OWC TB3 Network Adaptor then if you pop the case, it's just a normal cable which would be replaceable with the same plug end shape (or smaller).

 

[OWC_TAL]

If it's anything like the older RJ45 10GB OWC TB3 Network Adaptor then if you pop the case, it's just a normal cable which would be replaceable with the same plug end shape (or smaller).

Yes we will be offering replaceable cables that users can install. Inside is a connector.

 

[Chancha]

Yes we will be offering replaceable cables that users can install. Inside is a connector.

If I recall correctly, Thunderbolt actually mandates this? You cannot solder one end of the cable permanently onto a board, it has to be an actual plug going into an actual port. Products like this OWC just hide this port/plug inside the chassis for better protection of that specific area.