Thunderbolt 3 M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosures

[Idgit]

Get something like the OWC 1M2 USB 4 enclosure or the Colorii MC40 / Hagibis MC40 / Qwiizlab ES40UR USB 4 enclosure with a cool running NMVe drive like the SK Hynix Gold P31. Note though, that drive maxes out at 2 TB. No 4 TB version available.

The enclosure will still heat up a bit, but not get hot.

This is the first time I've heard of this drive (SK Hynix Gold P31). Looking at reviews it seems to run fast and cool and it has DRAM.

One of the big obsessions of and frustrations in this thread is how hot these TB4/USB4 enclosures run. And yet, in this thread and others, the overwhelming choice for everyone seems to be the Samsung 990 Pro or the WD BLACK SN850X. Both of these drives run much hotter and are more expensive than the SK Hynix Gold P31.

So why the preference for the Samsung and WD Black over the SK Hynix Gold (or even Platinum, for that matter)? The SK Hynix Gold runs 10ºC cooler, performs very well, and is $30-$40 cheaper (at least in Canada).

What are the drawbacks of the SK Hynix Gold P31 compared to the Samsung and WD Black?

 

[EugW]

What are the drawbacks of the SK Hynix Gold P31 compared to the Samsung and WD Black?

The P31 is a previous generation drive, and isn't as fast as the current generation (although it would be pretty good for a USB 4 enclosure). It also maxes out at 2 TB.

And up until recently, SK Hynix drives were not available in Canada from mainstream retailers. I was considering one for my daughter's 2015 13" MacBook Pro, but couldn't get one in Canada for a reasonable price at the time. These drives were really popular for owners of MacBook Pros, MacBook Airs, and Mac minis of that era, after Apple enabled native NVMe support in macOS.

 

[PaulD-UK]

Random thread:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/cannot-boot-with-sk-hynix-gold-p31-inserted.2315821/

Lots of MacOS compatibility reports when it came out - firmware problems only solvable with Windows etc etc

May be different now?

 

[Idgit]

The P31 is a previous generation drive, and isn't as fast as the current generation (although it would be pretty good for a USB 4 enclosure). It also maxes out at 2 TB.

And up until recently, SK Hynix drives were not available in Canada from mainstream retailers. I was considering one for my daughter's 2015 13" MacBook Pro, but couldn't get one in Canada for a reasonable price at the time.

I just noticed that the one currently on sale on Amazon.ca is from some dubious looking Chinese reseller. It's fulfilled by Amazon, but I have trust issues with these third-party resellers.

And looking into the warranty/RMA process, I'm now skeptical about being able to ever RMA a SK Hynix purchased in Canada.

It doesn't look like the Samsung or WD Black are going to be discounted for Black Friday.

Are there any other good, affordable 2 TB SSDs with DRAM available in Canada? Or are Samsung and WD really the only two choices?

 

[EugW]

Random thread:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/cannot-boot-with-sk-hynix-gold-p31-inserted.2315821/

Lots of MacOS compatibility reports when it came out - firmware problems only solvable with Windows etc etc

May be different now?

Yeah, I had forgotten about that. However, by the time I was looking at these drives (in 2022), that issue had already been corrected with updated firmwares.

In the end I just decided to forget about all third party drives and just got a used 256 GB Apple Samsung OEM SSD instead to replace her existing 128 GB drive. My daughter didn't need much storage but I was just uncomfortable with 128 GB. However, in retrospect it may have been a waste of money, since today at the end of 2024, she still only uses 60 GB storage on her MacBook Pro. 🙃

 

[RedNova6289]

In the end, I think I'll keep my SATA SSDs for a while longer and wait for a result that's less of a DIY job...

 

[ekwipt]

Get something like the OWC 1M2 USB 4 enclosure or the Colorii MC40 / Hagibis MC40 / Qwiizlab ES40UR USB 4 enclosure with a cool running NMVe drive like the SK Hynix Gold P31. Note though, that drive maxes out at 2 TB. No 4 TB version available.

The enclosure will still heat up a bit, but not get hot.

I’ve got a 4tb in a OWC 1M2 and it works fine and at that speed

 

[EugW]

I’ve got a 4tb in a OWC 1M2 and it works fine and at ripe speed

I was responding to someone who was specifically asking about a drive that doesn't heat up. All the drives heat up, but the SK Hynix P31 Gold has significantly lower power consumption compared to other brands with DRAM, so it would heat up less. For this reason, it's been quite popular with the old Intel Mac laptop crowd, where they would have the drive as the internal boot drive (with no heatsink or thermal pad, and running off battery power).

Most of the drives out there can operate and idle in low power states, but not in enclosures and not in Macs, since Macs don't send the right commands to initiate those low power states for third party drives. However, even in higher power modes, the SK Hynix P31 Gold would have relatively low power usage comparatively which would be great for a MacBook Air or MacBook Pro.

 

[drrich2]

So why the preference for the Samsung and WD Black over the SK Hynix Gold (or even Platinum, for that matter)? The SK Hynix Gold runs 10ºC cooler, performs very well, and is $30-$40 cheaper (at least in Canada).

I wonder if brand name recognition is a factor? When buying a product in a category where they don't have strong familiarity, many people would prefer to buy from a brand they recognize. There is a public perception about 'cheap Chinese crap' products that some people are leery to taking a chance with. That's no insult to China - I'm told the Chinese can manufacture to most any specification, including producing lots of the Apple products we enjoy.

Samsung and WD have strong brand name recognition in the U.S. personal computing demographic; aside from this thread, I don't recall ever hearing of SK Hynix. Perhaps it's just me and it's well-known? If not, how does the general buying public know it's a brand they can trust?

 

[EugW]

I wonder if brand name recognition is a factor? When buying a product in a category where they don't have strong familiarity, many people would prefer to buy from a brand they recognize. There is a public perception about 'cheap Chinese crap' products that some people are leery to taking a chance with. That's no insult to China - I'm told the Chinese can manufacture to most any specification, including producing lots of the Apple products we enjoy.

Samsung and WD have strong brand name recognition in the U.S. personal computing demographic; aside from this thread, I don't recall ever hearing of SK Hynix. Perhaps it's just me and it's well-known? If not, how does the general buying public know it's a brand they can trust?

Heheh.

SK Hynix is not Chinese. It's Korean, and one of the biggest manufacturers of memory in the world. Apple is a major customer of SK Hynix.

See those two chips next to the M1? Those are SK Hynix RAM chips.

M1 MacBook Pro and Air Teardowns

Past, meet future—it’s a mix of old and new in our dual teardown of the newest M1-powered MacBooks.

www.ifixit.com

 

[Idgit]

Most of the drives out there can operate and idle in low power states, but not in enclosures and not in Macs, since Macs don't send the right commands to initiate those low power states for third party drives.

Oh, that's interesting. So Apple sells Macs with a base level of 256GB for storage and then charges ludicrous prices for storage upgrades BUT doesn't provide proper support for low power states of NVME drives in external closures, all while boasting about the energy efficiency of their ARM chips and their carbon neutral devices?

That's some rich irony.

 

[EugW]

Oh, that's interesting. So Apple sells Macs with a base level of 256GB for storage and then charges ludicrous prices for storage upgrades BUT doesn't provide proper support for low power states of NVME drives in external closures, all while boasting about the energy efficiency of their ARM chips and their carbon neutral devices?

That's some rich irony.

Actually I don't really see why Apple would bother. And this is not limited to Macs either. This is an issue with NVMe enclosures in general.

Name brand drives which include both the drive and enclosure should handle this on their own. So if you were to buy a say a Crucial USB drive, its controller should manage this. But that's Crucial building a drive with its own preferred controller and its own preferred flash. It's not trying to create an enclosure to be compatible with 200 different drives out there.

I don't know how it works with the OWC 1M2 pre-built drives, but my guess is they don't manage this either, since OWC builds neither the 1M2 enclosure chipset nor the Aura SSD controller.

 

[Idgit]

Actually I don't really see why Apple would bother. And this is not limited to Macs either. This is an issue with NVMe enclosures in general.

Name brand drives which include both the drive and enclosure should handle this on their own. So if you were to buy a say a Crucial USB drive, its controller should manage this. But that's Crucial building a drive with its own preferred controller and its own preferred flash. It's not trying to create an enclosure to be compatible with 200 different drives out there.

I don't know how it works with the OWC 1M2 pre-built drives, but my guess is they don't manage this either, since OWC builds neither the 1M2 enclosure chipset nor the Aura SSD controller.

My understanding is that on Windows, NVME external drives idle at lower temps and power usage vs Apple.

You said that "since Macs don't send the right commands" so I thought this was a feature of NVME drives that Apple chose not to support. And Apple also doesn't support HMB, so it would be in character for Apple to do the bare minimum.

Anyway, if--as you say--well-designed controllers would make a difference with regards to high idle temperatures then I guess we just have to hope that new, improved controllers are being designed.

In the meantime, I won't stress about it. These NVME drives have 5-year warranties so if the excessive heat kills them I should be covered in any case.

 

[splifingate]

May be different now?

Definitely a different scenario, now

 

[EugW]

My understanding is that on Windows, NVME external drives idle at lower temps and power usage vs Apple.

It seems so, but AFAIK, they still aren't running with the right power states, and the chipsets themselves are often power hogs too. The ASM2464PD drive enclosures + Samsung 990 Pro NVMe SSD may for example still draw 3-4 Watts at idle on Windows vs. 5+ Watts on Macs, but something like a Crucial X9 Pro will draw 0.7 Watts at idle (and 0.1 Watts in sleep mode) regardless if it's a Windows machine or a Mac.

 

[drrich2]

SK Hynix is not Chinese. It's Korean, and one of the biggest manufacturers of memory in the world. Apple is a major customer of SK Hynix.

See those two chips next to the M1? Those are SK Hynix RAM chips.

Thanks for the info. I wasn't implying SK Hynix is Chinese; my point was that many U.S. customers are guarded against what to them are strange 'Brand X' foreign products because of the reputation for cheap-made unreliable products (not unique to computer components; we could have this discussion about a handyman's tools). Whether it's Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese or what-have-you, the issue is it sounds foreign and they haven't heard of it.

By comparison, the Samsung name is plastered on lots of items both online and retail. Many of said customers may have a Samsung t.v. in their living room. At Western Digital has long been a widely recognized brand name in storage drives in the U.S. (I don't know about the rest of the world).

Glad to see Apple is a big customer of SK Hynix and that does sort of vouch for their credibility, much appreciated. But how many Apple product customers in the U.S. (my frame of reference; I'm aware there's more to the world) know that or recognize the name SK Hynix?

 

[EugW]

Thanks for the info. I wasn't implying SK Hynix is Chinese; my point was that many U.S. customers are guarded against what to them are strange 'Brand X' foreign products because of the reputation for cheap-made unreliable products (not unique to computer components; we could have this discussion about a handyman's tools). Whether it's Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese or what-have-you, the issue is it sounds foreign and they haven't heard of it.

By comparison, the Samsung name is plastered on lots of items both online and retail. Many of said customers may have a Samsung t.v. in their living room. At Western Digital has long been a widely recognized brand name in storage drives in the U.S. (I don't know about the rest of the world).

Glad to see Apple is a big customer of SK Hynix and that does sort of vouch for their credibility, much appreciated. But how many Apple product customers in the U.S. (my frame of reference; I'm aware there's more to the world) know that or recognize the name SK Hynix?

SK Hynix isn't big in the consumer market. They sell to OEMs like Apple. In fact they are one of the top three memory makers in the world, those being Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron. You mention Western Digital, but they aren't even 1/3rd as big as SK Hynix. WD is worth about US$25 billion. SK Hynix is worth about $80 billion. Apple buys from all three of those companies as those three represent the gold standard, so there's a good chance that the Mac or iPad you're typing on right now contains SK Hynix chips.

BTW, you probably know the company that originally founded the company that eventually became SK Hynix. That would be Hyundai. SK Hynix began life as Hyundai Electronics.

 

[RedNova6289]

I know this doesn't have much to do with the topic title, but does the Crucial X9 Pro also have overheating problems ?

This would be for connecting to an iMac M1 with Thunderbolt ports.

 

[EugW]

I know this doesn't have much to do with the topic title, but does the Crucial X9 Pro also have overheating problems ?

This would be for connecting to an iMac M1 with Thunderbolt ports.

The power utilization would be very low. I don't have the Crucial X9 Pro, but I do have the Samsung T7 Shield, and with heavy usage it merely gets warm. It never ever gets hot.

According to this AnandTech review, the Crucial X9 Pro also sips power like my Samsung T7 Shield.

BTW, with my M1 Mac mini, I would get about 85-90% of the speed out of my T7 Shield that I would get out of my 2017 Core i5 iMac, so clearly the Intel machine had a faster USB chipset.

 

[RedNova6289]

The power utilization would be very low. I don't have the Crucial X9 Pro, but I do have the Samsung T7 Shield, and with heavy usage it merely gets warm. It never ever gets hot.

According to this AnandTech review, the Crucial X9 Pro also sips power like my Samsung T7 Shield.

Thanks for the feedback !
I chose the 4TB version.

My SATA SSDs will be used as mirror backups 😊

 

[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.

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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:

View attachment 2452939

I’d been saying that one of the minor disadvantages of the Colorii / Hagibis / Qwiizlab is that it is space gray, not colour matched to the Mac mini whereas the OWC is colour matched silver.

Well it turns out that Colorii, who appears to be the OEM, indeed makes a color matched version.

 

[EugW]

After using the Qwiizlab ES40UR (made by Colorii) for a while, here are my results. Drive is 4 TB Samsung 990 Pro, with thermal pads on both sides of the drive (not just the NAND side). Room temp about 20C +/- 1C.

Mac mini off: Drive draws 0 Watts, stays at room temperature
Mac mini sleep: Drive draws 1.0-1.5 Watts, stays at about 27-29C.
Mac mini awake but drive idle: Draws 5.0-5.5 Watts, temp slowly rises until it reaches equilibrium at about 40-42C.
Mac mini awake and drive active: Draws 7.5-8.0 Watts. Temp gradually increases but remains well below 50C after 15 minutes of continuous file transfers. IIRC it reached 46C the last time I did that.*

*Before I put thermal pads on both sides of the SSD, I had been running it only with a thermal pad on the NAND/controller side of the drive. With that, temp after continuous file transfers for say 15 minutes would exceed 50C, and after extended file transfers (like close to an hour), it hit about 55C or so.

All of these temperatures are well within the normal operating range, which is up to 70C. However, I prefer my double thermal pad strategy as it takes a lot longer for temperatures to rise and the peak temperature is way lower too.

(Note that my meter will only display wattage measurements in 0.5 W increments, but I continue to use this one, because it supports full 40 Gbps USB 4 transfer speeds.)

 

[SpecFoto]

1Gb/s is better than what I have here with my SATA SSDs, but ideally I'd like to go up to around 2Gb/s.

If it's impossible to get these speeds without overheating, whatever the enclosure/NVMe, then maybe I'll have to wait a bit longer.

Are your Sata enclosures for a single SATA SSD? Maybe try setting up a pair in RAID, the R/W speeds are similar to 1Gb/s of my Samsung Shield and SanDiskExtreme V2 SSD's. I use the Oyen Digital MiniPro RAID V4 enclosures ($108 +/-) for my 2 RAID 2.5" SATA SSD desktop sets of 8TB, 2@ 4TB Samsung EVO and 16TB, 2@ 8TB Samsung QVO. Below is the speed test for the 16TB RAID

They are small, dead quiet and really generate no heat. Nice about the V4 is they are now USB-C Gen 3.2 at 10Gb/s and a have a 2nd in/out port to daisy chain the 2nd drive with just 1 cable from the Mac. Long time user of Oyen Digital, they have great service and 3 year warranties for empty enclosures

 

[RedNova6289]

Are your Sata enclosures for a single SATA SSD? Maybe try setting up a pair in RAID, the R/W speeds are similar to 1Gb/s of my Samsung Shield and SanDiskExtreme V2 SSD's. I use the Oyen Digital MiniPro RAID V4 enclosures ($108 +/-) for my 2 RAID 2.5" SATA SSD desktop sets of 8TB, 2@ 4TB Samsung EVO and 16TB, 2@ 8TB Samsung QVO. Below is the speed test for the 16TB RAID

They are small, dead quiet and really generate no heat. Nice about the V4 is they are now USB-C Gen 3.2 at 10Gb/s and a have a 2nd in/out port to daisy chain the 2nd drive with just 1 cable from the Mac. Long time user of Oyen Digital, they have great service and 3 year warranties for empty enclosuresView attachment 2458411

Thank you ! I didn't know about this type of enclosure, but unfortunately it's not available in my country (Belgium). Also, my SATA SDDs aren't as good as yours, they're Crucial BX 500 that I buy at very low prices during sales.

I'm currently using them as a backup mirror from a Crucial X9 Pro. I think I'm happy with that, although it's not very fast.

 

[EugW]