Why would you expect OWC hubs to behave any differently than other hubs?
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Thunderbolt 3 M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosures
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I did speak with a reddit user that boots from a HAGIBI / QWIIZLABS AS2464 enclosure. He says he has no issues whatsoever, not even during swapping.
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If it can help I did a number of threads some days ago to discuss power management with AS2464.
These USB 4 drives don't take much more power than the old school FireWire 800 drives.
This was actually a problem for FireWire since they were only spec'd to output 7 Watts, meaning some DIY FireWire + drive enclosure combinations could draw too much power.
Fortunately, our Mac's Thunderbolt 4 ports are spec'd to provide up to 15 Watts, which is more than enough for these DIY USB 4 + drive enclosure combinations. In my case with the Qwiizlab + 4 TB Samsung 990 Pro, I've never seen the power go above 8 Watts, even during heavy writes. Some other drives might push that up to 10-11 Watts in the very worst case scenario, but even that outlier 11 Watts number is less than 75% of the 15 W Thunderbolt 4 spec.
Where this could be a problem is on USB 4 Windows or Linux PCs where some of the ports may provide only 7.5 Watts, or if you're using USB 3 ports. However, if you're using a Thunderbolt 4 port on a Mac or a Thunderbolt 4 hub, power supplied to the drive should not be a significant issue.
This was actually a problem for FireWire since they were only spec'd to output 7 Watts, meaning some DIY FireWire + drive enclosure combinations could draw too much power.
Fortunately, our Mac's Thunderbolt 4 ports are spec'd to provide up to 15 Watts, which is more than enough for these DIY USB 4 + drive enclosure combinations. In my case with the Qwiizlab + 4 TB Samsung 990 Pro, I've never seen the power go above 8 Watts, even during heavy writes. Some other drives might push that up to 10-11 Watts in the very worst case scenario, but even that outlier 11 Watts number is less than 75% of the 15 W Thunderbolt 4 spec.
Where this could be a problem is on USB 4 Windows or Linux PCs where some of the ports may provide only 7.5 Watts, or if you're using USB 3 ports. However, if you're using a Thunderbolt 4 port on a Mac or a Thunderbolt 4 hub, power supplied to the drive should not be a significant issue.
Oh, I didn't mean that this could cause issues during usage. It's just that many people (myself included) like to use the Mac Mini as a server due to its incredible efficiency.
If the enclosure draws more power than the PC itself due to poor USB power management, well... that ruins part of the efficiency—especially if the enclosure prevents the PC from sleeping.
My point exactly.
I may have to take a look at OWC's hub. I hear Caldigit hubs are also good.
Regardless of the quality though, I need to know the manufacturer's customer service. I don't need a "snake-oil salesman" who disappears after the sale.
The reason I buy directly from manufacturer is "they standby" their warranty. But it turns out, not every manufacturers do.
If you look at ACASIS, their warranty page says:
"For products purchased through ACASIS official store (https://www.acasis.com), we wil provide a 1-year warranty. If any product defects or quality issues are discovered within 1 year of purchase, the ACASIS technical team wil decide to replace or repair it based on the severity of the defect. For irreparable products (out of stock and has no upgraded similar models), ACASIS wil provide a partial refund based on device usage time."
This is the reason why I bought it directly from them.
If you look at ACASIS, their warranty page says:
"For products purchased through ACASIS official store (https://www.acasis.com), we wil provide a 1-year warranty. If any product defects or quality issues are discovered within 1 year of purchase, the ACASIS technical team wil decide to replace or repair it based on the severity of the defect. For irreparable products (out of stock and has no upgraded similar models), ACASIS wil provide a partial refund based on device usage time."
This is the reason why I bought it directly from them.
My Qwiizlab ASM2464PD enclosure + Samsung 990 Pro 4 TB doesn’t prevent my M4 Mac mini from sleeping. During sleep, the drive's LED status light is off, and power utilization by the drive during sleep drops to between 1 and 1.5 W.
This is with the drive directly connected to the Mac mini. I don't know if the behaviour would be the same through a hub. I'll find out soon though, since I have a Hagibis on order. It's stuck on the other side of my country in customs, but when I finally get it, I will be connecting it via a Plugable Thunderbolt 4 hub.
Check out the posts on these forums by people wanting to get warranty service from OWC. It's hit and miss, with a few people getting ghosted by OWC too. YMMV.
Speaking of service...
I had some disconnect issue with that Plugable TB 4 hub mentioned above. After some troubleshooting I narrowed it down to my Thunderbolt 4 cable, so I asked Plugable to send me a new cable under warranty. They weren't 100% convinced it was the cable so they didn't send me the new cable as requested... Instead, they sent me an entire package, including TB 4 hub, TB 4 cable, AC adapter, and HDMI dongle. Well, it turns out it was in fact the cable, so now I have two fully functional TB 4 hubs and I now have the two hubs daisychained in my setup.
BTW, Amazon Basics now sells both a Thunderbolt 4 dock and a Thunderbolt 4 hub. They appear to be rebadged Good Way products.
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I know that you can boot from ASMEDIA2464 based enclosure as you can from USB3 if you use a TB Cable but....
- Sleep often does not work
- Power drain due to the not working Power Save Modes
- With Power Drain comes heat
- With heat comes deadend
My Display Sleeps after 3 Minutes my MBA after 5 Minutes.
I never shut down.
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The Amazon-branded TB4 compact hub is deffo a Goodway DBD1010 "Godzilla Creek" reference design:
. . . & performs well. As you'd expect.
(I have one; & await a different-branded "Godzilla Creek" for the second bus)
For more info, see the section: 2, 1 'Hubs requiring external PSU' in Dan's fine blog here
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Seems to be a reference design is also used by OWC and the TB4 Hub i use.
The Acasis 5 in 1 looks also the same.
The Amazon one has an additional Power Switch.
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
Re: TB4 hub performance . . . . here's a screenshot from a post on p49 of this thread:
. . . it was from nearly 15 months ago: me gloating (apologies) about the pretty fair performance of a directly-attached JHL7440 chipset ACASIS TB3 (only) enclosure with a fairly hot Phison e18 2TB NVME . . . indeed, I was so eager to gloat that the volume was still being indexed & so on . . . .
Just now, I measured the same hardware, now quite a bit fuller, actively in use as a boot drive, & now attached via the above DBD1010L1 compact TB4 hub:
. . . as you see, the 'all important' (if a boot drive) random-small-file performance - albeit with an unrealistic queue-depth - has become in no obvious way worse over c15 months of writes 'n reads . . . .
TB4 compact hubs - well, Goodway/Intel "Godzilla Creek" ones - rock.
. . . it was from nearly 15 months ago: me gloating (apologies) about the pretty fair performance of a directly-attached JHL7440 chipset ACASIS TB3 (only) enclosure with a fairly hot Phison e18 2TB NVME . . . indeed, I was so eager to gloat that the volume was still being indexed & so on . . . .
Just now, I measured the same hardware, now quite a bit fuller, actively in use as a boot drive, & now attached via the above DBD1010L1 compact TB4 hub:
. . . as you see, the 'all important' (if a boot drive) random-small-file performance - albeit with an unrealistic queue-depth - has become in no obvious way worse over c15 months of writes 'n reads . . . .
TB4 compact hubs - well, Goodway/Intel "Godzilla Creek" ones - rock.
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My Plugable is also the reference design.
I think I prefer it without the power switch. Hopefully the Amazon's switch isn't easy to inadvertently turn off.
I put small noctua fan on top of my haggis reduced the temp by more than 12C, now active idle is at 36C (before is 48C) and it is silent (I can't hear the fan).
I bought USB fan control to turn the fan on and off from AliExpress:
The speed control unfortunately doesn't seems to be working.
I bought USB fan control to turn the fan on and off from AliExpress:
The speed control unfortunately doesn't seems to be working.
@octoviaa That is a 4 wire PWM controller, and needs a 4 wire PWM fan to work.
Is your Noctua fan a FLX 3-wire model? That won't work with a 4-wire controller.
You need a Noctua fan that has PWM at the end of its model type.
For example NF-A6x15 5V PWM.
Is your Noctua fan a FLX 3-wire model? That won't work with a 4-wire controller.
You need a Noctua fan that has PWM at the end of its model type.
For example NF-A6x15 5V PWM.
Hi Paul,
Thank you so much, you're right.
Apparently I mistakenly bought the non-PWM (-FLX) when buying some noctua fans, however turns out some of them actually PWM version (with 4 pin) and the speed control works.
Though using the 'low speed' noctua cable is good enough (and very silent), I confirmed using the PWM version of noctua the speed control works just fine.
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Nice
FYI, Aliexpress has sale for JEYI 40Gbps USB 4.0 M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosure TB-2464 regular, pro and pro fan versions https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005007184834998.html. Happy with how it fairs for the JEYI TB-2464 Pro fan edition with my 2TB Kingston KC3000 - tests at https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...s.2027925/page-72?post=33615877#post-33615877. With a bit more active cooling https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/thunderbolt-3-m-2-nvme-ssd-enclosures.2027925/post-33619949
IIRC is regularly priced at AUD$100, I got mine for AUD$67 after AUD$22 discount on already discounted sale price. This time sale price is ~AUD$89.
I think OWC will only be 1 to 5C different assuming the same conditions (same SSD, same room temp, etc) as it uses the same ASM2464PD chip.
Check at EugW post his Qwiizlab (very similar with hagibis) is 41C, I bet with the same condition hagibis would be pretty close (if not the same).
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I'm happy to report that a 2TB Samsung 990 Pro in my Acasis TBU405 Pro M1 enclosure works as expected giving consistent read/write speeds of over 2900/2800 MBps, and no disconnections (unlike the 970 Evo Plus).
Temperatures are reassuringly cool, with an idle temp of 43-44C with the fan off, and a steady 40C with the fan on (measured by iStat Menus). For reference the M4 Pro Mini's internal SSD idles at 37C.
I'm wondering if someone might be able to point me in the right direction, given I have very limited knowledge. I have a MBA M1 connected to a StarTech TB3 dock. I'd like to hook up an NVME enclosure with a 2TB NVMe (Fanxiang or Crucial P3) to the TB3 port on the dock. I just need a basic extension to my storage - office files, photos, video.
There are a few TB3 / 20Gbps enclosures out there - Sabrent, Ugreen, Orico. The reliability of actually getting the TB3 performance seems to be questionable, based on a fairly sparse number of reviews. Plenty of people say they only get 10Gbps. It seems most people waited for TB4 and not many of these TB3 enclosures were sold.
If the 20Gbps TB3 enclosures can't be relied on, I'm in 2 minds about whether to just go with USB-C 10Gbps enclosure or future proof myself with a TB4 enclosure (no plan to use it for a long time and it will probably be superseded by TB5 at this point).
Should I just go with a USB-C 10gbps enclosure based on my fairly basic needs? Thanks.
There are a few TB3 / 20Gbps enclosures out there - Sabrent, Ugreen, Orico. The reliability of actually getting the TB3 performance seems to be questionable, based on a fairly sparse number of reviews. Plenty of people say they only get 10Gbps. It seems most people waited for TB4 and not many of these TB3 enclosures were sold.
If the 20Gbps TB3 enclosures can't be relied on, I'm in 2 minds about whether to just go with USB-C 10Gbps enclosure or future proof myself with a TB4 enclosure (no plan to use it for a long time and it will probably be superseded by TB5 at this point).
Should I just go with a USB-C 10gbps enclosure based on my fairly basic needs? Thanks.
Get a TB3 40 Gbps enclosure or a USB 4 40 Gbps enclosure. Don’t waste your time with a USB 3 class enclosure.
Not only is it faster to go with a modern 40 Gbps enclosure, it is generally more reliable too.