Yes, it really does look nice, but I'd rather have the vertical cooling fins, as per my Orico enclosure. But maybe the extra girth of alloy in the enclosure works well? It's a tasty solution anyway... 👍
Since I am owning a great new MacBook Pro, I have been searching the web for a worthy external storage to go with it.
So my question is: Did I miss something, or are there just no portable Thunderbolt 3 external SSDs/SSD enclosures?
Have a look at Samsung Portable SSD X5 series (the "X" ones, not the "T" ones). These have been benchmarked to went above ~ 2.5GB/s throughput.
Great thread. So what’s the consensus on enclosures and SSD models beyond 1 TB?
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I'd take the enclosure *without* the ****** SSD inside.
Dammit. Looks like we have the new best enclosure. USB AND TB3.
Dammit. Looks like we have the new best enclosure. USB AND TB3.
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I'd take the enclosure *without* the sh*tty drive inside. Unfortunately you can't open it up. It's all politics to sell the drives. But time comes these enclosures will hopefully be available empty.
plenty of empty enclosures already exist.
Show the PCIe device info for the NVMe. It might be connecting with x2 instead of x4? The Orico is supposed to use the JHL6340 which has x4 lanes so it shouldn't be a problem.Hi everyone
OK, I have a mini (2018) Macmini8,1 6-Core Intel Core i7 20Gb memory.
I purchased a Thunderbolt 3 external Samsung X5 1TB drive last year. All good for my plethora of VM machines for testing stuff etc.
I wanted to get a 2TB nvme to expand my fleet so turned my attention to getting a Thunderbolt 3 enclosure + NVME drive and as a bit of 'Research and Development', I went for the Orico SCM2T3-G40 and took the plunge with a Crucial P5 2TB NVME as it seemed to have quite high R/W statistics.
Doing some AmorphousDiskMark tests I have the following for the mini internal disk, the Samsung and the Crucial. I had hoped the the Crucial would be up there with the others but sadly no. I have tried to find out if the Crucial is actually supported but to no avail on either Orico or Crucial support sites.
I’ve checked the Thunderbolt connections and the Orico is working as expected. Any ideas/recommendations?
Many thanks in advance.
I'd say incompatibility of the JHL6340 FW with some (UEFI implementation ??? in) SSD drives.Must be drive incompatibility with Mac then, much like the Samsung 960Pro 2TB mentioned above. Or a faulty cable (the one with my enclosure - same as yours - works fine).
Thanks for your comments guys.
1. All TB3 cables are performing well.
2. I’ve attached screenshots of the TB link info for each enclosure. I connected them to the same TB Bus slot each time for consistency. They look the same - link width 0x2 but showing that 40Gb/s x1 is available?
Right, next I decided to open up the Samsung enclosure and put the Samsung nvme into the Orico enclosure.
The Samsung nvme performs more or less the same as in its own enclosure. Good!
Then put the Crucial nvme into the Samsung enclosure.
The Crucial nvme is just the same as when in the Orico enclosure.
Conclusion: the Crucial is not compatible so will seek to get it exchanged by Amazon - I’ve tried to raise a support incident with Crucial but their site appears to be wonky at the moment.
Thunderbolt 3 is two lanes, 20 Gbps each. 40 Gbp/s x1 width x2 means the lanes are combined into a single connection which is normal.2. I’ve attached screenshots of the TB link info for each enclosure. I connected them to the same TB Bus slot each time for consistency. They look the same - link width 0x2 but showing that 40Gb/s x1 is available?
Interesting. That seems very conclusive that the issue is with the combination of Crucial with Thunderbolt type enclosures.Right, next I decided to open up the Samsung enclosure and put the Samsung nvme into the Orico enclosure.
The Samsung nvme performs more or less the same as in its own enclosure. Good!
Then put the Crucial nvme into the Samsung enclosure.
The Crucial nvme is just the same as when in the Orico enclosure.
Conclusion: the Crucial is not compatible so will seek to get it exchanged by Amazon - I’ve tried to raise a support incident with Crucial but their site appears to be wonky at the moment.
Sonnet Echo Express SE-I is Thunderbolt2. What's that gonna prove?Thunderbolt 3 is two lanes, 20 Gbps each. 40 Gbp/s x1 width x2 means the lanes are combined into a single connection which is normal.
Interesting. That seems very conclusive that the issue is with the combination of Crucial with Thunderbolt type enclosures.
One thing you didn't check is an enclosure that doesn't use Thunderbolt bus power? For example, a Sonnet Echo Express SE-I with a PCIe to NVMe adapter. I think it's likely that it won't change the result.
One thing you didn't show is the PCI connection information for the Crucial NVMe - there's a PCI section in System Information.app that has that info. The Samsung definitely is connecting with 8 GT/s x4. The Crucial could be less than that (which would be part of the problem), but it could be the same, and if it is, then the problem is an interaction between its NVMe controller and Thunderbolt.
Sonnet Echo Express SE I (Thunderbolt 3 Edition). Or any other similar enclosure.Sonnet Echo Express SE-I is Thunderbolt2. What's that gonna prove?
Right. Maybe the problem is not with all Thunderbolt 3 controllers. Maybe it's just a problem with the JHL6340 (single port Alpine Ridge). The Sonnet uses a two port Alpine Ridge. The OWC Mercury Helios 3S uses a two port Titan Ridge. Of course, you wouldn't want to use those enclosures all the time since they are not portable and are more expensive, but it would be an interesting test.It's not "between its NVMe controller and "Thunderbolt" " it's JHL6340 vs. FW/Controller/UEFI specs or whatever. Save your time with those drives if you're using a JHL6340 PCB or deepdive into FW patches of the JHL6340.
Sonnet Echo Express SE I (Thunderbolt 3 Edition). Or any other similar enclosure.
Right. Maybe the problem is not with all Thunderbolt 3 controllers. Maybe it's just a problem with the JHL6340 (single port Alpine Ridge). The Sonnet uses a two port Alpine Ridge. The OWC Mercury Helios 3S uses a two port Titan Ridge. Of course, you wouldn't want to use those enclosures all the time since they are not portable and are more expensive, but it would be an interesting test.