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AAPLGeek

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 12, 2009
739
2,294
Could anyone with a thunderbolt enclosure check the power draw in coconut battery when the drive is idle?

Also, what's the typical battery drain when the MacBook is asleep? Does it completely shut off or enter some super low power state?
 
Not many people have a TB enclosure as they are a lot more expensive than simple USB boxes. And power draw will depend a lot on the SSD that's installed, assuming you are referring to SSD enclosures (which you didn't specify).
 
Not many people have a TB enclosure as they are a lot more expensive than simple USB boxes. And power draw will depend a lot on the SSD that's installed, assuming you are referring to SSD enclosures (which you didn't specify).

Yes, I meant a thunderbolt SSD enclosure like the Acasis TBU405 which seems to be pretty popular on this forum.

I just wanted to get a general idea of the power draw on idle. Don’t think that varies a lot, especially when you’re using SSD in an enclosure.
 
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What NVME is in the enclosure ?

I had measured the Crucial P5 in an external USB enclosure @ MBA M2 as well as in a Hackintosh to draw constant 9W even in Sleep Mode with a Power Meter on AC.

The same will most likely be the Case for Samsung NVME with Phoenix Controller.

The WD SN850 as well as the SN 770 and SN 570 do not have that Problem in USB Enclosure @ MBA M2 or in and @ Hackintosh.
 
What NVME is in the enclosure ?

I had measured the Crucial P5 in an external USB enclosure @ MBA M2 as well as in a Hackintosh to draw constant 9W even in Sleep Mode with a Power Meter on AC.

The same will most likely be the Case for Samsung NVME with Phoenix Controller.

The WD SN850 as well as the SN 770 and SN 570 do not have that Problem in USB Enclosure @ MBA M2 or in and @ Hackintosh.

What controller does your USB-C enclosure have?

I've tested a WD SN570 in a RTL9210 based Orico 10GB/s enclosure and a TekQ thunderbolt 3 enclosure. Here are the results:

Orico 10GB/s​
TekQ 40GB/s​
Idle​
~3W​
~8W​
Sleep​
0W​
~3W​
The ~3W power draw in sleep with the thunderbolt enclosure causes almost 6-7% battery drain per hour on my MBA M1.
 
What controller does your USB-C enclosure have?

I've tested a WD SN570 in a RTL9210 based Orico 10GB/s enclosure and a TekQ thunderbolt 3 enclosure. Here are the results:

Orico 10GB/s​
TekQ 40GB/s​
Idle​
~3W​
~8W​
Sleep​
0W​
~3W​
The ~3W power draw in sleep with the thunderbolt enclosure causes almost 6-7% battery drain per hour on my MBA M1.
I would guess the TekQ Case Chipset does not work as expected with Mac.....

You should ask People using the Acasis TBU405 TB4 Case which is used very often as of the Power Draw, cause i use only the Innatek FE2025 Cases with RTL9210B wich is also 0,7 Watt @ idle with the WD SN 570 and WD SN 770.

But it may also depend on your use case, when using a TB Enclosure as Boot Drive things can work different.

I had measured the Crucial P5 in these RTL9210B Cases with Constant 9W also as internal NVME in Hackintosh Z490 based MoBo.

USB Compatibility is a Problem with Mac, sometimes one USB Hub or Client is messing up the rest of the Chain.
In my Case the iPhone 11 is messing up and i have to Restart when it was connected to get Sleep again.
 
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