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abhi182

macrumors regular
Apr 24, 2016
173
121
That seems to be pretty definitive.

Does the second configuration (SSD in OWC Elite Pro mini (10Gbps)) actually connect to the M1 Mac at 10Gpbs according to the USB hub connections in the System Report, or only 5Gbps? My 10Gbps USB enclosure connects at the full-speed on my MBP16 but at only 5Gbps on my M1 Mini. Speed differences are similar to yours when connected by USB:
See the screenshot i posted
The M1 does do 10gbps with a USB-C drive as well - and not only TB

Post in thread 'USB on M1 Macs isn't actually 10Gb/s? (Also definitely not USB4)'
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...lso-definitely-not-usb4.2269777/post-29517528
 

Fomalhaut

macrumors 68000
Oct 6, 2020
1,979
1,717
See the screenshot i posted
The M1 does do 10gbps with a USB-C drive as well - and not only TB

Post in thread 'USB on M1 Macs isn't actually 10Gb/s? (Also definitely not USB4)'
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...lso-definitely-not-usb4.2269777/post-29517528
Thanks for the reply. My question was directed at @starmax who posted his disk speed test results, but didn't state the actual connection speeds of his USB enclosures.

The issue appears to be inconsistent connection speeds with some USB 3.1Gen2 interfaces. Looks like the Samsung T7 can connect at 10Gbps, but others 10Gbps controllers can't with the M1 machines (but can with Intel Macs and some PCs).

This at least promises the possibility of a software fix if it has been demonstrated that the Apple M1 USB hardware is capable of 10Gbps connections.
 

abhi182

macrumors regular
Apr 24, 2016
173
121
Thanks for the reply. My question was directed at @starmax who posted his disk speed test results, but didn't state the actual connection speeds of his USB enclosures.

The issue appears to be inconsistent connection speeds with some USB 3.1Gen2 interfaces. Looks like the Samsung T7 can connect at 10Gbps, but others 10Gbps controllers can't with the M1 machines (but can with Intel Macs and some PCs).

This at least promises the possibility of a software fix if it has been demonstrated that the Apple M1 USB hardware is capable of 10Gbps connections.
Yeah - there is something off for sure.
Even with a 10gbps speed, the T7 is returning about 20-25% lower R/W speeds than what it gets on a windows Intel machine (1000+sequential read)
Hopefully 11.2 fixes that..
 

y0zza

macrumors regular
Mar 10, 2005
120
18
UK
Another couple of data points on M1 MBA.

WD SN550 1TB NVMe SSD in two different USB 3.1 gen 2 enclosures at 10Gbps link speed:
ASM2362 chip = 685 MB/s read, 780 MB/s write
RTL 9210b chip = 820-825 MB/s read and write

Crucial X8 2TB external SSD (USB-C 10Gbps) = 815 MB/s read, 685 MB/s write
ASM2362 9210b Crucial X8
 
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Jzjz2021

macrumors newbie
Jan 12, 2021
15
3
Hello good people
I have been tracking this thread for a while now and have been meaning to post this info.
I bought a M1 MBP 16GB/1TB around Xmas and having been trying out various enclosures and external hard drives since then. I have run into the same speed issues as others have mentioned in this post.
I think I have finally found the fastest enclosure that is compatible with the current M1 MBP.
It is an ACASIS USB4.0 Nvme Enclosure


It is a little pricey but worth it. The speeds are excellent and it is higher quality than I expected. I thought it would be a cheap aluminum enclosure but it is high quality, heavy solid metal. The temps are decent without needing a noisy fan. Around 40c idle and 60c running full speed benchmarks for 20-30minutes or doing a 50-100GB file transfer.

The attached screenshot has all the specs and info I could cram into it.

Not sure what exactly the USB4.0 specs difference is vs. Thunderbolt 3.
But it is detected as 40GB/s in system info. The chipset in the enclosure is an Intel JHL 7440.

Currently I am using a WD Blue 1TB NVME in the enclosure. I am tempted to try other faster NVME sticks but the WD Blue is the fastest and cheapest available now in the 1TB size. I would really like to test faster NVME sticks just to see were the speed ceiling is on this enclosure. I am guessing around 3000-4000MB/s is the fastest it can handle?
The post above mine is using the same NVME stick that I am using just for comparison numbers.

Screen Shot 2021-01-12 at 1.39.24 AM.png
 
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joevt

macrumors 604
Jun 21, 2012
6,935
4,237
ACASIS USB4.0 Nvme Enclosure
I's probably not USB4 though. It probably uses a Thunderbolt 3 chip for Thunderbolt and a JMS583 chip for USB 3.1 gen 2 compatibility. It has no USB4 compatibility for a USB4 host that supports PCIe tunnelling but doesn't support Thunderbolt timing (I don't think any hosts like that exist yet outside of the USB4 spec). In that case it will fall back to USB 3.1 gen 2 speed.
Maybe you can show a picture of the chips it uses, and/or show the ioreg containing the PCI vendor and device IDs.

edit: pictures below at https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...lso-definitely-not-usb4.2269777/post-29538540 show the chips JHL7440 and JMS583 - not USB4 chips.
 
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orpheus1120

macrumors 65816
Jan 23, 2008
1,430
57
Malaysia
It is a thunderbolt 3 enclosure. First time I see an empty enclosure with JHL7440. So this will work on both USB and Thunderbolt 3 connections. Good one.
 
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Jzjz2021

macrumors newbie
Jan 12, 2021
15
3
It was the newest enclosure I could find listed anywhere on the webs’. Vendor name is Intel and device ID is 0x16, just pulling that from system info on Mac. If you zoom into screenshot there are a few more details. The board is mounted upside down so I can’t take a picture of the chip inside the enclosure. I will try to take it apart, to get a real pic. Also I will try to plug it into a newish’ windows laptop to get some more info but I don’t have a thunderbolt connection on any windows boxes so it will probably just ID the USB chip. So far it is working great and compatibility is good, it worked in every device I plugged it into. I will look into ioreg to pull anymore info I can.
 

BeatCrazy

macrumors 603
Jul 20, 2011
5,106
4,461
I's probably not USB4 though. It probably uses a Thunderbolt 3 chip for Thunderbolt and a JMS583 chip for USB 3.1 gen 2 compatibility. It has no USB4 compatibility for a USB4 host that supports PCIe tunnelling but doesn't support Thunderbolt timing (I don't think any hosts like that exist yet outside of the USB4 spec). In that case it will fall back to USB 3.1 gen 2 speed.
Maybe you can show a picture of the chips it uses, and/or show the ioreg containing the PCI vendor and device IDs.

It is a thunderbolt 3 enclosure. First time I see an empty enclosure with JHL7440. So this will work on both USB and Thunderbolt 3 connections. Good one.
I went ahead and ordered one from Amazon, it will arrive Sunday Jan 24. I will take it apart as best I can and post pictures if anyone is interested.

The drive I'll use is a 1TB ADATA XPG SX8200.
 
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Jzjz2021

macrumors newbie
Jan 12, 2021
15
3
I went ahead and ordered one from Amazon, it will arrive Sunday Jan 24. I will take it apart as best I can and post pictures if anyone is interested.

The drive I'll use is a 1TB ADATA XPG SX8200.
Excellent. I hope it works well for you.:) I am very interested to see what kind of speeds the 1TB ADATA XPG SX8200 can squeeze out of it. Hopefully you can reach or break the 3000MB/s barrier.🚀
 

DeanL

macrumors 65816
May 29, 2014
1,345
1,287
London
I also have speed problems.
My drive (Orico NVMe enclosure PCM2-C3 + Intel 660P Series) performs about 250 MB/s faster when connected to the Thunderbolt/USB port of my LG UltraFine 4K compared to when it's plugged directly on my M1 Mac...
Seems solved by 11.2 RC
 

legato01

macrumors newbie
Jun 4, 2015
28
20
Have both the:

  1. Orico M2PV-C3 enclosure
    1. RTL9210 chipset
    2. Paired with a 1TB Kingston A2000 NVMe
    3. ~820MB/s write and ~840MB/s read - not complaining here
    4. No issues with sleep
      1. Goes to sleep after 10 minutes of no activity
      2. When you access the drive, immediately becomes available with no issues
    5. Did not realize this one was ABS plastic with an aluminum heat sink
    6. So got an all aluminum enclosure below
  2. Orico M2PJM-C3 enclosure
    1. All aluminum enclosure
    2. RTL9210B chipset
    3. Same ~820 MB/s write and ~840MB/s read
    4. BUT, having issues with waking up from sleep
      1. Sometimes the NVME becomes read only
      2. Sometimes doesn't show up on my desktop (after having been setup that way)
Not sure if my unit is a dud or maybe I'm doing something wrong.
Just transferred the NVMe back to the original enclosure and its fine again.

Anyone have issues with sleep/wakeup?

Also ordered the Acasis USB 4.0. 2-3 weeks delivery in our area.

Seems to be the cost effective way to go to get virtually the same performance as the internal 256GB drive.
 

Peepo

macrumors 65816
Jun 18, 2009
1,174
627
Apple has fixed the USB C transfer speed in upcoming release of Big Sur 11.2? That is great news!
I installed 11.2 and it does not fix the speed issue for me. My 2TB Sandisk Extreme gets around the same 780MB/sec and my T5 512GB around 340MB/sec.
 

DEMinSoCAL

macrumors 603
Sep 27, 2005
5,054
7,263
I went ahead and ordered one from Amazon, it will arrive Sunday Jan 24. I will take it apart as best I can and post pictures if anyone is interested.

The drive I'll use is a 1TB ADATA XPG SX8200.
Nice enclosure, but the price seems a bit steep. It's time for these TB3 enclosures to come down to earth in pricing.

I have the Orico TB3 enclosure based on the older Intel JHL6340 and I bought it for $78 back in NOV 2020. It has risen in price since (around $100 when not on sale). With my Samsung EVO+ 970 in it on my Mini M1, I get 2600/1200 read/write. I wonder if the JHL7440 will improve the write?

Looking at the comparison between the 6340 and 7440, the cost of the controller chips themselves is <$10!!! Why are these >$100 enclosures?

The JHL6340 also seems to support a USB 3.1 Gen2 (10 Gbps) connection also.
 

BeatCrazy

macrumors 603
Jul 20, 2011
5,106
4,461
Excellent. I hope it works well for you.:) I am very interested to see what kind of speeds the 1TB ADATA XPG SX8200 can squeeze out of it. Hopefully you can reach or break the 3000MB/s barrier.🚀

It will be ~ 2700MBps max.
So I got the ACASIS USB4.0 Mobile M.2 Nvme Enclosure today and I installed my 1TB ADATA XPG SX8200.

Speeds are much less than I was expecting. Write speeds often dip below 1000MB/s.

I tried with both a Belkin TB3, and the included ACASIS TB3 cable, no difference.

Speed.png
IMG_0255.jpg
IMG_0258.jpg
 

DEMinSoCAL

macrumors 603
Sep 27, 2005
5,054
7,263
So I got the ACASIS USB4.0 Mobile M.2 Nvme Enclosure today and I installed my 1TB ADATA XPG SX8200.

Speeds are much less than I was expecting. Write speeds often dip below 1000MB/s.

I tried with both a Belkin TB3, and the included ACASIS TB3 cable, no difference.
FWIW, I had lots of issues with the ADATA SX8200 PRO with my Orico enclosure (JHL6340). Write tests would make the drive eject.

I also had issues with the SK Hynix Gold P31 1TB. I finally settled on the Samsung EVO+ 970 1TB. Stable, but I think the write speeds could be better.
 

Jzjz2021

macrumors newbie
Jan 12, 2021
15
3
So I got the ACASIS USB4.0 Mobile M.2 Nvme Enclosure today and I installed my 1TB ADATA XPG SX8200.

Speeds are much less than I was expecting. Write speeds often dip below 1000MB/s.

I tried with both a Belkin TB3, and the included ACASIS TB3 cable, no difference.

View attachment 1718663
View attachment 1718664 View attachment 1718665

Hmm🧐..strange, the speeds should be faster..the nvme stick you are using is higher spec than the wd blue I am using..the adata is rated for 3500/3000, the wd blue is only 2600/1800
A couple of brainstorming ideas:
-Try a different benchmark. Black Magic results were very noisy’. In my screenshot I also used the diskmark app and sensei app. Diskmark is free and sensei has a 30 day trial.
-Did you try both USB ports on the Mac?
-Make sure the lighting logo on the cable is facing up on the Mac end.
-Look at Mac system info and compare the numbers to my screenshot. Check to make sure it is really using the thunderbolt bus not the usb bus.
-Is your Mac an air, mini or pro?
Xx scratch the last 3 ideas, your last post answers those questions xX
 
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orpheus1120

macrumors 65816
Jan 23, 2008
1,430
57
Malaysia
Did a google search. It seems the ADATA XPG SX8200 line is littered with issues.

Your system info looks alright. It's not the cable issue.
 

Jzjz2021

macrumors newbie
Jan 12, 2021
15
3
hehe would be cool if the problem is that simple. Type-C connector is omni-directional.
It was just a long shot idea 💡:)..I have a few usb-c devices, like a sandisk extreme ssd, that don’t work full speed if the cable logo or the triangle mark on the cable isn’t facing up. Especially when using the usb-a adapter. That strange issue tripped me up for a while.
 
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