External SSD m2 Thunderbolt 3 will work with Mac with Thunderbolt 2?

[Riwam]

My Trash Can has only Thunderbolt 2 and I would like to use an external enclosure with an SSD m2 nvme which requests a Thunderbolt 3 computer. If I use the Apple Thunderbolt 3 to 2 adapter and a Thunderbolt 2 cable from the adapter to the Mac will it work? I intended to buy a Orico external enclosure and have a Samsung 1 TB 970 Evo Plus for the enclosure. Thank you for any help!

 

[OnawaAfrica]

should work without a issue just remmeber it wont support fill TB3 Bandwith

 

[Juicy Box]

If I use the Apple Thunderbolt 3 to 2 adapter and a Thunderbolt 2 cable from the adapter to the Mac will it work?

It should if the enclosure you get has its own separate power source, as the bidirectional adapter does not provide power for TB3 over the bus.

If the enclosure gets its power from the bus, then you need something else to power it in between the Mac and the TB3 enclosure, such as a TB3 dock.

BTW, I can confirm that it does work, on a Late 2012 iMac, I booted from a Samsung X5, with a 1TB 970 EVO Plus NVMe swapped with the 500GB that came with the X5. I used a TB3 dock to power the X5, and the bidirectional adapter and a TB1/2 cable to connect to the iMac. My max sequential read was 900MBps+.

Most likely the fastest single drive (non-RAID) solution for TB1 Macs.

 

[joevt]

the bidirectional adapter does not provide power for TB3 over the bus

Correct for this case where the host is Thunderbolt 2 and the peripheral is Thunderbolt 3 - it won't supply power for the Thunderbolt 3 peripheral.

However, in case you get a new Mac, the adapter does provide some power if the host is Thunderbolt 3/4 and the peripheral is Thunderbolt 1/2 - enough power for the Apple Thunderbolt to Gigabit Ethernet Adapter and the Apple Thunderbolt to FireWire Adapter.

the bidirectional adapter and a TB1/2 cable to connect to the iMac

Right, you need a Thunderbolt 2 cable to connect the Mac Pro 2013 to the adapter since the adapter has a female Thunderbolt 1/2 connector.

If the enclosure gets its power from the bus, then you need something else to power it in between the Mac and the TB3 enclosure, such as a TB3 dock.

Another reason to put a TB3 device (with two Thunderbolt 3 ports) between the Mac and the TB3 NVMe enclosure is if the TB3 NVMe enclosure doesn't have a female Thunderbolt 3 connector since the Apple Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 Adapter has a male USB-C connector.