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MacRumors Giveaway: Win OWC's Envoy Pro Mini 120GB SSD

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For this week's giveaway, we've teamed up with OWC to give away the Envoy Pro mini, a desktop class solid state drive that fits into a keychain-sized enclosure. The Envoy Pro mini measures in at 3.7 inches by 0.94 inches by 0.44 inches, but houses a 120GB or 240GB SSD.

owcenvoymini-800x489.jpg

Despite being able to fit comfortably in a pocket, the Envoy Pro mini is nearly twice as fast as the average thumb drive, reaching sustained speeds up to 427MB/s, so it's excellent for tasks regular thumb drives can't achieve, like quickly transferring large files.

envoyminisize-800x272.jpg

The Envoy Pro mini, which is available directly from OWC, is priced at $117.99 for the 120GB version or $184.99 for the 240GB version, but one MacRumors reader will have a chance to get the 120GB version for free.

To enter to win, use the Rafflecopter widget below and enter your email address. Your email address will not be given to any third party and will be used solely for contact purposes to reach the winner.

You can earn additional entries by subscribing to our weekly newsletter, subscribing to our YouTube channel, following us on Twitter, or visiting the MacRumors Facebook page. Due to the complexities of international laws regarding giveaways, only U.S. residents who are 18 years of age or older are eligible to enter.

The contest will run from today (September 18) at 11:30 a.m. Pacific Time through 11:30 a.m. Pacific Time on September 25. The winner will be chosen randomly on September 25 and will be contacted by email. The winner have 48 hours to respond and provide a shipping address. The prizes will be shipped to the winner for free.

Article Link: MacRumors Giveaway: Win OWC's Envoy Pro Mini 120GB SSD
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2015/09/18/macrumors-giveaway-envoy-pro-mini-ssd/
Needs a way of attaching to a keyring.

Also, how does this connect? USB 2? 3? C? Thunderbolt? Something else?
 
Seriously curious - since USB thumb drives are pretty much limited by the speed of the bus, how is this any better than a thumb drive?
 
It really is a "thumb drive", but a really large thumb! :D
As the advertising suggests, it's a desktop class SSD, not a memory card that would be usual in a consumer flash drive.
The limitation is not so much the USB bus, but the storage device itself.
At the advertised 427 MB/s (3.4 Gbps), within reach of the USB 3 theoretical speed of 625 MBps (5 Gbps, eh?)
And, more relevant, significantly faster than most USB flash drives. Sandisk Extreme Pro, for example, rated at 240 to 260 MBps - so the OWC is advertised as at least 64% faster (and there's not many faster flash drives than that Sandisk Ex Pro.)
 
Gav2k said:
By nature USB drives use slow flash memory. These drives have an ssd inside with a USB 3 bus so you get a significant speed bump.

Or you could appreciate that this is a forum and forums are there to ask even the simplest of questions
Click to expand...

Cool, thank you for the answer!

DeltaMac said:
It really is a "thumb drive", but a really large thumb! :D
As the advertising suggests, it's a desktop class SSD, not a memory card that would be usual in a consumer flash drive.
The limitation is not so much the USB bus, but the storage device itself.
At the advertised 427 MB/s (3.4 Gbps), within reach of the USB 3 theoretical speed of 625 MBps (5 Gbps, eh?)
And, more relevant, significantly faster than most USB flash drives. Sandisk Extreme Pro, for example, rated at 240 to 260 MBps - so the OWC is advertised as at least 64% faster (and there's not many faster flash drives than that Sandisk Ex Pro.)
Click to expand...

Oh wow, didn't realize the difference was so high - thanks!
 
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What are the REAL SUSTAINED read and write speeds, for instance with QuickBench of DiskTools Pro?

Can it be used to boot Mac and work all day long (24 h)? In other words, is it certified as Mac-to-Go (much as Windows to Go pendrives?).

Does it reduce performance or comes to a halt when being used due to heat throttling?

How does it compare to other alternatives like:

- Mushkin Ventura Ultra USB 3.0 (455 MB/s read & 445 MB/s write).
- VisionTek USB Pocket SSD USB 3.0 (455 MB/s read & 440 MB/s write).
- Corsair USB 3.0 (450 MB/s read & 350 MB/s write).
- Super Talent USB 3.0 Express RC4 - Windows To Go (320 MB/s read & 120 MB/s write).
- Kingston DataTraveler Workspace USB 3.0 - Windows to Go (250 MB/s read & 250 MB/s write).
- Spyrus WorkSafe Pro - Windows To Go USB 3.0 (249 MB/s read & 238 MB/s write)?

Are there models using USB 3.1 type-C (reversible) Generation 2?

Are there models using Thunderbolt 3?
 
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I already have this in the form of the muskin ventura ultra. The ****** sandforce controller is no better now than it ever was. At least muskin has a lifetime warentee, which I have used 3 times already.
I'm willing to bet OWC is still using the sandforce controller too.
 
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Rocketman said:
So a thumb drive with substantially higher capacity. Is it bootable??
Click to expand...
Any thumb drive is bootable. I have a 4GB thumb drive with Ubuntu installed, for example. The speed of the thumb drive will determine your level of satisfaction with OS responsiveness though.
 
ArtOfWarfare said:
Needs a way of attaching to a keyring.
Also, how does this connect? USB 2? 3? C? Thunderbolt? Something else?
Click to expand...
The USB 3 connector and lanyard attached to the device in the photos up there didn't answer that for you? Usually people ask weird questions when they don't bother to read the article, but not looking at the pictures…?
 
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Anyone know what material it is made of- plastic or aluminum?

Apparently aluminum..
 
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I absolutely, positively promise not to moan about this giveaway being US only........ Oh Damnit - I just did!

Sorry about that - back on topic, I think this is a great product & may think about getting something like this in the near future. I regularly have to copy over 70+Gb of files to a thumb drive at the end of a working day & something this fast would save me lots of time at the end of a day. Just need the costs to come down a bit.
 
coldsweat said:
I absolutely, positively promise not to moan about this giveaway being US only........ Oh Damnit - I just did!

Sorry about that - back on topic, I think this is a great product & may think about getting something like this in the near future. I regularly have to copy over 70+Gb of files to a thumb drive at the end of a working day & something this fast would save me lots of time at the end of a day. Just need the costs to come down a bit.
Click to expand...

If you happen to have any friends in the USA, I'm sure they'd be willing to forward a parcel, but don't go shouting it in this thread .. uh uh....

Your second issue solved: I have a 256GB Samsung 850 EVO which is now about £70 on Amazon, and is a lovely SSD, and I put it in a decent 2.5'' enclosure with a very long name that cost about £15:

Inateck 2.5 Inch USB 3.0 Hard Drive Disk HDD External Enclosure Case with USB 3.0 Cable for 9.5mm 7mm 2.5" SATA HDD and SSD, Tool-free, Optimized For SSD, Support UASP SATA III (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Inateck-External-Enclosure-Tool-free-Optimized/dp/B00FCLG65U/ )

Was using that combo for a while, and getting a decent 500MB/sec off it (SSD is now in another laptop so I can't recall exact number) and very happy with it. Cheaper than the thumbdrive on offer here, with twice the space. Only thing is it's larger but that isn't a big issue for me, it's the difference between a pack of fags and a pack of chewing gum. Uses less power than a spinny HDD so laptop batteries last longer.
 
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
mentaluproar said:
I already have this in the form of the muskin ventura ultra. The ****** sandforce controller is no better now than it ever was. At least muskin has a lifetime warentee, which I have used 3 times already.
I'm willing to bet OWC is still using the sandforce controller too.
Click to expand...

I just checked the Mushkin and OWC websites. Mushkin is currently offering a 2 year warranty on their drives. OWC is offering 3 years. If you got lifetime on yours, that's fantastic. But 3 years seems pretty fair for a product like this.

http://poweredbymushkin.com/index.p...ltra/751-ventura-ultra-120gb-flash-drive.html

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/ENVMKU3S240/
 
Read the Amazon user reviews on some of these products and you will be shocked. To start, the heat throttling is a nasty blocking real problem. Do not be fooled. The only one not having such problem among the ones that I have tested is Kingston DataTraveler Workspace USB 3.0 - Windows to Go. Works great booting Mac.
 
stiligFox said:
Seriously curious - since USB thumb drives are pretty much limited by the speed of the bus, how is this any better than a thumb drive?
Click to expand...

I still have a really old USB 1 "thumb drive" with 128MB on it. Slow flash, slow USB bus. Perfect match.

USB 2 was fast enough for most recent flash drives-- fast enough, in fact, for your average backup hard drive-- but, high overhead and kind of slow for system disk usage.

The drive in question has USB 3, which is much faster and also much lower overhead. USB 3 is fast enough, and, low overhead, so that it is suitable for normal disk drive use. And, the flash used in the drive in question is also much, much, much faster (1000X maybe?) than that USB 1 drive, or, any USB 2 hard drive even. So the USB 3 bus, and, the flash, are a good match.
 
I take advantage of USB3 with my mushkin. Booting and running linux distros is great off this, as is running portableapps in windows and doing massive file transfers. This really is a great thing, but not reliable.
 
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