OWC Debuts 'Fastest USB-C SSD Ever' With Up to 2TB of Storage

[MacRumors]

OWC, a well-known maker of storage solutions for Macs and PCs, today debuted what it says is "the fastest USB-C SSD ever."

The new OWC Envoy Pro EX with USB-C is a bus-powered NVMe M.2 SSD with transfer speeds up to 980MB/s, one bay with up to 2TB of storage, and Thunderbolt 3 compatibility on both Macs and PCs. The external drive has a silver anodized aluminum housing with IP67-rated water and dust resistance.

Regular pricing is as follows: Enclosure alone: $89.99
250GB SSD: $129.99
500GB SSD: $179.99
1TB SSD: $249.99
2TB SSD: $429.99The new OWC Envoy Pro EX with USB-C is available now at MacSales.com.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with OWC. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

Article Link: OWC Debuts 'Fastest USB-C SSD Ever' With Up to 2TB of Storage

 

[sydneysider88]

Holy ****. Well I know what I’m replacing my T5s with...

 

[G5isAlive]

not to nitpick.. but enclosure alone price is $89. https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/ENVPROC2N00/

 

[oneMadRssn]

not to nitpick.. but enclosure alone price is $89. https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/ENVPROC2N00/

Pretty reasonable price actually...

 

[Pbrutto]

I was thinking about getting a t5 to replace my current external.......but this is way cheaper than I expected.

Edit: never mind I forgot reading comprehension. Still just usb 3.1 gen 2, thunderbolt is just for a spec sheet.

 

[justperry]

I was thinking about getting a t5 to replace my current external.......but this is way cheaper than I expected.

Edit: never mind I forgot reading comprehension. Still just usb 3.1 gen 2, thunderbolt is just for a spec sheet.

Most likely because it's TLC instead of MLC, SLC is even much more expensive.

I for one would not touch TLC.

 

[Dixie Normous]

Nitpick: fastest external SSD ever is actually Samsung X5: https://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/product/portable/x5/ with 2TB capacity and ~2,800 MB/s read/write speeds.

 

[madge28]

Pretty reasonable price actually...

I think he just meant it’s not $94.99 as the article says

 

[macduke]

OWC, a well-known maker of storage solutions for Macs and PCs, today debuted what it says is "the fastest USB-C SSD ever."

Nitpick: fastest external SSD ever is actually Samsung X5: https://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/product/portable/x5/ with 2TB capacity and ~2,800 MB/s read/write speeds.

Nitpick: That's not what they claimed.

Nitpick: The X5 is Thunderbolt 3 only.

 

[NickName99]

There are a bunch of competing NVMe enclosures available for a fraction of the cost of this one. Here’s one for $29:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07MNFH1PX

OWC makes great products though, I’m sure their $90 one is very well built and backed by a reliable warranty. I’ve got one of their old Mercury Elite Pro 3.5” enclosures on my desk.

 

[dmylrea]

This OWC product doesn't really state what USB version it supports. The USB-C version (denotes the connector only) supports Thunderbolt 3. Does TB3 contain some version of USB 3.1 on top of TB3 speeds?

I would think for a TB3 product and a NVMe SSD, they would be able to push more than 980MB/s out a TB3 port.

 

[nicho]

This OWC product doesn't really state what USB version it supports. The USB-C version (denotes the connector only) supports Thunderbolt 3. Does TB3 contain some version of USB 3.1 on top of TB3 speeds?

I would think for a TB3 product and a NVMe SSD, they would be able to push more than 980MB/s out a TB3 port.

1) it literally does state that on the linked website, in the specs. USB 3.1 gen 2.

2) it isn't actually a Thunderbolt 3 product. I'm not sure what "Thunderbolt 3" compatibility really means beyond being able to plug it in without enjoying the full speeds. it's like a USB mouse advertising USB 3.0 compatibility.

 

[NickName99]

This OWC product doesn't really state what USB version it supports. The USB-C version (denotes the connector only) supports Thunderbolt 3. Does TB3 contain some version of USB 3.1 on top of TB3 speeds?

I would think for a TB3 product and a NVMe SSD, they would be able to push more than 980MB/s out a TB3 port.

These NVMe enclosures are always capped at these speeds when they’re USB 3.1 gen 2. This one is clearly not TB3.

 

[Joe Rossignol]

not to nitpick.. but enclosure alone price is $89. https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/ENVPROC2N00/

Press release indicated $94.99.

I indicated "regular" pricing in my article. It looks like they're having a launch sale.

Nevertheless, the enclosure alone looks to be regular $89.99, on sale for $89.00, so their press release was wrong.

I've updated it. Thanks!

 

[dmylrea]

1) it literally does state that on the linked website, in the specs. USB 3.1 gen 2.

2) it isn't actually a Thunderbolt 3 product. I'm not sure what "Thunderbolt 3" compatibility really means beyond being able to plug it in without enjoying the full speeds. it's like a USB mouse advertising USB 3.0 compatibility.

I went to the macsales.com website and clicked on the front page link for this product and it takes me to a page for the product that literally does NOT show what USB speeds the TB3 version supports.

The page DOES SAY there are two versions of the product...a TB3 version and a USB version.

This product clearly is NOT a Thunderbolt 3 device.

 

[nicho]

I went to the macsales.com website and clicked on the front page link for this product and it takes me to a page for the product that literally does NOT show what USB speeds the TB3 version supports.

Do you get upset that Apple doesn't list cellular bands for wifi + cellular ipads on this page - https://www.apple.com/ipad/ - too? It's not rocket science to find.

The page DOES SAY there are two versions of the product...a TB3 version and a USB version.

It does say there are two versions. It does not say there is a TB3 version and a USB version. Look again at the page you linked. [edit: depending on your point of view it either says there are two USB versions - the ones on this page, side by side - or three versions total, a TB3 version and two USB ones]

This product clearly is NOT a Thunderbolt 3 device.

Well yeah, i already said that in the post you replied to. Odd choice of capitals.

 

[embraceware]

I much prefer their Thunderbolt 3 drive:
https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/owc-envoy-pro-ex-thunderbolt-3

2800MB/s Read

 

[jdclifford]

E

not to nitpick.. but enclosure alone price is $89. https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/ENVPROC2N00/

I believe the drive ships in the included enclosure doesn't it? It's an external drive, not an internal one being converted.

 

[onespeedvelo]

It does not make sense. Why claim to be the fastest USB 3.1 drive? USB 3.1 is good for compatibility but it is a bottleneck since many NVMe SSD's are faster.
I am still looking for a Thunderbolt enclosure, not a USB-C enclosure..
Now looking at the page instead for their
2.0TB OWC Envoy Pro EX with Thunderbolt 3 - Rugged High-Performance Ultra-Compact External SSD
which has the same price for more than twice the speed! That is rather what I need!

However that post is already one year old!

https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/owc-envoy-pro-ex-thunderbolt-3

Performance

• Up to 2500MB/s

Interface (chipset)

• Thunderbolt 3 (Intel DSL 6340)

Drive Interface

• M.2 NVMe (PCIe 3.0)

Max Data Transfer Rate

• Thunderbolt 3: 40 Gb/s(or 5000 MB/s)

[doublepost=1561480038][/doublepost]

E
I believe the drive ships in the included enclosure doesn't it? It's an external drive, not an internal one being converted.

I think they sell the enclosure alone so you can add your own NVMe M2 drive..

 

[Jmausmuc]

These NVMe enclosures are always capped at these speeds when they’re USB 3.1 gen 2. This one is clearly not TB3.

Why would anyone buy a NVMe enclosure that only supports usb 3.1 transfer speeds?

 

[Freida]

So what is the most reliable external SSD on the market now, please? Is it the Samsung ones, OWC or another one?
I'm thinking to get 1-2TB of SSD storage and was wondering which one to get. I'm looking for one that will not malfunction on me. Anyone has an insight, please?

 

[NickName99]

Why would anyone buy a NVMe enclosure that only supports usb 3.1 transfer speeds?

Because they’re like 30 bucks on Amazon, and are still twice as fast as SATA SSD drives.

 

[TommyBoy5]

I have a T5 and love it. I think it was $83 for 512Gb. Very fast, tiny, reliable.

You can build a similar drive as this new OWC pretty cost-effectively. I've had OWC external SSDs in the past and they always worked and I never had a problem with them.

I wonder how much speed is really required? I can't imagine needing more than this Samsung T5. I guess if you were moving around 40G video files all day between your laptop and the external SSD you could save quite a bit of time. Not my use case, however.

 

[Marx55]

RAID 0 inside? Sequential write speed? Random IOPS read and write speed?

 

[theluggage]

The page DOES SAY there are two versions of the product...a TB3 version and a USB version.

It does say there are two versions. It does not say there is a TB3 version and a USB version. Look again at the page you linked. [edit: depending on your point of view it either says there are two USB versions - the ones on this page, side by side - or three versions total, a TB3 version and two USB ones]

Maybe they're continually changing the web page, but it looks like there are actually 4 versions all apparently called "Envoy Pro EX":

On the linked page there's a 980MB/s USB-C version (more accurately, a USB-C connector running USB 3.1 gen 2 protocol) alongside a 400MB/s "USB 3" version (more accurately, a USB 3 micro-B connector running USB 3.1 gen 1 which is effectively the same as USB 3.0).

There's also a link saying"Need more speed? Get up to 2800MB/s with Thunderbolt 3!" (i.e. ~28Gbits/s) leading to a page describing two variants (regular and 'video edition') of a full Thunderbolt-3 version.

I'm not sure what "Thunderbolt 3" compatibility really means beyond being able to plug it in without enjoying the full speeds

Obligatory XKCD:

(Or see TVTropes... for a fuller explanation at the risk of wasting rest of your day)

I.e. It's one of those 100% true statement and 100% misleading statements from the department of redundancy department. All Thunderbolt 3 ports are USB-C connectors that also support USB 3.1 host* mode so pretty much any USB device is 'Thunderbolt 3 (port)" compatible - although most wouldn't quite have the brass neck to apply that to a product that only came with a USB A connector.

* the other way around - connecting a true TB3 peripheral to USB - is more complicated: any dual-protocol USB/TB3 peripheral used to need separate TB3 and USB 3.1 'input' ports, even if they were both USB-C connectors. The latest TB3 controller chips - released - early this year ISTR - potentially allow peripherals with TB3 ports to 'fall back' to USB 3.1 - but only if their innards can cope with both USB 3.1 and PCIe (from TB) protocols. The true TB3 version of this particular drive doesn't support USB 3.