OWC Express 1M2 owners what SSD did you buy ?

[MacCheetah3]

The 3000+ speeds are in synthetic benchmarks.

True, although, one expects the Blackmagic Disk Speed Test to be at least mostly “real world” as it is intended to help gauge Da Vinci Resolve performance/capabilities.

Anyway...

I transfered 100GB to it on the M4 Pro and it was the same speed as my Samsung T7.

I (test) copied a 41.26 GB folder with numerous subfolders and a variety of more than 43000 files: text-based (e.g., plain text, HTML, PHP, Python, Java source), documents (e.g., Word, Excel), images, e-book, PDF, at least one ISO, and more. The total transfer time was ~25 seconds, ~1.65 GB/s.

It actually slowed down to 140MB/sec speeds wtf?

Furthermore, with extended writes, the data speed will drop after a while when the write cache is exhausted. Interestingly, that speed after the cache is exhausted is right around 1000 MB/s.

I share the following for the sake of troubleshooting. According to TechPowerUp, the SN850X (2TB) features 2GB of DDR4 DRAM cache and “pseudo SLC”:

SLC Write Cache:	approx. 600 GB (576 GB Dynamic + 24 GB Static)
Speed when Cache Exhausted:	approx. 1500 MB/s
Cache Folding Speed:	990 MB/s

The 1TB has half, 1GB DRAM and 300GB ’SLC’, and 900 MB/s cache folding speed with the same ~1500 MB/s TLC NAND speed. The 4TB model… Well.. That’s not clear.

With that said… Look back to post #17. Reminder: The M1 Mac mini also supports USB4.

 

[Ifti]

I have 3 OWC 1M2 drives.

2 of them came with their default OEC Aura 8TB drives pre-installed.
1 of them I installed a 4TB Samsung 990 Pro into.

The Samsung one is a little faster then the Aura drives, just marginally.
Have been using them for many months with Final Cut - no issues at all. Great little drives.

Even though they are not TB5 drives, I did find speeds actually increased a little upon connecting them via TB5 to my Mac Studio!

 

[DeepSix]

That's USB 3 speed. Are you using the proper cable? Either the original cable or else a certified USB 4 or certified Thunderbolt 4 cable.

Also, if you're transferring data in a file folder, often the speeds will be much slower depending upon the file mix in that folder. The 3000+ speeds are in synthetic benchmarks. Furthermore, with extended writes, the data speed will drop after a while when the write cache is exhausted. Interestingly, that speed after the cache is exhausted is right around 1000 MB/s.

Yes I am using the cable supplied with the 1M2. This drive in the 1M2 is actually noticeably faster on my PC running at USB 3.2 gen 2, than it is on my M4 Pro. This doesn't make sense. I have to format it as exFAT because I will be using it on both Mac and PC. Im going to order the Acacias 405 Pro and see what speeds I get with that. Getting 140mb/s transfer speeds on a drive that almost costed me $600 with the enclosure is unacceptable.

 

[DeepSix]

I (test) copied a 41.26 GB folder with numerous subfolders and a variety of more than 43000 files: text-based (e.g., plain text, HTML, PHP, Python, Java source), documents (e.g., Word, Excel), images, e-book, PDF, at least one ISO, and more. The total transfer time was ~25 seconds, ~1.65 GB/s.



I share the following for the sake of troubleshooting. According to TechPowerUp, the SN850X (2TB) features 2GB of DDR4 DRAM cache and “pseudo SLC”:

SLC Write Cache:	approx. 600 GB (576 GB Dynamic + 24 GB Static)
Speed when Cache Exhausted:	approx. 1500 MB/s
Cache Folding Speed:	990 MB/s

The 1TB has half, 1GB DRAM and 300GB ’SLC’, and 900 MB/s cache folding speed with the same ~1500 MB/s TLC NAND speed. The 4TB model… Well.. That’s not clear.

With that said… Look back to post #17. Reminder: The M1 Mac mini also supports USB4.

The 4TB model of the WD850X should have at least the same amount of cache as the 1tb and 2tb models. Getting 140mb/s on this enclosure is ridiculous. Either this enclosure got paid reviews or the TB4 on my Mac is defective. Either way this 1M2 is going back. Way overrated enclosure, I wouldn't even pay $50 for this piece of junk when I may as well just use my T7 SSD for the same speeds on the Mac.

EDIT: I finally got this to work at max speeds. I had to reformat the drive on my PC. Mac failed to format it properly. Now I see 3000mb/s speeds using the Black Magic test on mac.

 

[AdamSeen]

I bought 8TB WD850x.

One thing to be aware of is it's double-sided. I got much better thermal performance of 10-15 Celsius when I adhered the thermal pad to both the top of the SSD (included in the 1M2 case) AND to the underside of the SSD (PCB) so it connects to the PCB and to side wall of the 1M2.

Before and after of temps with same heavy workload (copying 4TB data, mixed files). About 70c is starting to go above the comfort region for a SSD.

 

[EugW]

I bought 8TB WD850x.

One thing to be aware of is it's double-sided. I got much better thermal performance of 10-15 Celsius when I adhered the thermal pad to both the top of the SSD (included in the 1M2 case) AND to the underside of the SSD (PCB) so it connects to the PCB and to side wall of the 1M2.

Before and after of temps with same heavy workload (copying 4TB data, mixed files). About 70c is starting to go above the comfort region for a SSD.

View attachment 2501763

Even with my single-sided Samsung 990 Pro, putting a thermal pad above and below the SSD significantly slowed the temperature increases under load. Final temperature at idle with the two thermal pads was only a couple of degrees cooler than with just a single thermal pad on top, but the time to get to that final idle temperature was a lot longer with the two thermal pads.

 

[DeepSix]

I bought 8TB WD850x.

One thing to be aware of is it's double-sided. I got much better thermal performance of 10-15 Celsius when I adhered the thermal pad to both the top of the SSD (included in the 1M2 case) AND to the underside of the SSD (PCB) so it connects to the PCB and to side wall of the 1M2.

Before and after of temps with same heavy workload (copying 4TB data, mixed files). About 70c is starting to go above the comfort region for a SSD.

View attachment 2501763

I have the same drive as you. A blue thermal pad actually fits on the underside of the nvme drive? I never would have thought there is enough clearance.

 

[EugW]

I have the same drive as you. A blue thermal pad actually fits on the underside of the nvme drive? I never would have thought there is enough clearance.

You can buy thinner thermal pads too for like ten bucks.

 

[AdamSeen]

I have the same drive as you. A blue thermal pad actually fits on the underside of the nvme drive? I never would have thought there is enough clearance.

Yes - quite easily.

As EugW says, you can buy many different sizes. I got a fairly standard one from amazon, used the 1mm (IIRC): https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07X38254H

 

[EugW]

Yes - quite easily.

As EugW says, you can buy many different sizes. I got a fairly standard one from amazon, used the 0.5mm (IIRC): https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07X38254H

That one is 6 W/mk. That should be OK, especially as a secondary thermal pad, but I generally prefer the 12-13 W/mk ones, for only a few bucks more. (The ratings vary and sometimes are outright fake, so buyer beware.) Apparently once you go much higher though, the thermal pads can get very stiff so not recommended.

 

[AdamSeen]

That one is 6 W/mk. That should be OK, especially as a secondary thermal pad, but I generally prefer the 12-13 W/mk ones, for only a few bucks more. (The ratings vary and sometimes are outright fake, so buyer beware.) Apparently once you go much higher though, the thermal pads can get very stiff so not recommended.

The temperature I was looking for was under 70c at peak loads, which the 6 W/mk does. Not sure what the one that comes with the 1M2 is, but I’d be interested to see results with better pads.

 

[Alpha Centauri]

Sounds like you've got plenty of replies already. I'm running a 4GB 990 Pro in my 1M2 but purely for TM. Is it with this scenario a waste of a decent SSD? Perhaps, but I can always repurpose the drive if needed. Main thing for me was that it (1M2) stays only slightly warm when connected for hours on end.

I also bought two 2GB 990 Pro + Acacis enclosures for Super Duper use and they're quite quick, are just a DAS, so heat build up is never an issue.

When I did buy the 990's though I had some difficulty updating the Firmware and there was a potential issue of premature wear/ failure, but I ended up sorting it out.

 

[DeepSix]

You can buy thinner thermal pads too for like ten bucks.

Yes - quite easily.

As EugW says, you can buy many different sizes. I got a fairly standard one from amazon, used the 1mm (IIRC): https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07X38254H

Okay thanks. I will order thinner ones, I will go with what you used 0.5mm. Sounds like putting a pad underneath helps with temps. The one that came already put on inside my 1M2 wasn't even straight and didn't align with the drive so I had to put on another one.

 

[EugW]

Not sure if this is a good brand or not, but it gets good reviews and there are three sizes included.

OwlTree 3 Pack Thermal Pads, 100x100mm, 0.5mm, 1mm, 1.5mm, Highly Efficient Thermal Conductivity 12.8W/mK, Heat Resistant Silicone Grease for Laptop Heatsink, CPU, GPU, SSD, IC, LED Cooler

the thermal pads adopted new technology to make it easy for all players to use our thermal pad. This thermal pad is rated voltage up to 9.8KV and has a thermal conductivity of 12.8 W/mk and insulation. It is safe to use without electricity. This thermal pad is very versatile and easy to use. co...

www.amazon.com

 

[DeepSix]

Not sure if this is a good brand or not, but it gets good reviews and there are three sizes included.

OwlTree 3 Pack Thermal Pads, 100x100mm, 0.5mm, 1mm, 1.5mm, Highly Efficient Thermal Conductivity 12.8W/mK, Heat Resistant Silicone Grease for Laptop Heatsink, CPU, GPU, SSD, IC, LED Cooler

the thermal pads adopted new technology to make it easy for all players to use our thermal pad. This thermal pad is rated voltage up to 9.8KV and has a thermal conductivity of 12.8 W/mk and insulation. It is safe to use without electricity. This thermal pad is very versatile and easy to use. co...

www.amazon.com

I just ordered those, will be here tomorrow. A bit more money than most listings on amazon but Im willing to pay the extra few dollars for better quality.

 

[DeepSix]

I got the Owltree thermal pads and installed them. Took longer than I thought, but at least it's done and doesn't have to be messed with again.

Wow that 2mm pad is thick, I couldn't fit it in the 1M2 case but 1.5mm fit (tight fit). The pads that come with this enclosure from OWC are cheap garbage. Very thin, like 0.5mm each and they use two pads stuck together. They came off very easily so that tells me it didn't seal the drive and case very well at all.

I'm surprised I was able to get the black feet back on after. This is a design flaw by OWC. You shouldn't have to remove one of the black feet to access the screws. At the very least they should include a few extra feet in the box.

Haven't done tests yet but the chassis feels more solid with the new thicker pads. One 1.5mm pad on top of the nvme drive seems to make contact better with the drive and the lid, than what OWC ships this with. I put a 0.5mm pad under the nvme drive and there was still room. I hope it makes contact because it wasn't exactly snug. Seems like you could possibly fit a 1mm pad under.

Will the heat make the pads stick better to the drive and enclosure?

 

[EugW]

Haven't done tests yet but the chassis feels more solid with the new thicker pads. One 1.5mm pad on top of the nvme drive seems to make contact better with the drive and the lid, than what OWC ships this with. I put a 0.5mm pad under the nvme drive and there was still room. I hope it makes contact because it wasn't exactly snug. Seems like you could possibly fit a 1mm pad under.

Will the heat make the pads stick better to the drive and enclosure?

Yes, but there is supposed to be some compression of the pads for optimal thermal conductivity. If you think 0.5 mm is too thin, then I suppose you could try a 1.0 mm one under there but be careful. There should be some compression (or at least good contact), but not too much compression. If too much, you can put too much stress on the SSD and or motherboard.

IIRC, on my Qwizlab enclosure, for my Samsung 990 Pro, the enclosure's included thermal pad on top worked although it looked like it was a tad loose. Out of interest's sake I tried a slightly thicker 2.25 mm thermal pad and it worked a bit better. Not hugely better, but a bit better. (2.25 mm pads are hard to find though. They are usually 2.0 or 2.5 mm.)

 

[AdamSeen]

It would be worth getting some measurements using DriveDx to see what temperatures your drives reach under heavy load. Mine were taken after about an hour. If the back pads aren't touching, you'll notice higher temperatures across the drive.

For others doing it, take your before and after temperatures under the same workload to compare.

 

[AdamSeen]

I put a 0.5mm pad under the nvme drive and there was still room. I hope it makes contact because it wasn't exactly snug. Seems like you could possibly fit a 1mm pad under.

The 0.5mm was too small for me, I used the 1mm.

 

[OWC_TAL]

At the very least they should include a few extra feet in the box.

This was addressed or should be addressed in new production batches. Extra feet included! If people need spares, they should reach out to support who can help obtain more.

 

[DeepSix]

Yes, but there is supposed to be some compression of the pads for optimal thermal conductivity. If you think 0.5 mm is too thin, then I suppose you could try a 1.0 mm one under there but be careful. There should be some compression (or at least good contact), but not too much compression. If too much, you can put too much stress on the SSD and or motherboard.

IIRC, on my Qwizlab enclosure, for my Samsung 990 Pro, the enclosure's included thermal pad on top worked although it looked like it was a tad loose. Out of interest's sake I tried a slightly thicker 2.25 mm thermal pad and it worked a bit better. Not hugely better, but a bit better. (2.25 mm pads are hard to find though. They are usually 2.0 or 2.5 mm.)

Honestly I want to get a second 1M2 now but it's just the cost that's holding me back and whether I can fully justify it.

 

[DeepSix]

The 0.5mm was too small for me, I used the 1mm.

Darn, I should have tried the 1mm under because it wasn't snug with the 0.5mm. Now that it's all put together I almost don't want to open it again and have to do everything all over again. Screw it Ill do it, and hopefully it's one and done after this.

Edit: I just put the 1mm pad under the nvme and it fits much better than the 0.5mm. I hope I don't have to open this ever again, don't want to strip the screws ha. It's harder to put the lid back on with a 1.5mm pad on top, have to squeeze the lid and top piece together with a lot of pressure or it can easily pop out.

 

[DeepSix]

This was addressed or should be addressed in new production batches. Extra feet included! If people need spares, they should reach out to support who can help obtain more.

Ive been in touch with OWC for extra feet. They asked for my invoice and it's been 3 days since they got back. Why the delay? Over something that costs them 1c.

 

[DeepSix]

If anyone is looking for a hard case for their 1M2, I got this and it fits the 1M2 perfectly. I normally don't put my hard drives in cases but I don't want to damage the fins. Also don't want to scratch it, the enclosure is so nice it feels like a gallery piece.

Worried that with the 3 year warranty from OWC, if you ever have to send it in for warranty, that OWC could deny your claim if it's not on perfect condition.

 

[OWC_TAL]

Worried that with the 3 year warranty from OWC, if you ever have to send it in for warranty, that OWC could deny your claim if it's not on perfect condition.

This is not something we deny warranties for. We expect drives, especially portable ones, to have scratches and be used. Now say someone shipped back a warranty claim for a drive that was split in half because it went through a wood chipper... that would be a different situation...