OWC's New 1M2 80G Portable SSD Brings 6,000MB/s Speeds to Thunderbolt 5 Macs

[MacRumors]

OWC has unveiled its new Express 1M2 80G portable SSD, bringing another fast Thunderbolt 5 external storage option to Mac users with the latest hardware.

Providing over 6,000 MB/s real-world speeds, the 1M2 approaches the performance level of an internal MacBook Pro drive, making it a compelling partner for Apple's latest M4 Pro and M4 Max MacBook Pro models, not to mention the M4 Pro Mac mini and the latest Mac Studio.

The aluminum enclosure features a finned heatsink design that means no fans are required to maintain performance. Bus-powered through its included USB4 cable, the drive also works across multiple platforms including PCs, iPad Pro, Chromebooks, and Surface devices.

OWC offers both DIY and ready-to-run configurations. Users can purchase the empty enclosure and install their own NVMe M.2 SSD, or select pre-built models. The design supports both 2280 and 2242 form factor drives, so future upgrades should be straightforward.

The Express 1M2 80G maintains backward compatibility with Thunderbolt 3 and 4 systems, and starts at $219 for the empty enclosure, with pre-configured models ranging from $349 for 1TB to $1,299 for 8TB. The drive is available to purchase now through the OWC website and Amazon.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Amazon. 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's New 1M2 80G Portable SSD Brings 6,000MB/s Speeds to Thunderbolt 5 Macs

 

[davidec]

This could be handy if you have some spare or unused nvme blades lying around

 

[Michael Scrip]

These NVMe drives must get super-hot if you need a chunk of aluminum 100 times bigger to keep it cool!

🤣

 

[Manzanito]

It's astounding the amount of speed that can be achieved these days.

Yes, it's expensive for the average user but for those who need such performance it's good value.

 

[neuropsychguy]

$220 just for the enclosure is rather expensive. That's in the range that other 80 Gb/s enclosures are going for, but the nice 40 Gb/s enclosures (<$100) are likely the better option for most people who need Thunderbolt. If you want cutting edge and really need the extra speed, this should be a solid option.

 

[Killa78]

OWC has unveiled its new Express 1M2 80G portable SSD, bringing another fast Thunderbolt 5 external storage option to Mac users with the latest hardware.

Providing over 6,000 MB/s real-world speeds, the 1M2 approaches the performance level of an internal MacBook Pro drive, making it a compelling partner for Apple's latest M4 Pro and M4 Max MacBook Pro models, not to mention the M4 Pro Mac mini and the latest Mac Studio.

The aluminum enclosure features a finned heatsink design that means no fans are required to maintain performance. Bus-powered through its included USB4 cable, the drive also works across multiple platforms including PCs, iPad Pro, Chromebooks, and Surface devices.

OWC offers both DIY and ready-to-run configurations. Users can purchase the empty enclosure and install their own NVMe M.2 SSD, or select pre-built models. The design supports both 2280 and 2242 form factor drives, so future upgrades should be straightforward.

The Express 1M2 80G maintains backward compatibility with Thunderbolt 3 and 4 systems, and starts at $219 for the empty enclosure, with pre-configured models ranging from $349 for 1TB to $1,299 for 8TB. The drive is available to purchase now through the OWC website and Amazon.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Amazon. 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's New 1M2 80G Portable SSD Brings 6,000MB/s Speeds to Thunderbolt 5 Macs

I have the 1st generation of this enclosure. The speeds I get vary from poor to great. Never again.

 

[Slix]

I must hang around old computers too much because I read this as 80GB and was wondering why anyone would be talking about this now.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

$220 just for the enclosure is rather expensive. That's in the range that other 80 Gb/s enclosures are going for, but the nice 40 Gb/s enclosures (<$100) are likely the better option for most people. If you want cutting edge and really need the extra speed, this should be a solid option.

For most people, a USB-C drive is fine, and has better compatibility across machines. Few need a thunderbolt enclosure.

For those that do, though, there sure are some nice options!

 

[adamw]

OWC's 1M2 SSD Drives work for me at 40 Gbps currently (I have their 8TB 1M2 Drive Model). This new OWC 1M2 80G model should be nearly twice as face when hooked up to a Mac Thunderbolt 5 port with a fast SSD drive installed inside. OWC states that they use high-speed USB C for their drives (40Gbps or now 80Gbps USB 4 Standard) to avoid Thunderbolt 4/5 license lower speed limitations for external drive speeds. With high-speed USB 4 drives OWC can run the SSD's in their external enclosures at full 40Gbps (Thunderbolt 4 port) or 80Gbps (Thunderbolt 5 port) speeds.

 

[LelandHendrix]

I have experience with the rest of the Thunderbolt 5 enclosures on the market, and I expect this one will be great as a large file shuttle but NOT as a work/scratch drive. I'd love to be proven wrong, but fan-less enclosures just don't shed heat fast enough for prolonged heavy session use. I love the expanded surface area design of this enclosure but it would have to be made of copper and sit in a breeze to match the thermal performance of an enclosure with a fan.

Big fan of thunderbolt speeds though, I am using 4TB nvme in a Trebleet after trying the ACASIS TBU501.

 

[LelandHendrix]

For most people, a USB-C drive is fine, and has better compatibility across machines. Few need a thunderbolt enclosure.

If you want to store all your applications like video editing software, games, LLM libraries, etc., and enjoy performance like it was stored on your internal SSD, you need thunderbolt 5. It's the reason I have a capable M4 Pro mini with 4.5TB of speedy storage instead of the .5TB it came with.

Granted...Thunderbolt 4 is just fine for this as well, but if you find yourself waiting several times a day for transfers, the time saved can add up with TB 5

 

[G5isAlive]

I have experience with the rest of the Thunderbolt 5 enclosures on the market, and I expect this one will be great as a large file shuttle but NOT as a work/scratch drive. I'd love to be proven wrong, but fan-less enclosures just don't shed heat fast enough for prolonged heavy session use. I love the expanded surface area design of this enclosure but it would have to be made of copper and sit in a breeze to match the thermal performance of an enclosure with a fan.

Big fan of thunderbolt speeds though, I am using 4TB nvme in a Trebleet after trying the ACASIS TBU501.

I hear you on heat, but this thing is massive. I use two of the earlier 40Gbs version, 8tb each, they barely get warm under sustained load.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

If you want to store all your applications like video editing software, games, LLM libraries, etc., and enjoy performance like it was stored on your internal SSD, you need thunderbolt 5. It's the reason I have a capable M4 Pro mini with 4.5TB of speedy storage instead of the .5TB it came with.

Granted...Thunderbolt 4 is just fine for this as well, but if you find yourself waiting several times a day for transfers, the time saved can add up with TB 5

I would say that is a power-user situation. For us non-power users, who have never and will never run an local LLM, and store applications on the machine's internal drive, a USB drive is fine.

I don't even know how to run an LLM, or why I would want to.

 

[ds2000]

I must hang around old computers too much because I read this as 80GB and was wondering why anyone would be talking about this now.

That was my take too, what a stupid product name.

 

[Tig_one]

If you want to store all your applications like video editing software, games, LLM libraries, etc., and enjoy performance like it was stored on your internal SSD, you need thunderbolt 5. It's the reason I have a capable M4 Pro mini with 4.5TB of speedy storage instead of the .5TB it came with.

Granted...Thunderbolt 4 is just fine for this as well, but if you find yourself waiting several times a day for transfers, the time saved can add up with TB 5

I have the TB4 version. The speeds throttle due to heat, so imagine the TB5 version. It's a pointless cash grab until they figure either, proper thermals, or if you just like to do quick transfers occasionally (which renders the whole speed benefit moot)

 

[FatLouie]

---

OWC states that they use high-speed USB C for their drives (40Gbps or now 80Gbps USB 4 Standard) to avoid Thunderbolt 4/5 license lower speed limitations for external drive speeds. With high-speed USB 4 drives OWC can run the SSD's in their external enclosures at full 40Gbps (Thunderbolt 4 port) or 80Gbps (Thunderbolt 5 port) speeds.

Anyone is welcome to answer the 'why is this' for the highlighted. Why does a license reduce the speeds in Thunderbolt? Granted, I do not fully understand TB and USB, but that comment caught me by surprise.

 

[Fuchal]

These NVMe drives must get super-hot if you need a chunk of aluminum 100 times bigger to keep it cool!

🤣

They do!

 

[Watersplash]

I have the previous model, which I used with a 4TB SN850X SSD and a 2TB Samsung 990 EVO SSD. The enclosure works fine, but it's unsuited to permanent use as the drive gets roasting hot over time even when no active file transfers are happening. I got an Orico SSD enclosure with a fan, which is a bit louder but much cooler.

 

[The Cockney Rebel]

Looks like the user is a smoker.

🚬

 

[EugW]

Does this drive support full Thunderbolt 3 speeds on Intel Macs? Their old 40 Gbps 1M2 enclosure only supports up to 10 Gbps over Thunderbolt 3 on Intel Macs (and PCs).

For most people, a USB-C drive is fine, and has better compatibility across machines. Few need a thunderbolt enclosure.

macOS treats USB-C 3.x enclosures differently from Thunderbolt 4 / USB 4 enclosures. You can see the different categorization in the macOS system information. NVMe SSDs in Thunderbolt 4 / USB 4 enclosures are identified as native NVMe drives, but NVMe SSDs in USB 3 enclosures are identified as USB 3 drives.

With my Photos library on an external USB 3.x SSD, Apple Photos would occasionally disconnect at sleep and reconnect automatically at wake. This might seem fine but Photos would stop auto-syncing with iCloud when this happened, requiring a reboot to get iCloud going again.

This NEVER happens with my Thunderbolt 4 / USB 4 SSD enclosures (Hagabis and Qwiizlab).

 

[WarmWinterHat]

Does this drive support full Thunderbolt 3 speeds on Intel Macs? Their old 40 Gbps 1M2 enclosure only supports up to 10 Gbps over Thunderbolt 3 on Intel Macs (and PCs).


macOS treats USB-C 3.x enclosures differently from Thunderbolt 4 / USB 4 enclosures. You can see the different categorization in the macOS system information. NVMe SSDs in Thunderbolt 4 / USB 4 enclosures are identified as native NVMe drives, but NVMe SSDs inUSB 3 enclosures are identified as USB 3 drives.

With my Photos library on an external USB 3.x SSD, Apple Photos would occasionally disconnect at sleep and reconnect automatically at wake. This might seem fine but Photos would stop auto-syncing with iCloud when this happened, requiring a reboot to get iCloud going again.

This NEVER happens with my Thunderbolt 4 / USB 4 SSD enclosures (Hagabis and Qwiizlab).

Bummer! I had a 1TB Samsung T7 semi-permanently stuck with two-sided tape to my M1 Air that I kept my photo library on, among other things. I don't remember it disconnecting at all over the time I had it, and I never had any syncing problems. Guess I got lucky.

I don't currently have any permanently attached external drives as my laptop is removed from its dock every day and taken with me. Too big of a hassle to deal with external storage.

 

[EugW]

Bummer! I had a 1TB Samsung T7 semi-permanently stuck with two-sided tape to my M1 Air that I kept my photo library on, among other things. I don't remember it disconnecting at all over the time I had it, and I never had any syncing problems. Guess I got lucky.

I don't currently have any permanently attached external drives.

The USB 3 drive in question I used was in fact a 2 TB Samsung T7, with an M1 Mac mini. It is a very commonly reported problem but not everyone has this issue. However, it’s much, much less common with Thunderbolt 4. Dunno about Thunderbolt 5.

 

[bradman83]

If you want to store all your applications like video editing software, games, LLM libraries, etc., and enjoy performance like it was stored on your internal SSD, you need thunderbolt 5. It's the reason I have a capable M4 Pro mini with 4.5TB of speedy storage instead of the .5TB it came with.

Granted...Thunderbolt 4 is just fine for this as well, but if you find yourself waiting several times a day for transfers, the time saved can add up with TB 5

To be fair the person you replied to did say "most people" whereas people using external storage for apps (including video editing), games and LLMs are probably more demanding than most users, hence the market for this drive.

For a lot of casual users who want a space to store older photos and videos, run Time Machine backups periodically, or otherwise use a drive for occasional overflow storage then 10 Gbps USB-C drive speeds are more than adequate. I keep the older photos from my raw photo library on such a drive and accessing them via Lightroom, the Finder, or another app are all fine.

 

[EugW]

To be fair the person you replied to did say "most people" whereas people using external storage for apps (including video editing), games and LLMs are probably more demanding than most users, hence the market for this drive.

For a lot of casual users who want a space to store older photos and videos, run Time Machine backups periodically, or otherwise use a drive for occasional overflow storage then 10 Gbps USB-C drive speeds are more than adequate. I keep the older photos from my raw photo library on such a drive and accessing them via Lightroom, the Finder, or another app are all fine.

TRIM is not supported with USB 3 drives. This is a problem if you have large file transfers.

 

[bradman83]

macOS treats USB-C 3.x enclosures differently from Thunderbolt 4 / USB 4 enclosures. You can see the different categorization in the macOS system information. NVMe SSDs in Thunderbolt 4 / USB 4 enclosures are identified as native NVMe drives, but NVMe SSDs in USB 3 enclosures are identified as USB 3 drives.

Just an interesting factoid: Thunderbolt, and USB4 since it's based on Thunderbolt, essentially acts as an external extension of the PCIe bus when directly connected to TB storage, which is why macOS looks at those drives as being akin to internal NVMe. USB is a separate protocol which is why the drives behave differently.