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OWC's Thunderbolt 5 External SSD for Latest Macs is Impressively Fast

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Apple's new Mac mini with the M4 Pro chip and MacBook Pro models with M4 Pro and M4 Max chips feature support for the faster Thunderbolt 5 specification, and reputable accessory maker OWC is ready with a new external SSD.

MacBook-Pro-OWC-Envoy-Ultra.jpg

Announced in September, OWC's Envoy Ultra external SSD is compatible with Apple's latest Macs, and it has Thunderbolt 5 support for advertised data transfer speeds of more than 6GB per second. That is up to double the speeds that OWC's previous high-end external SSDs with Thunderbolt 3/Thunderbolt 4 support can achieve.

The external SSD has a built-in Thunderbolt 5 cable, and it is powered by the Mac that it is connected to, rather than an external power supply.

Unsurprisingly, these impressive speeds come at a steeper price compared to the average external SSD. OWC is now accepting pre-orders for the Envoy Ultra through its online store in the U.S., with 2TB and 4TB storage capacities available for $399.99 and $599.99, respectively. Orders are estimated to begin shipping in early November.

OWC plans to announce a Thunderbolt 5 dock with an array of ports later in November.

Apple's new Macs launch on Friday.

Article Link: OWC's Thunderbolt 5 External SSD for Latest Macs is Impressively Fast
 
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https://www.macrumors.com/2024/11/05/owc-thunderbolt-5-external-ssd-for-macs/
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Expensive, but also a lot cheaper than spec'ing additional terabytes of storage when you buy a new Mac.

Fortunately my needs are quite modest and I get away with a much slower external SSD for the media I've offloaded from my iMac's internal drive (Photos, TV and Music libraries).
 
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Currently no 0TB DIY option and you have to pay for the extra ssd. But I think we can just wait for a few months and there will be random Chinese company comes up with cheaper options.
 
Apart from that Iodyne "Pro Data" multi-port thing that costs thousands, we need more multi-NVMe drive options, but vastly cheaper and with just two ports that can be slower but for simple storage.

Not everyone wants cutting edge speed for scratch drive usage, many want QUIET mid-speed non-HDD LARGER mass data storage NVMe options for their vanilla mass data storage. Yet no brand bothers to offer them even with TBolt 4 nevermind Tbolt 5... 🤷‍♂️

Then we have the problem with 8TB NVMe SSDs actually going UP in price over the last year – Corsair were doing them for $800 at best a year or so ago (Ebay sellers even hitting $600!), now they're typically $1200. What's going on there?
 
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Gnattu said:
Currently no 0TB DIY option and you have to pay for the extra ssd. But I think we can just wait for a few months and there will be random Chinese company comes up with cheaper options.
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That did not happen last time. There is still no "random. Chinese" product that compares with OWC's previous TB3/4 SSD enclosure. Apparently, these things are hard to get right.

OK, yes there are competing enclosures but they are either slower or about the same price.
 
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Yrmmont said:
I purchased a 2Tb ssd drive from Amazon this summer for $89. This is no bargain to me.
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Nobody said it was a bargain. The one you bought for $89 obviously doesn't reach anywhere close to 6 GB/s transfer speeds like this one does. That might be totally fine for you, but I don't get the point of your comment. It's not an apples-to-apples comparison.
 
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Yrmmont said:
I purchased a 2Tb ssd drive from Amazon this summer for $89. This is no bargain to me.
Click to expand...
It's not meant for people looking for the best bang for the buck, it's for those needing the highest speed an external drive can offer. Of course, most customers just storing media on external storage can get away with Thunderbolt 3 or even USB 3 speeds.
 
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iF34R said:
I waited for the Samsung 4TB T9 to go on sale and used my $300 Samsung rewards voucher to get the 4TB T9, 256GB usb-c flash drive, and a 256GB Pro Ultimate SD card for "free".
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I thought there were zero Mac’s that supported USB 3.2 Gen 2x2?

Did this change with m4?
 
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Return Zero said:
Drive speeds these days are just crazy. We’ve come so far from the 5400rpm spinner days, which wasn’t even that long ago if you think about it.

Definitely continues to make apple’s upgrade pricing structure look more and more ridiculous each year.
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Apple was putting 5400rpm drives in the iMac until the late 2010s, mostly as part of the hybrid SSD/HDD Fusion Drive. It was only in the final years of the Intel era that Apple switched to lower-capacity SSDs as the default.
 
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So many of the reports are about the new hotness in terms of super-fastest speed, which is fine.
But where are the opposite ones in the middle that many users want for non-scratch storage? ...<nothing>
 
Waiting for a good TB5 enclosure to go with the Samsung 990 PRO SSD NVMe. You can get a 2 TB drive on Amazon right now for $150. Very fast and inexpensive.
 
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