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Recommend me a USB4/TB4/5 NVMe Enclosure

B

blufrog

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 19, 2014
254
133
Hi,

I have been trying to find a decent but not wallet-breaking USB4 or TB4/5 enclosure to take a 2280 M.2 drive, but it is the most difficult thing to find/purchase!

Can anyone recommend an enclosure that will actually give decent speeds and be reliable? The idea is to leave it plugged in 99% of the time (so no real mobile use) for use with a Mini.

Thanks!
 
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I like this one:
eshop.macsales.com

OWC Express 1M2 - The Fastest Single Portable SSD We Offer

Ultra-fast, compatible, and reliable portable USB4 NVMe SSD with speeds up to 3836MB/s. Build your own or choose ready-to-run solutions for your Mac or PC.
eshop.macsales.com eshop.macsales.com

even though it's USB4 instead of Thunderbolt, TRIM works out of the box and it's faster than Thunderbolt 3.
 
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mikeboss said:
I like this one:
eshop.macsales.com

OWC Express 1M2 - The Fastest Single Portable SSD We Offer

Ultra-fast, compatible, and reliable portable USB4 NVMe SSD with speeds up to 3836MB/s. Build your own or choose ready-to-run solutions for your Mac or PC.
eshop.macsales.com eshop.macsales.com

even though it's USB4 instead of Thunderbolt, TRIM works out of the box and it's faster than Thunderbolt 3.
Click to expand...
This is what I use as well with the OWC Aura Ultra IV 1TB via TB4.

Screenshot 2024-11-13 at 8.34.36 AM.png
 
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Yes I agree the OWC 1M2 I have one of the fastest and hottest NVMes Kingston KC3000 in there and with extended read and writes exporting video the hottest that drive will get is 50 Celsius while my cpu in my M4 is hitting 100-105 Celsius.
 
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works great for my setup, plus has 2 usb a ports, 1 usb c and 2 DP ports.

I bought this from Amazon UK, unavailable at the moment.

www.acasis.com

Acasis 6-in-1 40Gbps M.2 NVMe Thunderbolt 3/4 USB 4 SSD Case & Dock

Best M.2 NVMe SSDs for the ACASIS Thunderbolt 4 Enclosure 📢Special Announcement: Due to customer feedback about fan noise issues after the product launch, our product department has made improvements. Any devices purchased from the ACASIS official website from May 15, 2024 onwards are the...
www.acasis.com www.acasis.com

and

amzn.eu

Lexar NM790 4TB SSD, M.2 2280 PCIe Gen4x4 NVMe 1.4 Internal SSD, Up to 7400MB/s Read, Up to 6500MB/s Write, Internal Solid State Drive for PS5, PC, Laptop, Gamers, Professionals (LNM790X004T-RNNNG)

With a blazing 7400MB/s sequential read, 6500MB/s sequential write, and random read speeds of up to 1,000,000 IOPs, the Lexar NM790 SSD has the performance to put you across the finish line first or easily meet your most demanding deadlines.
amzn.eu
 
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I've used this one for a couple of years:
eshop.macsales.com

OWC Express 1M2 - The Fastest Single Portable SSD We Offer

Ultra-fast, compatible, and reliable portable USB4 NVMe SSD with speeds up to 3836MB/s. Build your own or choose ready-to-run solutions for your Mac or PC.
eshop.macsales.com eshop.macsales.com

Gets a little hot, but I've never had any trouble with it.
Only TB3, and 1500MB/S, but then only 80 bucks.
Wouldn't suprprice me if it was cheaper on black week.
 
blufrog said:
Hi,

I have been trying to find a decent but not wallet-breaking USB4 or TB4/5 enclosure to take a 2280 M.2 drive, but it is the most difficult thing to find/purchase!

Can anyone recommend an enclosure that will actually give decent speeds and be reliable? The idea is to leave it plugged in 99% of the time (so no real mobile use) for use with a Mini.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
eshop.macsales.com

OWC Express 1M2 USB4 NVMe SSD Enclosure

Bus-powered NVMe M.2 SSD enclosure to build a portable USB4 drive for storage, backup, audio, design, and photography workflows.
eshop.macsales.com eshop.macsales.com

www.amazon.com

SABRENT Thunderbolt 3 Certified M.2 NVMe SSD Tool Free Solid Aluminum Enclosure (EC-T3NS)

The Sabrent Thunderbolt 3 M.2 Nvme Ssd Tool-Free Solid Aluminum Enclosure Is The Ultimate Combination Of Convenience, Performance, And Reliability! Thunderbolt 3 Technology Enables Amazing Speeds Of Up To 1600 Mb/S. Trust & Reliability: Dont Entrust Your Valuable Data To Devices That Are Only “Co...
www.amazon.com




I know some of these aren't USB 4/Thunderbolt, but basically as soon as you add thunderbolt you are looking at $100+ and I really don't see any good USB 4 ones on the market yet.
 
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
I'm going with this Acasis one:
www.acasis.com

Acasis 40Gbps Thunderbolt 3 M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosure

Best M.2 NVMe SSDs List for the ACASIS Thunderbolt 4 Enclosure ACASIS The most cost-effective Thunderbolt 3 hard drive enclosure-TBU405Air This Acasis NVME M.2 enclosure offers lightning fast file transfer and storage at a fraction of premium models' price. Perfectly solves the memory limitation...
www.acasis.com www.acasis.com
$55 for thunderbolt with around 3GB/s real speed is not bad imho.
It has the intel Titan Ridge JHL7440 chipset.
 
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Has anyone tested out the Maiwo K1717? It runs pretty smoothly without speed throttling due to heating issues?
 
The OWC 1M2 will be the last external enclosure you will ever buy (until you move to TB5!).
I have 3 of them - they're great!

 
Ifti said:
The OWC 1M2 will be the last external enclosure you will ever buy (until you move to TB5!).
I have 3 of them - they're great!

Click to expand...
I like the OWC 1M2 since judging by the pictures, it has one of the beefiest heatsink designs. Note though that while it has the same ASM2464PD firmware as many other enclosures, it doesn't support Thunderbolt 3 like the others do. When connected to a Thunderbolt 3 port, it drops down to 10 Mbps USB 3.2 gen 2x1 speeds. I had assumed this was normal behaviour for this chipset, but others here informed me otherwise, that it is a peculiarity of the OWC 1M2.

Nonetheless, I will reiterate that its heatsink design is excellent, one of the best, if not the best. It's also colour matched to the Studio Display and Mac mini. The other benefit is that the status light is on the opposite side of the USB port, which is great in a desktop setup. The USB 4 cable comes in from the back, and the status light is at the front. (Some of the other enclosures have the USB-C port and the status light on the same side, which is good for laptops. However, this is a bit awkward for desktops, because if the USB 4 cable is at the back, then so is the status light.)

What drives are you using, and how warm do the enclosures get in your setup?
 
Last edited:
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If you can wait a couple months for TB5 stuff to be available you will likely be WAY better off, even if you end up buying an old TB3/TB4 enclosure.

TB5 should be at least 2x the speed(possibly 3x because overhead bandwidth should be lower).

TB3/TB4 enclosures should be cheaper since people will want the TB5 ones.
 
Gabebear said:
If you can wait a couple months for TB5 stuff to be available you will likely be WAY better off, even if you end up buying an old TB3/TB4 enclosure.

TB5 should be at least 2x the speed(possibly 3x because overhead bandwidth should be lower).

TB3/TB4 enclosures should be cheaper since people will want the TB5 ones.
Click to expand...
Well received TB 4 / USB 4 enclosures are already well under US$100. And IMO, some of the TB 4 / USB 4 enclosures are better designed than the first batch of TB 5 enclosures, despite the latter costing way, way more.
 
EugW said:
I like the OWC 1M2 since judging by the pictures, it has one of the beefiest heatsink designs. Note though that while it has the same ASM2464PD firmware as many other enclosures, it doesn't support Thunderbolt 3 like the others do. When connected to a Thunderbolt 3 port, it drops down to 10 Mbps USB 3.2 gen 2x1 speeds. I had assumed this was normal behaviour for this chipset, but others here informed me otherwise, that it is a peculiarity of the OWC 1M2.

Nonetheless, I will reiterate that its heatsink design is excellent, one of the best, if not the best. It's also colour matched to the Studio Display and Mac mini. The other benefit is that the status light is on the opposite side of the USB port, which is great in a desktop setup. The USB 4 cable comes in from the back, and the status light is at the front. (Some of the other enclosures have the USB-C port and the status light on the same side, which is good for laptops. However, this is a bit awkward for desktops, because if the USB 4 cable is at the back, then so is the status light.)

What drives are you using, and how warm do the enclosures get in your setup?
Click to expand...

The one in the video is a Samsung 990 Pro 4TB.
The other two I have were purchased pre-installed with 8TB drives - the OWC Aura variants I believe.
Transfer speeds between them are the same irrespective of drive.
The drive does warm up when Im doing something heavy, like working in FCPX, exporting etc - but Ive never had any throttling issues etc.
I use them with my MBP (via TB4/USB4) - never tried them via TB3 TBH so I didnt know they'd do that, but not an issue for my setup regardless.

I have several OWC ThunderBlade drives as well, but tend to use the 1M2 all the time now. The Thunderblades are just general storage since these turned up! They're just so easy and reliable to use!
 
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Ifti said:
The one in the video is a Samsung 990 Pro 4TB.
The other two I have were purchased pre-installed with 8TB drives - the OWC Aura variants I believe.
Transfer speeds between them are the same irrespective of drive.
The drive does warm up when Im doing something heavy, like working in FCPX, exporting etc - but Ive never had any throttling issues etc.
I use them with my MBP (via TB4/USB4) - never tried them via TB3 TBH so I didnt know they'd do that, but not an issue for my setup regardless.

I have several OWC ThunderBlade drives as well, but tend to use the 1M2 all the time now. The Thunderblades are just general storage since these turned up! They're just so easy and reliable to use!
Click to expand...
Nice review. I am considering getting the 990 Pro 4 TB as well. I am assuming you didn't have to configure the 990 Pro at all to get those speeds. The reason I mention this is apparently the Samsung Magician software doesn't allow many configuration options for these drives in enclosures connected to Macs.
 
EugW said:
Nice review. I am considering getting the 990 Pro 4 TB as well. I am assuming you didn't have to configure the 990 Pro at all to get those speeds. The reason I mention this is apparently the Samsung Magician software doesn't allow many configuration options for these drives in enclosures connected to Macs.
Click to expand...

No I literally just threw it in and that's it!
 
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Ifti said:
The OWC 1M2 will be the last external enclosure you will ever buy (until you move to TB5!).
I have 3 of them - they're great!

Click to expand...
Which nvme would you recommend, I need 4TB ,doesn’t have to be the fastest
Also you don’t put a heatsink on the SSD with this enclosure right ?
 
Che Castro said:
Which nvme would you recommend, I need 4TB ,doesn’t have to be the fastest
Also you don’t put a heatsink on the SSD with this enclosure right ?
Click to expand...
The enclosure has no room for a heatsink inside. It provides a thermal pad which thermally conducts the drive to the finned aluminum enclosure, so that the entire enclosure becomes the heat sink.
 
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Che Castro said:
Which nvme would you recommend, I need 4TB ,doesn’t have to be the fastest
Also you don’t put a heatsink on the SSD with this enclosure right ?
Click to expand...

Any M.2 NVMe SSD will work, but I only have experience with the Samsung 990 Pro.
As mentioned above - no SSD heatsink needed as the entire enclosure makes contact with it and acts as the heatsink.
 
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