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Recommend me a USB4/TB4/5 NVMe Enclosure

Ben J. said:
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.
Click to expand...
I have several of these and they are great.

However, it looks like they are discontinued in the UK. At least my previous supplier has none, and no indication that they will come back into stock.
 
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philipma1957 said:
why not get a samsung t9 4tb https://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-re...ompatible-MU-PG4T0B/dp/B0CGQ4FJSV/ref=sr_1_3?

yeah the 4tb is costly but there are 2tb and 1tb options.

2tb is 154 pounds
1tb is 119 pounds

speed is 2000 not 3000


I use the t9 to boot my

m1
m2
and
2018 minis

I got a deal on the 2tb sizes
Click to expand...
While the T9 can sometimes be had for for less than the T7 Shield, the T9 costs significantly more at retail than the T7 Shield. Why does this matter? Because the increased speed of the T9 is dependent upon USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 20 Gbps, which the Mac does not support. Both the T9 and T7 Shield operate at USB 3.2 Gen 2x1 10 Gbps on Macs. So, if you're paying more for the T9, you are probably wasting your money, unless you're also using that T9 on a Windows machine.

Anyhow, while the T9 / T7 Shield are great, they max out at about 1000 MB/s on Apple Silicon Macs. (They sometimes may be slightly faster on Intel Macs.) The Thunderbolt 4 / USB 4 enclosures with NVMe drives max out at about 3300 MB/s. Big difference. For many people that speed difference is irrelevant, but for other people, it can be quite noticeable, and sometimes at less cost than a T9, at least at the 4 TB size.
 
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EugW said:
While the T9 can sometimes be had for for less than the T7 Shield, the T9 costs significantly more at retail than the T7 Shield. Why does this matter? Because the increased speed of the T9 is dependent upon USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 20 Gbps, which the Mac does not support. Both the T9 and T7 Shield operate at USB 3.2 Gen 2x1 10 Gbps on Macs. So, if you're paying more for the T9, you are probably wasting your money, unless you're also using that T9 on a Windows machine.

Anyhow, while the T9 / T7 Shield are great, they max out at about 1000 MB/s on Apple Silicon Macs. (They sometimes may be slightly faster on Intel Macs.) The Thunderbolt 4 / USB 4 enclosures with NVMe drives max out at about 3300 MB/s. Big difference. For many people that speed difference is irrelevant, but for other people, it can be quite noticeable, and sometimes at less cost than a T9, at least at the 4 TB size.
Click to expand...

while I want top speed. Booting with 2tb external or 4tb external matters most for my needs.

I have had so many issues with t-bolt booting I went to the samsungs.
 
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philipma1957 said:
while I want top speed. Booting with 2tb external or 4tb external matters most for my needs.

I have had so many issues with t-bolt booting I went to the samsungs.
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What are the issues, and which drives? The current crop of drives are USB 4 / Thunderbolt, which some say have fewer issues than drives from a couple of years ago.

Anyhow, I prefer to boot off the internal drive and keep data on externals. I'm currently using a Samsung T7 Shield 2 TB, but will migrate to a 4 TB USB 4 / Thunderbolt drive.
 
EugW said:
What are the issues, and which drives? The current crop of drives are USB 4 / Thunderbolt, which some say have fewer issues than drives from a couple of years ago.

Anyhow, I prefer to boot off the internal drive and keep data on externals. I'm currently using a Samsung T7 Shield 2 TB, but will migrate to a 4 TB USB 4 / Thunderbolt drive.
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I would boot loop using samsung nvme 970evo. In two or three different t-bolt 4 enclosures. I gave up trying with t-bolt 4 and went to the t-9s.

I used t-9s due to a price deal i got for them. and yeah I cap around 1100 speed in bursts not 3000 that the t-bolt you mention.

If I get the mini m4 I may look into a t-4
 
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I just found this footage of the uGreen 40Gbps enclosure and the annoying fan noise that I took when I contacted uGreen support. They were useless and I just returned it. I also bought another one later suspecting a dodgy batch, but it was exactly the same. It did that every time the fan span up and down.
 
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MrGimper said:
I just found this footage of the uGreen 40Gbps enclosure and the annoying fan noise that I took when I contacted uGreen support. They were useless and I just returned it. I also bought another one later suspecting a dodgy batch, but it was exactly the same. It did that every time the fan span up and down.View attachment 2452464
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I can barely hear that video. I had to turn the volume way up, but yeah that's annoying, as is the fan... which is why I've only been looking at fanless finned designs so far. Are any of the other fan-endowed ones quieter?

Anyhow my finned fanless enclosure is now in my city. I should get it by early this week. Too bad I don't actually have a drive to put in it yet though. I'm still waiting for the Black Friday sales...
 
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EugW said:
I can barely hear that video. I had to turn the volume way up, but yeah that's annoying, as is the fan... which is why I've only been looking at fanless finned designs so far. Are any of the other fan-endowed ones quieter?

Anyhow my finned fanless enclosure is now in my city. I should get it by early this week. Too bad I don't actually have a drive to put in it yet though. I'm still waiting for the Black Friday sales...
Click to expand...
It's quite noticeable from a normal distance when using a silent MBP M3 Max!
 
Hey- stupid question. I'm currently using a two bay OWC Mercury Elite TB 1 enclosure with a TB 1 to TB 2 converter. Have Time Machine on a dedicated 1 GB SSD w/ a second 512 GB SSD for media files. It's got a loud fan and is limited to about 230 to 280 MB per second transfers (I've had it for a LONG time). Can I just get a single TB3/4/5 drive enclosure, get a 2 GB stick, and partition it into a 1.5 tb Time Machine and a .5 tb media config? Or can you not put Time Machine on a partition, or would having two partitions on the same drive hurt performance too much?
 
MrGimper said:
Just seen uGreen do a 20Gbps enclosure:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0D2NHJT6T

If you have a slow NVMe (~2000 r/w )then maybe this is more cost effective for some.
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Won't work on Macs at 2000 MB/s. You'll get about 900 MB/s (or 1050 MB/s on Intel Macs), since USB 3 is limited to 10 Mbps on Macs (and most Windows machines too).
 
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DerKommissar said:
Hey- stupid question. I'm currently using a two bay OWC Mercury Elite TB 1 enclosure with a TB 1 to TB 2 converter. Have Time Machine on a dedicated 1 GB SSD w/ a second 512 GB SSD for media files. It's got a loud fan and is limited to about 230 to 280 MB per second transfers (I've had it for a LONG time).
Click to expand...
Here's my old Intel SSD 330 120 GB in a USB 3 dock. :)

Intel330SSD-BlackMagic.png
 
@DerKommissar "Can I just get a single TB3/4/5 drive enclosure, get a 2 GB stick, and partition it into a 1.5 tb Time Machine and a .5 tb media config? Or can you not put Time Machine on a partition, or would having two partitions on the same drive hurt performance too much?"

Since a TM backup is an essential part of data retention, it is not good practice to share the TM storage disk with any other data.
There are ways to do this sharing, but it is not recommended if you value your data, and rely on TM for backup.
Troubleshooting failing TM backups is a real pain....
 
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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...
I’ve added a TB4/USB4 WavLink 40Gbps m.2 case and a 4TB Orico NVMe PCIe 4x4 (7000MB/s) to my Mac Mini M4. I changed the user folder to be on the external drive and the application directory to be on the external drive (changing external to be boot prohibits AI from working), so most work files will be placed there automatically. Read speeds are over 3.5k, writes about 3.1k on external. On the 256Gb internal reads are just over 2.5K, writes about 2.3k. So external is faster than internal! I plan to add a second identical ‘raided’ TB4/USB4 drive which should add about 1k to performance through striping. So with right hardware an external TB4/USB4 is actually faster than the 2 chip 256Gb internal drive. Until you get to a 4 chip config (1Tb) I think external will remain faster.

The drive and case cost $248(amazon) and I have 16x the base storage.
 
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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...

OWC 1M2
Excellent enclosures (I have 3 of them!)
 
Che Castro said:
I decided to go with this , now I just need a 4TB nvme
Any tips on SSDs to avoid on Black Friday ?

There’s this one for $190 but people on slickdeals are saying is not good

Click to expand...

Never used a WD SSD TBH.
I went for a 4TB Samsung 990 Pro in one of my drives - the others I purchased pre-populated with 8TB each (OWC Aura drives).
You should expect speeds around 3000ish, so any drive above that (which most are) should be fine - it's more down to sustained performance and reliability.
 
Got a decent SSD for the Ugreen through today. Not bad for £127 all in. Less than a third if the upgrade price to 1TB.
 

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jqc said:
how about this SDD, thinking of paring with the OWC enclosure.

Click to expand...
The 990 EVO Plus is DRAM-less, but it is almost as expensive as the higher end DRAM-endowed 990 Pro right now.

Your link has the EVO Plus at $250 in the US. Various stores in the US have the 990 Pro at $260. Also, you can get the the 990 Pro for $243 on the Samsung USA edu store apparently. I'm told they don't check but I'm not sure since I'm in Canada.
 
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