Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Samsung T5/X5 & Equivalents

Clix Pix said:
Thanks for the info! Guess I should've watched the videos and read the AnandTech articles/reviews.
Click to expand...

If I was going to go the USB-C Gen. 2 route, I would go with the more expensive TEKQ enclosure ($61).

The MyDigitalSSD M2X ($40) is clearly more of a hassle to assemble/disassemble than the TEKQ, and the Plugable ($50), according to AnandTech, is easy to assemble at the cost of heat dissipation.

The problem with all three enclosures, which is tied to the fact that they hobble NVMe performance, is that they only exist because they are significantly cheaper than current Thunderbolt 3 enclosures. When that changes, there will be no market for them. Buyers who eventually purchase a TB3 enclosure to get the SSD performance that they paid for will wind up paying as much, if not more, than it would have cost to purchase a TB3 enclosure in the first place; and they will be stuck with a USB-C enclosure that nobody wants.

For portable SSDs, I still think that the choice is between a T5 or similar and an X5 or similar. With the possible exception of the Glyph Atom RAID, I’m not seeing anything in the middle that makes financial and performance sense. Perhaps there are some DIY examples in the thread that I have forgotten.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: dabotsonline
I am very pleased with my T5s and my X5 and see no reason to even consider fiddling with a do-it-yourself kind of setup where I'd have to assemble the device myself by sticking the drive into an enclosure. I much prefer purchasing and using something which has been professionally designed and manufactured. As time goes on I will undoubtedly be purchasing another X5 and for me that is the best use of my funds.
 
  • Like
Reactions: F-Train
Clix Pix said:
I am very pleased with my T5s and my X5 and see no reason to even consider fiddling with a do-it-yourself kind of setup where I'd have to assemble the device myself by sticking the drive into an enclosure. I much prefer purchasing and using something which has been professionally designed and manufactured. As time goes on I will undoubtedly be purchasing another X5 and for me that is the best use of my funds.
Click to expand...

Are you experiencing throttling/transfer slowdown with your X5 on long transfers?

Right now, that issue has me thinking seriously about TEKQ’s Cube, even though the current prices of a 1TB X5 and a Cube plus 1TB 970 EVO Plus are the same (US$450).
 
I’m confused about these enclosures tpsaying they’re both NVMe PCI-E and USB. How are they accessing PCI over USB? Or are they just converting NVMe PCI to USB inside the SSD and sending it off to your computer? It was my understanding that only thunderbolt used PCI lanes.
 
I just ordered TEKQ’s new Cube Thunderbolt 3 enclosure, space gray, which Amazon says will be delivered tomorrow.

I chose this over Samsung’s X5 SSD/enclosure because I believe that it will do a better job of dissipating heat, which is a consideration given how I plan to use the drive. Because the Cube is made of aluminium rather than magnesium, I will have to be more careful about scratches and dents, unless, of course, I go for the hipster weathered look (see post #74).

I’ll be using Samsung’s new 970 Evo Plus SSD. One reason is that there are multiple, uniformly positive reports on using Samsung’s 970 series SSDs with TEKQ’s Rapide enclosure.

I’ll know tomorrow whether the Rapide enclosure has been redesigned for the Cube to make installation and removal of an SSD easier. I don’t mean to suggest that the Rapide is particularly difficult, but if the Cube is like TEKQ’s new USB-C Gen. 2 enclosure (see post #70 videos) it’s going to be very easy. This has a bearing on how I use the enclosure going forward.

I still think that the price will come down $20 to $50, but I’m ready to make a decision, and everything that I’ve read about TEKQ enclosures suggests that they are of excellent quality. Also, TEKQ specialises in Apple hardware, and its enclosures have a reputation for playing very well with macOS.

I’ll admit that part of my thinking is that if I’m going to purchase a computer with a bunch of Thunderbolt 3 ports, I should use them. It doesn’t make sense to me to purchase a wickedly fast NVMe SSD, only to put it in an enclosure that guts its performance. That would grate on me every single time that I use the drive :)


Screenshot 2019-02-16 at 21.01.47.png
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: dabotsonline
thingstoponder said:
I’m confused about these enclosures tpsaying they’re both NVMe PCI-E and USB. How are they accessing PCI over USB? Or are they just converting NVMe PCI to USB inside the SSD and sending it off to your computer? It was my understanding that only thunderbolt used PCI lanes.
Click to expand...

Yes I believe that’s how it works - I think specifying PCI-E is to distinguish the various protocols supported by M.2 modules (pci-e, SATA and USB)
 
Further to post #81, I've received TEKQ's Cube Thunderbolt 3 enclosure. The Rapide enclosure has indeed been redesigned. It looks like installation is just a matter of plugging in the SSD, adding a bit of thermal pad and joining the top and bottom of the case with four Phillips screws.

The design is very similar to the design of TEKQ's new USB-C Gen. 2 enclosure, the 583 SuperFast, which is shown in the videos linked in post #70.

As with the Rapide and the SuperFast, the whole enclosure is an aluminium heat sink. Like a Samsung T5, it fits in a shirt pocket with lots of room to spare. It's longer than a T5 (9.6cm/3.8"), but narrower (4.6cm/1.8"), and a bit thicker (1.1cm/0.4").

Unless I'm missing something, it will be extremely easy to change out SSDs.

Included in the box, in addition to the two halves of the enclosure:

Phillips screwdriver
Four Phillips screws
Thermal pad (6cm x 2.5cm / 2.4" x 1")
Thunderbolt 3 cable (firm fit at both mini and Cube ends, 50cm/20")
Drawstring pouch to hold the Cube and cable

I'll be using my own screwdriver and picking up some spare screws and thermal pad.


Screenshot 2019-02-17 at 14.08.29.png
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: dabotsonline
[Edit Feb. 22: The TEKQ Cube is working well on Boot Camp Windows, but I’m having issues with it on macOS. I’ve written to TEKQ and will follow up when these issues are resolved, or not.]

Following on the post above (#83), I've installed a 1TB Samsung 970 EVO Plus in the TEKQ Cube.

As a first test, I copied 171GB of audio and video, consisting of a few hundred files, from my 512GB internal drive to a Samsung 500GB T5 and to the Cube/Samsung 970.

With the T5, the copy took 8 minutes.

With the Cube/970, it took 2.5 minutes.

I'm planning to do more rigorous testing (I didn't even have the Cube screwed together when I ran the test), but this is very encouraging. There are a number of people on this forum who suggest repeatedly that there is no real-life speed difference between, for example, a T5 and an X5. I can only assume that these people have not actually tested that proposition. Some will conclude that differences of this magnitude don't matter to them, but that is a different question. If one holds that view, a T5 or similar is certainly less expensive.

Personally, I do want this performance, and so far I think that the Cube is worth what I paid for it. The enclosure is very well made. The Thunderbolt 3 cable is a useful length (50cm/20”) and also appears to be well made. The cable alone is worth US$40, and it is clearly better quality than the TB3 cable that came with my fairly pricey Asus graphics card enclosure.

In other words, while I have said twice, without having seen the Cube, that I think that the price will come down by $20 - $50, I'm not holding my breath on $50.

When I ordered the Cube, and having seen video of TEKQ's new USB-C Gen. 2 enclosure (see post #70), I hoped that its design would make it easy to change out SSDs. Sure enough, it does just that. For me, this significantly increases its versatility.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: dabotsonline
More tests of the Samsung T5 and the TEKQ Cube/Samsung 970 drives today.

I think that the T5 or similar is the obvious choice unless one has a specific reason for wanting faster transfer. The T5 is plenty fast for loading music, video or games onto a mini internal drive. On games, as far as I know external SSD drive speed has no significant effect on in-game play. More than happy to be corrected on this.

The TEKQ Cube/Samsung 970 is clearly faster, but it only makes sense to me if one is copying large files from one drive to another or wants to use it as a big data working drive. To me, the copy performance is clear, but I need to do more tests before saying anything with assurance about its use, versus a T5, as a working drive.

For me, my experience with the T5 and the Cube/970 confirms that spending money on a drive in the middle is a waste of money if the criterion is performance.

The Glyph Atom RAID costs US$100 more than a T5, but offers nothing meaningful in terms of added performance, while being larger and potentially more problematic than a single drive when it comes to heat.

For reasons that I've already stated (post #76), I think that enclosures like the MYDigitalSSD M2X and the new Plugable gut the performance that people pay for when they purchase an NVMe SSD, while doing nothing to reduce energy consumption and heat. I also think that purchasing one of these enclosures will prove to be penny wise, pound foolish.*

Very interested in seeing other views.

* AnandTech's review of the Plugable says that some IT people will find its ease, when it comes to changing out SSDs, useful. Perhaps so. That's a specialised use case that I'm not competent to address. That case aside, AnandTech prefers the MyDigitalSSD for heat dissipation reasons.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: dabotsonline and adamk77
F-Train said:
T5 or similar
Click to expand...

Just to confirm your meaning here - "T5 or similar" is essentially "a SATA SSD in a USB 3.0/3.1Gen1/3.2 Gen 1×1/5Gbps" case (yes USB-PG keep making the names more confusing and harder to type quickly!) and "X5 or similar" is essentially a high performance PCI-E NVMe M.2 in a TB3 case?
 
Stephen.R said:
Just to confirm your meaning here - "T5 or similar" is essentially "a SATA SSD in a USB 3.0/3.1Gen1/3.2 Gen 1×1/5Gbps" case (yes USB-PG keep making the names more confusing and harder to type quickly!) and "X5 or similar" is essentially a high performance PCI-E NVMe M.2 in a TB3 case?
Click to expand...

Yes, it would be great if there was simpler nomenclature, but T5 and X5 is the best that I've been able to manage, including in the title of this thread, without making people's eyes glaze over.

If you have a better idea, let's hear it :)
 
Last edited:
Stephen.R said:
I'd probably just refer to them as "SATA over USB3" and "NVMe over TB3" - I know it's a little longer but I always have to check because the "T5" makes me think it should be Thunderbolt (because it's 'T').
Click to expand...

What would you call MyDigitalSSD MX2 and Plugable? NVMe over USB3?

The thing is, people know what a T5 and an X5 are. But what you are proposing might be good qualifiers in brackets, for people whose approach is more technical. I guess the question is, do the technically minded people need a bracketed elaboration?

I don't know, but I sure agree that the nomenclature for this stuff is confusing.
 
F-Train said:
What would you call MyDigitalSSD MX2 and Plugable? NVMe over USB3?
Click to expand...
If that's what they are, then yes.

F-Train said:
The thing is, people know what a T5 and an X5 are.
Click to expand...
People who are familiar with them know what they are.

F-Train said:
I guess the question is, do the technically minded people need a bracketed elaboration?
Click to expand...

Being technically minded I'd prefer just the specifics - I don't keep up to date on what latest thing Samsung has released, and it's much easier to reason about things when you have common terms in use - SATA, SSD, NVMe, USB 3.{0,1,2}( Gen {1,2,1x1,1x2,2x1,2x2}) is definitely verbose but it's pretty well defined. It also allows for that inevitable event when the manufacturer releases a new model with the same name, or completely different names. Is Y5 a replacement for X5, or a different model offered concurrently?

Ultimately people will refer to what's familiar to them as a comparison point - but a spec at least allows to confirm what you're comparing is similar/comparable. For example: Based on the local retail price for a T5 1TB (12,200THB - $390 USD) I would have assumed it was more than just a SATA drive in a USB case - that's just $4 cheaper than OWC will charge me for a 1TB Envoy Pro EX - which I already know is NVMe over TB3 - including shipping from the US to Thailand)
 
getrealbro said:
Does anybody know why the OWC website ( https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/TB3ENVP10/ )lists the OWC Envoy Pro EX 1TB Rugged, Portable Solid-State Drive with Thunderbolt 3 (OWC SKU: OWCTB3ENVP10) as NOT compatible with the Mac Mini (late 2018)?

GetRealBro
Click to expand...

Power issues with the Mac mini’s TB3 ports. See https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/mac-mini-2018-external-drives-disconnecting-tb3.2169582/ for a whole discussion about it.

It works if it’s daisy chained via a device that has its own power supply (ie a TB3 hub or another device like a thunderbay)
 
  • Like
Reactions: dabotsonline
Stephen.R said:
Based on the local retail price for a T5 1TB (12,200THB - $390 USD) I would have assumed it was more than just a SATA drive in a USB case...
Click to expand...

In the U.S., the 1TB T5 is currently $220 before tax.

Even if the Thai price includes tax, which as I understand it is 7%, that’s a hell of a price difference.

I wouldn’t have thought that prices in Asia would be higher than in the U.S., let alone that much higher.
 
Last edited:
You’re telling me. Some may be import duties, imported stuff is usually expensive here (foreign cars attract 120% tax - so total price is 2.2x original - iirc)

I guess I’ll find out how strictly they check single item imports when I order from OWC.
 
Just FYI: In case you haven't noticed, the Samsung X5 series has dropped significantly in price (at least for right now):
Current amazon.com prices:

512GB -> $227.95
1TB -> $447.95
2TB -> $897.95
 
  • Like
Reactions: dabotsonline and Dr. Stealth
rhildinger said:
Just FYI: In case you haven't noticed, the Samsung X5 series has dropped significantly in price (at least for right now):
Current amazon.com prices:

512GB -> $227.95
1TB -> $447.95
2TB -> $897.95
Click to expand...


That's a big drop. When the 2TB was released it was $1400.00. They have been dropping pretty steadily in price since they were introduced. I bought the 512GB version then sold the 512GB m.2 and dropped in a 2TB 970. I love this drive. Super fast and stable as a rock. 2GB/s Writes - 2.5GB/s Reads.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back