Samsung T5/X5 & Equivalents

[Squuiid]

Some posts back I said that I've purchased a TEKQ Cube enclosure for use with Samsung's new 970 EVO Plus SSD. It's working fine in Windows, but I'm running into problems with macOS. TEKQ has been quick to respond to an e-mail and is looking into the problem. I'll update when this is resolved, one way or the other, but right now I can't recommend this combination for use with macOS.

I don't know whether this and the Leiden enclosure are the same or not. It is definitely not a cable issue. The cable that I received is high quality and I've also tried an Apple TB3 cable.

I'm quite sure that getting into the problem, and what I've done to try and fix it, is tantamount to derailing this thread, which I'm not going to do.

I'm only posting this because I talked about the Cube and I feel obliged to note that while it works fine with Windows, there are problems with using it with macOS and Samsung's new version of the 970 series NVMe, which (correct me if I'm wrong) you are not using.

I'll see what TEKQ has to say. I've sent them a detailed e-mail and they promise a response by Tuesday.
[doublepost=1550965625][/doublepost]If someone has Samsung's latest 970 series SSD (the EVO Plus) in a third party enclosure, it would be helpful to know what the enclosure is and whether the combination is working in macOS.

FWIW, I have two SM951 AHCI drives (pulled from my cMP Amfeltec card) and they work fine in the TEKQ enclosures. It is an updated model of the Cube model you mentioned however.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07RR1DRS2/

I would highly recommend these enclosures. The compatibility issue mentioned is a known issue with that 970 EVO, not just with this enclosure, but with macOS in general. Head over to the Mac Pro forum and you'll see plenty of people having problems with it. This is why you found that it works fine in Windows.
Any other M.2 drive should work fine in the TEKQ and the build quality and performance of them is excellent. It maxes out a 512GB SM951 with 2,150MB/s reads and 1,500MB/s writes.
The 240GB drive that came with it does 2,450MB/s reads but only 800MB/s writes.

Here is a comprehensive review.
https://www.anandtech.com/show/1303...-with-the-tekq-rapide-and-sandisk-extreme-pro

 

[d.steve]

The compatibility issue mentioned is a known issue with that 970 EVO, not just with this enclosure, but with macOS in general.

Actually the 970 EVO Plus, not it's non-plus predecessor. Apparently addressed with a firmware update about a month ago, just FYI. I don't have this drive but have been doing some research and ran across it.

 

[D.T.]

X5 512GB currently $199, plus I have a 10% promo code, wow, $179 might have to order.

 

[doboy]

X5 512GB currently $199, plus I have a 10% promo code, wow, $179 might have to order.

How did you acquire the 10% off promo code? Thanks.

 

[D.T.]

How did you acquire the 10% off promo code? Thanks.

It was from the USPS of all strange places, I had transferred mail from another house to ours, it was like a "moving bonus"

 

[doboy]

It was from the USPS of all strange places, I had transferred mail from another house to ours, it was like a "moving bonus"

Oh yeah one of those. I heard they sometimes offer that code. I remember going to post offices to get physical moving packets because they used to contain 10% off Best Buy codes

 

[getrealbro]

I couldn’t resist a 1TB T5 for $150 during Amazon Prime Days. Until I buy a 2018 Mini, I’ll use the T5 as a boot disk for my 2014 Mini with a 1TB spinner. After decades as a Mac user, this is my first SSD.

I normally partition Mac internal drives into System and Data. I keep almost all of my documents in the Data partition, including Photos & iMovie libraries, etc., so that I can dual boot and/or update the system without touching the Data partition. This has worked well for me over the years.

Currently my 2014 Mini's internal 1TB spinner is configured into:
— System 200GB AFPS with only 40GB free
— Data 800GB HFS+ with 600GB free

Normally I’d configure a new boot drive as:
— System 300GB AFPS (for more breathing room)
— Data 700GB HFS+
then clone the two partitions with Carbon Copy Cloner and change the startup drive.

But after reading this thread (and others), I’d like some advise on how to configure the T5 to take advantage of the SSD, while still keeping the System & Data partitions separate.

Thanks In Advance — GetRealBro

 

[Fishrrman]

getreal asks:
"But after reading this thread (and others), I’d like some advise on how to configure the T5 to take advantage of the SSD, while still keeping the System & Data partitions separate."

I've been "separating" my OS from my data for 30 years, as you describe above.

Just partition it the way you would any other drive.
200/800 sounds good enough to me.

On my 2018 Mini with a 500gb internal SSD, I made the boot partition 150gb.
Currently it uses 68gb -- plenty of free space for temp files, etc.

One other thing:
Be sure to KEEP a bootable OS on the internal drive.
You ALWAYS want an immediately-available "second boot source" close by.

 

[getrealbro]

....
Just partition it the way you would any other drive.
200/800 sounds good enough to me.....

Thanks for your suggestion. I finally had time to work on this project.

I formatted the T5 with a GUID partition map and two partitions, 256GB System — APFS, and the rest as Data — macOS Extended (journaled). I chose 256GB so I can clone the system partition to an SD card as backup.

Everything works fine, with a noticeable improvement if responsiveness, except:
— One Drive which won’t place it’s folder on an external drive -- even on the boot partition - DUH.
— Drop Box which started enforcing the 3 device limit since it sees the cloned system as a new device.
So I'm back using iCloud Drive to share data between our devices.

FWIW I really like DropBox and understand why they need to charge for their services. But $120/yr for 1TB is pretty steep for their lowest paid tier. They need a lower price tier for low volume users with more than 3 devices — say $20-30/yr for 2-5GB. I simply don't have the bandwidth to take advantage of 1TB of cloud storage.

GetRealBro

 

[diamond3]

I ran into an issue a few weeks ago and I'm wondering if this is a common thing. I had a 15 mbp with 4 thunderbolt 3 ports. I connect 2 - 2TB Samsung X5 drives to it and then USB-c hub with 4tb external hard drive and then the power adapter in the last port. I ran into multiple issues where I received a warning that there was not enough power to support the accessories. I was kind of surprised by this. Maybe it's that I'm running things through a USB-c hub? It created some annoying issues for transferring data. The X5's were awesome though for duplicating data from one x5 to the other.

 

[drmeatball]

$225 NVME (2TB Inland Premium - Phison E12 controller)
$135 NVME - Thunderbolt 3 enclosure (I got mine on eBay - Trebleet)

Couldn't be happier.

 

[Stephen.R]

I ran into an issue a few weeks ago and I'm wondering if this is a common thing. I had a 15 mbp with 4 thunderbolt 3 ports. I connect 2 - 2TB Samsung X5 drives to it and then USB-c hub with 4tb external hard drive and then the power adapter in the last port. I ran into multiple issues where I received a warning that there was not enough power to support the accessories. I was kind of surprised by this. Maybe it's that I'm running things through a USB-c hub? It created some annoying issues for transferring data. The X5's were awesome though for duplicating data from one x5 to the other.

Unpowered hubs are usually not great for this. Does it have the option for AC power input to the hub directly?

$225 NVME (2TB Inland Premium - Phison E12 controller)
$135 NVME - Thunderbolt 3 enclosure (I got mine on eBay - Trebleet)

Couldn't be happier.

View attachment 864343

How’s the speed?

 

[drmeatball]

 

[FilmIndustryGuy]

$225 NVME (2TB Inland Premium - Phison E12 controller)
$135 NVME - Thunderbolt 3 enclosure (I got mine on eBay - Trebleet)

Couldn't be happier.

View attachment 864343

are you using this as a Mac boot drive? any thermal issues and speed drops? im looking for a TB3 boot drive with Intel 660p ssd

View attachment 864595

 

[drmeatball]

are you using this as a Mac boot drive? any thermal issues and speed drops? im looking for a TB3 boot drive with Intel 660p ssd

boot drive! No thermal issues or speed drops. I actually started with the 660p because of the lower price but replaced it with the Inland. The slow downs are definitely noticeable for the data I work with. (150GB+ photo library, video editing)

 

[D.T.]

@drmeatball Great, thanks, I'm shopping an external drive right now!

 

[FilmIndustryGuy]

boot drive! No thermal issues or speed drops. I actually started with the 660p because of the lower price but replaced it with the Inland. The slow downs are definitely noticeable for the data I work with. (150GB+ photo library, video editing)

What were your speeds with the TB3 enclosure and intel 660p 2TB? I see others claim 1900 mb/s reads and writes. Im also working with 4k animation footage but its short clips and no fx or grading. just cutting and moving around 4k files in FCPX. Debating whether to get the inland or Intel and how they perform when 50-70% full. any input this? where did you feel the hiccups?

 

[Fliu]

But the new Samsung Portable SSD T5 model is awesome, even to boot Mac and work from it all day long. It does not even get hot, which is amazing! I have used several units since September 2017. I also have Samsung Portable SSD X5, but have not used it that much, albeit so far, so good. The only big difference between such two models is the faster sequential read/write for large files of the second. Random read/wrote speed is not that different (for instance, you will not notice much difference booting and general usage). And the second gets hot. Unless you want to deal with very large files (movies, etc), the Samsung Portable SSD T5 is the best choice.

It seems like you're one of the few people on this forum with both the T5 and X5. Did you use both as the boot drive? Seems like you prefer the T5? What were your random read/write speeds?