searching: external SSD storage that has multiple USB ports and r/w speeds around 2000 mb/s

[dscuyamungue]

So far the closest thing I've found is this SIIG which only advertises up to 1500 mb/s. I can live with that bandwidth but reviews of the product are scarce and it having two NVME M.2 slots with no fan seems iffy. The Sonnet xMac has the bandwidth I want and a fan but accessibility of the mini's ports is hindered and a bit pricey for something that isn't perfectly suited.

Hoping you all might have some better options.

Any ideas? all experiences and recommendations welcome!

thank you~

SIIG 8K Thunderbolt 3 Laptop Docking Station, Dual M.2 NVMe Slot, 96W PD Charging, DisplayPort 1.4 SD Card Reader, 2X USB 10G Ports, 2X USB 5G Ports, Gigabit Ethernet, TAA Compliant (JU-DK0K11-S1)

www.amazon.com

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1482136-REG/sonnet_xmac_ms_a_tb3_xmac_mini_server_thunderbolt.html/reviews

 

[Fishrrman]

My GUESS is that you're not going to find many thunderbolt 4 enclosures that have two usbc/tbolt4 ports.

The device you link to above is a docking station (rather than a "drive enclosure"). Remember that it must connect to the computer through a single tbolt4 connection.

Thus... all the devices using the dock (drives, etc.) must share the maximum speed of the (single) connection.

So, if you're running two nvme drives at once, the most "speed" you can get out of them will be limited by the fact that you have only the one connection.

If you really REALLY want tbolt4 drives to run at "the maximum speed" possible, each should be in its own tbolt4 enclosure...

 

[michelg1970]

My GUESS is that you're not going to find many thunderbolt 4 enclosures that have two usbc/tbolt4 ports.

The device you link to above is a docking station (rather than a "drive enclosure"). Remember that it must connect to the computer through a single tbolt4 connection.

Thus... all the devices using the dock (drives, etc.) must share the maximum speed of the (single) connection.

So, if you're running two nvme drives at once, the most "speed" you can get out of them will be limited by the fact that you have only the one connection.

If you really REALLY want tbolt4 drives to run at "the maximum speed" possible, each should be in its own tbolt4 enclosure...

Interesting. But, the docking station is TB 3 (max. 20 Gb/s) and has place for 2 SSDs of each max 1500 Mbps, so it is both a docking station and a drive enclosure. Couldn't he - in theory - create a RAID 0 configuration and achieve 3000 Mbps (3 Gb/s) on this RAID? Then he would still have ample bandwidth (~ 17 Gb/s) for his other devices he wants to connect via USB A, TB3 (display) and/or DP (display)?

 

[yezza]

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[Bob_DM]

Interesting. But, the docking station is TB 3 (max. 20 Gb/s) and has place for 2 SSDs of each max 1500 Mbps, so it is both a docking station and a drive enclosure. Couldn't he - in theory - create a RAID 0 configuration and achieve 3000 Mbps (3 Gb/s) on this RAID? Then he would still have ample bandwidth (~ 17 Gb/s) for his other devices he wants to connect via USB A, TB3 (display) and/or DP (display)?

I have OWC four bay enclosure TB3 with 4 Samsung (SATA) SSD’s in RAID 0 (softraid in disk utility). Max speed in Blackmagic is around 1500 Mbps (Half the internal in Mac Mini M1). In theory I think it could be 3000 …

 

[dscuyamungue]

Thank you everyone for your input. I've surfed and surfed trying to find a hybrid device like those linked but with speeds closer to my Samsung X5 without luck. I assumed the X5 specs were not uncommon but apparently they are, even with just a plain enclosure and no added USB connectivity. There are some enclosures on Amazon that advertise 2500 mb/s but the reviews are littered with unhappy customers saying they're getting 1000 or sometimes 1500 which seems to be the norm.

 

[dscuyamungue]

Follow-up: So, rather than continue the search for an unlikely singular component I bought an Acasis enclosure and a separate Cal Digit Element hub. Happily the 970 Evo Plus and Acasis enclosure get along well with read and write speeds around 2500 mb/s even when plugged indirectly thru the Cal Digit hub. The Samsung X5 actually lost about 500 mb/s write speed when plugged indirectly thru the Cal Digit versus directly into the Mac mini.

thank again for the feedback, much appreciated.