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What is your experience with Thunderbolt 3 drives?

phoenix-mac-user

phoenix-mac-user

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 21, 2016
130
100
Thinking of purchasing one for my i5/256. The X5 is obviously the best but oh man, that is a high price and it doesn't look upgradable like some of the others like the Sabrent or this TEKQ drive.

But I have read that some don't get as fast speeds as the Samsung. Anyone using any other brands, or even one that you put together and what type of read/write speeds are you getting?
 
Fishrrman

Fishrrman

macrumors Penryn
Feb 20, 2009
28,929
12,982
Ric Ford, who runs the long-standing website "macintouch.com", has an X5 and has been having heat and speed throttling problems with it.
This is currently the subject of a thread over on that site. You should visit and read it.

Which Mini do you have?
You didn't tell us.
If it's a 2018, the X5 isn't going to be perceivably faster than your internal SSD.

If you're buying an SSD for external storage, you might consider buying an nvme "blade drive" SSD, and then buying a USB3.1 gen2 enclosure for it. The drive just "drops into" the enclosure.

A USB3.1 gen2 enclosure with an nvme drive will give you reads around 965MBps and writes in the 850+MPps range.

These get fairly warm under extended load, but I don't think they get as hot as does the X5...
 
phoenix-mac-user

phoenix-mac-user

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 21, 2016
130
100
The original base 2018 i5/256GB with 32GB memory. I am starting to get close to max storage on the 256GB so I want something that I could eventually boot from if I ever decided to go that route, for now will probably just move my photos/videos to it.

For booting, the TB3 drives appear to be the best with no real difference between them and the internal storage.

But it sounds like there are other issues with the x5. Will definitely take a look at that.

Still interested in knowing what TB3 setups others are using.
 
macintoshmac

macintoshmac

Suspended
May 13, 2010
6,089
6,992
Fishrrman said:
Ric Ford, who runs the long-standing website "macintouch.com", has an X5 and has been having heat and speed throttling problems with it.
This is currently the subject of a thread over on that site. You should visit and read it.

Which Mini do you have?
You didn't tell us.
If it's a 2018, the X5 isn't going to be perceivably faster than your internal SSD.

If you're buying an SSD for external storage, you might consider buying an nvme "blade drive" SSD, and then buying a USB3.1 gen2 enclosure for it. The drive just "drops into" the enclosure.

A USB3.1 gen2 enclosure with an nvme drive will give you reads around 965MBps and writes in the 850+MPps range.

These get fairly warm under extended load, but I don't think they get as hot as does the X5...
Click to expand...

The website seems down. URL goes to macintosh.com/check .php and nothing opens (on Safari).

Also found this: https://www.appleworld.today/blog/2018/3/28/macintouch-to-close-down-a-cautionary-tale
 
T

tyc0746

macrumors 6502
Apr 3, 2019
259
102
Liverpool, UK
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D.T.

D.T.

macrumors G4
Sep 15, 2011
11,050
12,467
Vilano Beach, FL
First of all, see sig ... :D

I'm running that TekQ drive enclosure, with my own supplied 1TB Sabrent Rocket NVMe M2 drive. It's fast, it's almost as quick as my internal storage (I've got an i7/32GB/512GB '18).

It runs pretty cool too, the case seems to do a good job of transferring heat (or the Sabrent just runs cooler), and it's next to my Mini that's sitting on a 140mm fan, so it gets a little peripheral airflow. That TekQ product uses a really well regarded controller, that's also available in a product by JEYI from AliEXpress, the latter is only like $79, just takes a couple of weeks to get it. The TekQ used to be available as just a case, or with a really small drive - and it's modular, opened via screws (so you don't have to "break it open"), you can use your own, or swap out a smaller NVMe stick.

The Sabrent drive has a one year warranty, or if you register **5** years, which is pretty outstanding.

Here's the JEYI:

www.aliexpress.com

122.5US $ |M.2 Nvme Ssd Enclosure Thunderbolt 3 | 2 Nvme Ssd Enclosure Thunderbolt 3 - 3 M.2 - Aliexpress

Smarter Shopping, Better Living! Aliexpress.com
www.aliexpress.com www.aliexpress.com
 
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D.T.

D.T.

macrumors G4
Sep 15, 2011
11,050
12,467
Vilano Beach, FL
OK, confirmed, for a sec I thought I linked out the wrong enclosure (or the link had changed, I've had it saved for a while ...)
 
chrfr

chrfr

macrumors G5
Jul 11, 2009
13,637
7,184
Fishrrman said:
Ric Ford, who runs the long-standing website "macintouch.com", has an X5 and has been having heat and speed throttling problems with it.
Click to expand...
He also hasn't checked for firmware updates for the drive, ever, as far as I can tell- this may be irrelevant and there may be no update available but it's certainly a logical place to start. X5 performance issues don't seem to be widespread, in any case.
 
phoenix-mac-user

phoenix-mac-user

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 21, 2016
130
100
Think I am going to get the TekQ. 480GB version on Amazon is $150 which is only a little more than most empty TB3 enclosures.

Sounds like it works well with a Sabrent Rocket. Might upgrade it and throw the 480GB into a USB-C enclosure to do time machine backups for my wife.
 
phoenix-mac-user

phoenix-mac-user

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 21, 2016
130
100
As an update, I found this VisionTek 1TB Thunderbolt 3 drive for $179 and I decided to give it a shot and while it has only been a day I am really shocked I was able to find a 1TB NVME drive that cheap. Was orginally planning to go with the TekQ which was 500GB for almost the same price.

Getting really good speed on the drive, a lot higher than the specs they had listed on the page.

Speedtest.png
 
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