Which 2 Bay Thunderbolt NVMe External Enclosure for Apple Studio Ultra?

[Chevron]

So after some deliberation, I am planning on a 2 Bay Thunderbolt NVMe External Enclosure with one 2 TB NVMe drive for Time Machine BackUp of internal Ultra Studio drive, and one 1 TB NVMe drive for sample and VI library storage.

It has to have 4 lanes, 2 lanes per disk and be able to get around JBOD 1500 MB/s read speed and as close to that for write.

The Sabrent Thunderbolt 3 Dual NVMe M.2 SSD Enclosure seems to hit all those targets

Thunderbolt 3 To Dual NVMe M.2 SSD Tool-Free Enclosure

Turn two NVMe SSDs into independent, fast, reliable, and portable drives! Plug and play (PnP), no drivers needed. Solid aluminum construction for durability and maximum heat dissipation. Integrated temperature and health monitoring system. Tool-free magnetic fasteners for easy installation...

www.sabrent.com

 

[Amsterdamned]

That’s actually a pretty cool idea. Portability would be a bonus though. I have a 4TB seagate usb drive that contains 2 x 2.5” spinners and it’s bus powered so I’m surprised this isn’t.

 

[Chevron]

That’s actually a pretty cool idea. Portability would be a bonus though. I have a 4TB seagate usb drive that contains 2 x 2.5” spinners and it’s bus powered so I’m surprised this isn’t.

For me I am not too bothered by portability, more that both drives in the enclosure can b mixed size and get some fast speed, in the region of 1500 MB/s

 

[Ifti]

Sabrent actually have two solutions:

I would go for the TB3 solution for your needs, unless you find you ever need to clone drives?...
Tested as a RAID'ed solution here too.....

 

[Chevron]

Sabrent actually have two solutions:

I would go for the TB3 solution for your needs, unless you find you ever need to clone drives?...
Tested as a RAID'ed solution here too.....

Awesome thanks, do you know if this Sabrent dual device is a 4 lane unit?

Will I get 1500 MB/s from it for both drives if I have 1 TB and 2 TB drives?

 

[lcubed]

i would guess one lane per device unless you turn it into a RAID
that’s just a guess judging by the performance of the thunder bay mini 4 when used in JBOD mode vs RAID

 

[Ifti]

Awesome thanks, do you know if this Sabrent dual device is a 4 lane unit?

Will I get 1500 MB/s from it for both drives if I have 1 TB and 2 TB drives?

When I tested the single drive speed I'm sure I had both SSDs physically installed in the enclosure, and I got the same speed from both individual drives.
I then set up the RAID array and performance hits pretty much the upper limits of what you'd get with a TB3 connection....

It's a great unit, I just didn't like the separate power supply. Would have been perfect if it was all powered via the TB3 connection directly!

 

[Chevron]

When I tested the single drive speed I'm sure I had both SSDs physically installed in the enclosure, and I got the same speed from both individual drives.
I then set up the RAID array and performance hits pretty much the upper limits of what you'd get with a TB3 connection....

It's a great unit, I just didn't like the separate power supply. Would have been perfect if it was all powered via the TB3 connection directly!

Thanks again, that is looking like the unit I may get.

 

[Tanmay]

Will I get 1500 MB/s from it for both drives if I have 1 TB and 2 TB drives?

TB3/4 spec has a maximum data rata of ~2500MB/s. Rest is reserved for video, error recovery and overhead.

The controller inside the dual NVMe version allows for about 1500MB/s from a single drive. So that's the max you can get for transfer to a single drive.

If you transfer to both drives at same time, the controller will likely divide the available 2500MB/s and leave you with ~1250MB/s for each simultaneous transfer. I'm not sure about this though and it's worth a test once you get the device.

To fully saturate the 2500MB/s link, you'll have to do RAID0 but since you're using mis-matched capacity drives that's not an option.

 

[Chevron]

TB3/4 spec has a maximum data rata of ~2500MB/s. Rest is reserved for video, error recovery and overhead.

The controller inside the dual NVMe version allows for about 1500MB/s from a single drive. So that's the max you can get for transfer to a single drive.

If you transfer to both drives at same time, the controller will likely divide the available 2500MB/s and leave you with ~1250MB/s for each simultaneous transfer. I'm not sure about this though and it's worth a test once you get the device.

To fully saturate the 2500MB/s link, you'll have to do RAID0 but since you're using mis-matched capacity drives that's not an option.

I would only use it JBOD style. What are the expected speeds in that config?