Hey Lon, love your videos and they often help with purchasing decisions - such as this enclosure. However, it DOES NOT SUPPORT 8TB DRIVES. I got it from my sabrent 8TB and got dangerously hot in minutes without the actual drive showing up. Acasis Support confirmed in an email that it only supports drives up to 2TB - despite the ambiguity on their site and Amazon pages. Hope you can make a note of this sonwhere to help other prospective buyers.
No, dear, I think you may have misunderstood something. Our SSD enclosure supports up to 8TB, and many of our users are using 4TB SSDs, so how can these customers use 4TB SSDs if the maximum support is only 2TB?
I watched this review because I was getting horrible write speeds with this ACASIS using a Samsung 980 Pro SSD. Turns out it was due to the write-caching being disabled (it was configured for quick removal). Thanks for going through the steps for how to disable this at 6:32 as I momentarily thought the device or the SSD (both brand new) had some problem.
This same enclosure with a Silicon Power 512GB NVMe PCIe Gen3x4 M.2 2280 R/W up to 3,400/2,300MB/s SSD (SU512GBP34A80M28UA) gives 2100 write ad 2500 read speeds on MBA M1. So I think it is also the SSD that matters here
Great review as always but just a few things I wanted to add in here... Everyone should take these speeds with a grain of salt; Mainly because, BlackMagic has very buggy, and unreliable software. Especially with their speed test program, it's garbage, and the only legitimate software program I trust is the reliability, and flexibility of CrystalDiskMark... One more aspect to mention is the multiple machines being used. What I'm not sure was done properly, is that the essential driver was installed that all Samsung NVMe drives need, thus to be truly optimized and run perfectly. This is the actual proprietary NVMe drive controller that needs to be installed along with the S.M.A.R.T. disk optimization tool Samsung Magician. Once all of that is installed and configured on your machine, it will take full advantage of that drive no matter how you use it, either in an enclosure such as this one or directly installed on the MB.
Thanks for a great video, my write speed went from 472 to 2,878 MB/s after the adjustment. My read speed is 3,107 MB/s. I’m using a Samsung 990 Pro. Another side benefit is the Magician software see’s the drive and allows firmware updates as if it’s mounted inside the computer.
I'm also using a 990 pro NMVE but won't let me update it's firmware while using the Magician Software as it thinks is an Acadia drive (the enclosure I'm using)
For anyone finding this video in 2022, the screws have been removed from the packaging and replaced with rubber grommets. The manufacturer lists this change in the Amazon Q&A on its product page.
Best Thunderbolt 3/4 / USB 4 drive: Acasis USB 4.0 gen 3x2 NVME enclosure (this product) Samsung 970 EVO plus (it has 78gb of slc cache for 2tb or 42gb for 1tb, and tlc speeds are 1500mbyte/s so it doesn’t slow down that much) and if you use this on USB 3.1 (10G), then the drive does not slow down at all. Neat, right?
You said in the video that it can support up to an 8tb drive. That is NOT the case. I used it with a Sabrent 8tb drive and it kept disconnecting from the computer by itself. I asked the manufacturer about this and they said that 8 TB drives are not supported because they use too much power.
Got one for 45 Euros second hand. It's gonna save me hours on backing up and secure erasing all those NVMe drives we recieve at the repair shop. R-sync ftw
Aha!! You ran into a bottleneck here. Thunderbolt 3 / USB 4 actually maxes out at 3000MBytes/s when using PCIE NVME M.2 ssd if the actual drive is faster than that.
Wait a minute. I saw a video and i read somewhere about USB4. They explained that next generation USB will get a simple name as USB4. NO more .0, .1,.2, gen1, gen2 at the end. So why is this product named as USB 4.0 enclosure??? Can i expected USB 4.2 gen2 in the future?.
Could you please inform people about the diff between mlc and tlc just a quick note when you do ssd related vids. I’m seeing people are forgetting the diff and less and less stores are selling mlc drives and less brands bringing out new mlc based SSD’s basically low demand.
I found that many NVMe enclosures are having issues with Samsung 970 Evo Plus, I sold mine 970 for this very reason. I could get full speed from SN850 in any enclosures consistently.
Thank you very much for your review. I think this video is the best review on Acasis usb 4, because it is also teaching about usb 3 gen 2! I am thinking of buying one with WD SN 750 or Samsung 970 EVO for my macbook pro 2019 16 inches. A question about cooling system. Is it stable to use constantly? Doesn't slow down because of the heat after constant use? I am thinking of buying a fatter themal pad to connect with the case.
Too expensive. $139.99 for just the enclosure?? Their usb3.0 version is only $29.99. I was hoping that the open-standard usb4 (which is basically thunderbolt 3) would drive down the price of 40gbps enclosures and docks, since manufacturers who implement usb4 would not need to pay Intel any royalties or licensing fees for the titan ridge or goshen/maple ridge controller chip. But maybe I was wrong. Do you know what chip this enclosure uses to implement the 40 gbps connection to the computer?
Intel's JHL7440 (which makes the case so expensive) for TB and JMicron's JMS583 for USB; but think twice before you buy; JHL8440 TB4 controller, which supports native USB4/3/2 and DP is on the way, and this case will soon be obsolete
@@ilpomelo thank you! If it is using jhl7440, then that is intel titan ridge, thunderbolt 3. Titan ridge was already compatible with usb3.1 gen2 via usb-c (unlike the older alpine ridge). So nothing new here. Also the jms583 is a usb3.1 gen2 pcie/nvme bridge. So if it is using titan ridge, which was released long before usb4 was ratified, how is the enclosure marketed as USB4... ? Lies. It is a thunderbolt3 enclosure at its heart, and that would explain why it is so expensive, as I was expecting (possibly erroneously) for usb4 to be cheaper than thunderbolt. Thanks!!
@@ilpomelo according to the Intel Ark website, the JHL8440 TB4 controller was launched Q3 2020. At $10.15 a piece when buying 1000. ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/189982/intel-jhl8440-thunderbolt-4-controller.html
Do you HAVE to eject the drive before removing it IF you change those settings to speed up the drive or if it sits long enough it will complete the process and you can just pull out the cable? Just wanted to say thanks for showing how to speed up the drive and going through the process of how to do it. Now if I could only remember the eject the drive before removing it 😂, my m.2 enclosure is arriving today and I’m swapping out my smaller m.2 that’s in my PC currently for a larger one and using the smaller one as a external drive which will hopefully work on my older iPad Pro (lightning cable version with camera connect dongle). 🤞
These were great inventions 2 years ago but have been greatly improved upon and I would not recommend this type unit with the drive you are using for moderate to heavy use. The drive will get way too hot because this type of enclosure does not provide enough heat transferrance. Whe it does get hot the ssd will send an error code to your computer and stop the transfer, shutting down file explorer. This has already been demonstrated a ridiculous amount of times and many many alternatives have hit the market in response to the problem. There are quite a few of these with very large heat sinks built in, but even better many more with fans that are temperature controlled. One other even has a small digital readout. These you are demonstrating will work fine in low use scenarios in smaller size ssd configurations. just fine I have found.
Can you name any such greatly improved units? If you mean the kinds with shabby small fans, I feel the fans would break down with 1-2 yr of usage, not to mention the horrible high pitched whir. Also I’ve yet to find external SSD enclosure temperature test from any reputable source, much less on the unpopular TB3 options. So how are you certain the metal cases, meant to serve as heat sinks themselves, provide insufficient heat dissipation? Doesn’t that depend more on the drives themselves since that determines the heating patterns, throttle threshold and the impact?
Nice review, but you still keep muddying the USB waters by calling a USB 3.2 or 3.1 port a USB-C port. ALL USB port names using letters (e.g. USB-n) refer to only the plug/socket and not the data services supported. The Surface Laptop Go's USB-C port is, I believe, USB 3.2gen1 and should be referred to as such unless discussing the cable needed and not the data services supported.
Most consumers don't see it this way. It's a confusing mess and I'm trying to do the opposite of the muddied waters the industry has created for itself.
Has anyone tried this on a Thunderbolt 2 Mac with the Apple TB2-TB3 adapter? According to Apple, the adapter is fully bi-directional, so it should work. However the Acasis device doesn't even show up in the system report (on a MacBook Pro Retina 2015) …
I tried this on Oct 27, 2022 using the ACASIS TBU405. I connected the Apple TB2-TB3 adapter to the 2012 iMac (TB2 port) with a TB2 cable. I connected the TB3 end of the adapter to the Acasis enclosure with the NVME drive. The drive never appeared on the desktop, so I believe the Apple TB2-TB3 adapter does NOT pass power from the iMac TB2 port. I have an externally powered TB3 device which works fine with the Apple Adapter and has an additional TB3 port for daisy chaining TB3 devices. (The Apple adapter does pass power when connected to a computer with a TB3 or TB4 port in order to use an external TB2 device) I connected the Acasis enclosure to that and it functions, but only has a transfer rate of about 600 mbps read and write, which is still about 6 times faster than the internal 3.5" HDD installed in the iMac2012. Next, I connected the Acasis enclosure to a USB port on the iMac 2012 and that resulted in about 400 mbps transfer rate. For further comparison, Black Magic speed for read/write to the internal 3.5 HDD is about 100 mbps. Using a Thunderbolt2 external drive enclosure with an SATA SSD has read/write speeds in the 350 mbps range.
Hi. Just asking, did you format the drive as exFAT? If not, as what? Thanks. I need mine to run on both on my M1 MacBook and on any other Windows laptop.
Does anyone know if this enclosure can fit an SSD with a heatsink? To be precise - WD Black SSD SN750 with heatsink. This SSD's height is 8mm vs 2.4mm on the regular one.
I have a hard time seeing how this is a useful product. The enclosure + M.2 drive together is near $400, when a portable SSD is around $150. Who is upgrading this thing enough to justify that purchase?
I guess IT departments with deep pockets that want to transfer data quickly, maybe to install software on machines in the field. I agree that the price is too high to justify the extra speed for most people. With gigabit Ethernet, cloud storage, and the fact that modern machines have pretty good sized fast internal drives, it is pretty rare that I ever have to use external media for storage or transfer and when I do, I am not usually too worried that I might need to wait a minute or two.
If you ever want to clone an M.2 drive for a computer with only one M.2 slot, for example if you want to upgrade to one with larger capacity, an enclosure like this will come in handy. And then once the clone is done, you have a spare external drive to use as you please.
This is way faster than an SSD, perfect for editing video directly to/from the external disk, a real time saver in that situation I guess. Would be nice to see a comparison against a SSD in video editing.
I agree. Due to the bottleneck of the encolsure, the ssd will not achieve transfer speeds more than 2000-3000mb/s regardless of how fast it is rated. Better off to go with a prebuilt external ssd drive until the tech can fully support nvme
I think you're confusing this with the common portable ssds out there which only use SATA (550MB/s) or USB3.1 Gen2 (1250MB/s). This is a Thunderbolt 3 enclosure which is superior when compared to USB3.1. Thunderbolt 3 can literally run theoretically up to 5,000MB/s.
Why is this device soo overpriced? Thunderbolt 4 is there, this is only Thunderbolt 3, with old Intel JHL 7440 controller and USB controller JMS583 by J Micron. Each for $10. Plus a machined alu enclosure, a PCB and assembling. I would guess $40 max. Why we do have to pay $140? Btw: I am having writing issues, only reaching sustained 200Mbyte/s, even with best SSD 970 pro 1TB. Reading is between 1.8 and 2.5 Gbyte/s. Very bad indeed: The SSD is getting thermal contact only via pad. The whole massive housing has no direct contact to SSD for heat dissipation. Only contact to the lid, when closed indirectly. Bad construction! I am disappointed. Be careful: „USB4.0“ ist fake, this is not real „USB4“! I would recommend not doing performance test with a low powered, portable Laptop, but with real power desktop PCs.
Nice thorough review. I like the product but the price...well...it's a joke. $179 (but lucky us it's on sale for $139...said with dripping sarcasm). Given the prices of "prebuilt" external NMVE drives this enclosure pricing makes ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE unless you are planning to use it with a 4TB or higher NVME SSD. I'm jussayin....
Hey Lon, love your videos and they often help with purchasing decisions - such as this enclosure. However, it DOES NOT SUPPORT 8TB DRIVES. I got it from my sabrent 8TB and got dangerously hot in minutes without the actual drive showing up. Acasis Support confirmed in an email that it only supports drives up to 2TB - despite the ambiguity on their site and Amazon pages.
Hope you can make a note of this sonwhere to help other prospective buyers.
Thanks I pinned your comment !
Can you confirm or deny as for now does it support nvme up to 8tb or still only 2tb ?
@@3Toy I can - as the user who first noticed this. but don't belive me, just try inserting an 8TB nvme and watch it burn :)
No, dear, I think you may have misunderstood something. Our SSD enclosure supports up to 8TB, and many of our users are using 4TB SSDs, so how can these customers use 4TB SSDs if the maximum support is only 2TB?
I watched this review because I was getting horrible write speeds with this ACASIS using a Samsung 980 Pro SSD. Turns out it was due to the write-caching being disabled (it was configured for quick removal). Thanks for going through the steps for how to disable this at 6:32 as I momentarily thought the device or the SSD (both brand new) had some problem.
Would like to thank you for the tip on enabling writing cache. Was quite sad and almost returned my enclosure before seeing your video! Made my day!
Nice review. Glad you took the enclosure through the various type of usb connections
This same enclosure with a Silicon Power 512GB NVMe PCIe Gen3x4 M.2 2280 R/W up to 3,400/2,300MB/s SSD (SU512GBP34A80M28UA) gives 2100 write ad 2500 read speeds on MBA M1. So I think it is also the SSD that matters here
Great review as always but just a few things I wanted to add in here... Everyone should take these speeds with a grain of salt; Mainly because, BlackMagic has very buggy, and unreliable software. Especially with their speed test program, it's garbage, and the only legitimate software program I trust is the reliability, and flexibility of CrystalDiskMark... One more aspect to mention is the multiple machines being used. What I'm not sure was done properly, is that the essential driver was installed that all Samsung NVMe drives need, thus to be truly optimized and run perfectly. This is the actual proprietary NVMe drive controller that needs to be installed along with the S.M.A.R.T. disk optimization tool Samsung Magician. Once all of that is installed and configured on your machine, it will take full advantage of that drive no matter how you use it, either in an enclosure such as this one or directly installed on the MB.
Thanks for a great video, my write speed went from 472 to 2,878 MB/s after the adjustment. My read speed is 3,107 MB/s. I’m using a Samsung 990 Pro. Another side benefit is the Magician software see’s the drive and allows firmware updates as if it’s mounted inside the computer.
I'm also using a 990 pro NMVE but won't let me update it's firmware while using the Magician Software as it thinks is an Acadia drive (the enclosure I'm using)
For anyone finding this video in 2022, the screws have been removed from the packaging and replaced with rubber grommets. The manufacturer lists this change in the Amazon Q&A on its product page.
no? I just received it and I got the screws + 2 thermo pads, 1 thin and 1 thicker
What are the rubber stops even used for?
Great test Lon across devices
It says in description on Acasis to not use the Samsung 970 or crucial ssd. The best one to use according to tests that people have done is WD SN770
Thank you, LON!
I prepared those two gears the same as you and assembled them by your teaching in this video. Thank you :)
Great video! Was really helpful for me. Thanks!
Cool video, very informative. By the way, cool Genesis console! Just noticed it at the end of the video, LOL!!!
Another great review Lon
Best Thunderbolt 3/4 / USB 4 drive:
Acasis USB 4.0 gen 3x2 NVME enclosure (this product)
Samsung 970 EVO plus (it has 78gb of slc cache for 2tb or 42gb for 1tb, and tlc speeds are 1500mbyte/s so it doesn’t slow down that much)
and if you use this on USB 3.1 (10G), then the drive does not slow down at all. Neat, right?
You said in the video that it can support up to an 8tb drive. That is NOT the case. I used it with a Sabrent 8tb drive and it kept disconnecting from the computer by itself. I asked the manufacturer about this and they said that 8 TB drives are not supported because they use too much power.
Informative review. Glad you did tests on non thunderbolt/USB 4 ports. I’m curious to see if this would still get good speeds on a PS5.
I believe it would be restricted to 10 gigabits per second on the PS5’s fastest port anyways
@@Zosu22 good new today the beta for ps5 is out so you can install a nvme drive into the ps5 no enclosure needed
I’ve been looking for something like this for a spare NVME drive I have!
Got one for 45 Euros second hand. It's gonna save me hours on backing up and secure erasing all those NVMe drives we recieve at the repair shop. R-sync ftw
Wow, that's fast. Probably one of the fastest external drives that I've seen. Is there faster ones out there?
Aha!! You ran into a bottleneck here.
Thunderbolt 3 / USB 4 actually maxes out at 3000MBytes/s when using PCIE NVME M.2 ssd if the actual drive is faster than that.
Great video.
Would this be able to connect to an android phone or ipad pro? Anything that has a usb c connection?
Wait a minute. I saw a video and i read somewhere about USB4. They explained that next generation USB will get a simple name as USB4.
NO more .0, .1,.2, gen1, gen2 at the end.
So why is this product named as USB 4.0 enclosure??? Can i expected USB 4.2 gen2 in the future?.
Great video! How could I enable cache on Mac?
Could you please inform people about the diff between mlc and tlc just a quick note when you do ssd related vids. I’m seeing people are forgetting the diff and less and less stores are selling mlc drives and less brands bringing out new mlc based SSD’s basically low demand.
I found that many NVMe enclosures are having issues with Samsung 970 Evo Plus, I sold mine 970 for this very reason. I could get full speed from SN850 in any enclosures consistently.
awesome review !
Woah that fast!!
Nice review.
Do you have link to Crystal Disk app?
Nice one
will it work with USB 2.0?
Hi are you planning to review Dynalink Android Box? Looking forward to see your reviews. Is the box any good? Please do a review.
Would you happen to have a synology NAS? would it be possible to know if it mounts to it as well?
Thank you very much for your review.
I think this video is the best review on Acasis usb 4, because it is also teaching about usb 3 gen 2!
I am thinking of buying one with WD SN 750 or Samsung 970 EVO for my macbook pro 2019 16 inches.
A question about cooling system. Is it stable to use constantly? Doesn't slow down because of the heat after constant use? I am thinking of buying a fatter themal pad to connect with the case.
CAN YOU TELL WHICH CAMEA DO YOU USE TO SHOOT THIS VIDEO ? PLEASE THANK YOU
Too expensive. $139.99 for just the enclosure?? Their usb3.0 version is only $29.99.
I was hoping that the open-standard usb4 (which is basically thunderbolt 3) would drive down the price of 40gbps enclosures and docks, since manufacturers who implement usb4 would not need to pay Intel any royalties or licensing fees for the titan ridge or goshen/maple ridge controller chip.
But maybe I was wrong.
Do you know what chip this enclosure uses to implement the 40 gbps connection to the computer?
Intel's JHL7440 (which makes the case so expensive) for TB and JMicron's JMS583 for USB; but think twice before you buy; JHL8440 TB4 controller, which supports native USB4/3/2 and DP is on the way, and this case will soon be obsolete
@@ilpomelo thank you! If it is using jhl7440, then that is intel titan ridge, thunderbolt 3. Titan ridge was already compatible with usb3.1 gen2 via usb-c (unlike the older alpine ridge). So nothing new here. Also the jms583 is a usb3.1 gen2 pcie/nvme bridge.
So if it is using titan ridge, which was released long before usb4 was ratified, how is the enclosure marketed as USB4... ? Lies. It is a thunderbolt3 enclosure at its heart, and that would explain why it is so expensive, as I was expecting (possibly erroneously) for usb4 to be cheaper than thunderbolt. Thanks!!
@@ilpomelo according to the Intel Ark website, the JHL8440 TB4 controller was launched Q3 2020. At $10.15 a piece when buying 1000.
ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/189982/intel-jhl8440-thunderbolt-4-controller.html
Do you HAVE to eject the drive before removing it IF you change those settings to speed up the drive or if it sits long enough it will complete the process and you can just pull out the cable?
Just wanted to say thanks for showing how to speed up the drive and going through the process of how to do it.
Now if I could only remember the eject the drive before removing it 😂, my m.2 enclosure is arriving today and I’m swapping out my smaller m.2 that’s in my PC currently for a larger one and using the smaller one as a external drive which will hopefully work on my older iPad Pro (lightning cable version with camera connect dongle). 🤞
Hey Lon, great video! Interested in testing our new TB4 product?😎
These were great inventions 2 years ago but have been greatly improved upon and I would not recommend this type unit with the drive you are using for moderate to heavy use. The drive will get way too hot because this type of enclosure does not provide enough heat transferrance. Whe it does get hot the ssd will send an error code to your computer and stop the transfer, shutting down file explorer. This has already been demonstrated a ridiculous amount of times and many many alternatives have hit the market in response to the problem. There are quite a few of these with very large heat sinks built in, but even better many more with fans that are temperature controlled. One other even has a small digital readout. These you are demonstrating will work fine in low use scenarios in smaller size ssd configurations. just fine I have found.
Can you name any such greatly improved units? If you mean the kinds with shabby small fans, I feel the fans would break down with 1-2 yr of usage, not to mention the horrible high pitched whir.
Also I’ve yet to find external SSD enclosure temperature test from any reputable source, much less on the unpopular TB3 options. So how are you certain the metal cases, meant to serve as heat sinks themselves, provide insufficient heat dissipation? Doesn’t that depend more on the drives themselves since that determines the heating patterns, throttle threshold and the impact?
how about its temperture?
Will this speed up boot time in iMac ??? By using external boot nmve
Hey Lon does this support a 2X2 (dual lane USB 3.2) connection at the interface speed? Or will it go back to single lane gen 2
Negative no 2x2 on this one just single lane
Hi Lon, is there any improvement on the M1 Mac with the latest firmware update by running Samsung 970 EVO + Acasis enclosure?
how do you get black Magic speed test for a windows PC?
Is it possible to mount a SSD with heatsink, like the WD SN750? It is 0,81cm width. Thank you
It felt like he stabbed my gut when he ripped that zip lock bag
Nice review, but you still keep muddying the USB waters by calling a USB 3.2 or 3.1 port a USB-C port. ALL USB port names using letters (e.g. USB-n) refer to only the plug/socket and not the data services supported. The Surface Laptop Go's USB-C port is, I believe, USB 3.2gen1 and should be referred to as such unless discussing the cable needed and not the data services supported.
Most consumers don't see it this way. It's a confusing mess and I'm trying to do the opposite of the muddied waters the industry has created for itself.
Every time I plug in mine nothing happens. I have not access to it.
I have placed order on their website on 7th Sep and still not received it.
and new their customer support not even replying
So please becarefull
I don't understand. 40 Gbps should get about 5.000 MB/s right?
if ssd inside can do 5000 MB/s, yes
@@sendtogeorgel well theoretically this ssd is capable of 3300+ read and write so I’m not sure why it’s bottle necking the write so much
Has anyone tried this on a Thunderbolt 2 Mac with the Apple TB2-TB3 adapter? According to Apple, the adapter is fully bi-directional, so it should work. However the Acasis device doesn't even show up in the system report (on a MacBook Pro Retina 2015) …
I tried this on Oct 27, 2022 using the ACASIS TBU405. I connected the Apple TB2-TB3 adapter to the 2012 iMac (TB2 port) with a TB2 cable. I connected the TB3 end of the adapter to the Acasis enclosure with the NVME drive. The drive never appeared on the desktop, so I believe the Apple TB2-TB3 adapter does NOT pass power from the iMac TB2 port. I have an externally powered TB3 device which works fine with the Apple Adapter and has an additional TB3 port for daisy chaining TB3 devices. (The Apple adapter does pass power when connected to a computer with a TB3 or TB4 port in order to use an external TB2 device) I connected the Acasis enclosure to that and it functions, but only has a transfer rate of about 600 mbps read and write, which is still about 6 times faster than the internal 3.5" HDD installed in the iMac2012. Next, I connected the Acasis enclosure to a USB port on the iMac 2012 and that resulted in about 400 mbps transfer rate.
For further comparison, Black Magic speed for read/write to the internal 3.5 HDD is about 100 mbps. Using a Thunderbolt2 external drive enclosure with an SATA SSD has read/write speeds in the 350 mbps range.
Hi. Just asking, did you format the drive as exFAT? If not, as what? Thanks. I need mine to run on both on my M1 MacBook and on any other Windows laptop.
Yes exFAT is what you need for that
@@LonSeidman Woah. Thanks for the quick response!
Can you do a review on Linksys new Wi-Fi 6 routers💯
Does anyone know if this enclosure can fit an SSD with a heatsink? To be precise - WD Black SSD SN750 with heatsink. This SSD's height is 8mm vs 2.4mm on the regular one.
Sold out
Any chance of reviewing Anker hubs and thunderbolt 3 docks?
I have a hard time seeing how this is a useful product. The enclosure + M.2 drive together is near $400, when a portable SSD is around $150. Who is upgrading this thing enough to justify that purchase?
I guess IT departments with deep pockets that want to transfer data quickly, maybe to install software on machines in the field. I agree that the price is too high to justify the extra speed for most people. With gigabit Ethernet, cloud storage, and the fact that modern machines have pretty good sized fast internal drives, it is pretty rare that I ever have to use external media for storage or transfer and when I do, I am not usually too worried that I might need to wait a minute or two.
If you ever want to clone an M.2 drive for a computer with only one M.2 slot, for example if you want to upgrade to one with larger capacity, an enclosure like this will come in handy. And then once the clone is done, you have a spare external drive to use as you please.
This is way faster than an SSD, perfect for editing video directly to/from the external disk, a real time saver in that situation I guess. Would be nice to see a comparison against a SSD in video editing.
I agree. Due to the bottleneck of the encolsure, the ssd will not achieve transfer speeds more than 2000-3000mb/s regardless of how fast it is rated. Better off to go with a prebuilt external ssd drive until the tech can fully support nvme
I think you're confusing this with the common portable ssds out there which only use SATA (550MB/s) or USB3.1 Gen2 (1250MB/s).
This is a Thunderbolt 3 enclosure which is superior when compared to USB3.1. Thunderbolt 3 can literally run theoretically up to 5,000MB/s.
too bulky need something really tiny. nothing at the moment for usb4/thunderbolt
Ah, so not a 4 drive usb enclosure.
Usb4.
Why is this device soo overpriced? Thunderbolt 4 is there, this is only Thunderbolt 3, with old Intel JHL 7440 controller and USB controller JMS583 by J Micron. Each for $10. Plus a machined alu enclosure, a PCB and assembling. I would guess $40 max. Why we do have to pay $140?
Btw: I am having writing issues, only reaching sustained 200Mbyte/s, even with best SSD 970 pro 1TB. Reading is between 1.8 and 2.5 Gbyte/s. Very bad indeed: The SSD is getting thermal contact only via pad. The whole massive housing has no direct contact to SSD for heat dissipation. Only contact to the lid, when closed indirectly. Bad construction! I am disappointed.
Be careful: „USB4.0“ ist fake, this is not real „USB4“!
I would recommend not doing performance test with a low powered, portable Laptop, but with real power desktop PCs.
Nice thorough review. I like the product but the price...well...it's a joke. $179 (but lucky us it's on sale for $139...said with dripping sarcasm). Given the prices of "prebuilt" external NMVE drives this enclosure pricing makes ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE unless you are planning to use it with a 4TB or higher NVME SSD. I'm jussayin....
Cutting edge niche gets gouged. The old sata raid box on their aliexpress is only 20 bucks though, but its not fast at all.