One of my SSD enclosures is flaky. What do we like these days?

[RAMd®d]

I put a WD Black that thermally throttles in every case I had tried so far into this one
It doesn’t throttle. It’s a 20gbps USB, not Thunderbolt.


Have you run Speed Disk on it?

It's a Gen 2x2 and a Mac doesn't support it and won't see (up to) 20Gbps, only (up to) 10Gbps, if I recall correctly.

Certainly 10Gbps is faster than 2.5" drives.

From the product description:

Note: Ensure your USB interface supports USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 for 20Gbps speeds

I'm going to grab one or two of these, as 10Gbps is fast enough for some things, and it's a pretty slick case.

I want to check to see if the silicon pad touches the case for maximum heat transfer.

[August West]

Regarding the USB-C 20 Gig speed, didn't I read that Macs don't support that? I thought we were stuck with the 10Gig. Please correct my misunderstanding if needed!

[Robert M]

August,

USB-C is just the variation of USB connector. USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 is a standard and, unfortunately, it isn't supported on the Mac. At best, anything with USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 will be treated as USB 3.2 Gen 1x2 or USB 3.2 Gen 2x1 (formerly known as USB 3.1 Gen 2) and will at best achieve 10Gbps. The next speed jump for USB on the Mac is USB 4.0, on M series machines. USB 4.0 can handle up 40Gbps.

Robert

[Robert M]

Anonymouse,

What kind of machine are you using the SSD with? It's a key question since it will impact on which enclosure is the model of choice. For a USB 3.2 Gen 2x1 (formerly known as USB 3.1 Gen 2) box, I've been using this as the boot drive for my office machine for multiple years:



The box has a Western Digital Black SN750 in it. It might not be a split open design but it's been rock solid reliable.

For model without a fan, Definitely prefer an all metal design that splits open, i.e. OWC models, various models from companies Sabrent, Orico, UGreen, etc.

I _really_ like OWC enclosures! The Envoy Express and the Envoy Pro SX are great boxes. I look forward to when they release an enclosure only version of the Envoy Pro FX and similar boxes.

Robert

[anonymouse1]

Thanks-I appreciate your expertise on this area.

It's an MBP 14" with with M3 Pro chip. Does that make a difference in you analysis?

I like OWC's products, too, but they're usually kind of speedy for my needs--this is not a Mac that generates income, although I have strong hopes for the second half of 2025.

Robert M wrote:
Anonymouse,

What kind of machine are you using the SSD with? It's a key question since it will impact on which enclosure is the model of choice. For a USB 3.2 Gen 2x1 (formerly known as USB 3.1 Gen 2) box, I've been using this as the boot drive for my office machine for multiple years:



The box has a Western Digital Black SN750 in it. It might not be a split open design but it's been rock solid reliable.

For model without a fan, Definitely prefer an all metal design that splits open, i.e. OWC models, various models from companies Sabrent, Orico, UGreen, etc.

I _really_ like OWC enclosures! The Envoy Express and the Envoy Pro SX are great boxes. I look forward to when they release an enclosure only version of the Envoy Pro FX and similar boxes.

Robert

[Robert M]

Anonymous,

Is this supplemental storage or are you using the MBP as a desktop machine with an external boot drive? If it's supplemental storage, then I suspect most any quality USB 3.2 Gen 2x1 (formerly known as USB 3.1 Gen 2) will be dandy.

The model with a fan that is in my link will do the job nicely despite being a slide-in design. It's running 24/7 as boot drive for my office's Late 2018 Mac Mini. Slide-in models _without_ a fan should be avoided.

I have an older version of this one, too:



I had one that failed. One that's rock solid. It's a beast of an enclosure.


This is an example of slide-in to avoid:




If you go with a model that lacks a fan, you want to avoid a slide-in model. Stick with a split open model such as one whose top and bottom components separate.

This is an example of a split open design:



A USB 3.2 Gen 2x1 (formerly known as USB 3.1 Gen 2) enclosure will do the job for supplemental storage. Keep in mind, your machine _does_ have USB 4. So, you may want to spend the extra bucks for a USB 4 model for the purposes of future proofing.

Note that most reasonably current and nearly all current NVME M.2 SSDs will never reach their potential speeds in a USB 3 or USB 4 box. You might come close to it in a Thunderbolt 5 box.

Robert

[ka jowct]

I mainly use OWC and Sabrent for 2.5" drives; mostly the same for NVME drive. Have tried Oyen and Akitio, also.

[jdc]

My sabrent enclosure was bought Jan 2022... 10+ hours of use nearly every day. Its my work drive, so tons of read/writes on the daily.

No fan.

Its not for most people tho. $$$. Dual bay, Thunderbolt and drives are in a RAID 0.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1...html/?ap=y&ap=y&smp=y&smp=y&store=420&smpm=ba_f2_lar&lsft=BI%3A5451&gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIwIP_rc37jAMV0TfUAR1mZwD5EAQYASABEgL0mPD_BwE

[S. Pupp]

RAMd®d wrote:
I put a WD Black that thermally throttles in every case I had tried so far into this one
It doesn’t throttle. It’s a 20gbps USB, not Thunderbolt.


Have you run Speed Disk on it?

It's a Gen 2x2 and a Mac doesn't support it and won't see (up to) 20Gbps, only (up to) 10Gbps, if I recall correctly.

Certainly 10Gbps is faster than 2.5" drives.

From the product description:

Note: Ensure your USB interface supports USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 for 20Gbps speeds

I'm going to grab one or two of these, as 10Gbps is fast enough for some things, and it's a pretty slick case.

I want to check to see if the silicon pad touches the case for maximum heat transfer.

The silicone pad has a sticky side that presses against the ssd, and a matte coated side that allows the drive to slide easily back into the case, while at the same time making firm contact with the case.

I did not test it with MacOS, just Windows. I don’t currently have a Mac newer than 13 years old, having sold my 2017 MBP for not being compatible with the current MacOS or Windows 11, and my Mac Mini M1 because JRiver Media Center is too buggy on it.

[RAMd®d]

The silicone pad has a sticky side that presses against the ssd, and a matte coated side that allows the drive to slide easily back into the case, while at the same time making firm contact with the case.


That's a concept that I've not been able to confirm with several of the slide-in enclosures, so I'll never own another.

Once burned, twice shy, thrice NFW.

It's two-piece for me.

But in this case (api) the enclosure is curved so a flat silicone pad wouldn't touch the whole case completely.

I decided against the Ugreen case, as I have two Oricos already, and none of the mentioned ones really adds anything significant.

Re the enclosure in the OP:

Note: Not recommended for use with Crucial-P3 Plus, WD Black SN750 and Samsung 970 EVO Plus. Not compatible with Intel (except 12th Gen) Thunderbolt ports prior to 12th Gen; compatible with AMD and Apple Thunderbolt ports

That and AMZ's Frequently returned note is enough of a wave-off for me.

No matter what external setup one opts for, getting the performance manufacturers cite isn't going to happen, especially for Mac users.

SSD, enclosure, and cable speeds are all manufacturers' claims, and all theoretical.

I've seen speeds 5000/7000/8000Gps claimed by manufacturers, but those are only approached by SSDs in PCIe cards on PCs.

One or two reviews I've stumbled across of high-end sticks do get near claimed speeds, but not the claim speeds.

And again, not in Macs.

Now I don't need max speed; no one does (LOL).

But I'd like to try to equal the speed of my M3's internal SSD, or is that SSS.

Call it proof of concept.

I'm got a 1M2 box and a Samsung 980 Pro in another box, soon to be combined.

Without a double SSD box with RAID hardware or software, that's as close as I'm going to get for the foreseeable future.