Thunderbolt 3 M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosures

[dazagrt]

Picked up the ORICO drive - here are my thoughts and test with a Samsung 970 Evo Plus....

Hi, I'm in Australia and have been trying everywhere to buy the model you tested in the review with no luck. ...Even got bounced from NewEgg because of International postage <sigh>.

Can you tell me where I could get access to one?
Also, what sort of dollars are you guys paying for these?

When they are held, by 2 of the computer outlets down here, they are $199 AUD plus $18 for the courier - so that's like $149usd. That seems like crazy money for a drive enclosure.

Anyway, any help will be good.

Edit: Late night spelling...

 

[Stephen.R]

Also, what sort of dollars are you guys paying for these?

I just paid 5500THB (~$259 AUD) for one. USB stuff is often a lot cheaper, you’re paying for a niche product (TB3).

 

[dazagrt]

Thanks for the quick reply. Yes, Thunderbolt seems to be what SCSI was in the old days.

 

[dazagrt]

I just paid 5500THB (~$259 AUD) for one.

Sorry but I forgot to ask you last night, have you tested it yet? Does it live up to the other results on here?
I’ve got Samsung Evo and Pros waiting to go into the housing if it can achieve the advertised bandwidth of Thunderbolt 3 instead of a USB C 10Gb.

 

[Stephen.R]

Sorry but I forgot to ask you last night, have you tested it yet? Does it live up to the other results on here?
I’ve got Samsung Evo and Pros waiting to go into the housing if it can achieve the advertised bandwidth of Thunderbolt 3 instead of a USB C 10Gb.

I haven't properly tested it yet. I need to test it on a non-congested TB3 controller (it's currently plugged into a port that's shared with a port driving two 4K displays over TB3.

I'll try to rearrange the ports a bit and test it today some time.

 

[MJedi]

Hello all,

I'm testing the TEKQ Cube and the Samsung X5 as a boot drive for my 2019 iMac. I installed a 500GB Samsung 970 EVO NVME drive in the TEKQ. The Blackmagic test shows they are about the same in performance. The temps for either drive don't seem to be a problem with daily use, which is e-mail, browsing, and light gaming. I would like some advice on which one to keep. Thanks.

 

[EmmEff]

I’ve got the Orico with the SX8200. Anybody else want to compare numbers? I’m seeing around 900MB/s writes and 1GB/s reads. I was expecting slightly more but I’ve been plenty happy with it. I’ve got a preorder in for the OWC TB3 enclosure as well to do a comparison.

My machine is a 2019 iMac 27”

 

[dazagrt]

I’ve got the Orico with the SX8200. Anybody else want to compare numbers? I’m seeing around 900MB/s writes and 1GB/s reads. I was expecting slightly more but I’ve been plenty happy with it. I’ve got a preorder in for the OWC TB3 enclosure as well to do a comparison.

Yeah, I'm getting the high 900's MB/s both ways out of USB-C enclosures.

Were you guys aware that only the enclosures using Titan Ridge, that is JHL7440 chipset, will support TB3 with USB-C fallback?

 

[BeatCrazy]

Were you guys aware that only the enclosures using Titan Ridge, that is JHL7440 chipset, will support TB3 with USB-C fallback?

I’m aware of that technical feature, but which enclosure supports/uses Titan Ridge?

 

[dazagrt]

I’m aware of that technical feature, but which enclosure supports/uses Titan Ridge?

I guess the answer lies within the question; which enclosure indeed?

I wasn't aware of the chipset issue with the earlier model and now I'm on the search for the later. It's not looking good though so far, with only docks turning up rather than drive enclosures.

 

[BeatCrazy]

I guess the answer lies within the question; which enclosure indeed?

I wasn't aware of the chipset issue with the earlier model and now I'm on the search for the later. It's not looking good though so far, with only docks turning up rather than drive enclosures.

Well then, we are on the same mission

Side note: the CalDigit USB-C Pro dock with JHL7440/Titan Ridge is currently on sale via their website for $179, free ship/no tax (USA) if you use code JULY4TH.

 

[EmmEff]

Yeah, I'm getting the high 900's MB/s both ways out of USB-C enclosures.

Were you guys aware that only the enclosures using Titan Ridge, that is JHL7440 chipset, will support TB3 with USB-C fallback?

To clarify, mine is the Orico TB3 enclosure, not USB-C. Is yours the USB-C version?

 

[dazagrt]

To clarify, mine is the Orico TB3 enclosure, not USB-C. Is yours the USB-C version?

Yes mate.
I’ve got two different ones but one of them is a cheap Orico USB-C.
There’s something wrong with your TB3 enclosure if you are only getting 900ish transfer rates, as I’m doing that on usb-c.

 

[EmmEff]

Yes mate.
I’ve got two different ones but one of them is a cheap Orico USB-C.
There’s something wrong with your TB3 enclosure if you are only getting 900ish transfer rates, as I’m doing that on usb-c.

That's exactly why I'm asking... just ran a test:

 

[dazagrt]

Well Emm, you have definitely got me beat on the read test. Mine won’t go over say 985 in either direction.

 

[Ploki]

soo.. a year and a half in, and the JEYI Aliexpress still runs 2200/2200 on the original Samsung EVO 970, non plus

 

[EmmEff]

I really ought to pick up a Samsung nvme for testing... also have the OWC enclosure coming in August so I can eliminate the cause of the lacklustre performance.

Given the benchmarks from the reviews of the XPG SX8200, I was certainly expecting better performance, but admittedly, this combo is working very reliably on my iMac as the boot drive.

 

[dazagrt]

soo.. a year and a half in, and the JEYI Aliexpress still runs 2200/2200 on the original Samsung EVO 970, non plus

Hi Ploki, I was wondering if you had a link to the actual model you bought?
I might as well get one too if I can.

Edit: Do you guys think this will work? https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32952100894.html

 

[dazagrt]

I'm sorry but that "Aliexpress" and the "web-money" sign up is seriously dodgy.
I don't know why they can't take PayPal like everybody else?

 

[Ploki]

Hi Ploki, I was wondering if you had a link to the actual model you bought?
I might as well get one too if I can.

Edit: Do you guys think this will work? https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32952100894.html

it was MK1 of this:

Page Not Found - Aliexpress.com

I'm sorry but that "Aliexpress" and the "web-money" sign up is seriously dodgy.
I don't know why they can't take PayPal like everybody else?

pretty sure i paid with paypal when i bought it

 

[dazagrt]

it was MK1 of this:

Page Not Found - Aliexpress.com

pretty sure i paid with paypal when i bought it

OK, thanks for the info.

 

[Stephen.R]

I haven't properly tested it yet. I need to test it on a non-congested TB3 controller (it's currently plugged into a port that's shared with a port driving two 4K displays over TB3.

I'll try to rearrange the ports a bit and test it today some time.

Ok so I finally got around to testing this.

I moved stuff around so it (Orico TB3 case with a 1TB XPG 8200) is on a dedicated TB3 bus.

Using Blackmagic Disk Speed Test, I see the following, after letting it run a couple of times (the very first time it ran the write speed was quite low). This is with it set to 5GB file size, but it was pretty similar at all sizes, lowest I saw was about 1300/1800.

This is formatted as APFS.

For ***** and giggles (because I haven't copied data to it to use it yet) I erased it and reformatted as HFS+, I know some people did/do claim APFS isn't quite as fast. I saw the opposite, write speed was the same, read was just slightly slower with HFS+.

 

[dazagrt]

Good on you Stephen, thanks!

 

[Stephen.R]

Oh and to followup, I also haven't seen any of the disconnect issues I had with the Orico USB3.1G2 M2 case either - this TB3 case seems to be pretty solid. I let rsync run to copy all my work stuff from the old M2 to this new one and it did the full ~240GB without an issue.

 

[EmmEff]

FWIW, I am using the Orico TB3 enclosure as my boot drive. Never had a disconnect issue since new almost 6 months ago.

I’m using the same SSD and getting less performance though which is a bit puzzling. My machine is a 2019 iMac 27