How To Build The Fastest External Thunderbolt 4 USB4 SSD For Your M1 M2 M3 Apple Silicon Mac MacBook

[@DavidHarry]

READ THIS TO UNDERSTAND WHY THIS PARTICULAR GEN 4 NVME M.2 SSD IS BEING USED: The reason why this particular SSD is being used, isn’t because the SSD is super fast or anything, it’s because of its sustained transfer speeds for writing data. The data bandwidth for Thunderbolt 4 is just under 3000MB/s but no Gen 3 NVMe SSD can sustain that speed. Using a high quality Gen 4 SSD, such as the SN850X, will sustain the maximum data bandwidth that the enclosure will allow. Using a Gen 3 SSD, even one that says it’s faster than 3000MB/s, won’t sustain anywhere near that speed when writing large amounts of continuous data in one go. It’s all down to the caching systems on the drives and the high quality, fast Gen 4 NVMe SSDs generally have better caching and buffering compared to the Gen 3 NVMe SSDs. Some cheaper Gen 4 NVMe SSDs won’t sustain that data rate either. Again, another reason for recommending what may appear to be an unnecessarily expensive SSD. That may also appear to be much faster than what you think you may need. Also, the reason why we only get about 3000MB/s out of Thunderbolt 4 for data and not the 5000MB/s, which is what 40Gb/s is. Is because about 2000MB/s of Thunderbolt 4’s bandwidth/bus speed is taken up for video, even though video is not being used with the enclosure. The separate video bandwidth is just part of the protocols for Thunderbolt 4 and which is why the entire 5000MB/s bus speed of Thunderbolt 4 is not all used for data transferring, even when a video signal is not being used. You can of course use much cheaper Gen 3 NVMe SSDs if you don’t require the fast sustained maximum write speeds. And you can also use smaller capacity SSDs if you don’t require large storage spaces. The reason why I use the 4TB WD SN850X is because it will give me the maximum speed for sustained writing of very large file transfers in one go and I personally need at least 4TB of storage because I use a lot of large, high bandwidth video files. ACASIS TBU401 enclosure at Amazon geni.us/u9A5heL ACASIS TBU405 M1 enclosure with fan at Amazon geni.us/ACASIS-TBU405ProM1 ACASIS website geni.us/ACASIS ACASIS TBU401 enclosure at ACASIS website geni.us/Acasis-TBU401 WD SSDs: SN850X 4TB geni.us/SN850X-4TB SN850X 2TB geni.us/SN850X-2TB SN850X 1TB geni.us/SN850X-1TB MacBook Pro M1 Max geni.us/2F4Vr Laptop stand used with the MacBook geni.us/4JJd7 How To Build The Fastest External Thunderbolt 4 USB4 SSD For Your M1 M2 M3 Apple Silicon Mac MacBook. In this video I'm showing how to build a fast Thunderbolt 4 SSD storage drive which is also USB 4.0 compatible. The same drive also works on Thunderbolt 3 and is perfect for expanding the storage of any M1 M2 M3 Apple Silicon Mac computer, be that a MacBook Pro, MacBook Air or one the desktop Macs such as the Mac Studio or Mac Mini. I would go so far as to say that this is the best external drive for a Mac and the fastest external drive for a Mac. The drive consists of the WD Black SN850X 4TB NVME M.2 SSD and the excellent Acasis TBU401 40Gb/s Thunderbolt 4 USB4.0 to NVMe enclosure. While I'm using it with an Apple Mac MacBook Pro M1 Max in this video. The same drive is also compatible with other hardware platforms and operating systems, such as Windows, Linux and Android etc. I also do a disk speed test using Blackmagic Design's Disk Speed Test utility and I also show a real world disk speed test by moving files to and from the external drive. Video chapters: 00:00 Intro and explanation 01:10 Unboxing the SSD 02:08 Unboxing the enclosure 04:00 Building the drive 10:59 Formatting the drive 15:00 Blackmagic disk speed test 16:42 Real world write speed test 19:29 Real world read speed test 21:48 End summary Please give a thumbs up, share, sub & click the bell for notifications. Here’s the equipment that I use, have used or reviewed that I would recommend. Cameras: amzn.to/3PzC8mI Microphones: amzn.to/3tD6FaM Computers: amzn.to/3tuwHNr Phones: amzn.to/3ttqjWN iPads & Tablets: amzn.to/46t8wxG If this video helped you out you can also send me a coffee donation via PayPal www.paypal.me/DavidHarry My KZbin equipment & recommendations: Amazon USA amzn.to/3g2Oi3i Amazon UK amzn.to/2ZR6IOV My Amazon Shop links: Amazon USA www.amazon.com/shop/davidharry Amazon UK www.amazon.co.uk/shop/davidharry My global Amazon links: Amazon USA: geni.us/Amazon-USA Amazon UK: geni.us/Amazon-UK Amazon Deutschland: geni.us/Amazon-Deutschland Amazon Canada: geni.us/Amazon-Canada Contact me for product reviews. I DO NOT RESPOND TO VIEWER QUESTIONS. [e-mail] www.DavidHarry.com I’m David Harry. Thank you very much for watching this video, take care and goodbye now. Cheers, Dave. #DavidHarry#LiverpoolTV

[@keithbatchelor2348]

I have viewed lots of videos on this subject over the past month and this one is-without doubt-the best of them all, by a country mile. Well done! 👍

[@DavidHarry]

Nice one, Keith. Thank you for your kind words 👍 and I hope the video was useful for you. Cheers, Dave.

[@psoon04286]

I can still remember the ‘good old days’ when we had to rig together a handful of 7200rpm hard drives in RAID 0 to achieve transfer speeds a fraction of what you managed here😳

[@DavidHarry]

Hi, Philip. Yes, I used to use a Sonnet 8 drive setup in a striped set and that was nowhere near the read or write speeds of this drive. BTW, technically, 0 isn’t a RAID setup as it has no redundancy. Plus, this drive on a per TB cost is a lot cheaper. It’s just a pity that we can’t add these fast SSDs internally to the Apple Silicon Macs, this SSD would be much closer to 8GB/s for read and write on a good Gen4 M.2 controller. Cheers, Dave.

[@zenchiefengineer]

Right? I used a G-Drive forever. I built one of these and transfer speeds for using FCPX and music creation have improved by a LOT

[@joeyyung911]

I RAID'ed two 74GB Raptor 10k RPM drives. You can hear it hard at work!!

[@saintchris0]

A very professional video that has taken into account how it will be viewed. Lots of steady close ups showing details and held long enough to take in the relevance. On that basis I subscribed!

[@DavidHarry]

Hi. Thank you very much for your comment and I’m glad you liked the video. Thank you very much for the sub, it really does help my channel 👍 Cheers, Dave.

[@Zubair-p8r]

Hi, I know this video is a year old now but still very relevant - thanks. A quick question: Will this be good to boot from on my Imac 2019 Fusion Drive, which is running a little slow? Many thanks

[@riccardor1060]

Really interesting review. I have appreciated the real world test, because most people tend to do only synthetic tests, which could be not so useful.

[@DavidHarry]

You are very welcome 👍 Yes, the real world test is very important, especially with a large amount of data as I done in this video, as this definitely showed that the speed did not drop. The problem with synthetic tests is that they only tend to test the initial buffer capabilities, which are smaller than moving a lot of data in one go. Cheers, Dave.

[@incudude311]

Excellent tutorial, made the process a breeze! Thank you!

[@DavidHarry]

I’m glad the video was helpful 👍 Cheers, Dave.

[@mondotv4216]

I'd add to David's warnings. Choose a Gen 4 x 4 drive for best results and look at reviews. You can't go wrong with the Samsung 980/990 Pro but of course they are more expensive - the EVOs seem to bottleneck quite quickly.. Above all, choose a drive like the Samsung that runs relatively cool as the cooling on these cases is all passive. Steer away from the Sabrent case. It works but has a recessed Thunderbolt port - only the cable that comes with the drive actually fits the case.

[@DavidHarry]

Hi. Definitely 👍 People underestimate why certain drives are expensive, Samsung 990 Pro, WD SN850X etc. You're not so much paying for a "fast" drive but a fast drive that can sustain its write speeds. I've seen far too many comments where people are complaining about the recommendation of the SSD saying it's too expensive or "no one needs that kind of speed". The simple fact is that if someone didn't need the speed then they wouldn't be looking at a Thunderbolt solution and would just go USB-C. And yes, heat is an issue with all these fast Gen4 SSDs. I'll be doing a video soon with another ACASIS enclosure that has a fan you can manually turn off on and. Thanks for the comment 👍 Cheers, Dave.

[@mondotv4216]

@@DavidHarryPS - to really understand the read speed you have to test the write speed of the Mac internal drive. That could be your bottleneck with it’s own write speed. I know they are very fast but still that could be it’s top sustained write speed.

[@DavidHarry]

@@mondotv4216 Hi. The internal storage on the Mac is way faster than the data bus speed of TB4, this is simply common knowledge and I’ve already done videos about this. The limit in this setup, or the bottleneck, is the limit of the bus speed for TB4 for data transferring (which is the net bandwidth after the DP bandwidth has been taken into account). As both the Mac’s internal storage and the WD SN850X’s transfer speeds are way in excess of the TB4 bus speed for data. What we see here is essentially the hard stop for TB4. Cheers, Dave.

[@MrChangTH]

Any idea what speed we would have if use with encryption on macOS?

[@qtben17]

I cancelled my order or t7 shield 4tb and went with this route instead. Now waiting for these to arrive and set it up. Thank you!

[@DavidHarry]

Hi Ben. I also have a T7 (1TB) and the difference is night and day. This 4TB TB SSD combination is between three to four times faster for reading and writing. The biggest benefit for me is that this drive will constantly sustain its maximum write speed. Cheers, Dave.

[@emerjay348]

I really like how clear and understandable your English accent is.

[@DavidHarry]

Thank you 👍 Cheers, Dave.

[@PromotingTheBeat]

Just got this case and this exact SSD ( but 1 TB for music production files ) for my M3 iMac. This was a super excellent breakdown. Thank you for this.

[@LP_and_Me]

Just the right information I was looking for delivered in a professional, clear way. Liked and subscribed!

[@DavidHarry]

Nice one, thank you for your kind words and I'm glad the video was useful. Thank you for the like and sub 👍 Cheers, Dave.

[@LP_and_Me]

@@DavidHarry no worries, thanks for the reply 👍

[@markrussell.]

I have this exact drive and enclosure, using it with a M1 Mac Mini and a M1 Macbook Air and get 2800 Mbps all day long. I am ecstatic with how well it performs. Thank You David!

[@DavidHarry]

Hi, Mark. Sorry for the late reply. Yes, this combination of SSD and enclosure is really fast and on any of the Apple Silicon Macs. Thanks for your comment. Cheers, Dave.

[@MrBillkaz]

Thanks for sharing I will do it to

[@mario7are]

Hey @markrussell, is your writing speed also around 2800 Mbps? , which Mac Mini do you have? I would like to try it with my Mac Mini M1 2020 (A2348) but wondering if I can get similar results as yours.

[@alfabravo80]

I have an iMac M1, (256gb & 16gb ram) and, I’ve tried the WD SN770 with the Acasis enclosure but, I didn’t get the same speeds as you did. I’ll try the SN850x. Thanks for sharing.

[@demon6937]

How’s the temperature when moving large files?

[@MarkBowenPiano]

Pretty much the exact same items I'm using! I've got the Acasis enclosure and a Western Digital Blue SN570 and the speed is fantastic with them. Had problems with a much cheaper enclosure (around £20) which said it should get 40GBps but literally the drive pretty much stalled when put in it. Tried a friends enclosure too which he knows works on his computer (a PC) but that too had the same problem. Looks like either Mac doesn't like the cheaper enclosures or there's something they're not doing right which when connected to a Mac makes the drive pretty much halt. Using this same sort of setup though is soooo fast though! Mac Mini M2 Pro

[@DavidHarry]

Hi, Mark. Yes, the enclosure makes all the difference. I have another Thunderbolt enclosure and while the same WD SSD is still very impressive in that enclosure, it’s not as fast as it is in the Acasis. I’ve also tried a number of USB C enclosures with this WD SSD and it won’t go anywhere near the 10Gb/s that the USB C enclosures are supposed to do. This just means that those USB C enclosures aren’t as fast as they say they are, or at least their chipsets aren’t that good. I also have an Intel NUC with Thunderbolt and a Windows PC with Thunderbolt and both are really fast with this Acasis and the WD SSD. I suppose the bottom line in this instance, is that you do definitely get what you pay for, in a good way. Thanks for your comment 👍 Cheers, Dave.

[@yt-viewerfromger320]

Hi David! First of all I (as a "bloody German") have to thank you for your very precise pronounciation! It's been a pleasure to listen to your video and I like your accent, though I wonder from which part of the UK it originates. Concerning the read speed you measured with the enclosure one has to consider the write speed of your internal ssd. This has to be faster than the read speed of the external ssd to be able to measure the correct read speed of the TB/USB4 enclosure! By the way, those enclosures with an ASMEDIA AS2464 chipset are both TB4/USB4 compatible with complete downward compatability. Connected to a real USB4 controller in a Win11 laptop or pc you can reach up to 3800 GB/s according to ads for such enclosures such as ZikeDrive Z666 or Adata SE920. So, if you're going to proove these drives in future videos, you're going to need a relatively new laptop or a USB4 controller card for a not too old pc. Your 10 year old optiplex seems a bit too old for this, I think...

[@DavidHarry]

Hi. Thank you for your compliment on my pronunciation. However, in my experience, Germans are very good with the English language and many of the English accents. My previous girlfriend was from Ludwigsburg and she thought my accent was "cute" 😆 While you are correct, all the external speeds, read and write, when testing any external drive's speed. Rely on the target drive (the internal drive) being faster than the external drive. In this instance I'd just assumed that most people watching the video would know how fast the internal 1TB was on the Mac, which is over 5000MB/s for read and write. Maybe I should have made that point more clearer. In any event, the Thunderbolt speeds, regardless of the drive used on Thunderbolt (4), are way lower than the internal storage. So what we see in this video is the true speed of the external drive when used with Thunderbolt 4. However, there is a bottleneck with all Thunderbolt drives and that is the Thunderbolt speed/bandwidth for data. While the WD SSD used in this configuration is actually faster than the Mac's internal storage, the SSD is limited by the bandwidth of Thunderbolt (4) and also the chipset inside the enclosure. While the overall bandwidth of Thunderbolt 4 is 40Gb/s, which is 5000MB/s. About 2000MB/s is partitioned for DisplayPort bandwidth, even if you don't use any video data over the connection. This means that regardless of the combination of Thunderbolt enclosure and SSD, you will never get above around 3000MB/s for data bandwidth. I think I may have mentioned some of this stuff in the video description. As for USB4. I'm yet to see anyone demonstrate any USB4 SSD with a Windows system using any USB4 host controller that is any faster than what you get with Thunderbolt 4. Regardless of what may be written or assumed, I have a feeling that USB4 is also held back in the same way that Thunderbolt 4 is, with regard video bandwidth allocation across the bus speed. If you know of any video demonstration that shows higher data speeds, I would be very inserted to see that. Like I said, I've personally never seen any demonstration of USB4 that's faster than TB4 with data speeds/bandwidths. The test with the Optiplex was only to test that the USB compatibility of the exclosure would fall back to USB2 (480Mb/s) and USB3 (5Gb+) and that it was indeed fully compatible as a "generic" USB SSD and not just a Thunderbolt SSD. The test with the Optiplex was obviously not for USB4. Also, I still do not have a Windows machine with native USB4, only a Gigabyte system with an add-on Thunderbolt 3 controller. Cheers, Dave.

[@frankthemusicteacher]

Excellent explanations and ordering of your presentation. I have to subscribe!

[@DavidHarry]

Hi, Frank. I'm glad you liked the video and thank you for the subscription 👍 Cheers, Dave.

[@FLG8r]

great tutorial; recently acquired a Samsung 4 TB SSD and a Acasis enclosure - had to refresh my memory since I built a 2 TB external SSD a while ago.

[@DavidHarry]

I’m glad the video was helpful 👍

[@mub9341]

Hey thanks for the info, great job! I have tried several different thunderbolt enclosures and the best I ever got was 2800mb/s. Even with the new Mac Studio M2 , same thing. I Tried a similar setup on a new windows pc and the best I got was 3800mb/s. Not sure why Apple limits the speed. Cheers!

[@DavidHarry]

Thanks for the info! 👍 Cheers, Dave.

[@MiniCChan]

Hello David. Thanks for this comprehensive review video! I love it so much! I have ordered this combination of Acasis enclosure (TBU401) and SN850X 4TB SSD. But I have one question to ask you, about thermal pad. I noticed that you just inserted the 1mm thermal pad that included in the package onto the SSD surface. Is it enough for heat dissipation? In other words, does this 1mm thernal pad successfully contact the case lid and SN850X 4TB SSD surface? So overall, is the temperature of this SSD normal without overheating after running for a certain period of time? Thanks for your reply!!

[@73jayzee]

would you recommend this as the on-camera external ssd for recording BRAW from the Blackmagic Video Assist? Or is this overkill?

[@DavidHarry]

It is a bit overkill for camera storage. However, it will definitely give you a sustained high bitrate, which is really important for high resolution/high frame rate long recordings/takes. As long as the C-type interface on the camera can fully utilise the bandwidth of the enclosure.

[@truongnguyenkhanh8356]

Hello sir. On their website, it said the ACASIS TBU405 enclosure only support interfaces with thunderbolt 3/4 and USB 4.0 protocol. My question is if I use the enclosure with older protocol ports will it transfer data? Or it will not work at all? Cause I have 2 laptops, one with thunderbolt 3 and one with USB 3.2, so I would like to know if it work with the latter one.

[@DavidHarry]

Yes, it works with USB.

[@thelostexplorer2964]

Many thanks for this video, which I found invaluable for guiding me through the build process. Enjoying my new WD/Acasis drive and have measured 2793 MB/s write and 2785 MB/s read, which is all very impressive. Thank you!!

[@DavidHarry]

Hi. You are very welcome and I’m glad the video was useful 👍 Cheers, Dave.

[@mattduncan5500]

can i ask what WD you are using ? please and thankyou

[@MrDeepseadweller]

The “read test” is flawed because it will be limited to the speed at which it can write the data to the target drive. If your internal drive is slower, it will be the bottleneck and will cripple the external drive. Anyway, good explanation and excellent video.

[@DavidHarry]

Both the read and write would be flawed if the source was slower for either or both. However, there is no flaw in this test as the internal storage is almost twice the speed of the external. The bottleneck here is Thunderbolt, which has a provision for DP video data, which is why we don’t get 40Gb/s (5GBs) with any Thunderbolt storage. Cheers, Dave.

[@Brocky93Ro]

sadly no nvme enclosure present right now won't be able to benefit from pcie 4 or pcie 5 ssd's ... that speed are about 50% of the SN850x performance ...

[@DavidHarry]

Those speeds, which are a lot lower than the speed of the SSD and also a lot slower than 40Gb/s (5000MB/s) are not because of the enclosure. The Thunderbolt standard has part of the 40Gb/s bandwidth allocated to DisplayPort video. The SSD, or PCIe data bandwidth, is the difference between 40Gb/s and the video bandwidth. Unfortunately, this applies even if you are not using a video over that particular Thunderbolt bus. Cheers, Dave.

[@yuriflynn2477]

Awesome video, I have been sitting on the fence deciding which combo of enclosure & ssd to use but this has helped me to finally make my decision 😁. Any update as how’s its all still running ,, Thanks

[@DavidHarry]

Hi. Yes, the drive is still working great 👍 I'll be doing another video soon with an enclosure that has a fan in it for extra cooling. Cheers, Dave.

[@sutv6754]

Is it much easier and less heat sink work to buy the more expensive one with the fan. What are the pros of the fan unit and do you recommend it if the money is not an object.

[@DavidHarry]

The TBU405Pro M1 keeps the SSD much cooler, it's no easier to use, they're both easy to use. I'd recommend the TBU405Pro M1 for hot running Gen 4 SSDs. I'll be doing a video about it soon.

[@peter.nicholson]

Hi Dave, just been through the process of setting up an External SSD (Acasis/WD combination) as per your video - excellent result - your help was much appreciated... Many thanks.

[@DavidHarry]

Hi, Peter. I'm glad the video was helpful and you are very welcome. Cheers, Dave.

[@RE7Hazuki]

I went this route then found your video. Made me feel justified lol. I'm using a Samsing 980 (not pro) but so not getting quite the same speeds (around 1.8-2GB/S) still excellent though.

[@gonzalespv7358]

Thanks for the video, very interesting tests. However, I would like to ask you if using this combination of box and SSD would increase the performance of the Mac in terms of responsiveness to commands and startup when turned on if I were to install the operating system on it. Sorry for my English, Google translate helps me. Thank you

[@DavidHarry]

Hi, No, this SSD or any SSD will not speed up the performance/processing of any computer. It will however allow you to read and write data quickly, which may appear to speed up processing if disk access speed is a bottleneck. Cheers, Dave.

[@gonzalespv7358]

@@DavidHarry Thank you !!

[@digilifepro]

Excellent guide here! Your attention to detail is impressive both in the video and in the text notes written. Great work!

[@DavidHarry]

Thank you for your very kind comment 👍 Cheers, Dave.

[@OluwaseyiOlowosulu]

@@DavidHarry Same... Came for the video subbed for the text notes!

[@thomasm.houston8258]

Awesome video! I have a new Mac mini M1 w/256 gb internal hd Would this hardware work on that as well?

[@DavidHarry]

Hi, Thomas. Yes. I have a Mac Mini M1 16GB/256GB and this drive works perfectly with it and it's 16x the storage capacity of the Mac's internal storage. Cheers, Dave.

[@MarkOfWA]

Beware: If the USB4 or Thunderbolt cabling isn't perfect, MacOS will kernel-panic. Stable most of the time with authentic Thunderbolt 3 or 4 cables.

[@heythere6983]

Iv heard things like that . Something about people’s computers not working right . Wonder how it works if you need to adapt to other connections and using as exfat

[@harderjohansen]

Wonderful video. Thanks. I have mini mac from late 2014 and it has problems with my 34" LG ultrawide screen, so I shall buy a new mini mac. I think the m2 with lowest storage 256gb and 8 ram. And then I will use your external ssd instead. Can I boot from the external drive or would it be better to have programs inside the mini mac and boot from there and use the external drive for Fotos and videos

[@DavidHarry]

You can boot off either, internal or external. In certain instances, depending on the Mac, this external SSD is actually faster than the Regardless of the potential speed gain with the external, for a single boot system I would boot from the internal. Cheers, Dave.

[@DavidHarry]

Acasis TBU401 enclosure at Acasis geni.us/ACASIS-TBU401 Acasis TBU401 enclosure at Amazon geni.us/u9A5heL WB Black SN850X 4TB geni.us/v0dr MacBook Pro M1 Max geni.us/2F4Vr Laptop stand used with the MacBook geni.us/4JJd7 Best Fastest External SSD for M1 M2 Mac & Speed Test, Build Your Own Super Fast NVMe Thunderbolt SSD How To Build The FASTEST External Portable Thunderbolt USB4.0 SSD For Your M1 M2 Mac So in this video I'm showing how to build a fast USB4.0 external NVME ssd drive that's 4TB in size. The same drive also works on Thunderbolt 3 and Thunderbolt 4 and is perfect for expanding the storage of your Apple Silicon ARM Mac computer, be that one of the MacBooks or one the desktop Macs such as the Mac Studio or Mac Mini. This drive works with all the M1 and M2 models and so far, this is the fastest external for my Mac that I have come across. I would go so far as to say that this is the best external drive for a Mac The drive consists of the super fast WD Black SN850X 4TB NVME M.2 SSD and the excellent Acasis TBU401 40Gb/s USB4.0 enclosure that's also compatible with Thunderbolt 3 and Thunderbolt 4. While I'm using it with an Apple Mac MacBook Pro M1 Max in this video. The same drive is also compatible with other hardware platforms and operating systems, such as Windows, Linux and Android etc. In the video I show how you how to build the drive, which is really straight forward and easy. I also do a disk speed test using Blackmagic Design's Disk Speed Test utility and I also show a real world disk speed test by moving files to and from the external drive. Video chapters: 00:00 Intro and explanation 01:10 Unboxing the SSD 02:08 Unboxing the enclosure 04:00 Building the drive 10:59 Formatting the drive 15:00 Blackmagic disk speed test 16:42 Real world write speed test 19:29 Real world read speed test 21:48 End summary Please give a thumbs up, share, sub & click the bell for notifications. The stuff I mostly use to produce my videos Cameras: Sony FDR-AX100 geni.us/SONY-FDR-AX100 Sony ZV-1 geni.us/SONY-ZV-1 Sony A7iii geni.us/Sony-A7-iii GoPro Hero 11 geni.us/GoProHero11Black-USA DJI Action 2 geni.us/DJI_Action-2 Microphones & Preamps: Sennheiser ME64 with K6 geni.us/Sennheiser-K6-And-ME64 Shure SM7B geni.us/SHURE_SM7B Various RODE Microphones geni.us/Rode-Microphones Triton Fethead geni.us/Triton-Fethead Behringer U-Phoria UMC2020HD geni.us/BehringerUMC202HD HDMI Capture Device: Atomos Ninja V geni.us/Atomos-Ninja-V Elgato 4K60 Pro MK2 geni.us/Elgato-4K-60-Pro-MK2 Elgato 4K60 S+ geni.us/Elgato-4K60-SPlus BlackMagic Ultrastudio Recorder 3G geni.us/UltraStudioRecorder3G Computer & Software: Apple MacBook Pro M1 Max geni.us/MacBook-Pro-M1-Max Blackmagic Design DaVinci Resolve Studio geni.us/DaViniciResolveStudio My Amazon links are affiliate links. Using these links does not cost you anything. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. This gives me a small commission when buy using my product links, at no cost to you. These commissions help my channel and their use is greatly appreciated. You can also send me a coffee donation via PayPal www.paypal.me/DavidHarry My KZbin equipment & recommendations: Amazon USA amzn.to/3g2Oi3i Amazon UK amzn.to/2ZR6IOV My Amazon Shop links: Amazon USA www.amazon.com/shop/davidharry Amazon UK www.amazon.co.uk/shop/davidharry My global Amazon links: Amazon USA: geni.us/Amazon-USA Amazon UK: geni.us/Amazon-UK Amazon Deutschland: geni.us/Amazon-Deutschland Amazon France: geni.us/Amazon-France Amazon España: geni.us/Amazon-Espana Amazon Italia: geni.us/Amazon-Italia Amazon Canada: geni.us/Amazon-Canada Contact me for product reviews. I DO NOT RESPOND TO VIEWER QUESTIONS. [e-mail] www.DavidHarry.com I’m David Harry. Thank you very much for watching this video, take care and goodbye now. Cheers, Dave. #DavidHarry#LiverpoolTV

[@brianmagicman3556]

Hi David Wicked video and explanation Is this setup basically a DIY version of a Samsung t7 shield or Sandisk Pro ssd etc....?? Can I buy this setup and use it to transfer and save 4K 60fps videos from my Samsung s23 Ultra and GoPro 12 as well ??

[@DavidHarry]

Hi, Brian. Yes, the end result here would be just like using a T7 but a lot faster. I have a 1TB T7 and this drive is about 4 to 5 times faster. You can use this drive with an S23 Ultra, depending on what SSD inside it and if it's formatted to something that the S23 Ultra will understand, such as ExFAT. You can not use any external SSD with any GoPro, the GoPros do not write direct to external SSDs via their USB ports. Check out my videos, I have a bunch of stuff including the S23 Ultra, iPhone 15 Pro Max and Apple and Samsung tablets etc. You may find something interesting in there. Cheers, Dave.

[@brianmagicman3556]

@DavidHarry Ahh ok So basically I would NOT be able to transfer any GoPro footage from the micro sd card of the GoPro to the DIY ssd drive, no ?

[@DavidHarry]

@@brianmagicman3556 Hi, Brian. Not directly from the GoPro. You would have to put the GoPro's SD card into a computer and then back off the video files to the external SSD. Cheers, Dave.

[@samguapo4573]

You have excellent narration :) thanks for your video

[@DavidHarry]

Thank you and you are very welcome 👍 Cheers, Dave.

[@Jordan_Belfor]

Hey! nice video I thought all boxes supports up to 2 tb NVME ssd ? Like Orico I bought Orico M2V01-C4 it says 2 tb capacity? But why?

[@DavidHarry]

Don't know, I don't use the Orico boxes.

[@Jordan_Belfor]

@@DavidHarry Thanks, but have you tried to use 4 TB NVME SSD with Samsung X5 box? Does it support 4 tb ssd?

nice , I just ordered yesterday somthing similar , nice to see the prices for SSD-s are a bit more affordable , I took a crucial 4TB with 300euro

[@DavidHarry]

Yes, it’s good to see the higher capacity SSDs starting to come down in price. I was also looking at the Crucial P5 Plus. However, this WD only cost slightly more as I got it during a sale. For using inside one of these USB4 enclosures, I’m quite sure the read and write speed of this WD and the P5 Plus will be very similar, as they are both way faster than USB4 and Thunderbolt. The WD also worked out better for me in case it ever goes inside a computer further down the line, as its sustained write speed is important to me for video capture. Cheers, Dave.

[@jeramybearamy8539]

I bought an Acasis 40Gbps enclosure and a Samsung 970 Evo Plus to add to my MacBook M1 Pro. The read speeds were 2800 MBps, but the write speeds were 1300 MBps and I'm not sure why. Any ideas?

[@DavidHarry]

Hi, Jeramy. The issue is the SSD and its compatibility with the controller in the Acasis enclosure. As you know, the write speeds of that SSD are faster when connected directly to a computer. It's simply a slight incompatibility issues that stops the SSD performing to its maximum when in write mode. I also have the same SSD and noticed similar issues with three TB enclosures. This is why I settled on WD SN850X, because it does achieve the full write speed permitted over Thunderbolt and it also sustained those write speed for large file dumps and video recording, due to its RAM and cache system. Cheers, Dave.

[@jeramybearamy8539]

@@DavidHarry Thanks for the info, David. It was very helpful. I switched my 970 Evo Plus to a 980 Pro and the write speeds doubled.

[@DavidHarry]

That’s great news, Jeramy. Those extra speeds are definitely going to make a difference. Cheers, Dave 👍

[@joffrey6831]

Woah your voice audio quality is insane 😱🤯 Def should do a video about it !

[@grubbb]

I see that the ACASIS 40Gbps M.2 NVME SSD Enclosure is NOT recommended with the WD Black SN750 or SN850 SSD with Mac M1 and M2 chips. Do you have any other suggestions?

[@unihumi]

Why is that? Why is it not recommended?

[@man-bagdammit2297]

491 gb copied in under 3 minutes. Mind blowing.

[@DavidHarry]

Yes, very fast.

[@bamfamfilms]

Simply invaluable, but I'm still having some issues. Would you mind chiming in with your thoughts? I have a M1 Macbook Pro with a new Acasis enclosure and a Sabrent 2TB NVMe SSD. I'm a video editor and just tried to transfer a 450GB folder of footage from a Lacie harddrive. The Blackmagic speed test showed 2700+ (for the new SSD) but when I tried to copy it took over an hour...is this an issue with my new SSD? Maybe since I'm copying from a Lacie? Or perhaps since my Mac is almost full?

[@DavidHarry]

The problem is your Lacie drive, run the BM speed test on that drive and you'll see that it is way slower than your SSD. Cheers, Dave.

[@bamfamfilms]

@@DavidHarry Ah yes! You're right, thanks so so much!! 🤙🏼

[@xti2020]

I have no plans whatsoever to make one of these but the youtube algo recommended it to me and I watched whole dang video cos it was so good. You are an excellent teacher sir and explained all of this really well.

[@DavidHarry]

Thank you 👍 Cheers, Dave.

[@andygilbert1877]

I’ve just followed this video with these components (but 2TB) to add storage for my new M2 Studio. Excellent explanation and results, I’m getting much the same speeds as you, thanks very much!

[@DavidHarry]

Awesome 👍 I’m glad the video was useful. Cheers, Dave.

[@KarimBenabd]

Great content and definitely with a pleasant crystal voice !

[@DavidHarry]

Thank you 👍

[@iplaywithrocksforfun]

What makes the difference between 30 and 40gbps? The cable being a 3 or 4? Because the housing advertises 40 and the ssd advertises 72. 🤔

[@DavidHarry]

Hi. Part of the 40Gb/s (5000MB/s) for Thunderbolt is segmented for video bandwidth (DisplayPort). This is why you only get just under 3000MB/s for data transfer speeds. Cheers, Dave.

[@iplaywithrocksforfun]

@@DavidHarry thank you

[@mrgehring2]

How fast is the SSD inside your Mac that you are transferring from / to? It needs to be much faster than the Thunderbolt SSD for a fair test, our you could be limited by the speed of that. However, you are still getting fantastic results! Sorry if I missed it if you have that here, I just skipped to the speed test. I guess in any case you are ultimately limited by the 40Gb/s of TB4, or 5000MBps ( minus some overhead )

[@DavidHarry]

Hi Mark. I did mention that the Mac’s internal drive was much faster. And yes, the limiting factor here is the TB bandwidth and not the host or target drives 👍 Cheers, Dave.

[@zamalek1235]

Gread vid does this work on PS4 PS5?

[@DavidHarry]

Don't know. Cheers, Dave.

[@LeicaM11]

Since the end of 2021 I am still fighting with Thunderbolt issues on three different Apple PCs with Mx processors. All of them having mounting and sudden demounting issues with two and three of that very Acasis/Anyoyo cases. Nobody could help, nobody had an idea. I spent a lot of money to Intel certified cables and changed SSDs a lot and formatted them thoroughly to different standards. I always could connect those cases on USB-c with 10 or 20 Gbps, with ease. But no success at Thunderbolt. Now at the end, I do think, that Apple is not able to mount more than one thunderbolt device at the same time permanently or that there are problems in mounting identical Thunderbolt cases. Btw: Why does MacOS show, that Thunderbolt bridge is inoperable, when having two or three devices connected? I have tried Mac mini M1 in 2021, Mac Studio M1 max in 2023/2024 and Mac mini M2 pro now in 2024. Right now, running the OWC 1M2 express combined with Acasis/Anyoyo, but no improvement. ADATA SE920 2 TB will be delivered tomorrow, let’s see.

[@craigg4246]

Just bought a new 1TB M2 MBA yesterday. Ordering this exact same setup for it today. Thank you for the fine review mate. Liked and subbed

[@DavidHarry]

Hi, Craig. I'm glad the video was useful and than you very much for the like and sub 👍 I'll be doing more stuff soon about the MBA and also more storage options. Cheers, Dave.

[@DeBanked]

Just going to buy my first mac mini this is just what i was looking for, to boost the drive size without paying apple my next years wages just for a small upgrade 😂 subbed and ty ❤

[@DavidHarry]

Hi Antonia. Yes, this is cheaper than the 4TB upgrade from Apple 😂 You can always use a cheaper NVME SSD in the enclosure to get the costs down and it will still be fast. I got this particular NVME because it has one of the highest sustained write speeds of any NVME out there. You could see how well this NVME sustained the write speed on the real world test, it didn’t slow down at all over almost 500GB of files. I also need the high sustained write for video capturing as well, although most people don’t necessarily need that function. A bigger internal Apple drive will be faster, however, the speed on this drive is probably enough for most people and as you said, it’s cheaper. Checkout the Crucial P5 Plus and P3 Plus NVME SSDs, these are a fair bit cheaper for the 4TB versions. Cheers, Dave.

[@DeBanked]

@@DavidHarry thanks 🙏 for the detailed response Dave I liked what you were doing so I will make sure to pick those parts up and share the love ofc thank you again

[@Maax_555]

Is this still the best way to go for M3 Max 16core Macbook and which memory, 990 EVO or WD850x or even Crucial P3 Plus? Any help appreciated

[@JQUICK21]

What type of work or computing would you ever need such speed like this? I'm a day trader and am switching from my 2017 Macbook Air over to the 2023 Mac Mini M2.....

[@Pch100]

Is it backward compatible with usb 3

[@DavidHarry]

It will work with all USB as long as you use the right cable.

[@yajlemag1]

A very good presentation, BUT maybe I missed the part where you explained the difference between your real world numbers (bravo) and the 40Gbsec printed on the enclosure cover. On what planet is that available? that would be 5GB/sec if I understand the nomenclature (Gbs and GBs) and it’s still 2GBs slower than advertised.

[@FA21535]

I have a problem with TBU 405 pro cable When i use it with my macbook pro m1 , every time disconnect and side ( Disk Not Ejected Properly Eject - before disconnecting or turning it off. ) But when i use my ipad cable it works without any issues I need ur help

[@Andres_VIGOMG]

Really good video but please remove the sticker of the ssd before putting the thermal pad :)

[@DavidHarry]

Hi Andres. I'm glad you liked the video. However, that's not actually a sticker, it's an aluminium foil type material and it's part of the SSDs thermal distribution for the controller chip and NAND. If you take that off then the thermal distribution wont be as good and you'd also void the manufacturer's warranty. Cheers, Dave.

[@kashinkoji6229]

i have this TB4 Acasis box with a Samsung 980 Pro in and the speed is really great on my macbook pro but on Windows 11 it just work at 200 MB/s...! What a shame... and when i want to connect it on my iphone 15 Pro Max it is just not recognized....!!!

[@49ers49ers]

Will this Crucial P3 Plus 4TB PCIe Gen4 3D NAND NVMe M.2 SSD, up to 5000MB/s - CT4000P3PSSD8 fit in this enclosure?

[@DavidHarry]

It will fit inside no problem, but you wont get anywhere near the speeds in this video. Cheers, Dave.

[@49ers49ers]

@@DavidHarry why would I not get that speed? I don't understand. It's a gen 4 SSD?

[@DavidHarry]

@@49ers49ers Because it's a slower drive and can't sustain data rates like the SN850X.

[@tomaszwaszka3394]

Do you know (have you checked) what the temperature of the disk was after the copy was completed?

[@jamiesouza]

mine says 849 and 727 :/ Why is mine so slow? I bought the Sabrent 2T and ACASIS extranl case

[@raw_pc]

I'd love to have RAID version of that enclosure (similar to the old WD My Passport Pro Duo). It would be the best pro solution on the go.

[@DavidHarry]

I would only recommend RAID for this type of Thunderbolt system if it’s redundancy you are after. You would gain no extra speed, as a good single NVMe drive is already faster than Thunderbolt. Cheers, Dave.

[@helios5293]

I may be missing something but whats the point of getting a 5000 to 7000mbps internal ssd when the enclosure at max thru thunderbolt 4 still peaks at R&W 2.8mbps

[@DavidHarry]

The point isn’t because the drives are super fast or anything, it’s because of their sustained transfer speeds. The data bandwidth for Thunderbolt 4 is just under 3000MB/s but no Gen 3 SSD can sustain that speed. Using a high quality Gen 4 SSD, such as the SN850X, will sustain the maximum data bandwidth that the enclosure will allow. Using a Gen 3 SSD, even one that says it’s faster than 3000MB/s, won’t sustain anywhere near that speed when writing large amounts of data in one go. It’s all down to the caching systems on the drives and the high quality fast Gen 4 SSDs generally have better caching and buffering compared to the Gen 3 drives. Some cheaper Gen 4 SSDs won’t sustain that data rate either. Again, another reason for recommending what may appear to be an unnecessary recommendation of an expensive SSD. That may also appear to be much faster than what you think you may need. And the reason why we only get about 3000MB/s out of Thunderbolt 4 for data and not 5000MB/s, which is what 40Gb/s is. Is because about 2000MB/s of Thunderbolt 4’s bandwidth/bus speed is taken up for video, even though video is not being used with the enclosure. The separate video bandwidth is just part of the protocols for Thunderbolt and which is why the entire 5000MB/s bus speed of Thunderbolt 4 is not all used for data transferring.

[@helios5293]

Thanks for the speedy reply, that makes way more sense to me now. 👍

[@DavidHarry]

@@helios5293 You are very welcome 👍 I’ve just rewritten the video description so that it explains those things. The reason why I didn’t go into all that detail in the video was because the video was already very long and most people don’t seem that interested in too much technical information, even if it is useful. Plus, as easy as you or I may think it is to put together one of these drives. Most people won’t want to do this, which is understandable, as most people will see this type of thing as being too technical and won’t have the confidence to do it. Most people much prefer an off the shelf solution with a popular brand name on it. Cheers, Dave.

[@lenvasiljevs]

Thank you for providing such a clear and concise video. I have bought the same SSD and enclosure, but my iMac does not see the WD_Black SSD within Disk Utility. I'm not sure if you could answer this David, but does this set up run only via the silicon chips regarding Apple computers, or can an iMac (Intel chipset) work too? I will be connecting the SSD in to a Mac Mini Pro, but thought I could format the SSD on my iMac. Maybe I have misunderstood something. Would welcome your input Mr Harry!

[@DavidHarry]

Hi. This drive will work with may Mac that has USB C or Thunderbolt 3 or 4, it doesn’t matter if it’s ARM (Apple Silicon) or X86 (Intel). I use this drive with Windows as well on USB C or TB3. If Disk Utility does not see the drive, try changing the cable your connecting to the Mac with. Cheers, Dave.

[@lenvasiljevs]

@@DavidHarry Thanks for the information. I tried another cable without luck. I’m going to take the SSD and enclosure to a local computer store for them to test. I’ve a feeling the enclosure maybe the issue. Although, I don’t see any visible damage.

[@BrookviewLabs]

Is this a compatible drive?Samsung 990 PRO Gen4 SSD

[@-musiclee-]

ridiculous that they include a USB3 cable for a USB4 enclosure, and why is casing so big??, so much "dead" space inside the enclosure

[@gaetanobruno5889]

The speed is important, but I am looking for the most reliable enclosure in terms of heating and durability. Can someone recommend an enclosure that you have been using for some time without any problems? Thanks.

[@joeniemand9047]

How does a 3.3V 3a ssd work on a USB2.0 5V 500ma power source?

[@DavidHarry]

It’s not USB it’s Thunderbolt.

[@joeniemand9047]

​@DavidHarry At 22:30 you say you put it into a USB2.0 port at the front on a very old pc. How does that provide enough power to even power up the drive?

[@DawlessRecords]

I recently installed a Crucial P3 4TB M.2 PCIe Gen3 NVMe on my M2 Mac Book Pro. However, I have noticed that the drive gets excessively hot during file transfer processes. I was wondering if anyone else has had a similar experience with a 4TB drive. Thank you.

[@frazerweb]

I may invest in a better thermal pad of amazon and use a small desktop fan when I build mine.

[@pawelchmielinski6701]

USB on this hub does NOT support display! You can connect it only by HDMI

[@NealFox]

Just got the same setup that you're using, except with the 2TB instead of the 4. Man this thing gets hot! I'm sure I got the thermal pad in the right way, but it gets almost too hot to hold. And that's not even when the drive is working. Is this normal?

[@DavidHarry]

Hi, Neal. Mine also gets hot. The thing with Gen 4 NVMe SSDs is that they are designed to run at high temperatures, although it is a bit disconcerting. However, even at the high temperatures the SSD does not throttle. Again, because they are designed to run at higher temperatures compared to Gen 3 and SATA SSDs etc. I’ll be doing a video soon with another ACASIS similar to this one but it has a fan inside that keeps the SSD cooler. Cheers, Dave.

[@NealFox]

@@DavidHarry Thanks for the reply. I wrote to Acasis about this and got a completely confusing answer. She said that the ambient temperature should not be higher than 70. ??? I wrote back and told her to clarify. My room is always higher than 70. And I'm guessing the Acasis is way over that. I'm still waiting for clarification. But my main concern was if that extreme heat would lessen the life span. I can deal with the heat if it's made to run that way.

[@DavidHarry]

​@@NealFox Hi, Neal. It sounds like you've probably had someone in sales or marketing at ACASIS responding to you, as that "technical" response is quite wide of the mark. I totally get your concerns with the heat and its impact on the life span, that was my first concern when I started using Gen 4 NVMe SSDs. I read a good article (can't remember where now) that did go into detail on how Gen 4s are designed to run at higher temperatures compared to other SSDs. Now while the high temperatures still concern me, even after reading the tech specs, one thing that's reassuring is the lack of throttling. Usually when a component runs too hot, or outside of its recommended temperature range, it will get throttled, usually by lowering clock speeds, processing speeds etc. This is usually a safety measure to protect the component from thermal damage. In all my uses of the various WD SN850X SSDs that I have, inside computers, a PS5 and my ACASIS enclosures. They all run at high temperatures but never throttle performance. This lack of throttling does suggest that the SSDs aren't hitting their thermal limit and that everything is OK. With that said, yes, I still have those doubts about the SSDs that I put in that ACASIS enclosure. Although I'm yet to find any reported issues with those enclosures. If it's something that's going to carry on chewing away at the back of your brain, maybe consider getting one of the ones with the fan in it. I know that's a pain because it's extra money etc. But if it's peace of mind you are after, then that may be the way to go. Or maybe, if you put together another drive at some point, maybe buy the case with fan and put your WD in that, as your main fast drive. And put a Gen 3 NVMe in the enclosure you already have. If you are looking for a basic NVMe Gen 3 that runs cooler, the Crucial P3 SSDs run a lot cooler. However, the speeds are not as good but that's the upshot with Gen 4 NVMe, they are faster but run hotter. Cheers, Dave.

[@NealFox]

@@DavidHarry Thanks for the detailed response, David. I'll keep monitoring it and watch for any new videos you make.

[@AmpleWarning]

So great... exactly the information I was looking for, and extremely clear and easy to follow. Huge bonus points for the Dave Lister style delivery 🤣

[@DavidHarry]

I’m you liked the video 👍 Smeghead 🤣 Cheers, Dave.

[@FredMellink55]

Speed is fantastic but in total $600 is a lot. I use a Samsung T7 2TB (1000 / 1050 MB/s and am satisfied. The 4TB version with same speed in approx. the price of the Acasis enclosure: 273 Euro

[@DavidHarry]

Yes, it is expensive but it’s way faster than the T7s and is an absolute must for certain types of video editing. Since I made the video, the price to build this drive setup is now about 30% less and I imagine it will keep dropping. Cheers, Dave.

[@jeffrussell488]

you recommend a SSD with speed up to 7300 mb/s inside a 40 GB/s enclosure, when a 4800 mb/s SSD is nearly half the price... MUG

[@DavidHarry]

And you don't even know the difference between bits and bytes 😝😝😝😝😝

[@jeffrussell488]

@@DavidHarry 😂

[@alexjhung9534]

thank you for your patients to explain it thoroughly!

[@DavidHarry]

You are very welcome 👍 Cheers, Dave.

[@DavidJao]

The reason the real world speed is faster than the synthetic benchmark is that the system is doing write caching to system DRAM.

[@kennethz3366]

This is a great review. For future ssd test, include temperature and stress testing for thermal performance and throttling.

[@ahmadaltarazi9582]

Thanks David for this tutorial! What about if I used ACASIS with Samsung 970 EvoPlus SSD - 1TB Is it give me the same speed in R/W ?

[@DavidHarry]

Hi. I actually used to have that same Samsung SSD and it didn't perform as well as the WD SSD. I cant remember now what the speeds were but they were definitely slower by a fair margin. If I remember correctly it was the write speed that was very noticeably slower. BTW if you decide to use a Gen 4 NVMe SSD then I would recommend the ACASIS TBU405Pro M1. Gen 4 NVMe SSDs can run very hot and the TBU405Pro M1 has a fan in it to help with the cooling. I will be doing a video soon about the TBU405Pro M1 and also another video with the TBU401 using a 4TB Crucial P3 Gen 3 NVMe SSD. This P3 combination is essentially the cheapest 4TB Thunderbolt drive you cam put together and it's also fast, not as fast as the WD but much better value for money if absolute speed isn't your main priority. Cheers, Dave.

[@Mrpsblobsoflowendmung]

Oh my word , there I was looking into nvme drives for Mack book pro M1 Max and the second video I see is my old pal Dave “Chinny” Harry. Mr Devo himself 🤣😂🤘 How’s it going mate ? Just bought these parts and going to build it Monday . Cheers bud Thankfully it didn’t “take me to insanity “ 🤣🤣😂 looks pretty simple bud

[@DavidHarry]

OMG, how's it going Phil 👍 What's the chances of you finding one of my KZbin videos, how mad is that, and for the same computer 😆 And you didn't go into Insanity 🤣 Hope you're well mate. Cheers, Dave.

[@demon6937]

How’s the temperature when transferring large files? I’ve seen that model of ssd enclosure and with fan also

[@stevenPounder-p4b]

Thunderbolt runs off the chipset. There is no fast external.

[@mario7are]

Hey @David Harry, I would like to try it with my Mac Mini M1 2020 (A2348) but wondering if I can get similar results as yours. Thanks!

[@DavidHarry]

Hi, Mario. Keep an eye on the channel. I have an M1 Mac Mini and will be doing a similar video very soon using another TB4 enclosure and another SN850X SSD. But yes, the results are great and basically the same as what’s in this video. Cheers, Dave.

[@alko_xo]

I"m terribly sorry for maybe irrelevant question - but is our host from Scotland?

[@udance4ever]

while its a safe assumption, we are assuming the mac SSD has a faster read speed than the external SSD write speed and that the mac SSD has a faster write speed than the external you are reading from.

[@MelAndGim]

Hello David, I am going to get this combo, but I have Ipad pro M1 as well as Mac….which is the best format for this. Thanks

[@DavidHarry]

Hi. I also use this on my iPads and the APFS format is best, as it works with the iPads and Mac. If you plan on using the drive with anything else other than Apple devices, such as Windows, then use ExFAT as this is almost a universal format that most nearly everything will see. Cheers, Dave.

[@robinhughes-jones4034]

2750MB/s is fast, but it's not quite the 40Gb/s (5000MB/s) that the protocol claims to support. Why is it so "slow"?

[@DavidHarry]

Hi Robin. Yes, that’s right the drive speeds aren’t 40Gb/s. The reason why is because Thunderbolt partitions about 18Gb/s of the bandwidth for video for Display Port. Cheers, Dave.

[@colmocanainn]

Great video! Would this setup be suitable/reliable for booting and all day running (OS and all apps & files) of an m1 or m3 iMac, instead of using the internal?

[@DavidHarry]

Yes, absolutely

[@gravitymediapro]

New sub! Amazing results, thank you!

[@DavidHarry]

I’m glad you found the video helpful and thanks for the sub 👍 Cheers, Dave.

[@JasonCastellanos]

Thanks for this video! I have been running ideas since I got my m1 some time ago, and for now was relying on 2 external SSD... I make the mistake of saving money and got the 256 mac mini.. Wich is amazing but editing video on the Mac drive is crazy, only can do one at a time.. This video came in just perfect! Was reluctant to trust but, the acasis enclosure is just a rockstar! thanks for this. Hope you have a good day

[@JasonCastellanos]

Quick question @davidharry. You think it will be same speed and write as the one in my mac mini m1? is the first one released year and a half ago I think so.. I´ve just do drum tutorials, 3 cameras, some neon things elements, but mainly is 30 seconds to 2 minutes. Exporting has never take me more than a couple of minutes or 30 to a full video with a lot of things (using the internal drive) Thanks

[@DavidHarry]

Hi, Jason. This drive should be the same speed on a Mini as the Mini has the same Thunderbolt interface as my MacBook. All the M1 devices use the same same basic chipsets, it’s just basically the core counts and internal storage that are different. I don’t know if the copy speeds between the internal to external storage will be the same, as the MacBook has a faster internal drive. Cheers, Dave.

[@Metroih]

Great video. Exactly the type of testing I was looking for before purchasing!

[@DavidHarry]

I'm glad you found the video helpful 👍 Cheers, Dave.

[@АлексейСветов-н8й]

Good afternoon, David. I have the same ssd enclosure. I installed Windows 11 on this Samsung 980 disk to use as an external system for my imac 2020 i7 intel. But when loading, the mac does not see the efi loader from the thunderbolt output. Windows is loaded only from the Type C output. At the same time, the write and read speeds are only 1000 Mbps. ACASIS TB36P. Can you sort out this issue ? Sorry for my English)) google translator. Sincerely, Alexey.

[@DavidHarry]

Hi, Alexey. Sorry for the very reply. I’ve never used an Intel Mac, so don’t know how they work with booting from Windows on an external drive. Apple Silicon Macs can’t run Windows from boot, so I have not tried. However, there is no problem booting from another MacOS external drive, which I do, and I can run Windows 11 ARM from within MacOS on the external drive. Sorry I can’t be of any more help. Cheers, Dave.

[@marcusbarnes5929]

Is there a difference in speed between Exfat and APFS.? Also how does the Western digital 4TBcompare to the Samsung 980 4TB. Why did you gobwith western digital over Samsung?

[@DavidHarry]

Yes kzbin.info/www/bejne/m4nLh5lnlKeIjc0

[@simonritter]

Have you ever got more than two of these NVMe/PCIe SSD’s working on the same machine? The Mac Mini Pro has four USB-C/Thunderbolt ports but in my experience only two mount at any one time. Apple say’s nothing about limiting PCIe connections to two - In theory four should be able to mount and run, but in my experience only ever find two are recognised and run… 🤨

[@DavidHarry]

Hi. I have had similar issues with multiple TB and USB SSDs connected to my MacBook. I think the issue is that the Mac isn't capable of supplying the total current that's necessary to power all the drives at the same time. I'm not sure but I think the Mac is splitting two TB ports from one controller and not using completely individual controllers for each TB port. If so, this may explain why the current/power isn't enough once too many drives are connected, as the current/power is being shared and isn't enough after a certain point. Cheers, Dave.

[@bigdaddyo1963]

So one slight remark on your further absolutely splendid review. With your real life test, shouldn/t you keep in mind that when copying back from the external ssd to the internal ssd speed is actually limited by the write speed of the internal mac ssd rather than solely the read speed of your external ssd? I think both speeds weigh in on the actual transfer speed.

[@DavidHarry]

Hi, Paul. Yes, you are correct, both the read and write speeds of the external drive will be affected by the source drive (internal). I had mistakenly assumed that the only people who would have been interested in this video would have been those who had this laptop and that they would already know the speed of its SSD. I will be doing a similar video soon with a different ACASIS enclosure and will be sure to show a speed test of the internal SSD so people know it’s much faster than the Thunderbolt connection. In any event, the internal SSD is faster than 5000MB/s for read and write. Which means that it is not a bottleneck and the speeds shown in the test are indeed the maximum that any Thunderbolt 4 SSD can reach. Cheers, Dave.

[@yenjun0204]

I have some issues to use this case to update firmware SSD. I have two cases: one for Samsung 970 EVO 2TB, one for Sabrent rocket 2TB. Samsung works smoothly to check the firmware using Samsung Magic software, but it never work for Sabrent SSD. Can the WD 4 T firmware be updated in this external case?

[@DavidHarry]

Alright, Ian. Sorry mate, I can't help with that as I've not tried to update the F/W of the SSD. I don't even think the WD SN850X has had a F/W update since I bought mine. Cheers, Dave.

[@rickray]

Excellent video, well presented. Thanks for your efforts!

[@DavidHarry]

Hi. Thank you for your kind words and comment and you are very welcome 👍 Cheers, Dave.

[@DPorter58]

I sure hope you are, or were a teacher. You really have a gift for teaching. Excellent video. By far the best one I watched on this subject.

[@DavidHarry]

Hi. No, I've never been involved in the teaching profession, other than producing science videos for certain UK curriculum. Although, in those instances I was only producing and dealing with shooting and post production and not the narrative etc. However, thank you for your comment, it would suggest that I'm doing something that's hopefully easy to follow and disseminate. Cheers, Dave.

[@49ers49ers]

Does the one without fan get too hot?

[@DavidHarry]

No, it stays cool to sightly warm when under pressure even with Gen4 SSDs. The 401, without the fan, can get very warm, even hot but it wont throttle the SSD. Cheers, Dave.