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

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
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I’m David Harry. Thank you very much for watching this video, take care and goodbye now.
Cheers,
Dave.
#DavidHarry#LiverpoolTV

[@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!!

[@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.

[@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.

[@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.

[@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.

[@emerjay348]

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

[@DavidHarry]

Thank you 👍 Cheers, Dave.

[@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 👍

[@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.

[@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

[@deborahgallegos5334]

Thanks for the visual demo on that Acadia enclosure. I was following the enclosed pamphlet instructions, but wasn’t quite getting it until watching your video. Amazing speeds on my Mac Studio. Thank you for the help!

[@DavidHarry]

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

[@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

[@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.

[@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.

[@incudude311]

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

[@DavidHarry]

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

[@tomaszwaszka3394]

Everything was shown very well. Especially practice tests with large files. Thank you for this video

[@DavidHarry]

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

[@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!

[@TonesAdventuresHD]

This video came in time. It's about time I get another external. I will go this route when I do!

[@DavidHarry]

Alright Tone. If you're going to put one together yourself, I'd strongly recommend the enclosure I used and just get whatever NVME SSD is best for you size wise, they're all going to be fast. This enclosure is great as you can use it on USB C devices as well and share the drive across loads of different devices, depending on the format of the drive. While there are some very good Thunderbolt 3 only enclosures out there. They are a bit more limiting as they can't be used on any USB interfaces. Cheers, Dave.

[@johnwilson6340]

Splendid job! Just what I needed, will bookmark this and utilize your links! Have a good one!!!!

[@DavidHarry]

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

[@stivesboy]

Well done David. I have just set up my Acadia drive to my MacBook Pro and your video was very helpful. Thank you very much.

[@DavidHarry]

Hi. I'm glad the video was helpful 👍 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.

[@joffrey6831]

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

[@MikeT-yy3]

This is the best explanation on this subject I have watched, thank you very much

[@DavidHarry]

Hi, Mike. You are very welcome, it's my pleasure buddy 👍 Cheers, Dave.

[@jeng6863]

David, thank you for this meticulous explanation which is superbly helpful. I am also in search of ssd for my Macbook Pro M1 Pro

[@DavidHarry]

Hi. You are very welcome. If you are just doing general data backing up to the external drive and not needing it to be super fast for the sustained write speed for things like high bandwidth video recording and editing. You can use a cheaper and smaller capacity NVMe ssd inside the enclosure and it will still be great for day to day use. Cheers, Dave.

[@clitheroeant]

Fantastic tutorial and review. I am about to get a MacBook Pro through work and it’ll be my first Apple laptop. As the primary use will be video editing, I knew that the internal 1TB wasn’t enough but I was clueless how to proceed. Thanks to your excellent video, I do now and will be looking at purchasing both the SSD and enclosure used in your demonstration. Cheers!

[@DavidHarry]

Hi, Anthony. I’m glad you found the video helpful and I’m sure you will find this drive perfect for video editing. This is my main use for it and it’s been awesome. It’s really fast and it’s great having all that space and not having to worry about filling up the internal drive on the Mac. Cheers, Dave.

[@MrEye4get]

Very good real-world test! I just ordered two of the same! Thanks!

[@DavidHarry]

Hi. I'm glad you liked the video and you are very welcome 👍. Cheers, Dave.

[@Practicaleyes]

Brilliant! Very clear, nicely paced and straight to the point. 👍

[@DavidHarry]

Thank you for your kind works and hopefully the video was useful. Cheers, Dave.

[@viviansprivatekitchen1437]

Excellent video! Well organized and very thorough!

[@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.

[@vitalii4329]

Great video and comments section too, found answer about temerature! Thank You

[@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.

[@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?

[@kuthub1989]

Amazing, clear and simple explanation.

[@DavidHarry]

Hi, Mohamed. Thank you for the kind comment and you are very welcome. 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.

[@camplifedk]

Great video. Thanks so much for the very good info. I will bye this enclosure and the WD disk 🙂

[@drjohnwillis]

Very good information and well presented. Thank you!

[@DavidHarry]

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

[@CLAudio-pn6qf]

Great video. Thank you, David. I have the same laptop, so this is great information.

[@DavidHarry]

You are very welcome 👍 and you have a great taste in laptops 😀 Cheers, Dave.

[@ianig9]

This was super handy. Thanks!

[@DavidHarry]

You are very welcome 👍 Cheers, Dave.

[@normansuchorzewski1026]

Thanks for this. Good clear and non-confusing video. Just made me spend some money - lol.

[@DavidHarry]

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

[@MrChangTH]

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

[@androidlogin3065]

Thanks a lot for all the explanations and for real transfer of hundreds of gigabytes, most people only uses less than five gigabytes and doing such makes speed result to not match real values, some NVMe and almost all SSD tend to drop down write speed after a few gigabytes. That is really a great combination of enclosure, bus speed and NVMe.

[@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.

[@thescotster19]

Brilliant video, thank you!

[@DavidHarry]

You’re very welcome. Cheers, Dave.

[@JahdielSaneo]

thank you for this video!!! great layout and information and test!

[@DavidHarry]

Hi. 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.

[@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!!

[@pikeysrock]

Fantastic video 👏

[@DavidHarry]

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

[@samguapo4573]

You have excellent narration :) thanks for your video

[@DavidHarry]

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

[@leninvanhee7532]

great vid mate. what i needed

[@DavidHarry]

Hi. I'm glad the video was useful 👍 Cheers, Dave.

[@studiow59ddanyg24]

Did it like you explained. Thank you !!!

[@DavidHarry]

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

[@debapriyabanerjee8486]

Thanks for this video! I have seen a lot of these and it's the best of them all.

[@DavidHarry]

You are very welcome 👍 Cheers, Dave.

[@alanmaher]

Thank you so much. Very timely information. 😊❤

[@DavidHarry]

You are so welcome!

[@danielel9191]

Thank you so much for this perfect video on this topic! There is never too much information or details for me when it comes to this type of experience. Is there a more economical way to do this? I am interested in getting a few external ssd for my music production but this one is way too expensive for my budget. If I can get a samsung t7 2 TB for 199$ what is the point of paying $ for this one $782? I might as well pay the Mac upgrade.

[@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.

[@gravitymediapro]

New sub! Amazing results, thank you!

[@DavidHarry]

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

[@rogergarza4517]

Great video Tuco Salamanca

[@DavidHarry]

Tuco Salamanca 😂 I just wish I was half as cool as he was. 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.

[@lavinchi6709]

Thank you very much for this video👍

[@DavidHarry]

You are very welcome 👍 Cheers, Dave.

[@getstew]

Really good job on this! Thank you!!

[@DavidHarry]

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

[@NeArMe.]

this is good information! thank sir :D

[@DavidHarry]

You are very welcome 👍 Cheers, Dave.

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.

[@joeglennaz]

Great video!!!

[@DavidHarry]

Thank you, Joe. 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

[@stickeylashes3416]

Great review. Spot on.

[@DavidHarry]

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

[@deeseen3495]

Great stuff

[@DavidHarry]

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

[@sun33t]

Great video David, thanks for that mate

[@DavidHarry]

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

[@patchin1]

Thanks for the post. Can you use this external 4TB as the boot/start drive on a Mac Mini M2?

[@apostoloskoritas9149]

Really nice video. Thank you

[@DavidHarry]

Glad you liked it!

[@producerjames]

very useful. thank you and subscribe

[@DavidHarry]

Nice one, James. I'm glad the video was useful and thanks for the sub, it's very appreciated. Cheers, Dave.

[@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.

[@sutv6754]

Excellent tutorials. Thank you.

[@DavidHarry]

Thank you 👍 I've just responded to your comment/question. I'll try and do the TBU405Pro M1 (the one with the fan) build next week, with the same WD SN850X 4TB SSD. The only problem with the TBU405Pro M1 is that many people will complain about its price. However, when it comes to Thunderbolt nothing is cheap but in my opinion the TBU405Pro M1 and 4TB WD SN850X combination is the best TB4/USB4 drive you can put together. I was using the TBU401 and 4TB WD SN850X for about 9 months solid, and I mean solid. It worked perfectly although it did become hot, however, it never throttled due to heat. I started using the TBU405Pro M1 about 4 months ago and it's been great. I use my MacBook in clamshell mode, basically as a desktop computer, it's under my work desk on some draws and the SSDs sit next to it and when it's really quiet at night you can just about hear the fan in the SSD. In normal day time (noise) use, with the drive on a table in front of you, yes you can hear the fan but it's not loud. Cheers, Dave.

[@sutv6754]

Thank you Dave. Very good. I had already thought the TBU405Pro M1 before I reached out to you. Done deal. Thanks @@DavidHarry

[@DavidHarry]

@@sutv6754 Great choice 👍 I’m sure you will be very happy with it. Cheers, Dave.

[@connorwagstaff2348]

SICK VIDEO BROTHER

[@DavidHarry]

Sick comment 👍 Cheers, Dave.

[@connorwagstaff2348]

@@DavidHarry I have my enclosure and ssd coming today, you're the man! Thanks for the info!

[@Kit2Canada]

Excellent thank you!

[@DavidHarry]

You're very welcome! 👍 Cheers, Dave.

[@Myself-yh9rr]

I have an enclosure similar that will also work on USB 3.0 or better. It doesn't like 2.0. I tried. It does have a type C connector. I like that a lot of them are made of aluminum and are machined really nicely too.

[@renebourgault7203]

WoW ,thanks for this vidéo, best regards

[@DavidHarry]

Hi, Rene. You are very welcome 👍 Cheers, Dave.

[@emreon3160]

It may have been a bit slower for read because it may have heated up slightly after your write speed tests, temperature may make a little difference aside from the methods the Mac uses for write and reads.

[@fojctv]

Gr8 video thank u!!

[@DavidHarry]

You are very welcome 👍

[@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.

[@listenin007]

I bought this enclosure and the same SSD. Are you happy with using just the 1 thermal pad? Did you ever end up adding the second one or try to?

[@solidsn2011]

Nice video! Exactly what I was looking for my M1 Max. Does the Acasis enclosure come with a thunderbolt 4 cable or I’ll have to purchase one separately? M1 Max has thunderbolt 4 ports if I’m not mistaken so I can take advantage of the fast transfer speeds.

[@DavidHarry]

It comes with a TB3 cable which is exactly the same as TB4 cable as far as data speeds are concerned, they're both capable of 40Mb/s. Cheers, Dave.

[@garethlloyd9603]

Just for info, I have the exact same SSD & enclosure as you are using. The drive is connected to my Window 11 PC via Thunderbolt 4 PCIe card. Using Blackmagic I get close to the Read/Write speeds as you are getting on the Mac (2550 MB/s write, 2750 MB/s read).

[@lukasgregorek2581]

HI, I am having a issue with his setup and intel Mac. The enclosure with disk is not recognised when I plug it in. It works only when the enclosure is already attached to the Mac before system start. Any thoughts / ideas how to solve it ?

[@gb4639]

Great video, David. Is it possible to copy Windows and Mac OS applications and the boot programs from the PC and MacBook Pro M2 Max to the drive and boot from the drive on those tow operating systems?

[@DavidHarry]

Hi. Yes, you can run applications from the external drive. You can also dual boot using a separate MacOS/Windows installation on the external drive. I’ve done this in the past with this MacBook, dual booted it to another instance of MacOS and also used Win11 ARM on Parallels from the external drive. This was so I could leave my internal drive as clean as possible with my main couple of bits of production software and use the external OS/boot drive for testing stuff and for Parallels/Windows. This video may be useful kzbin.info/www/bejne/mZPPqnqMe8h5pJY Cheers, Dave.

[@Wednesdayswithjae]

How reliable is this diy ssd enclosure compare to pre built ssd like Sandisk, Samsung, Lacie etc.?

[@rickc.3695]

Very good and complete video David. I have a slightly different version of the Acasis enclosure (TBU405) with a 2TB Samsung 980 Pro NVME inside. I assembled it about 7 months ago and it works flawlessly. It does get warm but I would not classify it as hot. My read and write speeds are similar to yours. Thx again.

[@DavidHarry]

Hi, Rick. This one also gets very warm as well. I've put together many external drives, USB and TB, and every TB/NVMe drive has always run at least warm. The faster the NVMe SSD, such as Gen 4, the more heat they produce. It's just one of those things unfortunately. Another thing that is also a bit odd, which may also happen with your one. When the Mac is idle the TB drive is still warm, even if it's not doing anything. Also, when the Mac is powered off, the drive is warm. I've now had to get used to disconnecting the drive after powering down the Mac. This may not be so much of an issue for most MacBook users but mine gets used exclusively as desktop computer connected to a monitor and mouse/keyboard etc. When the M1 Max was released, there wasn't a desktop yet with that configuration, which is why I bought a laptop to use as a desktop. Cheers, Dave.

[@e.g.1218]

@@DavidHarry My SanDisk extreme also always stays warm/hot even when not in use but attached to the computer, not sure if this is a Mac issue or issue on the externals. Worse I am always getting the message that the drive was not properly disconnected when it wasn't disconnected at all.

[@reza-jp2pc]

Very explanation

[@DavidHarry]

Thanks for liking

[@DigitalPlaygroundTV]

Hi, I just purchased a Acasis TBU 405Pro M1 with a 970 Evo Plus and get a very slow speed of around 1754mb write and 2645 read in te Blackmagic test on my Mac mini M1, Should I change the drive ? is this the normal write speed of this drive? I've seen over 2400mb on other test on KZbin ?

[@Makebelieve123]

Great video ! Have you had any experience with the dual bay nvme cases ?

[@DavidHarry]

Sorry, no, I've not used any of the multi-bay exclosures. Cheers, Dave.

[@erperejildo]

If you have a slow and a fast SSD and you move files between them, which speed does it use?

[@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.

[@heythere6983]

If this is connected as exfat to non m chip devices and older Macs will it be cause issues? Iv heard people’s computers crashing and idk if it might have to do with its powerful setup

[@motionjack]

Which WD SSD would you recommend if I wanted to offload iCloud Photos, Apple Music Library, and Time Machine from my 1tb internal Mbpro3 Max?

[@robertolotti2669]

Hello, Im currently running on an old Macbook pro late 2013 with a crucial mx500 512GB ssd inside. I need an external enclosure + nmve for my storage / instruments libraries and plugins for music production with Logic Pro. Also, my next step (in about 6 months) will be upgrading to a new mac mini M2. My question: what is the better combination of enclosure (a good one for heat dissipation) + m2 nmve ssd (1 TB, Samsung, WD, etc.) you can recommend so they work well with both my old macbook pro now and with the macmini M2 in the future? (Of course considering that my macbook pro has usb 3.0 ports and thunderbolt 2 ports). Many many thanks for your help and suggestions!!

[@demon6937]

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

[@tomaszwaszka3394]

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

[@zeyadelhashmi3702]

Excellent information and just wanted to know if this combination works with MacBook Pro 2017 ?

[@DavidHarry]

Hi. This combination will work with any Mac that has USB C or Thunderbolt 3 or Thunderbolt 4. The speeds will be slower on USB C but it will work. You can also use a USB A to USB C cable as well. Cheers, Dave.

[@ukastroimaging1016]

Why m2 drive would you recommend for a 4tb setup? I see crucial p3 are much cheaper than other makes and looks like speed is limited to 2.7

[@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.

[@parasinthephilippines]

Loved the content. Living in Dubai I checked the prices of the enclosure and SSD which came to roughly 2500 dh A SanDisk extreme pro 1 tb drive is 400 dh. So admittedly I'd be getting a fraction of the write speeds but I'd get 6tb for the same money. Now. To be honest those prices quoted are simply because im in Dubai. So its a local problem.

[@DavidHarry]

Alright buddy, happy new year. Those prices aren’t just local to where you are, that WD drive is also expensive here as well. While the Sandisks work out cheaper, they’re nowhere near as fast as this drive. Which is a big problem for me as I do a lot of high bitrate capturing and the Sandisks can’t reach or sustain some of the speeds I need. Plus, for me personally, I’m sick of using multiple drives for stuff. Having 4TB to work with without disk swapping is a lot more practical for what I do. I’ve started consolidating all my drives. I’ve bought some WD 18TB mechanical drives for long term storage and archiving and have two 4TB SSDs for my day to day and mid term stuff. I’m now staring to back off all my old separate 1, 2, 4 and 8GB mechanical and SSD drives and then only use these 4 and 18TB moving forward. Cheers, Dave.

[@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

[@J20666]

How fast is it connected to USB 2.0, 3.0, 3.1 and 4.0 ports on a windows PC? THANKS