Samsung 980 PRO vs WD Black SN850 External SSD | M1 Mac and M1 Max

The Samsung 980 Pro and WD Black SN850 are both great external SSD options, but they do perform differently on these Apple Silicon machines. In this review I tested these SSDs on the M1 Mac Mini and the M1 Max 14-inch MacBook Pro. Keep in mind that you're not going to get the full advertised Read and Write speed of these SSDs within these enclosures. However, did we end up finding a better SSD for the Acasis and Fledging Enclosures on the M1 Mac?
The Drives I’m Testing:
Fledging TB3 Enclosure: geni.us/flJqziY (Amazon)
Acasis Direct: geni.us/Acasis
Acasis: geni.us/1vu6Jqc (Amazon)
WD SSD (850): geni.us/gJKK1si (Amazon)
Samsung 980 PRO: geni.us/AZkwLl (Amazon)
Thermal Pads: geni.us/therma...
Others I recommend:
Sabrent USB-C Enclosure: geni.us/7iogvd (Amazon)
WD SSD (750): geni.us/N2FAzD (Amazon)
Samsung SSD (970): geni.us/yRA8d3R (Amazon)
SanDisk Extreme (T00-G25): geni.us/n0B9Q (Amazon)
M1 Pro and M1 Max Related Hardware:
14-inch M1 Pro MacBook Pro: geni.us/7HlAh (Amazon)
M1 Macbook Air: geni.us/aB6N (Amazon)
M1 Mac Mini: geni.us/pDK2b (Amazon)
Anker Mini Dock: geni.us/ACcOo (Amazon)
Thunderbolt 3 Dock: geni.us/ATbaAjc (Amazon)
MX Master 3: geni.us/pfEgz (Amazon)
MX Keys: geni.us/4wiTh (Amazon)
Ultrawide Monitor: geni.us/un9I (Amazon)
Monitor Arm: geni.us/7j1xeS (Amazon)
Audio Gear:
Overhead Microphone: bit.ly/DeityS2...
Overhead Mic on Amazon: geni.us/s1A9eNK (Amazon)
Broadcast Microphone (Q9U): geni.us/QkBCC (Amazon)
Handheld Recorder: geni.us/MTyrz (Amazon)
MOTU Interface: geni.us/NMoYwcJ (Amazon)
ATR Dynamic Microphone: geni.us/0V4K0Rk (Amazon)
Samson Dynamic Microphone Choice: geni.us/fVng5fM (Amazon)
Studio Headphones (250 Ohms): geni.us/BuzD (Amazon)
Yamaha Monitors (single): geni.us/MbemtUC (Amazon)
Studio Monitor Stands: geni.us/MiBAiE6 (Amazon)
What I use to Film:
My Primary Camera: geni.us/gQQxjr3 (Amazon)
Prime Lens 16mm: geni.us/BlBd9 (Amazon)
Sony 18-105: geni.us/Jb3O0 (Amazon)
SanDisk Extreme: geni.us/9MHZlT (Amazon)
Manfrotto Tripod (for vlogging): geni.us/0SYQD (Amazon)
Light Dome: geni.us/TzffFw (Amazon)
Key Light: geni.us/n2kAe (Amazon)
Stay in touch:
/ kevinrossrn
/ kevinrossrn
Send Mail & Packages to:
Kevin Ross
4845 Pearl E. Cir. STE 101
Boulder, CO 80301
I'm a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
Intro: 00:00
Hardware: 00:31
Important Context (Don't Skip): 01:28
The Benchmarks: 02:55
File Transer: 04:34
Thermals: 06:09
Real World Context: 08:38
Tutorial: 10:04
Summary: 11:12

[@PeteKowalsky]

Kevin, are there any 4TB or 8TB options that perform well in the Acasis enclosure on M1 Max/Pro? I don't see many Gen 4 4TB or 8TB drives yet - Sabrent and PNY are out there but no Sammy 980 4/8TB... What do you recommend for a 4/8TB max speed config?

[@KevinRossRN]

So I’m trying to test some Sabrent options because from what I’ve heard from the community here, these SSDs seem to be doing well in these enclosures. Fledging stayed up to 4TBs while Acasis is up to 8TBs and they seem to continue to update their site with all of our findings because it wasn’t that populated before with what worked and didn’t work. Do you have access to Sabrent SSDs where you are?

[@PeteKowalsky]

@@KevinRossRN Reading more on the 8TB drives I was a little concerned with some of the owner comments on endurance and longevity. I have a PNY CS3020 2TB in an Avolusion TB3 passive enclosure, and it stays reasonably cool and runs quickly, albeit at TB3 speeds of course (2333MBs write /2333MBs read or thereabouts). I ordered the Acasis enclosure, and am trying to decide which 4TB Gen4 drive to pair with it. Looking for the best balance of performance and longevity - Sabrent Rocket Q4 or PNY XLR8 CS3140. I cannot find any Gen4 8TB drives yet though the Sabrent one has been announced (I'm sure it will be like $2K LOL, no thanks). Like you mentioned, I might also have a little buyers remorse since I went with 4TB on my M1 Max MacBook Pro instead of 8TB, but man that cost difference is a LOT (though maybe not as much as it seems considering the alternatives). I need to think it through a little more... :)

[@KevinRossRN]

Are you wanting 4-8TBs just to work on active projects or is there a hope to have a little archiving on these SSDs. And yes, this is probably the first time where that internal SSD upgrade is pretty close to what you’d have to spend with an external solution…not to mention the screaming speeds.

[@PeteKowalsky]

@@KevinRossRN Well, a little of both actually - just considering the possibilities to be honest. Since going from a 1TB internal SSD on my previous 2019 Intel MacBook Pro to 4TB ridonk-u-lous fast internal, I can now keep all my plugins and sample libraries internally. I have a 96TB FreeNAS host I built for Time Machine and all my VMs are on an ESXi cluster, so if anything, a 4TB external SSD would be for portable overflow or maybe an important part of my 3-2-1 backup strategy for my music workstation here. I'm a network/security guy who likes to pretend to make music on his off time ;) I pulled the trigger on the Gen4 QLC Sabrent (price was nice), so we'll see how well that goes next week when it all arrives. You videos are great, man - I'm a new subscriber. Thanks for what you're doing - it's very interesting and helpful :)

[@KevinRossRN]

That’s awesome! That’s a great setup and I too love the archiving capability of my NAS…Not to mention that I can also work off of it when editing video while I’m on the network. I haven’t had any issues thus far and have been rocking the same Synology since 2013. When that SSD comes in, let me know how it all goes. I really appreciate everyone here sharing their findings. It helps us all. Look forward to seeing you around here.

[@bentonpix]

Thanks for the shout out Kevin! I'm glad that my reporting on the configurations of various cards with the Acasis Enclosure helped! I've been running the 980 PRO in the Acasis with no issues. Making sure there's plenty of thermal pad coverage and contact between the chips and the lid is great advice. After I applied the pads and let run a while, I removed the lid to make sure I can see a slight indention in the pads which confirms that a good contact is present. I ended up adding another layer of .5mm pads which leaves a nice impression of the chips. Great video and keep up the great work!

[@KevinRossRN]

You bet my friend. It was because of you. That’s why I try to keep the comments section hopping because we can all help each other. And also the heads up on the thermal pads. Nice to hear they’re working out.

[@KevinRossRN]

As I said in the video, it’s thanks to the community here for all the information being shared from your findings. It does still come down to real world performance and use, and your budgets of course. Keep rocking faces 🤘

[@IamSirdauntis]

Yes. I’ve been waiting for this video. The data explained in this segment is what i needed as a definitive determining factor in my purchase option. Thank you.

[@KevinRossRN]

Glad it helped. Sending you my best on your setup.

[@pumacorp]

I put a 850x in a Fedging thunder and I am getting 2700R x 2600W using ventura .Note Ventura was crashing a few times a day..Resetting the NVRAM/PRAM and SMC fixed my problem immediately running an M1 Mac ...Hope this helps the community ...

[@KevinRossRN]

Appreciate you 🫵🤘

[@jaimeaugusto5538]

How sn850x works ? Reliable too? I’m build one external ssd for m1 ar but not sure with sn850x / sn770 or more expensive 980p

[@pumacorp]

@@jaimeaugusto5538 So far excellent!!Never down always runs fast ... Resetting the NVRAM/PRAM and SMC fixed Ventura issues ...So make sure to do that ...

[@Shelant]

Thanks Kevin, this was exactly what I was looking for! BTW, I also applied 2ml thermal pad to the 980Pro as well as the 0.8 sticker to the cover of the Acacis enclosure. The stacking of these two pads created the connection between the ssd and the aluminum cover, making a better thermal dissemination of the heat. The enclosure is still warm to the touch, but much cooler than with just one pad...

[@KevinRossRN]

Yeah, I should have mentioned that this would potentially keep the enclosure cooler. It’s typically running about 46C give or take. I should have also mentioned the sticker…I forgot that those came with the enclosure. My Sabrent enclosure came with one already applied, which was kind of nice.

[@StephenWhitakerImages]

Thanks for producing this series, Kevin. It's been clutch in helping me explore external SSD options for my 16" M1 Max. After watching your other video, I ordered an Acasis enclosure + the SN750, but I made the mistake of getting the 4TB variation not realizing that I the Acasis isn't rated for >2TB. Write speeds have been capping out at around ~1050mbps for me, so I may need to get the Fledging for that. Since I had also inadvertently ordered two enclosures, I went to grab the 1TB version of the SN750 for the second Acasis so I could test the difference and isolate the larger capacity as the issue in my setup and not some other enclosure issue...but then saw that there was a deal on the Sabrent Rocket 4.0 1TB that made it the same price as the SN750, so I snagged that instead. I get great speeds on that - around 2700mbps symmetric - not far off from what you're seeing on the more expensive gen 4 peers here, so that seems like a good option too. I also love my Sabrent XTRM-Q 2TB for the all-around value (though it's not as modular as the enclosure+drive route), and get around 3000mbps read &1800mbps write on that, and it has been a reliable performer for working FCPX libraries across machines.

[@KevinRossRN]

That’s great that you’re getting that throughput on the Sabrent. I was just saying to someone else after all this time of reviewing these enclosures and SSDs that I still haven’t ventured into the Sabrent line up. At the time when I started reviewing these I had initially had my eye on the Sabrent TB3 enclosure and the Rocket, but it was at a time when there were several shortages and I actually couldn’t get them in hand. Anyway, really glad that it’s working out for your setup. As far as that larger capacity, that is definitely a known result, however it sounds like your workflow is still moving along. Glad to have you here with us. And definitely thankful for you sharing your setup and how it’s going.

[@mpaulphoto]

Thanks a lot Kevin!! This is exactly what I was looking for. I bought the Acasis and put in a WD SN 750 with 2TB (I had this left). I did several tests with a folder of 960GB. I transferred the folder from my MBP M1 Max to the Acasis. It took 13:44 min and the temperature rises up to 51°C. No crashes. Then I transferred it back to the internal SSD. It took just 5:56 min with a max temperature of 41°C. The SN750 has transfer rates of Write ~1300MB/s and Read ~2850MB/s. Not bad. But to increase the write speed I’ll go with the Samsung Pro 980. Thanks again for your video. Of course the last videos as well. You helped me a lot!!!

[@KevinRossRN]

Thanks so much for this info…and this just goes to show that a sustained (lower) write speed really takes it easier on those thermals, which for workflows like this that are moving 1TB+ might benefit from. But yes, the 980PRO seems to manage this pretty well. And certainly don’t be afraid of the thermal pad if you need it. 👊

[@mpaulphoto]

@@KevinRossRN the first thing was to put on the thermal pad. I’m really curious about the performance of the 980PRO. For the sake of completeness, I’ve ordered a Sabrent Rocket to compare this as well. Let’s see who’ll be the winner 😄

[@KevinRossRN]

Yes! I want to hear about the Sabrent as well. I keep getting looped into the WD and Samsung camp, but Sabrent has been on my radar.

[@mpaulphoto]

@@KevinRossRN I will let you know my results 😃

[@KevinRossRN]

Awesome 😎

[@BJ-fj6jw]

Right off the bat you gotta love this guy for responding to each question.

[@KevinRossRN]

I try to respond to everyone. Sometimes comments get “lost,” but I do try to keep up. 😎🤘

[@AlexGTech]

Perfect T-shirt for this video! You thrashed those drives!

[@KevinRossRN]

You like that? Starting to plan my outfits around the content. Felt that the flames were quite appropriate 🤣

[@youme77324]

A little bit confusing to follow. I appreciate all the testing but at 6:08 you just dropped a whole lot of numbers but not really linking things together to explain the full picture. On top of that I heard you say I’ll explain later so halfway through it really wasn’t saying much

[@KevinRossRN]

Well if you have a specific question, or additional questions, just let me know and I’ll see if I can help.

[@TravisFloyd]

Love ur content my guy, keep pushing!

[@KevinRossRN]

Much appreciate that 👊🤘 Good to see you.

[@TheToneWork]

Thanks for the testing Kevin. I tried several of the enclosures and they all got hot enough to throttle. My video transfer to the NVMEs is usually 1tb or more (I shoot BRAW). So after everything I tried, I actually went back to the OWC Express 4M2, which is slower and doesn't support the Samsung 920, but it stays cooler and is a more consistent transfer for my workload. I have 4 NVMEs in it at 2tb each. So 8tb to edit and a 24tb backup drive.

[@KevinRossRN]

Oh we were just talking about the OWC NVMe enclosure. So as far as being slow, are you having any issues scrubbing through and working in the timeline?

[@TheToneWork]

@@KevinRossRN It's absolutely fast enough for 4k BRAW on the MacBook Pro M1 Max. Doesn't even get hot. I've edited on it now for a week or two and feel like it's plenty stable and fast enough for my workflow. I rendered a 22 minute video several times for a project and it rendered in just over 4 minutes each time. So I'm pretty happy with it.

[@KevinRossRN]

Nice. I should really pick one up for review and although I can pull files from the NAS, I would get a lot of use out of the 4M2. Appreciate you following up on your use. It seems there are a handful of folks that are seeking out a similar setup.

[@Sammy1970]

Thanks for the informative video once again. I picked up the ACASIS and Serbrent external drives matched with the SN750 and I'm very happy thus far with their performance 👍🏽👌🏽👍🏽👌🏽

[@KevinRossRN]

Thank you Neal. Glad that you found a good combo for your workflow. Always appreciate hearing about everyone’s setup. 🤙🤘

[@numberIII-tc3im]

WD BAD? Even my 970 Pro gets 2800 read and 2000 write so might be a controller problem, the same manufacturer keeps having the same compatibility issue here. Transferring actual files yields 3110 read and 2130 write so Samsung is good at Apple stuff. As a plus, 970 Pro uses 2 bit storage so it stays 2130 for the whole transfer, the 980 slows to 1600 as you said

[@KevinRossRN]

Combination of the communication protocol with some of these controllers and the M1. Not to mention that to your point some of these manufacturers have had to deal with “alternative” components. The 980PRO is great and likely a combo of falling back to Gen 3 speeds in the case and of course managing those thermals. But real world use (aside from large file transfers) there’s really no difference between the SSDs and enclosures.

[@scooter_nz]

If anyone is looking for a great 4TB option, I'm using the Fledging Shell Thunder paired with a 4TB Sabrent Rocket Q SSD and I'm getting around 1900mb/s write and 2500 mb/s read on the 16" Macbook M1 Max. It has been fantastic for editing 4K seamlessly!

[@KevinRossRN]

That’s awesome Scott. Really appreciate you dropping this experience here. Glad to hear the Sabrent is working well in this enclosure.

[@citogarciart]

Hi Scott, is this combo still working fine?

[@tourajmohammadi1359]

Hi Kevin, it has been 3week no post from you. I hope you are okay and just busy with work or taking a vacation somewhere nice warm.

[@KevinRossRN]

Hey friend! Yes, all is great. I used to double down and just crush some videos before the holidays, but this year I decided to take an actual break. I have had to fill in during the uptick in COVID because my healthcare colleagues are just burnt to a crisp. But did take off a week to go snowboarding with my kids, which was awesome. I’m also redoing the studio and put in new flooring and need to get in some additional sound proofing as well as hanging a rail system in the ceiling for all my lights… Anyway, I did actually record a video today and I hope to finish the edit in between putting in some new flooring in our home…I don’t like to sit still for very long 😆 But yes, will have a video out soon and have some other gear on its way for testing, so I’ll be back with that as well. Appreciate you checking in. Really. I hope you are doing well.

[@tourajmohammadi1359]

@@KevinRossRN, I'm glad to hear you doing well, and congratulations in advance on the new studio. looking forward to seeing your new posts in your new studio.

[@KevinRossRN]

Thanks! I’ll definitely be giving a tour. Just waiting on a couple more items. Sending you my best, and I will see you very soon. 🤞

[@polinae11202010]

still using the sn750 2tb + accasis combo since the first day you reviewed it.. absolutely no problem and overheating :)

[@KevinRossRN]

Nice! Glad to hear that it’s still working for you. 🤘👊

[@McG610]

You are doing amazing work. These reviews and breakdowns are exactly what I'm looking for. Very tired of running into issues with USB 3.1 3.2 etc speed vs reality for external SSDs. Time to just build my own.

[@KevinRossRN]

Thanks! I don’t think you’ll regret it. Let’s hope not anyway 😉🤘

[@petripuurunen2491]

Not just valuable information but also professionally created video and relaxed presentation. Thanks.

[@KevinRossRN]

I appreciate you taking the time, friend. Many thanks 🙏 🤘

[@hifiveguyy]

As always amazing video and info, great job man!

[@KevinRossRN]

I really appreciate that. Just trying to help. 🤙

[@bigtoes1238]

This video is so helpful. Answered my questions perfectly. I like that you are testing it by transfering real 500G data instead of just runing some testing softwares.

[@KevinRossRN]

Happy to help and glad you found it helpful. 🤘

[@KimEidem]

Hey my friend, is everything ok? Been a minute since last video. Really hope you and the family is doing well! Keeping my eye peeled on the channel :)

[@KevinRossRN]

Hey Kid! Doing great. I actually took a real break at the end of the year. In the past I’ve typically tried to cram in as much as I could before Christmas and then never felt rested because I was trying to recover. Was away for a week on a snowboarding trip with my kids. Then decided to put in some new flooring in the studio and I’m also hanging my lights on a rail system to get my c stands out of the way. More upgrades coming in. Anyway, I have already recorded. I just need to edit 😁 How have you been?

[@smush5653]

Really helpful video. Just bought an M1 Mac Mini and wanting to expand storage through nvme and an enclosure but been finding the whole thing a minefield in terms of selecting the right enclosure.

[@KevinRossRN]

Congrats on the mini and definitely happy to help. 👍

[@mypersonalphotosite]

Great video. I hv M1 mini plus San rent encl. just got 980. Haven’t set up yet. Now I know enough to do it.

[@KevinRossRN]

Awesome. You’ll have to let us know how it’s working out for you.

[@PhotographybySatesh]

Another masterpiece, Kevin! Thank you!

[@KevinRossRN]

Well, I can always do better…but I appreciate that friend. Glad you’re here and thankful for your time.

[@fromia1]

This is the first video I watched from you, so this might have been answered already in the past: would I be getting similar results with a Samsung 970 Evo Plus, since the read/write speed is gated by the Thunderbolt 4 port, so I would be getting speeds no higher than 3000 MBps anyways?

[@KevinRossRN]

On the M1 Macs, the 970 EVO Plus has different results. I’ve actually tested it in another video. For whatever reason the 980 PRO is better in the benchmark and thermals, however here’s the thing…In my other videos I’ve talked about real world use and put many of these up against each other and they all pretty much netted the same results. Partly because of the TB3/4 limitations. Honestly, if you can get the 970 EVO Plus at a good price, you’d be just fine. I really just did this test as there were several that asked about it specifically.

[@markwiemels]

What point do you think that the speed exceeds final cuts “need for speed”, purely from an editing standpoint, not exporting or copying files.

[@KevinRossRN]

By a lot on these drives. We’re only talking about a few hundred MB/s from an editing standpoint. There will be short bursts when applying effects or stabilization as an example, but we’re still talking way below the max of these SSDs. I used a Samsung T5 for years.

[@numberIII-dc6tx]

So Kevin, are the M1 Pro and Max still having the same USB problems as the regular M1? (the slow speed / controller issue) I’m considering the binned M1 Pro MacBook Pro 14 inch, and the only problem i have is the bad reputation of the USB controllers in Apple M silicon. (I have a Samsung 970 Pro ssd inside an NVME enclosure, and I will assume it performs similarly as the 980 Pro depending on if its USB or TB)

[@KevinRossRN]

So it seems the 980 PRO is handling this protocol, which is why there was that difference you saw in this video. The Pro and Max machines are doing better than M1 without any additional need to saturate those ports because the chips are able to deliver that throughput, however there’s such a wide variety of SSDs and enclosures that it’s hard to test them all, but I’ve gotten feedback on the Sabrent SSDs doing well, and the 980 Pro, but I do have the 970 and I just keep it in a 3.1 Gen 2 enclosure because it doesn’t perform like the 980. However what I will say is that I haven’t noticed any issues with any real world use with any of these enclosures and SSDs.

[@williameverets2736]

8-in- usb c hub with a 512gb sata 6gb/s model tm8p37512g ssd. brand team group m.2 when i connect it to my iPad 5th generation 256gb it does not read the drive? what am i doing wrong. my knowledge is small.

[@KevinRossRN]

Which hub are you using? Because some of those don’t play well with these devices.

[@brugtx]

Thank you for the video.

[@KevinRossRN]

And thank you 🙏

[@Hk69]

Hi! After watching your video explaining SSD with external hard disk box, I also bought the case of Acasis, the model is TBU405, which is backward compatible with 2.0 interface, which is a little different in appearance and chip from the TBU401 you used, and also bought the Samsung 980PRO 1TB, My computer is a Mac Studio Max basic 1TB hard drive. I tested it with the Blackmagic Disk Speed ​​Test, and I have a few questions. 1. The speed test wrote more than 2300 and read more than 2700. I also watched some other channel tests, The writing speed exceeds this speed, and exfat is used for formatting, because there is still a windows pc to use, what format do you use. 2. The first test used the front usb-c port, the speed of reading and writing is more than 700, you are using the front usb-c or the rear Thunderbolt 4 port. 3. The temperature problem, the first time it is plugged in, it heats up before the test, and the temperature rises during the test. It feels very hot when you hold it in your hand, but it is not hot. It should be good to use this hand warmer in winter, and no software test is used. Temperature, I will write more than 300G of video material at a time in the future, which is really worrying. This is the first time I know and use this. I don’t know much about software and hardware. I hope you can give me an answer! Thanks!

[@KevinRossRN]

Yeah I saw that there’s a slight update to the hardware, which the version I’m using has been out about (almost) two years. I typically use APFS as I don’t really connect these to a Windows machine. I always use the Thunderbolt ports. It will get warm and these are usually running warm at idle and of course get hotter as you’re transferring files. It’s the large file transfers where the heat does push those limits, but working off it (like when you’re editing) will maintain a reasonable temperature because the program isn’t reading and writing as fast. I still use these drives and in fact have purchased another 980PRO because they just work so well.

[@Hk69]

@@KevinRossRN Thanks! Thank you so much for your reply and I wish you all the best!

[@KevinRossRN]

Thank you friend. Happy to help. Best of luck to you as well.

[@CalvinLee]

Great work and info Kevin! I just got the Acasis enclosure paired with the gen4 Sabrent Rocket 4.0 2TB ssd on a M1 Max. It's quite speedy. 2400-2600+ write speeds/2000-2700+ read speeds. I tested transferring 370gb. It starts up with a speedy 2.5gb and drops a little but picks back up to 1.7-2.4 and seems to maintain it for the most part. Once it gets really hot the speeds drops like a rock. The Sabrent gets super hot even with a thermal pad. It totally crashed my M1 during the first or second transfer tests. If I leave the case open it really helped with the heat and doesn't crash as much.

[@KevinRossRN]

Yeah, the pinned comment from Pete seems to be having some similar issues I believe. Sabrent makes great SSDs. I’m just not sure that the Acasis is communicating well with some of these SSDs and in some cases not really able to maintain that thermal throttling and then it just ejects. I still use the Acasis though and haven’t ever had an issue with editing or playing games on the enclosure. Appreciate you sharing this info. Are you performing other tasks on this combo such as video editing?

[@CalvinLee]

I’m a graphic designer. Mostly use it for photo editing and design with photoshop, illustrator and backing up to the enclosure. The Sabrent just runs extra crazy hot, even idle. I’m thinking of either getting Sabrent heat sink or returning it and getting SN750, which won’t great the bank. From your tests, SN750 seems pretty fast and does well with the heat.

[@KevinRossRN]

So I can see why you’d need that for large file/folder transfers. So with the Acasis, even idle, you’ll notice some heat, but to your point it can also depend on the SSD as well. I’ve got a couple SN750s and love them. I even installed one in an enclosure for my son’s gaming console, although it’s not reading and writing at a very high clip all the time, however he does do some pretty large transfers of games. And as far as the benchmarks, I wouldn’t worry too much about the difference in those numbers with the 750 because I just haven’t really noticed any issues when editing and working on them.

[@CalvinLee]

@@KevinRossRN I may do that. Depending on ssd and which enclose. The results are so varied. I tested it with a gen3 SK Hynix 1TB ssd in the Acasis. The heat is much much better plus cheaper $124 vs Sabrent $260. The speeds were 2100 write/2400 read. The SK Hynix in a Trebleet Thunderbolt 3 enclosure. The results were slightly faster with 2200+ write/2700 read.

[@KevinRossRN]

You know I looked at that SSD awhile back and ended up getting a Silicone Power, but I would also say that the Hynix is great if you’re getting those results.

[@RoZeProductionz]

Hey Kevin, thanks for the very informative video.. I'm an audio guy looking for some help... I was wondering whats been your experience with loading audio projects, kontakt banks, and exporting to songs .wav with the NVME drives? Is there a noticeable difference time wise?

[@KevinRossRN]

No real difference with these drives. It just comes down to the program itself and most are reading and writing at the same speeds as the internal.

[@RoZeProductionz]

@@KevinRossRN thanks you just earned a sub... keep up the good work 👏🏾

[@KevinRossRN]

Thanks! Great to have you here.

[@aveoaudiobackgroundmusic983]

Hey, bro! What have you chosen for yourself?

[@Br0adCastYourS3lf]

HI Kevin, Thanks for these benchmarks. Especially the AmorphousDiskMark results. I love the speeds of the 980 Pro.

[@KevinRossRN]

Me too. It really is becoming a new favorite.

[@Br0adCastYourS3lf]

@@KevinRossRN I hope that they’ve added a 4TB version by the time the Mac Mini M1 Max (or whatever Apple introduces) is available. But I’m not holding my breath.

[@KevinRossRN]

Yeah it seems they like to hover around the 2TB limit with these SSDs. It must be that anything higher is too niche of a market for them 🤷‍♂️

[@Br0adCastYourS3lf]

@@KevinRossRN I like to keep my SSDs not to go over 60% full. That's why.

[@KevinRossRN]

Gotcha. Totally understand.

[@JudgeFredd]

Once again great comparative video

[@KevinRossRN]

And thank you for taking the time to be here.

[@williameverets2736]

The name is OSETUB 8-in-1 usb-c says it supports 2019 MacBook pro not a 5th gen iPad pro will just find one that supports iPad Pro 5th gen Thank You for your Support.

[@KevinRossRN]

Figured that might be the case. We’re finding quite a few of these hubs/docks that need to be updated. Sending my best on your setup. Double check Anker. I believe they have some updated options.

[@rydmerlin]

I’ve now remembered who your presentation style reminds me of. It’s that Hashoshi crypto over coffee guy. Very similar presentation styles.

[@KevinRossRN]

I’ve never heard of that creator. I’ll have to pop over and check him out.

[@Anshikakhola]

Hi Kevin, Thanks for the great video. I have macbook pro M1 and it crashes mostly when I edit my videos or use aftereffects. So I bought 980 pro. With which enclosure should I use it with? I've seen many reviews, which says, WD Black SN750 works best for M1 and Acasis as enclosure.

[@KevinRossRN]

Is it crashing because it's AE, and on the internal SSD, or are you currently using another external SSD? As far as the 980 PRO, I still use it, and I'm currently using it with the Acasis on the video I'm editing today. I'd still recommend this combination, especially if you've already purchased the 980 PRO.

[@ljl555]

Thanks for the video! Have you checked SN770? It’s said to be much cooler than SN850. Would like to know how its thermal performance is compared to the 980pro.

[@KevinRossRN]

I haven’t checked the 770 yet, but I’ve also heard mixed reviews on this SSD. I can’t speak specifically to the issues, but some have said that the speeds were not “acceptable” however I’d have to test this myself. I did however order another 980 PRO to add to the collection. I’ll see if I can look into the 770 a little further to evaluate what might be going on with this particular model.

[@198000669]

Hello, it would be nice to have an Italian translation of the video with subtitles if possible! I would be very interested in the subject especially on thermal pads. Thank you

[@wanyelandy8847]

Please test the models with Phison E16 based NVME SSD like FireCuda 520 2TB, Inland Performance 2TB, Sabrent Rocket NVMe 4.0 2TB, they are long endurance(for ex, 2TB TBW 3600) and is known to have better sustained write speed than most Samsung disks. If you install the OS in NVME and the cooling is the most important factor, without proper cooling,l it will fail even in the installation phase.

[@KevinRossRN]

Yeah I’ve thought about that FireCuda, but honestly that SSD would be a waste in these enclosures because it would be limited to that ~3000-3200MBs, but I have considered these in a PC build.

[@glenna.fitzgerald782]

Kevin, do you think connecting the sad enclosure to a Caldigit or Other Thunderbolt 4 hub would increase the throughput?

[@KevinRossRN]

I did a video on this…for the M1 it did help slightly. The more I added to the dock, the higher the throughput.

[@pumacorp]

a lot of these enclosures are unavailable recently ...So I assuming they are working on something that is really compatible to the TB4...

[@KevinRossRN]

It’s possible, but I also think that the manufacturing issues are a big part of it. I think there are delays with the controllers, but the actual board and enclosure are likely ready to roll. 🤷‍♂️ It’s unfortunate. I’ve started to notice the “currently unavailable” status for awhile, and getting worse as of late.

[@aarongoforth9045]

Could you clue me into how to update the samsung 980 pro's firmware in the Acasis enclosure?

[@KevinRossRN]

Do you happen to have a PC? To upgrade the firmware it does require Samsung’s Magician software.

[@zenelygarcia]

Hi Kevin! Do Acasis or Fledding enclosures work with included heat sink SSD? 980Pro and SN 850 have a version with heat sink included.

[@KevinRossRN]

You wouldn’t be able to get the lids to the enclosures back on. So basically you’d just have the SSD with the heatsink sticking out and the board exposed.

[@Joe__Tech]

You always should test the 970 pro 1TB a an alltime nest reference against all other SSDs, if longtime writings are considered.

[@KevinRossRN]

I may just have to do that.

[@AffinityPhoto]

I have several of the Acasis plugged into my Mac Studio ultra. I was seeing high temps with wd blue, wd black and Addlink nvme. The internal SSD runs at about 30C no matter what. But these externals were hitting 60/70+ **until** I began simply laying them on top of my Studio. After that, never saw over 40C. When I get everything set, I plan to put two under the studio mounted under my desk. Air intake cooling plus massive aluminum heat sink.

[@KevinRossRN]

That’s an interesting find my friend. Really appreciate you sharing that workaround. And yeah, the internal SSD will run pretty cool. When you get it mounted I’d be curious to hear how it’s going.

[@AffinityPhoto]

@@KevinRossRN Right now I'm dealing with Apple tech because my SSD is considerably underperforming in all metrics but especially random read/writes which is how we judge a system's responsiveness. Apps like Photoshop, FCPX load significantly slower than my 2017 imac. From what I can see, this is a design flaw for all M1 macs.

[@KevinRossRN]

Are you referring to the internal SSD or the external? I’m definitely aware of the issues with the M1 and these external enclosures, especially the Thunderbolt 3 USB4 enclosures.

[@AffinityPhoto]

@@KevinRossRN I’m talking about the internal SSD. It performs about as good as high-end gen 4 nvme on large file transfers but as pore as a sata SSD on anything non-sequential. I have the Acasis and I’m seeing 2900/2900 thereabouts

[@KevinRossRN]

Gotcha. Sorry to hear that this is the case on that internal. Curious to hear how this plays out with tech support.

[@paolo.arcangeli]

is it normal that the ACASIS enclosure is still powered when the macbook pro is closed? if I forget to unplug it from the computer it stays on all the time and never goes to sleep.

[@KevinRossRN]

It is normal, yes.

[@shootcutdeliver]

Thanks Kevin - very comprehensive- question ? I’m looking for a drive solution that is 4TBs with my new coming M1 max - my workflow is my A7S3 w| 4K 60p / 120p FCPX timeline 1080/4K Usually shooting about 200-500 GB per shoot - just need to know what is a good logical choice of a drive SSD encloser - Could you recommend an option that will work with my workflow- I do plan to use my system as more of a home system w/ New-LG 40 ultrawide monitor 5K/2k - it’s bsckordered right now 😞

[@KevinRossRN]

So the Fledging is rated up to 4TBs and I’ve used SN750 and 850 as well as the 970 EVO Plus and this 980 Pro I reviewed. I will say that the 980 Pro is a bit “overkill” because we can’t get close to the advertised read and write, but I think that they’re finally addressing some of these thermal throttling issues, but I’d have to really test it in a PC. Do you want it as compact as this, or have you looked at something like the OWC Express M2?

[@shootcutdeliver]

@@KevinRossRN I’ll need to check it out - 90% of my workflow I’ll be home station

[@shootcutdeliver]

@@KevinRossRN just watch videos on the enclosure and available modules. Do you have a video on that 0WCM to enclosure with modules?

[@KevinRossRN]

Nah, I sure don’t. I’d like to test it as a network editing solution…or hardwired. I use the NAS I have to archive, but I can also work on it through the network and it does pretty well considering they are spinning HDDs.

[@ianotography]

Hello Kevin, Just want to ask you and hope you can have an answer to my concern, I need help picking an SSD for the Acasis 40gbps enclosure. I plan to buy T-force z440 2TB for that Acasis Enclosure. But what I afraid of is that will the T-force z440 2TB have the problem same as the WD black sn850 ( drop the write speed around above 1000mb/s)?

[@KevinRossRN]

I’d have to look that one up to do a little research, but is that the SSD you’re pretty set on investing in?

[@RTXRetroGo]

Do you have any test of these drives being ran in any non thunderbolt enclosures such as Type C?

[@KevinRossRN]

I’ve got one that I really love: M1 Pro and M1 Max | Choose The Fastest External SSD? kzbin.info/www/bejne/l4WtkJ9rZ8pjl7M It’s from Sabrent.

[@49ers49ers]

I have a scandisk 4TB SSD extreme pro Which should run up to 2000MB/s but only getting 1000 MB/s with my mac Studio M1 Max plugged into Thunderbolt port in back?

[@KevinRossRN]

It has to do with the communication protocol on these Macs. The 3.2 2x2 only runs at around 1,000 instead of the advertised 2000. Unfortunately it’s the Mac, not the drive.

[@49ers49ers]

I tested an external enclosure drive that tested at 2800MB/s plugged in same Mac Studio drive? Wondering why the sandisk drive would not get up to speed same Thunder bolt cable was used?@@KevinRossRN

[@KevinRossRN]

@49ers49ers yeah, it’s not the cable, although you do need the right cable when using a USB 4.0 or Thunderbolt enclosure, but it has to do with the communication protocol. USB 3.2 Gen 2x2, which is advertised as 2,000MBs ends up falling back to 1,000MBs on these Macs. It’s a pain, I know.

[@stevenwaldstein2249]

Thank you for sharing your testing. Have you evaluated the ORICO M.2 Enclosure for NVMe SSD, USB4.0 40Gbps Type-C to M Key B+M Key 2280 Aluminum External SSD Case Compatible with Thunderbolt 3/4 USB3.2/3.1/3.0/ Type-C-M2V01. I’m using them with Samsung 980 Pro 2TB SSD. Would like to find a 4TB drive though. Any help would be appreciated.

[@KevinRossRN]

The ORICO was on my list to test. I do have a USB Gen 2 enclosure that’s used on an Xbox. However I just haven’t tested the USB 4.0. What’s been your primary use for this setup?

[@stevenwaldstein2249]

@@KevinRossRN I’m using the USB4/Thunderbolt 3 on my M1 Mac Mini, M1 MacBook Air and 2019 8 core i9 iMac. Also put one inside my Trebleet MacMini hub that connects with Thunderbolt IO the M1 MacMini. It’s one of the few hubs that attaches with true Thunderbolt that also supports a 2.5” SATA III SSD where I use a Samsung 870 EVO 4TB but that is a slow interface. With the Orico M2V01-C4 and 980 Pro I get ~2800 MB/s read/write.

[@KevinRossRN]

Not sure what your budget is, but have you checked out the FireCuda? geni.us/firecuda This one might be a little more than what you want.

[@oppressorable]

I can vouch for firecuda 530 4tb in a Acasis tbu401 enclosiue with Z690 pro art and z690-i motherboards. Yeah, i am that snowflake using thunderbolt on pc. A selling point for the Firecuda 4tb is that it have a better speed once the cache is full vs the Samsung. That's noteworthy only if you run out of dynamic cache on the Samsung though. It's around 220 to 238 gb on an empty drive. It will probably be less if the drive have a lot of data on it. If you use it on windows 11, get the most recent driver from intel. That will avoid you some disconnection headache. I hope it's useful to you.

[@sofoto7454]

Would you recommend the Acasis TBU405 or TBU401 and why? Thanks

[@KevinRossRN]

The difference with the 405 is that they tried to work on better thermal management with the case itself. Otherwise you’ve got the same chipset in both. I personally have the 401 and both are still working well. If you are performing tasks that create a high thermal load, then maybe consider the 405.

[@normanrobson9957]

Hi Kevin I’m thinking of buying the Samsung 980 pro, but I haven’t got access to a windows computer to upgrade the firmware. Does this matter?

[@KevinRossRN]

I have a few of these and I have one that I did upgrade the firmware while the others are still with the one that it shipped with. They perform the same for me.

[@hondyct3736]

can you make a comparison between the ORICO case and acasis case with different ssd? Because I don't understand which ssd is fully compatible with the different enclosure. Thanks very much for your work.

[@KevinRossRN]

As per the video it’s the 980 PRO when comparing it to the 850. At least when it comes to the benchmarks and those large transfers. But as far as the Orico enclosure, is it that you already have that one?

[@hondyct3736]

@@KevinRossRN no I have to buy one and with many review online doesn’t seems all similar or compatible. Some review with the same hardware of what you tested make different benchmark and results.

[@KevinRossRN]

Well, I’ve got several videos on these external drives. Both the Acasis and the Fledging. I use them all, but again, the 980 PRO performs well, but it’s a Gen 4 SSD and so there’s no way you’ll get close to the advertised read and write.

[@NicolasGomez97]

So what benefits does the 980 pro over the *750* from a few videos ago, if any, on these enclosures?

[@KevinRossRN]

Just improved benchmarks and transfer speeds of large files, however as far as editing and working of these drives, the results will be pretty close. I still use the 750 and in fact, even edited my latest video on it.

[@brickmier]

Any suggestions for an M2pro Mac mini? I need an SSD backup drive and feel I should get a drive / enclosure. That would last me a good while. Thanks

[@KevinRossRN]

Well the Acasis is still going strong as far as an enclosure. Fledging recently went out of business. If you’re looking for backup rather than to work off of the SSD I certainly would save some cash where you can. The PCIe Gen 3 SSDs are still performing quite well, and that extra read and write on Gen 4 SSDs wouldn’t be able to be achieved anyway. I’ve often gotten the 980 Pro SSDs on a deal and sometimes cheaper even though they are Gen4. I also like the 970 EVO Plus (still). Are you wanting more storage space? If so, then this may also be a deciding factor because some of the SSDs will only go up to 2TBs.

[@brickmier]

@@KevinRossRN Kevin, thank you for your input. I would like to take advantage of the new machine, but I WAS thinking that for Time Machine, absolute fastest drive isn’t necessary. For my photos / Lightroom I would like to make the most of what the computer can offer

[@KevinRossRN]

Yeah, for Time Machine it doesn’t need to be the fastest. I like the DIY since they can be upgraded, but these pre-built SanDisk drives are really great. I use one of them as my Time Machine backup.

[@crisnla1]

is this faster than the stock internal SSD's in the M1's?? THANKS!

[@KevinRossRN]

No, it’s not as fast. The internal is still going to give faster read and write, but these external setups still have great performance for real world use cases since the programs can only read and write so fast.

[@pspensieri]

Solid work from Kevin and the community 🙏

[@KevinRossRN]

It takes a village. 🙏🤘

[@pumacorp]

Ok so I ran the Fledging thunder with sn850x.....Using Black Magic I got 2700 read and 2700 write running@142 F. avg. with NO lid on ..No real difference with lid on or off..... using Ventura OS....I didnt mod the box yet but I did put a small fan that ran at low RPM at 500gb same test that was 140-145f now runs at 95....Huge difference ...Without an external fan my Fledge runs at 120 idle,but putting a fan next to the vent slots alone drops it to 109f ..If this internal fan was mounted as a true exhaust fan it would be a monumental differce ...Im looking into finding the right size fan to mount on the unit...When I do Ill post back ..Im also using testing this out as a boot drive but it seems to restart the computer when idle for really long periods of time ..I reset the PRAM and SMC to see if that resolves the issue ..Not sure if this is the Fledge issue or an Ventura issue ...

[@KevinRossRN]

Appreciate you popping back with this data. I haven’t had any random reboots on previous iterations and I tend to keep my externals connected for days if not weeks. I’ve avoided Ventura, but may upgrade one of the machines just to check.

[@pumacorp]

@@KevinRossRN Yeah I was avoiding Ventura ,but I made a dumb mistake by letting my gf use the computer and she hit upgrade pop up by mistake ..UGH ..

[@KevinRossRN]

Oh boy. An unintended upgrade can certainly be a bummer

[@pumacorp]

@@KevinRossRN Yeah I avoid updates like the plague ..I was 2 updates behind on Monteray intentionally..Updates are usually problems til proven otherwise ..

[@hanle4227]

Kevin, thank you again for the great review. Just got my Acasis and test it on a 2T WD 770. I test on my m1 mac air and the 1GB sequence read and write is about 3000/1600 (Mb/s). The only thing I'm concerned is it is noisier during reading/writing compared to Sumsung T7. It is not loud but still noticeable if listen carefully. Did you have similar issue?

[@KevinRossRN]

Interesting. Can you describe the sound you’re hearing?

[@hanle4227]

@@KevinRossRN Hi Kevin, thank you for replying so promptly. It's just electrical white noise with occasional 'zhizhizhi' and cracking sound. The noise is very light thought, and I can only hear when the enclosure is within 30 cm in front me. I guess it is from the board and maybe some circuit design issue? Just don't know if it is common and will affect the durability.

[@hanle4227]

@@KevinRossRN I just found Sumsumg T7 has similar 'noise' when it is close contacted with my ear >_< But the sound is gone if move the T7 10 cm away. I guess that sound is common and should be attribute to 'noise'. Sorry this is the first time I'm using an external exclosure and didn't know what to expect.

[@KevinRossRN]

Gotcha. Well since there aren’t any moving parts I was wondering what you might be hearing. I haven’t really noticed, but will double check on my end. I’ve got good hearing, but may not be sensitive to that frequency. I’ll be offloading some footage here soon and will hold my ear up to it.

[@ghost-user559]

Ha! Finally someone out there can “hear” an ssd! It’s literally like a very subtle electrical interference. Like a static zapping in a rhythmic pattern. I wonder if very many people can hear that frequency because I have not heard of very many people describing that sound. When I swapped out my spinning hdd for an ssd on my old MacBook I had a moment where I thought I broke something because it was making that sound. Turns out that’s just the “sound” they make.

[@williameverets2736]

Thank is the brand name I will look a little closer, When I find the Picture of what I bought from Amazon then I will go from there. thank You so Much for the help.

[@KevinRossRN]

Sure thing. But as far as any other peripherals, can you plug those in and get them to be recognized on the iPad?

[@jfb3567]

Hi Kevin, I've settled on getting a Samsung 980 PRO, either 1 or 2TB, but not yet sure between the ACASIS or the Fledging Shell Thunder. Running 16" M1 Max, but I also still use my 2010 17" with internal NVMe and 16 GB for certain things-I do have a Thunderbolt 2 to 3 Apple adapter just to do transfers of old and archived material(not concerned about speed there) Acasis direct from their store(not sure where it's shipping from-perhaps it's the most versatile of the two? Fledging Shell Thunder-company based in the US(Alabama, and I like supporting US based companies). Shell Thunder supports up to 4TB which seems to be an advantage) Thnx 👍

[@KevinRossRN]

So as far as Acasis, I’m in the middle of editing something right now and using their enclosure. I do like it because I can also use this on non-Thunderbolt devices (so far). I will say that Fledging does have a great customer service, although Acasis also remedied an issue I had previously. I purchased both enclosures and so I always reach out to them as a customer and not a creator. Fledging does reach out periodically to check on things, but I certainly don’t get paid by them in the least. Anyway, I really do like both and use both of them. Fledging does seem to have confirmed support for up to 4TBs and I haven’t heard of any issues with this combo. As far Acasis shipping from their store I’ve purchased one from Amazon and the other did come directly from them in China, whereas my Fledging products did ship within the U.S. and they do have a growing team that’s certainly interested in making sure the customer is happy…but I know mileage may vary. I will confirm though that I’m loving the 980PRO and editing on it all the time.

[@jfb3567]

@@KevinRossRN Just checked Fledging's site and they sold out, so perhaps Acasis it is Thnx

[@KevinRossRN]

Yeah, these enclosures are both super popular right now. Feel free to let me know how it goes with your setup. 🤘

[@jfb3567]

@@KevinRossRN Thanks again

[@KevinRossRN]

Of course. Best of luck, friend.

[@phoenixbwp]

Thanks Kevin! 10/02/2022: I have a Refurbished M1 Pro 14 inch [10c/14c/16GB UM/512GB SSD] finally! I mentioned in another video comment about my NVME enclosure from Orico [10GB] and WD SN570 NVME... well? I tried to use the enclosure and got mixed results! When transferring to the SN50, a 100gb & 500gb ProRes file, it takes more than 5 minutes, but copy/move from the SN570, no issues! Doesn't matter if formatted APFS or Mac OS Extended Journaled... Should I bit the bullet for the SN850 or 980 Pro? I can get the Fledging TB3 Enclosure first to see if the Orico/SN570 combo isn't working properly? Shutter Encoder app, is recommended for transcoding footage or audio. Quicker and simpler than Handbrake or VLC. I can output from FCP in ProRes 422, then use Shutter Encoder to crunch down into H.265 with great quality and small file size... double the work, yes, but I have not gotten Compressor to come close to what Shutter Encoder has done! Donationware...

[@KevinRossRN]

Yeah the only way I use compressor is actually within FCPX during my export to a custom setting for KZbin. And you may be hitting up against an issue with the compatibility of that enclosure, which isn’t unheard of (as you know). Have you found any deals on the 980PRO?

[@phoenixbwp]

@@KevinRossRN I Have to say: Compatibility issue with the M1 Pro... M1 Mac Mini? Works Great!!! So, I need the Fledging & 980 Pro... Check Amazon again: $140 1TB & $235 2TB as of 10/02/2022... I'm getting the 1TB tomorrow and will test with the Orico, just to make sure. But Compatibility seems to run with the 980 Pro and TB3 or TB4/USB4 enclosures.

[@KevinRossRN]

Well if/when you get it I’ll definitely be waiting to hear what you think of it in that Orico.

[@phoenixbwp]

@@KevinRossRN I've done more testing! I will use the SN570/Orico on the M1 Mac Mini, no issues in/out with files larger than 75GB. On the M1 Pro though? Very slow write speeds! I will get thermal pads but I've just watched several of your videos, where I agree with you about the Chips inside the M1 Pro 14 inch.

[@KevinRossRN]

Hey, I’m just glad to have someone else out here running some additional tests.

[@jftvrwk]

great to see. Would i be correct in assuming the WD_BLACK SN850X will also work in an enclosure (sabrent dual thunderbolt3)

[@KevinRossRN]

The 850X will work in an enclosure, but as I’ve said in many of these videos you won’t get the advertised read and write speeds. Although it’s at a great price right now, so that’s really hard to pass up.

[@jftvrwk]

@@KevinRossRN yeah, i got a sabrent enclosure but might upgrade to a faster/more serious enclosure down the line. Luckily the enclosure is the cheapest part of the setup so far. Thanks a bunch for confirming that it'll work for mac, difficult to find info on that. For me the 2400 TBW on the 4TB's won me over.

[@KevinRossRN]

Sure thing. And I know the Sabrent enclosures have been questionable for some, but I also think that much of that is because of the synthetic bench tests. What’s your primary use case?

[@jftvrwk]

@@KevinRossRN editing, but as a director, not full time

[@KevinRossRN]

Gotcha. Well that’s awesome, director 😎

[@PolluxChung]

I still hesitate to go for these kinds of external SSD combo is because the heat issue.

[@KevinRossRN]

Are you putting any kind of sustained load on your SSDs? Just curious. It’s definitely a balance and there’s a bit of tinkering with the balance of the enclosure and the SSD, although many of these 4.0 enclosures are using very similar controllers, if not the same.

[@PolluxChung]

I am planning to use it for loading media very constantly. I keep seeing people worrying about the heat trapped in these tiny enclosures would potentially shorten the life of the drive and cause data corruption. I am thinking, since I only use my desktop and never go mobile I might get a thunderbolt PCI expansion box + Nvme drive on PCI card combo. That I hope will solve the ventilation issue but man the total cost will be near doubled.

[@KevinRossRN]

@PolluxChung that was going to be my suggestion. And you’re right. The cost is prohibitive for many, but I guess you have to decide whether the return is worth it based on how much you’re using it.

[@njcimaging]

Hey Kevin, I saw that the SP NVME Gen 4 was only 209! Hold well do you think the SP will do with the acasis enclosure?

[@KevinRossRN]

You know that’s the enclosure I haven’t tested the SP on, and my current one is in a gaming PC, but I really like it and have considered getting another one. I just haven’t seen another creator testing this combo.

[@njcimaging]

@@KevinRossRN Hey Kevin! So I went the the Samsung 970 pro eco and the acasis But I have one more question if you don't mind lol what is the best format for the ssd. APFS or Mac extended journal. I plan on only using this drive with my M1.

[@KevinRossRN]

I personally use APFS. As long as you’re not trying to use it on a windows machine, then it’s the most efficient…at least from my experience.

[@njcimaging]

@@KevinRossRN thanks for help!

[@KevinRossRN]

You got it.

[@trashtbyghosts]

thanks kev dog! ur tha man!

[@KevinRossRN]

Glad to help. Thank you 🤘

[@madychan3164]

Hello Kevin, great video as always. I recently bought a 2TB SN850 with the most recent firmware and the read and write performance on the drive while using acacias enclosure on black magic appears to be 2700/2731 with peak transfer speed of 2.8GB/s paired with an M1 Mac. I've also read somewhere in forums that the latest firmware update on Samsung 980 Pro renders it unusable on Macs even though its great for PS5. Wonder if that's true

[@KevinRossRN]

Awesome to hear on the 850. I’m not sure about the 980PRO. I just bought a new one and it still has the previous firmware. I was just trying to update it. Will see if I can get this done.

[@madychan3164]

@@KevinRossRN That's great. Looking forward to see your findings

[@KevinRossRN]

Me too. So far I can’t get it to update in the enclosure. I was able to do this with the 970 EVO Plus. I may have to install it on the motherboard in one of these PCs I have to update it. We’ll see 🤷‍♂️

[@madychan3164]

@@KevinRossRN I see. Getting the drives updated in this setup is indeed a hassle. Also, on the thermals side of the situation, I have a feeling that it's the chips on the other side of the black PCB of Acasis thunderbolt enclosure that might be prone to overheating and leading to a system crash. Perhaps, it's the accumulated heat from the drive within the enclosure that does it? These drives are designed to throttle down with high temperatures. My system crashed even when the drives were running at fairly low temps (~45*C) with thermal pads on while using both 980 Pro and SN850, and I keep the thunderbolt enclosure plugged in for days. Judging by the consistent thunderbolt proximity temps (49*C-50*C) on TG Pro within M1 MacBook it very well might be the case. For now I have stacked multiple thermal pads to cover the thunderbolt chips and others and ensure good contact within the aluminium enclosure. Hope that solves it

[@KevinRossRN]

Are having those issues with just general tasks, or moving large files? I also keep mine plugged in almost non-stop since I’m always using them.

[@alfabravo80]

Hi Kevin, just to be sure, when you say you’re testing the new ssds on the M1 Mac, you mean your M1 Mac Mini, right?

[@KevinRossRN]

Yeah, the M1 tests always occur on the mini…occasionally it’ll be the MacBook Air, but the mini is what I tested.

[@alfabravo80]

@@KevinRossRN Those are amazing numbers! I just couldn’t believe it. Thank you very much, Kevin.

[@KevinRossRN]

Sure thing. And I believe I tested on the M1 Max (I believe)…sounds silly, but I end up moving onto the next video and often have trouble remembering what I’ve tested 🤣 But I do love the mini. Still using it all the time.

[@oppressorable]

I am fairly late commenting on that but it think it's useful information. You may have found the information since. The throttling might not be only due to temperature Tomshardware have interesting graphs on that. The Samsung 980 pro 2tb can maintain a write speed of 6.2 gigabytes second for 238gb then fall back to 1.5 gbps after it filled up his slc cache. That's pretty close to the drop of speed you report. Their review report that 4tb ssd like firecuda 4tb or the rocket 4 4tb have much better substained performance in that regard. Even the 2 tb do have a larger dynamic cache than Samsung but they will fall back to similar speed than Samsung after roughly 600gb. The 4tb can maintain 3.5 to 3.8 up to somewhere after 3tb filled. I am opinion, many speed reported by users of those enclosures to be fairly misleading. A 5gb file with black magic do nothing but test the slc cache unless you slam the test tens of time in rapid succession. If you need Thunderbolt speed, it's not unlikely that a large quantity of data could be expected so i think that peoples should talk more about the speed of a ssd once it can't rely on it's cache. That's a reason that, while a great ssd, the 980 pro seem over-recommanded to me. For what it's worth, i have the same Accasis(Tbu401) enclosure but i am on pc and i have a Firecuda 530 4tb in it. At first, i had disconnection problems. I resolved them by updating my drivers. I have z690 pro art and z690-i for the motherboards which house the thunbolt controllers. Windows 11 drivers from windows update are obsolete. Doing a +- 1Tb backup, i start from 2.6 to 3tb for a short period of time then it seem to stay at 2,55 tb until the slc cache is full with a sharp fall in speed at around 800m/s for the portion of the data that are small images. After the cache is full, the transfer vary from 2tb to 2.5tb. I think the average speed is around 2,2 tb for that portion for me. My temperature are fairly good since i end the copy with a temperature at around 40c after the transfer(ambiant 19c) I judge that to be good since it's after hitting it with a 1tb transfer. I used third party thermal pads and made sure they have good contact though. If your ssd are so hot, i think it would be worth experimenting with thermal pads. I hope it's useful to you.

[@KevinRossRN]

Yeah, it’s been a minute, but I’ve been meaning to revisit this. The 980 PRO, especially at the time, was (is) often a decent SSD for many use cases for the money. For that sustained read and write speed for larger files the throttling may become a problem to that particular workflow. However, I do still want to test that FireCuda and may just pick one of those up as I’ve been looking to get another SSD for this enclosure. I appreciate you taking the time to share. Truly. Thank you for the information you’ve shared.

[@eladbari]

Simple Question: Does a 1050Mbps transfer speed enclosure is enough to esit a 4K 60fps footage?

[@KevinRossRN]

Yes. You should be just fine with that throughput.

[@eladbari]

@@KevinRossRN thanks for confirming!

[@KevinRossRN]

Best of luck on your workflow.

[@Zeroxanos]

I really loved ur videos and i need ur help here i need ssd for heavy video editing through MacBook pro 14 what is good and lag free ssd for that + enclosures?

[@KevinRossRN]

Are you looking for an option that is different than the ones in this particular video?

[@Zeroxanos]

@@KevinRossRN i think 980 is the best since i saw other brands fail stop at some point, but I am wondering about what best cool enclosure for sdd

[@KevinRossRN]

Well I will have another video coming out on this subject that’s not directly tied to video editing exclusively, but I personally have not experienced a better performing SSD than the 980PRO. I’ve purchased more of them since this video’s release. The Acasis enclosure seems to take advantage of the bandwidth that the Thunderbolt port allows. In this test I was moving large files around which isn’t necessarily someone’s day to day, and for video editing you’re not going to get near those thermals because the bottleneck is the GPU.

[@arturb5152]

Can i ask You about this white speaker You have back of You ?

[@KevinRossRN]

I mentioned those in my desk setup video, but they are HS5 reference monitors. I use them for audio editing. Love them.

[@BlueVaraMike]

Great video again! I think, i‘ll get the 980 PRO and put it in my Samsung X5 case! 😁 (there is only a 500 GB SSD in it) I‘ll report back here when i receive the SSD and had run some tests. MacBook Air M1 Thank you for your great videos wich helps a lot! Stay safe and i‘ll be back. 😎😁 Many greetings from Austria!

[@KevinRossRN]

Thanks! And yes, definitely let us know what you find. No rush, but whenever you get a chance. Sending my best.

[@BlueVaraMike]

Received my X5 and the 980 PRO yesterday. Installed them in the X5 case today and ran some tests with Blackmagic Disk Speed Test. Directly connected to the MBA M1: Write: 2642 MB/s Read: 2528 MB/s My 970 Evo Plus in it (and some other cases) Write: 1.156 MB/s (what’s that - very poor!) Read: 2600 MB/s (ok for external solution) SSD‘s connected to my Anker Thunderbolt Dock: About 300 MB/s slower (write and read) So, hope this helps someone! Merry Christmas and a happy new year Kevin (and to all others here!) Keep up the good work, i like your videos A LOT! 💪🏻😊🤙🏻

[@KevinRossRN]

Hey, really appreciate you following up here with those results. Really glad “we” are all finding a working combination here. And super thankful for those details for the rest of the community trying to make that buying decision. Great to have you here. 🤘

[@NovaworldKha]

NOT FORMART EXFAT, YOU MUST USE APFS. ITS HIGHT SPEED 2.8GB/S READ WRITE

[@KevinRossRN]

Agree, I do recommend APFS unless it’s being used for windows and Mac.

[@thezainmirza]

Do you have apple care plus for your MacBook Pro?

[@KevinRossRN]

I do indeed. I definitely get it on these mobile devices.

[@IC-kf4mz]

I am just here looking for a good external case for 980 pro 2 TB SSD

[@KevinRossRN]

Well, the two featured here are great, if you’re looking for Thunderbolt 3 speeds.

[@amigatommy7]

Have you tried different thermal tapes?

[@KevinRossRN]

I have. Most that I’ve found are effective within a couple of degrees give or take. Just as long as contact is being made with the lid.

[@provolutionnic3482]

You should test the trebleet tb/usb enclosure and sabrent rocket pcie4 ssd, they are blazing fast and have a huge cache

[@KevinRossRN]

Do you currently have that setup?

[@provolutionnic3482]

@@KevinRossRN i had, but with mac os (m1 air) i had some issues after a while so i changed to pcie 3.0 4tb ssd.

[@KevinRossRN]

Gotcha. Yeah, these M1 chips have been interesting as far as getting that throughput dialed in. I’ve had quite a few folks reporting terrible thermal management with the Gen 4 Sabrent SSDs in these setups. They’re still great drives though. Use them internally in PC builds.

[@provolutionnic3482]

@@KevinRossRN also tried the firecuda gen 4, 4TB it was the same speed and soo good but it run too hot so mac os dropped it out

[@KevinRossRN]

Yeah I was going to try that one as well, but heard that the thermals were not being managed well in these enclosures. That’s another good one though.

[@pumacorp]

Still Fledging is out of stock as well as all their SSDs...Im wondering if they packed it in...Im going to look if theres another company that sells something similar with the same controller and fan ...Ive been waiting too long for the fledge ..Also anyone on here try the 990 pro ???Its either that or Im going to run my enclosure in my mini fridge lol ...

[@KevinRossRN]

What’s your current workflow for the enclosure? Not sure if Fledging has halted production. I know they were hiring and building out a team, but also know that this can change quickly.

[@pumacorp]

@@KevinRossRN Not huge its just I put some important stuff on them and heat means failures down the road ..Quark stuff mostly ..

[@KevinRossRN]

Gotcha. I can reach out to them. I (did) have a contact.

[@pumacorp]

@@KevinRossRN Thank you..Ive never been one to shy away from pulling out the dremel&sodering iron and putting fans to mod anything..So I might consider throwing a fan on another enclosure ..

[@KevinRossRN]

That would be an awesome little project.

[@ravenskygusti]

which better WD_BLACK SN850X or Samsung 990 pro ?

[@KevinRossRN]

I’ve personally been purchasing more of the Samsung line up as I’ve just had a very reliable experience in these enclosures.

[@teejay_flaus]

Any update on this? I’d also like to know if the SN850X works in the Acasis TBU405, due to it being available in 4TB sizing compared to the 980 pro 2TB

[@KevinRossRN]

If you can find a deal on the 850X it might be a good time. I did test it out on the 401 enclosure and was getting about 2800 (up to around 3,000) read and about 2800 write. It sustained some large file transfers. Unless you’re just moving data back and forth constantly then those speeds might not be as important, but definitely for sustained workflows of editing, running games, or a virtual machine, it should be great.

[@LuckyNikitaBoba]

You don’t need to apply the thermal to the entire SSD. Just the controller

[@SharkFan93]

What thermal tape are you using?

[@KevinRossRN]

I can’t recall the exact brand, but if I’m not mistaken they are in the description.

[@SoniclayersMusic]

Are you using MacOS Monterrey? Have heard some complaints of external Thunderbolt enclosures not mounting, disconnecting since switching to this version of MacOS. Also, when it comes to updating the firmware, are you updating just the firmware on the SSD or are you also updating the firmware on the enclosure for the controller?

[@KevinRossRN]

Monterey, yes. I’ve been testing on developer betas as well as the public releases. So any firmware updates typically need to occur on a Windows machine because most of these SSDs don’t have a MacOS update option, however so far, I’m finding that the firmware has already been updated when I receive it (the SSD), and those updates are typically rare anyway. As far as the enclosure, most of them are using controllers that have been around for a few years and have been tested on multiple machines, and typically the only updates would be any compatibility ones that Apple pushes, which per my recall was one they pushed through on Big Sur. But again, it depends on the particular enclosure because there are a few that may have 1 or 2 components in it that just isn’t playing well.

[@SoniclayersMusic]

@@KevinRossRN Thanks a lot Kevin! Your videos have been a big help. Looking at the Trebleet Dual NVME enclosure. Will write back on my findings.

[@KevinRossRN]

I’ll be curious on what you find. I initially looked at that one way back…I can’t recall the exact controller on that one. I do believe there was someone either here or on another video that tried that one, but I can’t recall whether it was a success. I’d have to search for that comment.

[@SoniclayersMusic]

@@KevinRossRN I'll let you know how it goes if I get that one. Also looking at a RAID 5 setup using the OWC 4M2. People complain about the fan noise, so thinking of taking the fan out and installing 4 NVME drives with heatsinks instead.

[@KevinRossRN]

Ah, now that might be a good idea, or at least worth the experiment. You could also replace the fan in it…maybe? 🤷‍♂️

[@biskero]

Why you do not reach the 6/7000 Mb/s r/w speed on PCIe 4 NVMe enclosure? Looks like the speed is half, any explanation?

[@KevinRossRN]

Yes, right here: 01:30

[@biskero]

@@KevinRossRN I saw that. I am testing a Jeyi ThunderDock Mini (it has a fan and thermo pads) which it was advertised as having NMVe 1.4 PCIe 4 with FireCuda 530 1Tb on a Macbook Pro MAX and getting around 3000 Mb/s read and 2800 Mb/s write. So the limitations are a mix of drivers and the NVMe interface on the dock from what I understand from the video. Btw great videos!

[@KevinRossRN]

Thanks! If I’m not mistaken, that ThinderDock has a Titan Ridge controller in it (TB3) which is the same one I’m reviewing in the Fledging. So it’ll fall back for any Gen 4 PCIe SSDs, but won’t have that full Gen 4 throughput. Now if there’s a different ThunderDock mini I’m not seeing, then I could look into that one.

[@biskero]

@@KevinRossRN I got it on Aliexpress, search for JEYI ThunderDock. When I got it they advertise it as PCIe 4 and Thunderbolt 4 but I do not think it supports either. Is still a great dock, everything else works.

[@KevinRossRN]

Does yours say it has the JHL7440? Just looked. It’s the only one I saw on Ali. I’m sure it’s a great enclosure. We unfortunately haven’t gotten to the point where PCIe Gen4 throughput will be fully supported. And there’s also a limitation of the Thunderbolt protocol. Max would be 5000MBs, but that’s only if the full 40Gbps could be allocated for that task, but the protocol really gives us about 26Gbps, which is about 3250MBs 🤷‍♂️

[@LaurentValette1234]

Best SSD is Intel. The most durable and with the same performances all along hi life. After it's SG Firecuda for the speed. My 2 cents.

[@KevinRossRN]

And I appreciate your two cents…are you running any of these in an external enclosure?

[@stevenkemp4199]

Hi Kevin, How do you go about updating the firmware on a Samsung 980 Pro if you are a Mac user?

[@KevinRossRN]

Well, I do have PCs to perform these tasks, but I suppose you wouldn’t happen to have Parallels (with Windows) do you? This is typically performed through Samsung’s Magician Software. Are you having specific issues with performance?

[@stevenkemp4199]

@@KevinRossRN Hi Kevin, Thanks for the reply. I have just purchased the Acasis enclosure based upon your video and was about to purchase the 980 Pro drive and thought I'd check out any other reviews of the drive. I noticed one review showed a slight improvement in performance having updated the firmware so I thought Id looking into how to go about doing this. I then found that Blackmagic is Widows only. I don't have a windows machine and don't have parallels (i've been using Mac OS for so long I've no need). Odd that Samsung seem to be ignoring the support needs fastest growing sector of the market, with Mac sales growing at twice the rate of Window. It will take many years (if ever) to catch up, but to not support the market is odd. I'll look at other drives and how to manage their firmware updates. You would think with all the folk buying external drives because the price of Apple storage that drive suppliers would have more interest in M1 family of machines and adapting their product to suit.

[@KevinRossRN]

Yeah, we’ll and there’s also the small but growing Linux community, but they’re also being ignored here. I’d say that the 980 Pro is heavily used in PC builds, so that’s their primary market. But to your point we’re also seeing a pretty sizable increase in these external drives. Based on my own experience here on the channel, the community seems quite large (to me). Wish I had an easy answer on this one for you. What’s going to be your primary use for your setup?

[@stevenkemp4199]

@@KevinRossRN I have just upgraded from a 2010 iMac to a Mac Studio (M1Max) and use it for two primary uses. Work involves me using very very large spreadsheets and PDF drawings to build and analyse transport models. My creative outlet is photography. When I attend my employers office, I use a windows machine but can't load third party software. This means I carry significant volume of very large files between the office and home. I've tried web based storage but upload times can be very long. The main driver for my decision to use a portable drive is the storage of my photography.

[@KevinRossRN]

Gotcha. Just wanted to ask because although the speed on the 980 PRO is very nice to have, you would also be fine with less expensive options such as the 970 EVO Plus if you wanted more space. It doesn’t benchmark as high as the 980PRO, but when it comes to real world use it would likely serve you just as well. Not trying to talk you out of the 980 PRO as it is a great SSD.

[@KESTER1]

Thanks! I got a question. I am still thinking of getting Adobe Premiere Pro or Final Cut. I need a effect called Spherize. Do you know if this isn't only in adobe Premiere Pro? Is it also in Final Cut Pro? You would really help me.

[@KevinRossRN]

So you just want an effect that applies a lens distortion look?

[@KESTER1]

@@KevinRossRN yes

[@KESTER1]

@@KevinRossRN I would be happy to have it

[@KevinRossRN]

So there’s already a built in fish eye effect in FCPX and there should be one in Premiere that would work. In FCPX it’s in the effects section in distortions, and then fish eye. You can adjust the radius and get the pinch/punch look.

[@KESTER1]

@@KevinRossRN thanks

[@TheQuarter]

Hello mate! Do you have a recommendation for a usb-c to two usb-c’s? (One that I can plug an average Mac charger, another that I can plug a San disc extreme from the other comment that you recommended me? I’m really tight on space in my little usbc hub haha)

[@KevinRossRN]

So, you mean a hub with at least two usb-c connections to plug into? Not Thunderbolt 3?

[@TheQuarter]

@@KevinRossRN I’m not sure what it is on my adapter m. It’s plugged into an M1 Mac port so I’m assuming it’s thunderbolt 3 on the adapter

[@KevinRossRN]

Yes, that’s Thunderbolt…and so if you want the same throughput as a direct connection then you’ll need a Thunderbolt dock. What else would you want to plug into the dock?

[@TheQuarter]

@@KevinRossRN just a charger I could try find an Amazon link to the port I have rn

[@TheQuarter]

@@KevinRossRN ok, it seems to be the exact same as this but not anchor. I don’t remember seeing the specs of the port on Amazon as it was a while ago and I wouldn’t have payed much attention back then.

[@aveoaudiobackgroundmusic983]

Under what conditions can I get the full disk speed?

[@KevinRossRN]

Only if it’s installed directly onto a motherboard that can support that advertised throughput. Otherwise it’s based on the controller that’s in the external enclosure and the bandwidth of the Thunderbolt port, which typically a portion of that bandwidth is held back and you’re only getting about 26 Gpbs…and this lands at around 3250 MB/s.

[@aveoaudiobackgroundmusic983]

@@KevinRossRN thanks.

[@KevinRossRN]

Best of luck on your decision.

[@AndreaGrosso_Ph]

sorry, how come it is not possible to get the maximum speed? I'm sorry no I speak English well and I use the translator.

[@KevinRossRN]

It’s because these enclosures can only support this much bandwidth, and the Thunderbolt ports also only have the ability to support this much throughput as well. Basically a limitation of the SSD enclosure and the Thunderbolt ports.

[@AndreaGrosso_Ph]

@@KevinRossRN ah ok, and instead if I use a 40gpbs usb4.0 enclosure I can reach higher speeds right?

[@KevinRossRN]

In my testing, I’ve gotten slightly higher speeds with this USB4 enclosure, which is mainly due to the controller that’s used inside of the enclosure. But again, keep in mind that you won’t get that full 40Gbps throughput. You’ll get anywhere from 26-30(ish) Gbps.

[@AndreaGrosso_Ph]

@@KevinRossRN thank you

[@KevinRossRN]

You bet.

[@singeb4471]

Do you know if Firecuda 530 works with Acasis 40gb enclosure on a mac?

[@KevinRossRN]

I haven’t tested this one just because of the price…although I haven’t checked recently, so if the prices are coming down then I may consider it to test. It’s just a lot of SSD for that enclosure.

[@singeb4471]

@@KevinRossRN the website for 530 says it’s compatible with Windows and Linux. Does the omission of MacOS mean it won’t work on a Mac?

[@KevinRossRN]

That’s likely the case. Without testing it however, I can’t say 100% Do you have another SSD you’re looking at?

[@singeb4471]

@@KevinRossRN That’s fair. The data sheet for the WD Black sn850 shows an identical compatibility list as the 530 on it’s data sheet. Windows Linux PS5. I can’t find a data sheet for Samsung 980 which is weird but all the marketing says the same. BH said I can test it and return it if it doesn’t work so i can let you know. They are having a crazy deal on it which is why I reached. I think it’s possible none of them list Macs maybe because macs don’t take these ssd’s unless via enclosures I really appreciate your replies. Have really been enjoying your content evaluating if I wanted to do this. Which I decided to. I liked the durability factor of 530. And am banking on enclosure getting faster to fully unlock it’s potential over next 5 years. Hope it works lol

[@KevinRossRN]

Hey, and happy to help. Looks like I might need to get around to testing this one. And if there’s a deal, why not? Right? Definitely let me know what you find out. I’m definitely curious. Great to have you around.

[@DigiDriftZone]

I have this Acasis enclosure with a 1TB Samsung 980 Pro on an M1 Mac Mini and while the benchmarks look good, I get random freezes for seconds at a time, as well as deleting is PAINFULLY slow (like 1 minute to delete a 5GB minute). Are you experiencing anything like this?

[@KevinRossRN]

I have to say that I’m not experiencing the same. It’s been my daily for quite some time. Did you just recently purchase these? Also, any other issues that you’ve found?

[@DigiDriftZone]

@@KevinRossRN I tried a different SSD enclosure and it had these symptoms, so I bought this enclosure it was the same with the Samsung 970 Evo SSD so I bought the 980 Pro and it’s exactly the same. If you create a 5gb file and try to delete it, will it delete straight away? For me this takes like a minute (!!). Latest Mac version on M1 Mini with 16GB ram. Booting from the external SSD. Are you using it as a boot drive? When say installing XCode the mouse freezes for 10 seconds at a time and install takes like 3 hours, it’s very laggy/glitchy for whatever reason with both enclosures and SSDs on Thunderbolt. No such issue on USB3.2.

[@KevinRossRN]

No issues on deleting files. I have plenty of 5GB+ files that I remove all the time. Not sure if this is an SSD issue, or a communication protocol problem. From what it sounds like it seems to be a communication protocol problem. Are you on Ventura?

[@DigiDriftZone]

@@KevinRossRN It sounds like protocol as this is with 2 different SSDs with 2 different enclosures (the 980 Pro and Acasis being brand new and purchased yesterday). I tried using different Thunderbolt cables too. I am on latest Monterey, do you think it's worth trying Ventura? - maybe this is some side effect of using this as a boot drive. I tried to use the Internal drive as boot and the external as just storage but there's no way to store iCloud files on external drives, symlink and mount do not work as expected, nor does moving the home directory. Also, how are you measuring the NVME SSD thermals?

[@KevinRossRN]

I’m not sure I’d update to Ventura just yet. Just my opinion though. As far as storage though, is there a reason you want to store iCloud files locally? Just redundancy? I use iStat Menu to measure the thermals but I also have other tools such as iStatistica and TG Pro. I run virtual machines off of these, but haven’t run into those issues. It is sounding like a communication issue if this was replicated multiple times. It would take some work, but dialing back Monterey to a previous version to see if it can be replicated might be a way to gather more info. But I understand that might be more work than you’d want to get into. However, are you finding that a 3.1 Gen2 enclosure isn’t giving you what you need as far as throughput?

[@evischlee5578]

The Samsung dont drive nice without a New Driver. Dont know why Samsung dont Developed there is also between the 990pro, bad Support from Samsung. It needs a new Specaly PCIE 4.0 driver for 990pro

[@IC-kf4mz]

What are the thunderbolt 4 enclosures used?

[@KevinRossRN]

Did you check the description?

[@IC-kf4mz]

@@KevinRossRN Ok you put it under drives so got confused. Thanks.

[@KevinRossRN]

Sure thing. Best of luck.

[@billrosmus6734]

850 has compatibility problems with MSI.

[@KevinRossRN]

What’s been the issue you’ve found?

[@AndrewMcSpadden]

Is this still the best?

[@KevinRossRN]

It’s still my main go to setup. No issues.