Portable SSD Drives: Thunderbolt vs USB - Are they worth it?

[@ZenTechLife]

If you have a Thunderbolt drive (or plan to buy one), I'd love to know why you chose it over a standard USB3.2 drive!

[@Chadryanclark]

Looking at WD black SN750 gen 4 and Acasis usb 4 enclosure

[@WargodFilms]

@@Chadryanclark same I got the rog Arion enclosure and got the 1tb wd black gen 3 tho would have gotten the gen 4 but it was sold out but the one I have is pretty fast so I'm good until gen restocks

[@sittingbull7038]

Hello, i’ll prefer to choose a Thunderbolt drive like a G-Drive pro or OWC Envoy Pro FX-EX because i have two Thunderbolt 4 ports. And the price is close to the Sandisk Extreme Pro V2. Le temps c’est de l’argent ;)

[@lllmmm3572]

I tried the latest SanDisk 4TB Extreme PRO Portable SSD (the really fast one). It is good, but I can only get about 930 speeds out of it. It is incredibly small, which is great. I'm switching to a TB3 drive because that 930 speed is just slow enough to cause a few problems when I'm editing 4K 30fps footage in FCP (optimized for editing). It did work, but there were some hiccups that I want to avoid. In the future I might shoot 8K, so I really wanted faster speeds for that, too.

[@jasonnowwhat5041]

@@lllmmm3572 really? On what computer? I have the same drive on a new MBP and I’m getting around 1900. 🤔 Let me know what you go with as I edit in fcpx too and am looking for a 4TB option.

[@AnanthapadmanabhaKurup]

More than anything else, your voice and narration are just so soothing. I’d be able easily just use this video calm myself down.

[@ZenTechLife]

Wow, thank you! That's a huge compliment!

[@Aboutallinfo]

Big thanks for the random read/write tests! I couldn't find them anywhere…

[@genaugmen4505]

Anybody remember trying to download the 2 MB file over dialup?

[@ZenTechLife]

I will forever have that dial tone burned into my memory!

[@gravitymediapro]

New sub - Very thankful for your explanation and content. Your cat cameo was $! What a cool looking cat!

[@ZenTechLife]

Thanks for the encouraging words!

[@TinkerTech]

Nice video. I appreciate the amount of testing you've done. My only criticism is the low volume. I also appreciate your soft tone. If I wasn't in a 18 wheeler I'm sure I could hear you better. Maybe a adjustment to the audio recording level. I look forward to seeing more videos either way

[@ZenTechLife]

Thanks for the support and kind comments! Will definitely work on adjusting the audio levels so it's a bit louder. Cheers!

[@SteveSteeleSoundSymphony]

Thunderbolt is a 1-lane per NVME drive protocol. If you had a TB4 dual drive enclosure in RAID 0, you’d get 2800MB/s, (the two drives are using 2-lanes), and a quad enclosure uses 4-lanes, but can’t exceed 5000MB/s. That’s why the read speed for a NVME drive that normally reads at 3000MB/s - 7000MB/s, (these speeds are assuming 4-lanes), will at best get 25% of that speed, which is around 1500MB/s -2000MB/s. However you can make up for this if you use multiple enclosures in a RAID 0, using separate TB controllers/busses.

[@yuccyhuang5102]

Dear Sir, Glad to learn you're on the market of computer peripheral products. We have 400 workeHrs, 10000 ㎡ non-dust workshop, 21 years experience, above 10 years' vendor of Tripplite, CE & FCC certificated, Our head-office is in HongKong, this how we keep good quality and competitive prices for global valued customers. Our main products cover USB hub&USB storage&USB converter&USB extension cable,ect.

[@masterstacker2833]

I have 2 Trebleet TB3 enclosures each with 2 TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe drives. They work quite well on my Mac computers getting 2.0-2.5 GB/s

[@PoppyTheSuperDog]

awesome production value on this review - you look like a seasoned youtuber with millions of subs not one with less than 2k - its only a matter of time b4 u hit the big time if you keep this standard up

[@ZenTechLife]

I appreciate that!

[@16bitCookie]

Wonderful video. Extremely informative and professionally presented and put together. Just made a subscriber out of me!

[@ZenTechLife]

Thank you for your support and welcome aboard!

[@joeking433]

LOL!

[@NaganathanSandramohan]

Great video. Very useful Info. Thank you

[@manishjain606]

Why are u underrated by yt. Your content is like lit🔥🔥

[@ZenTechLife]

Cheers for the support!

[@lllmmm3572]

I think there is one important difference I didn't hear you mention: the OWC Envoy Express enclosure can handle drives up to 8TB, whereas I believe the Orico enclosures can only handle 2TB.

[@ZenTechLife]

Thanks for sharing that info! I wasn’t actually aware of that.

[@butterface30]

Really good video. Was looking at ssd options for m1 mac and this hit all my questions on whether and external nvme enclosure is worth it

[@ZenTechLife]

Thank you! I appreciate the encouraging words.

[@inc2000glw]

I subbed! Epic vid .More!!!!!

[@KevinMillard68]

your best and only really proper choice for thunderbolt is a powered external case then you can get top speeds no matter what nvme you put in the case..

[@Sweetaccord]

I put a Crucial P3 Plus in an Orico external case and only get 40Mb/s? 😕

[@souza1515]

Provavelmente o cabo USB que você usou não é usb3.0, deve ser 2.0 que é limitado em 40 MB/s. Ou você conectou na porta USB2.0 do Pc.

[@ismails7627]

Great video!

[@kevinu.k.7042]

Superb vlog. Thanks :)

[@ZenTechLife]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@omkarkhismatrao4443]

Simply explained 👌

[@ZenTechLife]

Glad you think so!

[@vishwajeetmehta9580]

I guess I am very late to explore a gem video of yours, but i appreciate your work. I had one question regarding orico transparent enclosure (normal one not the thunderbolt), how are thermals while in use?

[@ZenTechLife]

The heatsink does get quite warm, so it's definitely doing it's job in dissipating heat. I've never felt any slowdowns when using it as my project drive when video editing.

[@andrewjoseph1363]

So what happens when you use a thunderbolt 3 external on a port that doesn’t support thunderbolt but supports usb 3.2 gen 2? I want to know it’s universability. Will it work? And at what speeds? Thanks in advance!

[@venuslnd]

Nice presentation and great voice. Have you try Acasis Thunderbolt case?

[@ZenTechLife]

Thanks! Not yet, but if I manage to get my hands on one I'll do a comparison.

[@Reedith]

What we need now is thunderbolt 4 enclosures so that they work on everything

[@EasyyokeFilms]

Do you mean if I insert a Thunderbolt 3 enclosure in a ThunderBolt 4 system, it will not work?

[@hitherefrompointswest4805]

trying to match up a 2TB external SPEED wise and want to make sure I am understanding.......regarding M1Macbook pro 13"......I am not going to get more than 1000Mbit/sec correct? so if i am looking at sandisk, there are two extreme units that are 2TB,....one at 500 Gbit and one that is 1000.........trying to determine if the 1000 version, for 80 dollars more, will actually match up witht he port......thoughts?

[@ZenTechLife]

I'm not sure about the M1 MacBook Pro, but if it has the same Thunderbolt 3/USBC ports as the Intel MacBooks, then it should reach 1000Mbit/sec via a USBC connection. If you want higher than 1000Mbit/sec, you should buy the Thunderbolt enclosure instead. That will reach over 2000Mbit/sec on a MacBook as it also has Thunderbolt 3 ports.

[@yuccyhuang5102]

Dear Sir, Glad to learn you're on the market of computer peripheral products. We have 400 workeHrs, 10000 ㎡ non-dust workshop, 21 years experience, above 10 years' vendor of Tripplite, CE & FCC certificated, Our head-office is in HongKong, this how we keep good quality and competitive prices for global valued customers. Our main products cover USB hub&USB storage&USB converter&USB extension cable,ect.

[@php4u]

Well done. Thank you.

[@ZenTechLife]

Thank you too!

[@creativespecies7032]

USB3.0 to Mac SSD Enclosure USB3.0 Aluminum Alloy SSD Enclosure for 2013/2014/2015 MacBook Air/Pro/Retina for Apple SSD Case Box

[@chemystify]

Nice comparison! I especially like that you compared the OWC and ORICO TB enclosures using the same SSD (WD SN850). Some questions/comments: Regarding the low sequential write speed of the WD SN850: Did you enable write caching? [See ~6:30 in this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/oarGmX2jrdWkna8 ] Regarding the difference in max speed between the OWC and ORICO TB enclosures: The reason for the diff. is the OWC only uses two of the available four PCIe lanes, while the ORICO uses all four. This gives a max throughput of 1550 MB/s and 2800 MB/s with TB, respectively (you don't get the full 40 Gbps even with four lanes b/c some bandwidth is reserved for video, plus there's overhead). OWC only uses two lanes because they don't know what drive you're going to be putting in it, and some high-perf drives can draw enough current to exceed the max available from the TB port, causing the computer to disconnect the drive during transmission, which can cause data corruption. Hence, if an enclosure is bus-powered, and is designed to take an unknown drive, Thunderbolt will only certify the enclosure if it's limited to 2 lanes. This halves the max speed, but also halves the power draw, guaranteeing it won't be disconnected. Since the ORICO isn't TB-certified, they can use all four lanes. Alternately, a manufacturer could use all four lanes and get a bus-powered enclosure is TB certified if they design and certify the enclosure and drive together, ensuring that specific drive is of sufficiently low power that the power limits won't be exceeded. That's what Samsung does with the X5. Another approach would be for the encosure to be wall-powered instead of bus-powered. Interestingly, though, where you're performing an operation that doesn't put you up against the 1550 MB/s max (e.g., your random transfers at 9:19), the 2-lane and 4-lane enclosures perform the same, because your 2-lane enclosure's bandwidth isn't saturated. That's probably also why you didn't see much diff. in real-world copying speed: most of those copy operations weren't fast enough to exceed the 2-lane enclosure's bandwidth, and for for those the two enclosures thus performed the same. I'd be curious to see what happens if you stuck the TB enclosures in a USB 3.2 port: Would all those operations that were

[@Darlux67]

Gen 2x2 is compatible with the thuderbolt ports?

[@thomasgrantham7499]

Both of your videos on portable SSDs have been exactly what I needed! I'm in the market for one to edit video footage with. 1080p and 4k Sony a6300 footage to be exact, with the potential of editing higher res footage down the road. If you use these portable drives for video editing do you notice a huge difference between the Thunderbolt 3 DIY drives and the regular DIY USB 3.2 drives from your previous video? I'm considering putting together a Thunderbolt 3 drive with the OWC Envoy Express paired with a Crucial P2 SSD, or going the cheaper route and getting a budget USB 3.2 housing paired with the same Crucial P2 SSD. Do you think there would be a noticeable difference between those two for my video editing application?

[@ZenTechLife]

If you're planning to work with 4K footage for a while, USB3.2 will do just fine. It will also be easier to access your SSD files from any USB-C equipped device, whereas with a TB3 drive, it won't be readable unless the device also has a TB3 port. However, if you do eventually move on to 8K footage, or Sony A7s and record at 10-bit XAVC 120 fps 280 Mbps, then the TB3 drive will give you the speed you need to edit directly off the portable drive. Hope that helps!

[@yuccyhuang5102]

Dear Sir, Glad to learn you're on the market of computer peripheral products. We have 400 workeHrs, 10000 ㎡ non-dust workshop, 21 years experience, above 10 years' vendor of Tripplite, CE & FCC certificated, Our head-office is in HongKong, this how we keep good quality and competitive prices for global valued customers. Our main products cover USB hub&USB storage&USB converter&USB extension cable,ect.

[@frankbradford9616]

It is not crystal clear which version of the San disk pro he is using. I gather that it is not v2. But the link leads to v2. Confusing. Please clearly identify each drive when testing. Thx

[@ZenTechLife]

Yes I was using the V1 in the video, but linked the V2 as it’s faster for the same price. It’s superseded the V1 and SanDisk doesn’t sell the V1 anymore on Amazon. Hope that clears up any confusion!

[@Dazdigo]

If you have the money, go for USB4. You get the full speed of Thunderbolt 4 and full USB backwards compatibility.

[@512bb]

Great video, any suggestions if you have the older Thunderbolt 2 port?

[@ZenTechLife]

Thanks! Regarding Thunderbolt 2, that's even more rare than Thunderbolt 3, so you're simply better off using USB if you have a USB3.0 port!

[@512bb]

@@ZenTechLife Thanks, that's the conclusion I came to.

[@scooter_nz]

Is there a 8tb SSD that suits the Orico enclosure?

[@kashcambo4769]

Hi loved the video, the website you listed for the orico thunderbolt 3 diy does it ship internationally? Specifically Australia

[@ZenTechLife]

I think the website I linked caters mostly to local HK customers. It was the only official website I found with the details of DIY drive. In your case, you might be better off ordering via a reseller on Aliexpress. I've used Aliexpress a few times with international shipping and although a bit slow (2-3weeks), it was successful.

[@kashcambo4769]

@@ZenTechLife yes thank you for your reply 🙏 are there any nvme brand limitations for the enclosure?

[@ZenTechLife]

Nope, it should work with all NVMe drives!

[@windylim]

Great video! I'm new to this so I would like to know, if I buy a Thunderbolt3 enclosure and add a WD SN550, would I be able to get better speed compared to a normal USB3.2 enclosure? Thanks!

[@ZenTechLife]

Hello! If you have a thunderbolt port on your computer/laptop, then yes the TB3 enclosure will run faster than USB3.2

[@virgincollector5297]

Hey great video saw ur last one too but Just a year ago DIY enclosure kits had lots of complain such as hanky to use, connectivity issues, bad quality, lots of troubleshooting, etc Are they truly reliable now?

[@ZenTechLife]

Thanks! I've been using my two enclosures (USB3.1 and TB3) on a regular basis since owning them, and both are still working perfectly! ORICO isn't new to the DIY enclosure space and they have quite a large presence here in HK. I can't speak for other enclosures, but I know the ORICO ones are generally well built.

[@yuccyhuang5102]

Dear Sir, Glad to learn you're on the market of computer peripheral products. We have 400 workeHrs, 10000 ㎡ non-dust workshop, 21 years experience, above 10 years' vendor of Tripplite, CE & FCC certificated, Our head-office is in HongKong, this how we keep good quality and competitive prices for global valued customers. Our main products cover USB hub&USB storage&USB converter&USB extension cable,ect.

[@justinhalen2126]

The USB 3 naming sceem is stupid as heck.. Why in the world didn't they just leave the standard 5gb/s USB as 3.0, 10gb/s as 3.1, and 20gb/s as 3.2.. Instead of constantly renaming all versions from 3, to 3.1 and then 3.2 gen 1/2 x 1/2... So dumb... also USB 3.2 20gb/s should have been included in the USB 4 standard to avoid addtional compatibility issues since USB 4 20gb/s is apparently a completly different protocol...

[@Lens98052]

wow what a cool looking cat

[@ZenTechLife]

Thanks, I think so too!

[@artysanmobile]

Many SSDs are capable of their max rated transfer only up to the cache size of the drive. Do you design your tests to reveal this?

[@ZenTechLife]

I do not factor in the cache size when testing transfer speeds. I am mostly coming from an average consumer perspective when I benchmark these drives. There are other more technical KZbinrs who likely cover the nitty gritty details such as cache size.

[@DPUDDZ]

All I need to know is can I run Baldur's gate 3 of an external ssd thunderbolt 3 port, I just don't know if speed matters?

[@ZenTechLife]

You will definitely not have any speed problems running the game from external SSD via TB3!

[@DPUDDZ]

@@ZenTechLife My guy thanks so much!

[@hemat_energi]

Despite of speed stuff i want to ask. What type of partition format which u prefer on enclosured ssd for mac editing video? Thanks in advance

[@ZenTechLife]

For mac video editing, I use APFS as it generally offers the most efficient speeds when accessing and writing large files.

[@berdugosocials9854]

Thank you.

[@PendelSteven]

Which is all fine if you have a spare Thunderbolt 4port or USB 3.2 (Gen 2x2) ports, but if you for example connect two 4K monitors on those Thunderbolt 4 ports, there is not so much bandwith left. Which is why those hubs and such have 10 Gb/s USB ports. Officially called USB 3.2 Gen 2 x 1 - or is it 1 x 2? Argh... From this point on, I'd call the 10 Gb/s USB that and 20 Gb/s USB that.

[@sanysmail]

Hi, can we use the thunderbolt enclosures on a non thunderbolt port PCs? I want to buy one for M1 iPad Pro but at the same time want to use the same custom SSD on PC with USB 3.2?!

[@ZenTechLife]

From my experience Thunderbolt 3 devices are not backwards compatible with USB. However, I believe Thunderbolt 4 has USB compatibility built in, but I haven’t seen any TB4 enclosures yet.

[@sanysmail]

@@ZenTechLife thanks for the reply.

[@mobetterg]

Hello from🇺🇸 Harrisburg Pennsylvania 🇺🇸 I just bought a SanDisk 2TB Extreme PRO Portable SSD - Up to 2000MB/s - USB-C, USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 - External Solid State Drive, To use ONLY with my IPad Pro 12.9 my question 🙋🏾‍♂️ is will a Thunderbolt external hard drive work with my iPad Pro third generation ? 🤔? Thanks 🙏🏾 for your help 😎

[@ZenTechLife]

Hi Tony! I think the SanDisk you bought is fast enough already. A TB external drive might not be compatible with the iPad Pro, so it’s safer to stick with USB3.2 Gen 2. Hope that helps!

[@James.Buchanan]

Might be a dumb question but.. if I have a thunderbolt 3 drive will it work, although at a slower rate, if plugged into a USB 3.2 port?

[@ZenTechLife]

Not a dumb question at all! In short, no it won't work. Thunderbolt 3 drives will only connect properly to a Thunderbolt 3 port. If you want maximum compatibility, you'll want to pick up a USB3.2 drive, which can work with Thunderbolt ports on any computer (via USB-C).

[@James.Buchanan]

@@ZenTechLife thank you for the reply!

[@DrBabiwal]

Hey Klinbo (Sorry if I got the spelling wrong), nice concise video packed with all the right info. I was wondering if the Orico is compatible with the USB-A port and whether it comes with a Thunderbolt (USB3or4) to a USB-A cable? And if so have you tried any speed tests in that configuration? I am tossing between this and the Acasis as that does support USB-A as well.

[@ZenTechLife]

The ORICO only comes with a TB3 cable (USBC-to-USBC). I have never tried it with a USB-A cable, but on their website they clearly mention that it only works with Thunderbolt interfaces.

[@yuccyhuang5102]

Dear Sir, Glad to learn you're on the market of computer peripheral products. We have 400 workeHrs, 10000 ㎡ non-dust workshop, 21 years experience, above 10 years' vendor of Tripplite, CE & FCC certificated, Our head-office is in HongKong, this how we keep good quality and competitive prices for global valued customers. Our main products cover USB hub&USB storage&USB converter&USB extension cable,ect.

[@allenperera6158]

It's actually more dangerous to use enclosures due to USB not providing enough amperage. You can lose data.

[@alcamorim]

The cat entry was the best part of the video 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@TESLA7512FPV]

👍✌️

[@ZenTechLife]

👌🏼🤘🏼

[@joeking433]

Weird seeing an Asian speak old style British. But not as weird as seeing a black guy speaking British.

[@terryquinalty]

When it comes to EXTERNAL SSDs, I have the 2TB versions of both the Sabrent Rocket XTRM-Q and the Sabrent Rocket Nano external SSDs. Both of them clock over 900MB/s speeds when connected via USB-C cables. The XTRM-Q clocks in at 2.7GB/s read and 2.1GB/s write when connected via Thunderbolt 3. The Nano is $280 and the XTRM-Q is $360 on Amazon for 2TBs of storage. I have enthusiastically recommended these drives to my friends and family. Note that the Sabrent Rocket XTRM is a Thunderbolt 3 only SSD. The XTRM-Q is compatible with BOTH Thunderbolt 3 and USB-C. The XTRM utilizes Triple Level Cell (TLC) flash storage, which is best for intensive write oriented workloads. The XTRM-Q utilizes Quad Level Cell (QLC) flash storage, which is best for more balanced read/write oriented workloads. The XTRM clocks in at 2.4GB/s read and write speeds, which is a little slower on the reads than the XTRM-Q and a little faster on the writes than the XTRM-Q. The XTRM is $40 more than the XTRM-Q because it costs a little more to build a TLC NAND flash than it does to build a QLC NAND flash. I chose the XTRM-Q because of the dual connectivity (TB3 & USB-C) and the faster read speeds.

[@ahnaftahsannur1640]

Can you speak louder please?

[@Joe-dime-a]

I’ve been seeing comments like this a lot this week, how much of a selfish entitled asshole do you have to be to think that is appropriate behavior, this guy just but all this information together for you for free and somehow that’s not good enough 😂