The FASTEST NVMe USB4 40Gb/s External SSD Storage For Any Apple Silicon M4 Mac But It Has A PROBLEM

[@brianrichmond3777]

You went above and beyond with your thermal throttling warning, thanks!

[@DavidHarry]

You're welcome 👍 Cheers, Dave.

[@martindee6237]

Great video, David! Thank you for sharing. FWIW, I removed the plastic cover before I saw your video. But in my case, I was able to slide the plastic piece off the cover without lifting up one end as you did. I was afraid to snap the little clips so I just kept fiddling with it and once loose, it slid off quite effortlessly.

[@jens-michaelarndt5975]

Hi Dave, thanks for the video. I considered the Zike as well but eventually went for a OWC Express 1M2 enclosure instead. I didn‘t do any temperature measurements yet but the OWC just gets lukewarm. Speed tests show abt 3200 MB/s read AND write with the Samsung 990 Pro 4TB on my Mac Mini M4 256GB 16GB RAM (entry version which has Thunderbolt 4 only), so write speed is about 50% higher than the internal 256GB SSD.

[@DavidHarry]

Hi. I will look into the OWC enclosure at some point after I've caught up with some more SSD videos with my Acasis enclosures. BTW, your OWC/990 combo is likely to be faster than what you are seeing. I also have the base M4 Mac mini and when compered to my M4 Max MBP, the speeds on the Zike are faster on the MBP. I think this is because the internal drives get used as part of the synthetic speed tests for caching and it looks like it may be slowing down the external drives, when you have an external that's faster than the internal. I'll do a video about that soon. Cheers, Dave.

[@KevinMuldoon]

Fantastic video Dave. I watched this in sections today, but only getting a chance to comment now :) It's a shame the drive is throttling. It could be the enclosure isn't performing well enough, the thermal pad isn't conducting, or your Samsung drive just runs super hot. I do think that generally speaking, these USB4 and thunderbolt 4 enclosures are great, but I'm never sure they're doing enough to cool modern drives. You made a valid point at the end that you can't go on testing forever. There comes a point where spending days to test one particular thing to just add a sentence or two to your videos is counter productive. :)

[@DavidHarry]

Alright, Kevin. Yes, what you said is SO TRUE 😂 You simply can't test and experiment forever just for a few more sentences in a video that may not get many views anyway. Plus, this is the job of the people who make these things and is not the job of some small, dedicated KZbinr like you or me. I can definitely say that this issue was thermal throttling. I have just dumped over 3TB in one go to the 990 Pro but inside an Acasis enclosure and ran my speed tests before and after the dump and they were the same. I will do that video soon as although we would all like the fastest drives, it's not worth it of the drive is only the fastest for about 5 minutes before it thermal throttles. Plus, you also run the risk of damaging the drive. Cheers, Dave.

[@KevinMuldoon]

@DavidHarry Yeah benchmarks are useless if the speeds drop soon after. I wouldn't spend more time on it than necessary. The problem with doing videos is you can spend weeks testing and creating a review for KZbin and once it's published, you then learn additional information from commentators, through more testing on your own etc. But when you do find out something new, it doesn't always deserve a dedicated video. You're better moving on. It's difficult to know how much time to put onto each review as if you spend too long on one video, you're eating into the time you allocated for the next videos.

[@nick_fox]

God bless you Dave good to see you on your channel again great review champ !

[@DavidHarry]

Thank you and thank you for your comment 👍 Tale care. Cheers, Dave.

[@LuisTorres-qz5kr]

Great info. I just got the Samsung 4TB NVMe SSD, and, was just waiting (in shipment) for the ZIKE enclosure. I guess I'll use the ZIKE enclosure for another SSD. Will purchase the ACASIS enclosure with a FAN. Thanks.

[@DavidHarry]

Hi. Luis. Maybe hold off before buying another enclosure, even one with a fan. I’ve been doing some more tests and the 990 Pro and it does get hotter than all the other Gen 4 SSDs I have. it may be that the 990 Pro is going to get too hot in any enclosure. I just tested the WD SN850X in the Zike and it performs great even after 20 minutes of transferring data. I’ll do a video with the WD and Zike soon. Cheers, Dave.

[@LuisTorres-qz5kr]

@@DavidHarry Thank you! Just cancelled my order. Which other 4TB SSD's do you recommend?

[@DavidHarry]

​@@LuisTorres-qz5kr Hi. Luis. My favourite Acasis enclosure is the TBU405Pro M1, this has a fan. Also, my favourite SSD is the WD SN850X. I will do a video soon testing the Zike with the SN850X to see if it thermal throttles, it is also very fast and faster than in the Acasis enclosures. However the TBU405Pro M1 definitely keeps the drive cooler, which is my preference as I would rather have a cooler slightly slower drive rather than a faster hotter one. I am being sent a Thunderbolt 5 enclosure to test but don't know when that will be. If you can hold off, it may be worth waiting for the TB5 enclosures to come out, they will be faster with any Gen 4 SSD. BTW, if you decide to buy any Acasis stuff there's a discount code in the description to my videos about the SSD stuff that may be useful. Cheers, Dave.

[@prsearls]

Thank you for your honesty in testing. Few reviews I've watched have addressed this issue or not tested the enclosures long and hard enough to reveal this problem. A small enclosure containing a high performance SSD might not be a good mix. One may need to trade small size for one with better heat dissipation with a fan or larger heat sink. I would expect SSD's will get larger capacities and more powerful which may aggravate this problem.

[@DavidHarry]

Hi. Yes, not having enough thermal mass in a passive cooling system is definitely the problem here. I appreciate that the Samsung 990 Pro may be one of the hottest running SSDs out there. However, as you said, as SSDs get larger capacities and become faster, the heat issue will only get worse. I will do a video soon showing an Acasis enclosure with a fan in it that keeps this same SSD from going into thermal throttling. Cheers, Dave.

[@janplexy]

I get 3600/3700 with Satechi enclosure and 4TB 990Pro on M4 Pro Mac Mini’s Thunderbolt 5 … 125 gb of files transferred in about 30 seconds.

[@DavidHarry]

Cool 👍

[@yugiohfanatic1964]

I have M4 imac with 2TB and it's so much better than yours

[@janplexy]

@@yugiohfanatic1964 you don't even know what we are talking about.

[@1974christo]

temp. problems ?

[@janplexy]

@@1974christo none so far. I touch it every few minutes 😂

[@knorrissirronk8665]

Good evening (or morning)! Just asking, and not criticizing, Mr. Harry. Did you check to see if including an EXTRA thermal transfer pad (or a thicker one) between the surface of the drive and the housing door of the Zike drive made a difference? I have a Zike drive that I use with an Orico 4TB 7000MB/s and have not been seeing that behavior. Perhaps the heat spreader is too shallow on the 990 to make proper contact to wick heat enough to prevent "hot-spots" that would default the drive down to lower speed as a safety feature? Again, JUST asking, and in NO way a criticism. Love your observations, and really enjoying your M4 series videos recently. Cheers! :-)

[@DavidHarry]

@@knorrissirronk8665 It’s morning 🤣 Good morning. There’s no extra thermal pad with my one. I’m not sure if the earlier versions of this enclosure had two pads that you manually applied but this one has the one thermal pad fixed to the cover and it’s a thick pad. You can actually feel pressure when closing the cover, so yes, there’s a definite thermal connection. Plus the outside of the enclosure is definitely radiating the heat. There’s simply not enough mass to absorb and radiate the heat generated by certain Gen 4 SSDs. Ideally, these types of enclosures should have fans. I also have an Orico SSD, it’s the O7000 and this does not heat up in the same way. The Orico doesn’t use DRAM and it’s usually the extra DRAM chip that adds more heat. I’m glad you are finding some of the videos interesting. Cheers, Dave.

[@j340_official]

Another nice usb4 enclosure is the owc express 1m2 and it doesn’t have that acrylic cover like the Zike drive. And rather than Samsung I use WD BLACK Sn850x. A beast of a drive. I never had any thermal throttling and I used it as an external boot drive with M1 Max. It got even faster with m4 max. With m1 max Thunderbolt 4 it capped out at 3000 MB/sec. With the Apple Thunderbolt 5 solution, I got a 500 MB/sec boost to 3500 MB/sec. Cheers. Also, make sure that thermal pad on the zike is actually making good contact with the Samsung ssd. You might need to install another thin one on top of the factory one, just to be certain.

[@DavidHarry]

Hi. Yes, a few people have mentioned the OWC, I'll get one once I'm caught up with more of my SSD videos. I also use the SN850X as my preferred SSD, I've done some videos about that SSD with Acasis enclosures in the past and it's my favourite SSD. I've also done some videos about using an external as a boot for a dual boot system, I'll do another similar video soon but using M4. I've also noticed faster speeds on TB5 compared to TB4, M4 Mac mini vs M4 Mac MBP, I'll do a video about that soon. The thermal pad was definitely in contact, there's some resistance from it when closing the lid and there's also indents in the pad when opening up the drive. Cheers, Dave.

[@rydmerlin]

I do Time Machine backups on this enclosure with a 4TB 990 Pro and I haven't seen any issues with it. I think from memory the first versions of this enclosure didn't have the outer shell. There's airflow where the grooves are so it's not completely flat.

[@LetThemKnowWhoYouAre]

David, thank you for such an informative video! You are an amazing youtuber and all I want to say do your best as always, thank you 🙏🏼 I just want to say all we need nowadays is new thunderbolt 5 speed ssd’s and enclosure’s that’s it. p.s. waiting for your new video how to make perfect bundle for iPhone 16 PM for 120 fps ProRes Log without freezing, thanks a lot

[@DavidHarry]

Thank you 👍 I will be getting some Thunderbolt 5 stuff but I'm not sure when that will be. As for the iPhone 16 PM stuff. I have got some new stuff for it, MagSafe SSD and cage etc. Ad soon as I'm caught up on some of my Mac videos I will be doing a few iPhone videos. Cheers, Dave.

[@LetThemKnowWhoYouAre]

@ thanks, Dave! 👍

[@nick_fox]

Gee I wish you would do a step by step colour correction plus grading to match different clips with exposure differences on DaVinci resolve I think you would be able to teach us very well how it’s done ! Other KZbinrs make this very to much technical and hard to follow.

[@HansPeterBo]

Yes, thank you very much. I had to translate it because I am German. You say that the speed of the main computer should be greater or approximate to reach the maximum speed of the external SSD. With the Mac Mini M4 with 256GB, however, it is reported that the speed is higher than the Mac Mini. Maybe a new post suggestion?!....👍🙏

[@DavidHarry]

Hi, Hans. Yes, the internal drive had to be faster when moving data to the external drive, in order to see the maximum real-world speed of the external drive. And yes, the M4 Mac Mini has a slower internal and the external drive will be faster. This maybe interesting to show people. Vielen Dank für Ihren Kommentar 👍 Cheers, Dave.

[@tomsun3159]

Also interesting the comparison in power consumption, and the comparison of consistent speed, perhaps a different model will consume less power, therefore throttle later or even not, so a SSD slightly slower but not heating so much would throttle later or even not, and wouldn't affect runtime less due to lower power consumption. So e.g. the comparison different brands and types would be interesting.

[@DavidHarry]

Yes, you are totally correct. I have shown other enclosure/SSD combinations which aren't this fast but they do not throttle, so will perform better when it comes to extended uses. I will look into doing a comparison video. Cheers, Dave.

[@frankwong9486]

Saved up and waiting for TB5 product

[@DavidHarry]

Yes, the TB5 SSDs are defo going to be way faster 👍 I will have a TB5 enclosure soon for testing. Cheers, Dave.

[@dorinxtg]

The 990 pro requires a good heat sink or a fan cooler in the case, that's why you got those lower speeds. Check UGreen 40gbps enclosure

[@DavidHarry]

Yes, the issue is the passive cooling of the enclosure. Cheers, Dave.

[@Harhop500]

I also use this case and have no problems with the Lexar LM790, not even after 10 minutes of stress testing. The temperature on the top of the housing is not higher than 40 degrees.

[@DavidHarry]

Sounds like the Lexar runs cooler than most Gen 4 SSDs, which is great. I will have another video soon showing the Zike thermal throttling with another fast NVMe Gen 4. Cheers, Dave.

[@GeeWhizRS]

Are you sure that heat pad is making a proper connection with the drive?

[@DavidHarry]

yes

[@sojourn6697]

Could it be the problem is with Zike and not the Samsung 990?

[@antonc108]

Exactly my thoughts as well. Its the cooling. Zike dont have a fan. Also, if the enclosure feels light, its not always a good thing, more metal = more heat it can absorb from the SSD = better. More fins/surface area = faster the metal can expel those heat into the air. Fan = faster explusion of heat from the sink = better.

[@DavidHarry]

This is what I was saying in the video. The problem is not the Samsung it’s the Zike, as it can’t cool down the Samsung. Cheers, Dave.

[@atlwoo]

Not hating I think the plastic case is for travel purposes? So it doesn’t get scratched and dinged up? Just my opinion

[@asafblasbergvideographer]

Hi Dave, which M4 MAX laptop do you have, which CPU/GPU? Also, is it quiet overall in terms of fan noise? My old 14" Macbook Pro M1 Pro base laptop is practically silent overall, so fan noise is a concern for me. Thanks.

[@DavidHarry]

Hi. It's the 16/40 core with 48GB RAM. It's been quiet in all my tests and the fans only really speed up during exporting in Resolve, although, it's not loud when it does. I don't really notice any difference in noise levels compared to my M1 Max MBP for 90% of the time. It's also quieter than the M4 Pro Mac mini that I had. Cheers, Dave.

[@asafblasbergvideographer]

@@DavidHarry Thank you so much. If I were to try to save some money (budget-wise) and opt for the 14/32 variant of the 16" M4 Max, how much of a performance hit would that be? I'm assuming render times would be the same because its using the same dual encoders right? All my source footage is just H.264 4:2:0 8-bit from a Panasonic DVX200 4K camera, and I would render out at H.265. Thanks :)

[@itsgmani]

I wonder how much of an issue the heat is going to be for me... I will primarily be using this with a partitioned 4gb nvme half of it will be for time machine the other will be used for storing sound samples and video files for final cut and logic pro

[@simonconquest]

So which enclosure is recommended?

[@DavidHarry]

Anything with a fan in it.

[@radiozelaza]

incredible speeds, especially compared to the utter misery of getting footage from an SD card onto a harddrive ;) why are we still letting camera manufacturers screw us like that?...

[@DavidHarry]

Now imagine a 4TB SD card running at slow SD card speeds 😂 Yes, these speeds are crazy as long as the SSD doesn't go into thermal throttling. I remember when SATA SSDs were like running at warp speed but now when I dump my Ninja footage, SATA SSDs feel really slow compared to these Thunderbolt/NVMe drives. I should be receiving a Thunderbolt 5 enclosure to test, hopefully soon, it will be interesting to see what that can do. It won't do 80Gb/s but should get around 60Gb/s (7500MB/s). BTW, I have some microphone stuff that I need to finish for my vlogging channel, there's some (slightly) interesting stuff in there. I'll try and upload that stuff as soon as I can, however, I have to prioritise this channel as the vloggy channel doesn't put food in my mouth or SSDs inside enclosures 😂 Cheers, Dave.

[@jameslatief1]

Do you know if there are any phones out there that will be able to read NVME Gen 4 drives? Have you tried any of the Samsung flagships like the S24 Ultra/Z Fold 6/Z Flip 6?

[@DavidHarry]

Have tried my S24U and it also has issues with Gen 4 but works great with Gen 3. However, there's no reason to use Gen 4 on the Samsungs as they have slower USB anyway, so Gen 3 is easily enough. Cheers, Dave.

[@jameslatief1]

@@DavidHarry Thanks Dave, I guess I will just keep this Gen 4 drive and wait one day in the future when phones are finally able to power Gen 4s from their USB C ports.

[@asafblasbergvideographer]

How loud is the fan on the OCASIS? Thanks! Also which M4 MAX laptop do you have? Unbinned? 16"?

[@DavidHarry]

You can hear it but it's not loud and it does keep the SSDs cooler, I'll be doing a video soon with that enclosure. It's the 40 GPU core version. Cheers, Dave.

[@asafblasbergvideographer]

@@DavidHarry Thank you Dave. So right now I have an Intel I7-11700 processor (2021 model), 64GB Memory, NVIDIA RTX 4070 Ti (Windows machine) - will the M4 MAX (unbinned) with 64GB Memory give me similar performance in terms of the GPU performance in DaVinci Resolve? (Exporting times, noise reduction)?

[@DavidHarry]

@ Hi. Your 4070 Ti is going to be more powerful than any of the M4 Mac GPUs, which is something you need to seriously consider. I wouldn’t bother with the M4 Pro coming from your Windows setup. The CPU on the M4 Pro will be better than your i7 but the 20 GPU cores won’t get anywhere near your Ti. All of these M4 Macs will be way quieter than your Windows machine. I wouldn’t bother moving to M4 Mac from your current Windows setup unless you go for M4 Max, although the GPU still won’t be as powerful for certain things. It maybe best waiting for the M4 Max Mac Studio, as this will be cheaper than the MacBook. I made the move to Mac about 3 years ago to the M1 Max coming from a powerful RTX/i9 Windows setup and while my Windows machine was more powerful, the move to Apple Silicon has been better for me and my workflows for a number of reasons. Smaller, quieter and less electricity. You should really have a good think about your GPU requirements before making a move to any Mac. Cheers, Dave.

[@asafblasbergvideographer]

@@DavidHarry Thank you Dave. I really appreciate it. Yes, I was thinking exactly like you - wait to get the M4 Max Mac Studio. It will definitely be cheaper than the MacBook.

[@DavidHarry]

@ 👍

[@rorywalters1614]

This enclosure uses the ASM2464PD controller, it could run very hot, and this enclosure has no fan, nor enough heat sink, which is a bad design for the drive’s longevity. If the controller is JHL7440 the this design wouldn’t be too much of a problem.

[@DavidHarry]

Yes, you are correct. It's the inability of the enclosure to dump the heat which is the problem. A better solution would be an enclosure with a fan in it. Cheers, Dave.

[@rorywalters1614]

@@DavidHarryI have an idea: Use a TEC mobile phone cooler and a thermal pad to cool the enclosure. The TEC cooler doesn’t need to be powerful, 10w would be enough, and it needs to use clamp-on mechanism, not magnetic, put thermal pad between the cooler and the enclosure. When doing heavy tasks, turn on the cooler and this will probably lower the temperature by a lot. The reason not to use a more powerful cooler is it will run too cold, and will generate condensate water from the air, and that could short the drive. Also remember to put a thermal pad between the drive and the top cover.

[@DavidHarry]

@@rorywalters1614 Hi. Yes, a TEC cooler would definitely make a difference. I use these for my phones for gaming and they make huge difference. However, it's not something that I would do with the external SSDs as it's not something that most people would do as most people won't want to be adding anything else to the system, especially something else that needs more power. However, yes, it would definitely lower the temps considerably 👍 Cheers, Dave.

[@thehypnoticlforoom]

I got faster speed with HyperDrive Next USB4 NVMe (Enclosure) and the Samsung 990 Pro SSD - 2TB SSD. Read: 4050 / Write: 4160 on the new Mac Mini M4 Pro

[@DavidHarry]

Good for you 👍

[@sacredcowpictures8959]

You could hsve said it all in 3 minutes.

[@DavidHarry]

Said it, yes, but proven it, no.

[@yugiohfanatic1964]

Moral of the story: SAVE MORE MONEY AND BUY APPLE 2TB

[@rezaakbari1773]

Or just save your money and get the right ssd! I have had zero problems with my new M4 pro MacBook + this enclosure and a 2TB SN850X.

[@yugiohfanatic1964]

@ macbook pro M4 is already outrageous expensive, we are talking about a desktop not a overpriced norebook

[@DavidHarry]

You may want to check again, the Zike throttles with the SN850X SSDs. There will be a video soon showing it.

[@DavidHarry]

So you're a Windows Fangirl then using the comments to hate on Mac. Buy yourself a proper computer 😂