$68 pre-order, $80 regular price. Actually a good price for a TB3 enclosure. Cable is "replaceable" but requires opening the enclosure to do so. A good option to consider if you're looking at USB 3 enclosure for an NVMe boot drive. Note that you need to have native TB3 ports for ease of use. Won't work on USB ports and the Apple Thunderbolt 1/2 to Thunderbolt 3 adapter doesn't pass bus power.

[eshop.macsales.com]

Sexy!

---

Excellent!

IMO this is an insta-buy if you need small, fast portable storage or need quick file transfer and have modern machines. At $68 (intro), that's cheap and fast enough to be worth it compared to good USB3.2 NVMe enclosures.

If it had USB3 and/or TB2/1 compatibility, I'd get it but I have only one TB3 machine and it's not even a Mac.

Lew,

Not necessarily. The enclosure is more expensive than most USB 3.1 Gen 2 NVME M.2 enclosures and its transfer speeds aren't a tremendous amount faster than them. The OWC box has a transfer speed of up to 1553MB/s. The transfer speed of better USB 3.1 Gen 2 NVME M.2 enclosures is up to 1000MB/s.

'course, other Thunderbolt 3 boxes for NVME M.2 drives that handle far faster speeds have been around for a while. They are significantly more expensive than the OWC box. Here are some examples:

[www.amazon.com]

[www.amazon.com]

[www.amazon.com]

Note, the OWC box's cable isn't actually permanently attached. It's actually a standard cable that held in place by the design of the case. One of my pet peeves when it comes to enclosures are cables that are permanently attached. I've had cables go bad and I'd rather replace the cable than an entire enclosure.

Robert

A 50% increase in transfer speed over USB 3.1 for $68 strikes me as a bargain.

I have a Plugable T3 500GB drive. Its performance is very close to the internal drive of my 2017 MBP, and a nice step up from USB 3.1.

Quote
Robert M
Note, the OWC box's cable isn't actually permanently attached. It's actually a standard cable that held in place by the design of the case. One of my pet peeves when it comes to enclosures are cables that are permanently attached. I've had cables go bad and I'd rather replace the cable than an entire enclosure.

Worth it for a lot of reasons, but if for no other reason, that.

---

Quote
Robert M
Lew,

Not necessarily. The enclosure is more expensive than most USB 3.1 Gen 2 NVME M.2 enclosures and its transfer speeds aren't a tremendous amount faster than them. The OWC box has a transfer speed of up to 1553MB/s. The transfer speed of better USB 3.1 Gen 2 NVME M.2 enclosures is up to 1000MB/s.

I have one of these and the actual transfer numbers for the NVMe cases with an overkill NVMe drive in it is about 650 MB/sec for single large file transfers and 750-850 MB/sec for simultaneous large file transfers:



So OWC's real; world transfers are about 2x that, which IMO makes them worth the money. *If* you have TB3 ports on all your machines, *and* you usually transfer large files. Small files will be the same in most USB3 cases and of course USB3 ports are far more ubiquitous than TB3. So you can "dumb" down to regular USB3's 350-420 MB/sec in those plebian circumstances.

FWIW -

No other bus-powered Thunderbolt enclosure being offered today as 0GB is legal / legitimate. It may not work correctly depending on what drive goes into it - it may even cause harm or negatively impact a Thunderbolt host or device it's powered through (or harm the drive inside) due to lack power budget adherence. Further to that - as it's not an approved firmware device if it isn't certified - it could even stop working altogether one day if an update occurs on the host side since it's not in the supported database and thus a change isn't going to consider impact to it.

As for the 1533MB/s... which is 50% faster than the fastest USB C option today, that this is by design was the solution necessary to enable the freedom of choice and 100% usability for NVME 2280 DIY.

We offer Thunderbolt 3 bus-powered solutions that push up to 2800MBs as well - but only with drives already installed. These solutions are also fully certified and must be specifically certified with lab testing approved by both Apple and Intel (if you want approval for both Windows and Mac platform compatibility) with each, exact drive we seek to offer them with. Even if just the FIRMWARE of the SSD is to be updated/changed - we have to submit for certification approval before shipping again. Again - this is to ensure the device 100% meets all operational and power mode requirements under all conditions to maintain the integrity and reliability of this device and other devices and hosts it will be connected to without fail.

It can be a real pain and even has caused periods of non-availability due to testing delays... but it is good for the eco system in terms of what Thunderbolt certification ensures... which from the reviews on one of those illegal units - is why different issues apparent there.

And yes - for the cable, we wanted to make it easily replaceable and thus not attached, is removable with a normal Thunderbolt 3 port inside the case... kind of the best of all worlds with that design which will see on units going forward if not external ported. Originally this wasn't allowed for bus-powered units.

---

OWC Larry
Other World Computing
[www.macsales.com]

I'd note - you get to open it anyway to build it.

We haven't had a single cable fail on our Envoy Pro EX TB3 bus-powered units:
[eshop.macsales.com]

and that's by good design imho... but I damage can happen and is a repair vs. a cable swap on this model.

Our next models will not need the attached cable.

Quote
Gareth
$68 pre-order, $80 regular price. Actually a good price for a TB3 enclosure. Cable is "replaceable" but requires opening the enclosure to do so. A good option to consider if you're looking at USB 3 enclosure for an NVMe boot drive. Note that you need to have native TB3 ports for ease of use. Won't work on USB ports and the Apple Thunderbolt 1/2 to Thunderbolt 3 adapter doesn't pass bus power.

[eshop.macsales.com]

---

OWC Larry
Other World Computing
[www.macsales.com]

A couple things go on with USB with respect to overhead that a PCIe thunderbolt enclosure doesn't have..... also - for our own USB C and TB3 solutions, we end up tweaking the firmware to better handle a latency you get over the connection which these drives otherwise don't consider being PCIe processor direct drive designs.

regardless... built to make it all faster.

Quote
Lew Zealand

Quote
Robert M
Lew,

Not necessarily. The enclosure is more expensive than most USB 3.1 Gen 2 NVME M.2 enclosures and its transfer speeds aren't a tremendous amount faster than them. The OWC box has a transfer speed of up to 1553MB/s. The transfer speed of better USB 3.1 Gen 2 NVME M.2 enclosures is up to 1000MB/s.

I have one of these and the actual transfer numbers for the NVMe cases with an overkill NVMe drive in it is about 650 MB/sec for single large file transfers and 750-850 MB/sec for simultaneous large file transfers:



So OWC's real; world transfers are about 2x that, which IMO makes them worth the money. *If* you have TB3 ports on all your machines, *and* you usually transfer large files. Small files will be the same in most USB3 cases and of course USB3 ports are far more ubiquitous than TB3. So you can "dumb" down to regular USB3's 350-420 MB/sec in those plebian circumstances.

---

OWC Larry
Other World Computing
[www.macsales.com]

Larry,

Thank you for your response! Excellent clarification and very informative. Thanks to your post, I'm very tempted to replace one of my existing boxes in favor of your T-Bolt boxes. If nothing els,e I'd love to see if I can see the difference in performance between the drive in the Sabrent box (I'm using now) and the drive in the OWC T-Bolt box.

Robert

Quote
OWC Larry
I'd note - you get to open it anyway to build it.

We haven't had a single cable fail on our Envoy Pro EX TB3 bus-powered units:
[eshop.macsales.com]

and that's by good design imho... but I damage can happen and is a repair vs. a cable swap on this model.

Our next models will not need the attached cable.

Price mistake on the 240GB model on that page? The links for 240gb also go to the 2TB page/model.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/26/2020 01:52PM by clay.

Might just be worth getting a new MPB 16 in order to use one of these.....

either that, or a half dozen Dell G5's instead....
==

If you want the best...

---

Its great.

A 970 EVO which is $430 for 2 TB + case = $500

OWC envoy pro 2TB = $500 with 2800 MB/s

Your gonna have to shop for a for a basic 2 TB NVMe (gen 3, not Gen 4) @ $280-300 + $70 case = $350-370.

---

Edited 999 time(s). Last edit at 12:08PM by jdc.

This new OWC case offers greater reliability for drive and computer, at a reduced speed, for a broader range of NVME drives?

Did I get that right?

In looking through the various AMZ offerings, I see a whole bunch of questions of – will it work with ABC drive? Will it work with XYZ drive? etc.

It sometimes it's a matter of the enclosure fitting a single-sided or dual sided drive.

Other times a user is disappointed in getting anywhere near the 2880MB/s they expected.

My two newest Macs (at the moment) are a 2015 iMac and a 2018 mini, so potential throughput is USB 3.1 Gen 2 and T3, respectively?

So my next question is what speeds do my two Macs see with the internal 2T Fusion and internal SSD, respectively?

My mini seems sluggish at time with the SSD at about 75% full. That may be a product of the 128G capacity.


IMO this is an insta-buy if you need small, fast portable storage or need quick file transfer and have modern machines. At $68 (intro), that's cheap and fast enough to be worth it compared to good USB3.2 NVMe enclosures.


I want to attach an NVME box to the back of my iMac, realizing it's not T3, and to my mini as boot drives.

Would this OWC box not be suitable for that or am I to infer that for long term attached use I should shoot for 2880MBs where applicable?

I am not ready to pony up $500 for 2880MB/s performance, and would probably consider 1T, not 2T anyway.

---

I am that Masked Man.

All you can do, is all you can do.

There’s trouble — it's time to play the sound of my people.

Your boos mean nothing to me, I've seen what you cheer for.

Insisting on your rights without acknowledging your responsibilities isn’t freedom, it’s adolescence.

I've been to the edge of the map, and there be monsters.

We are a government of laws, not men.

Everybody counts or nobody counts.

When a good man is hurt,
all who would be called good
must suffer with him.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

You and I have memories longer than the road that stretches out ahead.

There is no safety for honest men except
by believing all possible evil of evil men.

We don’t do focus groups. They just ensure that you don’t offend anyone, and produce bland inoffensive products. —Sir Jonathan Ive

An armed society is a polite society.
And hope is a lousy defense.

You make me pull, I'll put you down.

I *love* SIGs. It's Glocks I hate.

2015 iMacs have T2 ports. Sadly, anything T2 is $$$.

Best case scenario is a USB 3, limited to 500 MB/s. You can still get a NMVe drive and 1000 MB/s case (common, $30) and it will work fine.

I get about 420 R/W on my 2014 iMac with this setup. I honestly cant tell if its any faster than my 1 TB fusion drive. (the good Fusion drive with 128 GB flash, like your 2 TB model)

For your 2018 mini, the T3 USB C ports are theoretically rated at 40 GB/s -- but cant get past 30 GB/s

So any flash drive you buy, is technically slower than the port speed.

Picking up OWCs case + whatever NVMe = theoretically 1588 MB/s speed.

Generally smaller flash drives have slower performance and less durability (IOP)

Thats a broad description, dont take any of it as gospel.

Oh, and OWC has The Envoy Pro, rated 980 MB/s, Envoy Pro EX, rated 2800 MB/s and the thunderblade, also rated 2800 MB/s, but with dual USB ports for daisy-chaining. They are also double the price...

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Edited 999 time(s). Last edit at 12:08PM by jdc.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/26/2020 08:35PM by jdc.

and some barefeats benchmarks from a couple of years ago -- [barefeats.com]



and OWCs 4M2, 4 NVMes in a RAID

[barefeats.com]

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Edited 999 time(s). Last edit at 12:08PM by jdc.

I'd need the particulars on the box you have now and glad to advise as can. Depending on the drive inside and the use, it might be fine just as is too. Could keep the Sabrent up and add another when makes sense. But if speed makes a difference for the app and the drive in the box can benefit with more bandwidth.... let me know and happy to give feedback. Thanks!

Quote
Robert M
Larry,

Thank you for your response! Excellent clarification and very informative. Thanks to your post, I'm very tempted to replace one of my existing boxes in favor of your T-Bolt boxes. If nothing els,e I'd love to see if I can see the difference in performance between the drive in the Sabrent box (I'm using now) and the drive in the OWC T-Bolt box.

Robert

---

OWC Larry
Other World Computing
[www.macsales.com]

I'd note the drives we are utilizing and building today are much faster vs. a couple years ago. Made some large large leaps as we transition to Phison e12 a year ago. That being said - you can of course use any NVME M.2 2280 you choose in our Express 4 blade and the new bus-powered single.

Quote
jdc
and some barefeats benchmarks from a couple of years ago -- [barefeats.com]



and OWCs 4M2, 4 NVMes in a RAID

[barefeats.com]

---

OWC Larry
Other World Computing
[www.macsales.com]

None of those other bus-powered 0GB kits on Amazon have Intel/Apple Thunderbolt certification. They are technically illegal as they also do not have Intel license. We would love to offer the higher speed of our drive populated, bus-powered solutions in a 0GB enclosure - but as noted in prior posts, that isn't possible due to the power many NVME drives need and thus not something that can be approved for the reasons also noted in prior post.

In terms of single or double sided 2280 blades (NAND on one side or both), our enclosures support both without issue.

unfortunately no TB3 ports on the 2015 iMac.. .but - if you get an Apple tB2 to TB3 adapter... and put on a powered TB3 device like a dock or external drive.. you can then connect more TB3 devices into that, including a bus-powered drive if that is desired. Max speed is around 1800MB/s with TB2.

Quote
RAMd®d
This new OWC case offers greater reliability for drive and computer, at a reduced speed, for a broader range of NVME drives?

Did I get that right?

In looking through the various AMZ offerings, I see a whole bunch of questions of – will it work with ABC drive? Will it work with XYZ drive? etc.

It sometimes it's a matter of the enclosure fitting a single-sided or dual sided drive.

Other times a user is disappointed in getting anywhere near the 2880MB/s they expected.

My two newest Macs (at the moment) are a 2015 iMac and a 2018 mini, so potential throughput is USB 3.1 Gen 2 and T3, respectively?

So my next question is what speeds do my two Macs see with the internal 2T Fusion and internal SSD, respectively?

My mini seems sluggish at time with the SSD at about 75% full. That may be a product of the 128G capacity.


IMO this is an insta-buy if you need small, fast portable storage or need quick file transfer and have modern machines. At $68 (intro), that's cheap and fast enough to be worth it compared to good USB3.2 NVMe enclosures.


I want to attach an NVME box to the back of my iMac, realizing it's not T3, and to my mini as boot drives.

Would this OWC box not be suitable for that or am I to infer that for long term attached use I should shoot for 2880MBs where applicable?

I am not ready to pony up $500 for 2880MB/s performance, and would probably consider 1T, not 2T anyway.

---

OWC Larry
Other World Computing
[www.macsales.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/27/2020 10:01PM by OWC Larry.

In for one.

Future proofing form my iMac and mini isn't feasible.

Now if there were a USB 3.1 Gen 2 Envoy Express...

We'll see what Apple brings in iMac dept.

---

I am that Masked Man.

All you can do, is all you can do.

There’s trouble — it's time to play the sound of my people.

Your boos mean nothing to me, I've seen what you cheer for.

Insisting on your rights without acknowledging your responsibilities isn’t freedom, it’s adolescence.

I've been to the edge of the map, and there be monsters.

We are a government of laws, not men.

Everybody counts or nobody counts.

When a good man is hurt,
all who would be called good
must suffer with him.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

You and I have memories longer than the road that stretches out ahead.

There is no safety for honest men except
by believing all possible evil of evil men.

We don’t do focus groups. They just ensure that you don’t offend anyone, and produce bland inoffensive products. —Sir Jonathan Ive

An armed society is a polite society.
And hope is a lousy defense.

You make me pull, I'll put you down.

I *love* SIGs. It's Glocks I hate.