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Moving to a 2TB NVME SSD in a Thunderbolt 3 box from a 1TB NVME SSD in a USB 3.1 Gen 2 box... (Long Post) - Robert M - 06-08-2022
Moving to a 2TB NVME SSD in a Thunderbolt 3 box from a 1TB NVME SSD in a USB 3.1 Gen 2 box... (Long Post)
Hi everyone,
I’ve been using an Inland Premium 1TB NVME SSD in a Sabrent USB USB 3.1 Gen 2 enclosure as the boot drive for my 2019 iMac 5K 27” for a number of years now.
It’s this drive and this box:
The frankendrive has been running like a champ. Unfortunately, space became an issue recently when the amount of storage used on the drive hit the 825GB mark. Since the performance and longevity of an SSD can suffer when it gets too crowded, I decided to perform a basic archive and purge. The amount of storage used on the drive ended up at just under 750GB.
I realize reducing the amount used by 75GB isn’t a dramatic improvement but it was sufficient to give my system a bit more play room in its current configuration. However, and this is a big one, space was going to become a problem again in the near future because I’m planning to install Parallels and a virtual machine (to run Mojave and some 32-bit apps) on the boot drive. That meant I needed more storage either as a single drive or under a dual drive configuration.
After looking at the options - using a dedicated external for virtual machine storage and/or storing items that I don’t need to keep on the boot drive but still need to access regularly, I decided against it. I’ve done dual drive configurations previously and it was problematic. Backing up the system became a multistage process which I found annoying. That meant the only other option was to purge more off the main system - not doable - or moving to a 2TB SSD and call it done.
I chose moving to a 2TB SSD. The move to the higher capacity drive would give me ample storage for day to day usage, ample space for Parallels and the virtual machine (and possibly one or two more!) and gobs of spare space to ensure everything runs nicely. And, it’d be easy to backup to another single 2TB SSD using Carbon Copy Cloner.
Once I made that decision, it was a choice of buying a prebuilt 2TB external SSD or building my own NVME based 2TB frankendrive, similar to the 1TB model I’m running off of now. There are several viable prebuilt options from a number of different manufacturers. However, when it comes to NVME-based drives, I prefer building my own. Works out since dollar for dollar, building a 2TB NVME based frankendrive is more cost effective than buying a prebuilt model, I can choose the stick and said stick will have a longer warranty.
I went the following route:
2 qty Inland Performance 2TB NVME SSDs. One for the active boot drive. One for the clone.
Initially, I was going to drop the stick into one of two spare USB 3.1 Gen 2 boxes I had on hand until I heard about an issue with M1 Macs and USB 3.1 Gen 2 boxes. Apparently, M1 Macs don’t allow the drives to move faster than even a 2.5” SSD in a USB 3.0 box or something along those lines. Not cool. USB 3.2, USB 4 and Thunderbolt 3 boxes apparently don’t suffer from the problem. So, with that in mind, I treated myself to the Envoy Express for the primary boot stick as a birthday present. That and it would future proof the frankendrive a bit in the event I move to an M1 based Mac in the future.
1 qty OWC Envoy Express Thunderbolt 3 enclosure:
The Sabrent I was going to grab:
An alternative I considered but couldn’t justify due to expense:
Installation of the stick took all of five minutes. The Envoy Express is a solid enclosure. Not as hefty as the Sabrent USB 3.1 Gen 2 box but solid nonetheless. Overall, it’s well designed though I have to admit I’m a bit leery of having one end of the physical Thunderbolt cable actually inside the enclosure itself. I hope the heat generated by the faster Inland Performance stick doesn’t negatively impact it. FWIW, the Envoy Express wasn’t my first choice in Thunderbolt boxes. I actually had my eye on a model from Sabrent which was near identical to the existing Sabrent enclosure (except that it was Thunderbolt 3) but it became out of stock and unavailable by the time I went to buy it.
had two options for the second stick. One was a MyDigitalSSD MX2 USB 3.1 Gen 2 box. The other was an Orico M2PX USB 3.1 Gen 2 box. I could’ve bought another Thunderbolt 3 box or a USB 3.2 or USB 4.0 box but, since it was for a backup drive and I had extra enclosures on hand, I felt it was an unnecessary expense.
The MyDigitalSSD MX2 is a good enclosure. I’m using one for the boot drive of an iMac at my office. Rock solid performance.
Here is a link to the MyDigital box:
However, I prefer the design of the Orico. It is well made and has a fan for active cooling.
I was a little gunshy initially since I had a bad experience with a different NVME enclosure from Orico and a tremendous amount of trouble trying to get them to stand behind it. After looking at the Orico box in comparison to MyDigital MX2 box, I decided to use it. Worst case, the box didn’t work and I move the stick to the MyDigital box.
BTW, I’m only using one of the above boxes since it’s for a backup and I just happened to have both of them on hand. If I had to buy a box for an NVME stick, I wouldn’t buy a USB 3.1 Gen 2 box. I’d get a USB 3.2, USB 4.0 or Thunderbolt 3 box since they don’t have issues when connected to M1 Macs.
Once I built both drives, it was just a matter of cloning the 1TB stick in the Sabrent to the 2TB stick in the Envoy Express and then cloning one of them to the 2TB stick in the Orico. I used Carbon Copy Cloner 5 for the job.
The initial clone was business as usual. I had the Sabrent and Envoy Express connected to the Thunderbolt 3 ports on the iMac. The Envoy with its built-in Thunderbolt cable and the Sabrent with a USB-C cable. The clone of 750GB from one stick to the other took about 2.5 hours from start to finish. It took another five or so minutes for Dropbox to resync on the new drive. No muss, no fuss.
Upon completion, the Envoy Express box felt noticeably warmer than the Sabrent box. The envoy express doesn’t get rid of heat as well as the Sabrent box. That and/or or the Inland Performance stick in the Envoy Express runs hotter than the Inland Premium stick in the Sabrent. Once I confirmed the iMac was running nicely off the Envoy Express frankendrive - This took about a week - I cloned it to the Inland Performance stick in the Orico box.
The Envoy Express remained connected to the same Thunderbolt 3 port I used when I cloned the data from the Sabrent to it. The Orico box was connected to the other Thunderbolt 3 port with a USB-C cable. The clone from the 2TB stick in the Envoy Express to the identical 2TB stick in the Orico enclosure took 48 minutes.
48 minutes.
48 minutes to clone 750GB from the Inland Performance stick in the Envoy Express to the Inland Performance stick in the Orico box.
The time frame made me give the screen a double-take. But, I confirmed it. 48 minutes to clone the 2TB boot drive to the backup stick.
And, the Orico box was cool to the touch after the process. The same couldn’t be said for the Envoy Express. It was about as hot as expected, just like when I cloned the data from the Sabrent box to it. I can say without a doubt, the fan in the Orico box makes a noticeable difference. So, all is running nicely. My only wish is that OWC built the Envoy Express with a fan for active cooling.
OWC could model the next generation of Envoy Express off the Orico M2PX or one of the other NVME enclosures that have fans in them. I’ve got three NVME sticks in three difference NVME aluminum enclosures with thermal pads and fans and all three run cooler than any of the NVME enclosures that rely on just a thermal pad and the box itself for cooling. The only reason my main machine wasn’t running off of one them is because the Sabrent was already in place and I didn’t want to mess what was already working nicely. Same goes for at my office.
Robert
Re: Moving to a 2TB NVME SSD in a Thunderbolt 3 box from a 1TB NVME SSD in a USB 3.1 Gen 2 box... (Long Post) - MrNoBody - 06-08-2022
Our gracious sponsor has a limited quantity of 'open box' OWC Envoy Express
for $68.75 + Shipping https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/TB3ENVXP00O/
fwiw, I've used Inland and ADATA NVMe in the OWC & the WAVLINK TB3
boxes; both setups perform about the same.
Re: Moving to a 2TB NVME SSD in a Thunderbolt 3 box from a 1TB NVME SSD in a USB 3.1 Gen 2 box... (Long Post) - Speedy - 06-08-2022
Robert M., I can’t be of any help but I appreciate the informative post.
Re: Moving to a 2TB NVME SSD in a Thunderbolt 3 box from a 1TB NVME SSD in a USB 3.1 Gen 2 box... (Long Post) - Robert M - 06-08-2022
MrNo,
What still floors me is the speed of the clone from the Envoy Express to the Orico M2PX. 48 minutes.
Which WAVlink enclosure? The only one that is readily available right now is this one:
I didn't consider it because it isn't Intel certified and it doesn't support double-sided SSDs. The OWC model and the Sabrent models are both Intel certified.
Robert
Re: Moving to a 2TB NVME SSD in a Thunderbolt 3 box from a 1TB NVME SSD in a USB 3.1 Gen 2 box... (Long Post) - anonymouse1 - 06-08-2022
What Speedy said! Thanks, Robert!
Re: Moving to a 2TB NVME SSD in a Thunderbolt 3 box from a 1TB NVME SSD in a USB 3.1 Gen 2 box... (Long Post) - anonymouse1 - 06-08-2022
I'd be interested in a transfer from the Orico to another Orico.
Re: Moving to a 2TB NVME SSD in a Thunderbolt 3 box from a 1TB NVME SSD in a USB 3.1 Gen 2 box... (Long Post) - Robert M - 06-08-2022
Speedy, Anonymous1,
My pleasure. Keep an eye out for a write up about the Orico enclosure. I forgot to mention another reason I chose it over the MyDigitalSSD model. It's a slight slide and lift to open enclosure. the MyDigitalSSD is a full slide-in/slide-out model. This makes a big difference in the event you need to remove the stick from the box.
The thermal pad makes it difficult to slide a stick's sled out of a slide-in/slide-out model. Not necessarily when you put the stick in initially. Definitely if you've been using the box for a while and need to remove the stick.
That's why I prefer clamshell or lift-off designs. The Envoy Express has a lift-off design. Remove the screws, lift off the underside of the box. The Orico is similar. Remove the screws, slightly push the bottom of the box in one direction and then lift it off.
At some point, I might replace the MyDigitalSSD enclosure that the boot drive of my office's imac is in with an Envoy Express or other Thunderbolt 3 model or a USB 4 model. I'm hoping that someone will offer a nice one with a fan. Larry, are you listening????????
Robert
Re: Moving to a 2TB NVME SSD in a Thunderbolt 3 box from a 1TB NVME SSD in a USB 3.1 Gen 2 box... (Long Post) - Robert M - 06-08-2022
Anonymous1,
Just backed up the Inland Performance 2TB SSD in the Envoy Express to the Inland Premium 1TB SSD in the Sabrent USB 3.1 Gen 2 box. 763GB. Total clone time 65 minutes. I doubt the additional 13GB of data impacted the transfer time more than a minute or so. The difference is likely due to the speed of the SSD in the Sabrent box and possibly even the Sabrent box itself, which is an older NVME enclosure.
Robert