Thunderbolt 3 enclosure for Sabrent Rocket Nvme PCIe 4.0

[boredcollie]

Hi there,

I'm looking for a real Thunderbolt 3 enclosure for a Sabrent SSD M.2 2280 Rocket Nvme PCIe 4.0 1 TB. 

The ones I've found on Amazon are USB-C or Thunderbolt 2 or  Thunderbolt 3 but PCIe 3.x.

 

Do you know if there are enclosure that can support this SSD?

 

Thanks!

[jaslion]

32 minutes ago, boredcollie said:

Hi there,

I'm looking for a real Thunderbolt 3 enclosure for a Sabrent SSD M.2 2280 Rocket Nvme PCIe 4.0 1 TB. 

The ones I've found on Amazon are USB-C or Thunderbolt 2 or  Thunderbolt 3 but PCIe 3.x.

 

Do you know if there are enclosure that can support this SSD?

 

Thanks!

Thunderbolt 3 is a pcie 3.0 interface. So pcie 4.0 ain't happening.

[boredcollie]

4 minutes ago, jaslion said:

Thunderbolt 3 is a pcie 3.0 interface. So pcie 4.0 ain't happening.

oh, I see

 

So if I want to build a Thunderbolt 3  External SSD, I can go for a Sabrent Rocket like this one?

Do you know if there is a good thunderbolt 3 enclosure that can take advantage of the speed of this SSD?

Thanks

[jaslion]

33 minutes ago, boredcollie said:

oh, I see

 

So if I want to build a Thunderbolt 3  External SSD, I can go for a Sabrent Rocket like this one?

Do you know if there is a good thunderbolt 3 enclosure that can take advantage of the speed of this SSD?

Thanks

Any half decent dock will do. The limit will be the thunderbolt connection which shouldn't limit you.

[NewMaxx]

Let me be clear on a few things about TB3 for enclosures since a lot of people have mistaken impressions about them. First, TB3 only transfers up to 22 Gbps of data, it's not 32 Gbps (x4 PCIe 3.0) or 40 Gbps for a NVMe SSD. You will hit a ceiling of 2.75 GB/s. Second, most TB3 enclosures are Alpine Ridge which does not have USB fallback. It won't work on USB ports.

 

Now, technically the current 4.0 drives will be faster within a certain range because they have large SLC caches. For example, a 1TB WD SN750 (3.0) will only have max speeds for 12.5GB of writes (its SLC cache size) and then drop down to TLC speeds while a 1TB E16-based drive (4.0) could when empty write over 300GB at maximum. So it depends on your intentions/priorities, however in general a fast 3.0 drive should work well.

[boredcollie]

10 minutes ago, NewMaxx said:

Let me be clear on a few things about TB3 for enclosures since a lot of people have mistaken impressions about them. First, TB3 only transfers up to 22 Gbps of data, it's not 32 Gbps (x4 PCIe 3.0) or 40 Gbps for a NVMe SSD. You will hit a ceiling of 2.75 GB/s. Second, most TB3 enclosures are Alpine Ridge which does not have USB fallback. It won't work on USB ports.

 

Now, technically the current 4.0 drives will be faster within a certain range because they have large SLC caches. For example, a 1TB WD SN750 (3.0) will only have max speeds for 12.5GB of writes (its SLC cache size) and then drop down to TLC speeds while a 1TB E16-based drive (4.0) could when empty write over 300GB at maximum. So it depends on your intentions/priorities, however in general a fast 3.0 drive should work well.

Thanks for your answer! I know there are some misunderstanding, and it's really clear to me that with TB3 i will get —theoretically— 22Gbps (2.75GB/s).

 

Speaking about my needs. I have a Macbook Pro 15" (2018) that has TB3 and I'd like to move my photography library (about 1.4Tb) on an external drive.

An SSD drive like the the Samsung T5 can reach (again...theoretically) transfer speed up to 540MB/sec.

 

I'm wondering if with an M2 NVMe like the Sabrent I linked above, a good enclosure and a good TB3 cable (i know there cheap cable around) I can reach performance of around 1000 - 1250Mb/s in read/write. 

 

Thanks!

 

PS. reading your SSD Basics now...

 

[NewMaxx]

Yes, the base TLC speed of the E12-based drives is a bit over 1000 MB/s after the 24GB of dynamic SLC cache. If you want the very highest speeds I'd go for the WD SN750 instead (the 1TB was recently available on WD's site but looks to be sold out now) which is more like 1500 MB/s, or the 970 EVO Plus (expensive) which is a bit higher than that.

[boredcollie]

1 minute ago, NewMaxx said:

Yes, the base TLC speed of the E12-based drives is a bit over 1000 MB/s after the 24GB of dynamic SLC cache. If you want the very highest speeds I'd go for the WD SN750 instead (the 1TB was recently available on WD's site but looks to be sold out now) which is more like 1500 MB/s, or the 970 EVO Plus (expensive) which is a bit higher than that.

And do you have any specific suggestion for a very good enclosure?

[NewMaxx]

They basically all use the same bridge chip (Alpine Ridge). I think the cheapest one has been the Wavlink WL-UTE02 (at Newegg) which includes a heatsink I believe.

[NewMaxx]

Oops, I should mention it seems to only fit single-sided drives, which would be the SN750 and 970 EVO Plus as well as some E12-based drives. The E12 drives have been changed to single-sided designs in recent months, that is. Check the reviews for other issues - you can find more expensive alternatives, though.

[boredcollie]

21 minutes ago, NewMaxx said:

Oops, I should mention it seems to only fit single-sided drives, which would be the SN750 and 970 EVO Plus as well as some E12-based drives. The E12 drives have been changed to single-sided designs in recent months, that is.

What do you mean for single sided? Is this Sabrent single sided?

 

Thanks!

[NewMaxx]

The Rocket Q is QLC-based, that's not what you want for steady sequential writes. You want the regular TLC-based Rocket. As stated, the E12-based drives like the Rocket in recent months changes to a single-sided design - they use a smaller package for the controller and fit twice as many NAND/flash chips on one side to do that, as well as reducing the amount of DRAM. 

[boredcollie]

19 minutes ago, NewMaxx said:

The Rocket Q is QLC-based, that's not what you want for steady sequential writes. You want the regular TLC-based Rocket. As stated, the E12-based drives like the Rocket in recent months changes to a single-sided design - they use a smaller package for the controller and fit twice as many NAND/flash chips on one side to do that, as well as reducing the amount of DRAM. 

Ok, I see. Thanks.

The 2Tb Sabrent is about 300E + the enclosure is about 95E. A total of 395E

 

Is there another way to get about 1000Mb/s speed performance, but in a cheaper way? 

[NewMaxx]

Currently, no. Although I think it may be possible later this year based on current market trends. Only exception might be the 2TB SX8100 which I've seen on sale, also the EX950 and SX8200/S11 Pro, but I'm referencing US pricing and all of those drives will have <1000 MB/s TLC speeds once you write enough.

[boredcollie]

On 3/27/2020 at 1:16 AM, NewMaxx said:

Currently, no. Although I think it may be possible later this year based on current market trends. Only exception might be the 2TB SX8100 which I've seen on sale, also the EX950 and SX8200/S11 Pro, but I'm referencing US pricing and all of those drives will have <1000 MB/s TLC speeds once you write enough.

Hi @NewMaxx,

I've got the Sabrent enclosure and the Sabrent 2TB. It looks like that the hard disk doesn't work really well It looks like defective, so I will send it back.

I've tried the enclosure with the other Sabrent 1TB Pci4 and did the same test and works really well, so at least I know the the enclosure is working fine. I can reach ~980mb/s read/write with Black Magic Speed test (5gb test).

 

Between the hard disk that you previously mentioned (I can go for the 1Tb if the 2Tb is too expensive), which is the best for my needs (external library for photography, mainly Capture One?

I want to keep the Sabrent enclosure, but if you have different suggestions I can send it back.

 

Thanks for your help!

 

 

[NewMaxx]

Not sure which enclosure you're talking about. If it's standard 10 Gbps, pretty much any drive will be fine at 1GB/s for it. Our previous discussion was for TB3 and maintaining consistent speeds were drive selection could be more important.

[boredcollie]

9 minutes ago, NewMaxx said:

Not sure which enclosure you're talking about. If it's standard 10 Gbps, pretty much any drive will be fine at 1GB/s for it. Our previous discussion was for TB3 and maintaining consistent speeds were drive selection could be more important.

I've got this one it's a USB 3.1 Gen1 10Gbps enclosure. 

The only option will be the Samsung X5 that is TB3 but I'm wondering if it will change something in my case. 980mb/s it's pretty decent for read/write photos.

[NewMaxx]

The enclosure is the limitation at that point, excepting large enough writes. There are a ton of drives that would qualify...