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Old 08-07-2022, 07:39 PM
Darryl Ramm Darryl Ramm is online now
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Default Re: First experience with NVMe M.2 in enclosure - bad.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Righty27 View Post
I’ve been reading-up on external enclosures and, considering the small 512GB SSD option would primarily be used for applications + Library (e.g. Mac Mail archives), resulting in everything else (not just PT but also my personal files, Final Cut libraries, etc.) on the external drive(s), I’m wary about quality/reliability having looked at all the Oricos, Startechs, etc., so could do with a bit of Darryl’s expertise/experience too … and Ben’s total data loss scenario (based on overheating, NVME drive itself or enclosure reliability) is giving me pause for thought …
My advice is always add as much internal SSD storage on a modern mac as you can afford. And especially on a Studio, that's some fast SSD.

From an engineering snob viewpoint the gold standard PCIe switch technology is Broadcom/Plex. They dominate the high end of the market and I've run into them multiple times with engineering teams building high performance interconnect technology for supercomputers etc. The downside is the vendor is Broadcom, with Broadcom's attitude and Broadcom's pricing. Historical lack of competition in this space, especially the higher end has not helped. But it's good to see ASMedia challenging them, especially at the lower end. Now I buy Sonnet expansion chassis because I trust Sonnet, with a seemingly solid Engineering culture/team to get stuff right, that they use Plex is nice. If Sonnet turned around and came out with an ASMedia chassis I'd consider that, because well Sonnet.

Now in the Echo Express IIIe chassis if I want just one M.2 card on a PCIe adapter I'll use a cheap dumb card, no real engineering there since there is no switch or smarts on the Card, my preferred card is https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01I5VABFY. Only thing I don't' like about it is lack of cooling holes in the PCIe slot exterior panel, but a visit to the drill press can fix that, and the chassis may have enough air venting this is not a problem. I've looked for better vented cards just not found them. If I want more density by using dual M.2 to PCIe slot adapters then I use this IOCrest Syba (ASmedia) switch based card https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07HYZY7P2. Now you have two different vendors chips doing the PCIe switching. You could go with the quad Sonnet M.2 cards, which I believe are PLX switch based, but that's expensive and requires a full length expansion chassis not he short one I mainly use. If I was setting up a higher end studio and wanted lots of M.2 in a Chassis that's probably the way I'd go... well except I'm hanging out to see what the new Mac Pro offers and I'd expect to have multiple PCIe 4 (or 5?) M.2 internal expansion slots or PCIe slots that can take a PCIe 4 (or 5?) adapter card.

The global semiconductor shortage is likely affecting this space. The PEX8724 used in my Sonnet expansion chassis is currently unobtanium in retail semiconductor channels and lists for ~$130+ in small quantities. I don't know if there is a later substitute. PLX switch costs and engineering development may add several hundred dollars to a chassis price.

Quote:
Darryl - any Thunderbolt 3/4 enclosure that you would recommend, or specific controller chipsets to look out for e.g. from ASMedia or others? A reliable external enclosure that I could switch between Macs (with applications installed on both) would probably be ideal.
If you can't get everything internal you may not need a fancy external box if you just want say a 2TB workspace on an external drive... wait and hear what Ben says about the OWC single drive dock and maybe get that.

But if you are looking for a higher-end chassis by the time you get to expansion chassis with switches the one I recommend is the Sonnet Echo Express SE IIIe. More expensive than some other lower cost ones, but frankly I just want Sonnet and trust them to get all the integration correct. Somebody might have lots of experienced with some other chassis and be able to recommend them. You are paying ~$300 for a single slot Thunderbolt to single PCIe slot expansion chassis from cheaper brands, so it's not outrageous to pay $700 for a three slot Sonnet chassis with switch, and from Sonnet for peace of mind, quiet cooling, etc.

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Or, if I bite the bullet and go for http://https://www.sonnettech.com/product/echo-dual-nvme-thunderbolt-dock/overview.html with a single drive to start,
See the warning I posted above, with one drive installed you get half the PCIe 3 Bandwidth you otherwise would, and a modern PCIe 4 M.2 card is already throttled by PCIe 3. And the performance is already a fraction of what you would get from Studio internal SSD... so I'd sure be looking at spending money on the Studio internal SSD, especially to get dual internal NAND cards.

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could I use/benefit from the heatsink version of the Samsung 980 Pro?
It should only hurt if the heatsink won't fit, in which case you can remove it, not hard to do. You can also add third party heatsinks to existing non heatsink M.2. With the big PCIe card chassis I use... there is lots of space and airflow from a large fan flowing over all heatsinks.

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Would this more-expensive storage/hub setup also be suitable as a boot/system drive i.e. just using whichever Thunderbolt-connected computer for processing - presumably one could easily switch between Mac Studio and MBP with this setup?
You can boot off any external NVMe drive with modern Macs, maybe with some restrictions with RAID and/or secure boot. Well I have multiple boot images in my Echo Express chassis, use those for say testing a new macOS version. But I think most of the time you want to rely on the internal boot volume.

And your MBP is Intel and the Studio is Apple Silicon and you should not be wanting to have them share a boot/system drive. And increasingly over time it will become absolutely impossible to do that. So don't.

You also are living in a world of T2 authenticated/encrypted systems you should ready up on that before wanting to change stuff around.
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