OWC 2TB Express 1M2 Portable NVMe Thunderbolt (USB-C) SSD USB4 Ultra Fast External SSD Drive with Aluminum Heat Sink Enclosure

Couldn't be better. Its blazing fast and stays cool. I threw in the Western Digital WDS800T2X0E which is their 8TB black NVMe SSD card. Fits snug and great. I think its gets good contact with the enclosure to dissipate heat. I immediately transferred roughly 4TB to it and renamed all of the files. It gets a little warm, but that's it, I wouldn't say it gets hot, but I am going to have fun with it and set it on a larger aluminum heat sink as a stand and put a fan on it. I am also going to buy another one and another 8TB card so I can mirror it and have redundancy. For the price, this enclosure with an 8TB NVMe seems to be the BEST bang for the buck. And with independent enclosures for each 8TB of data I care deeply about, I will feel safe having redundancy. I'm not worried about losing a drive, only internal component failures though it hasn't ever happened to me yet. Might end up with four of these and 32TB of space for 25% the cost of a NAS or DAS system. Don't pay for cloud storage, just get a bunch of OWC products and forget about data speeds ever being a problem. This thing is plenty quick. I can actively workflow Lightroom, Topaz, and Photoshop files from this with zero issues. If OWC would sell the four-bay version of this WITHOUT their built in NVMe drives I would get one.

Very nice solid external drive. The quality is very good, and the speeds are very fast. Paired it with a Samsung 990 Pro NVMe SSD 2TB and hooked it up to the thunderbolt 4 port on the back of the base model M4 Mac mini. Primarily utilizing this external drive to install and launch applications, and store files to reserve the space on the m4 minis internal drive. The drive is silent, but does get a bit warm - some caution there. The fin design does a good job of expelling heat as it cools down quickly. Perfect partner for the Mac mini, I have not experienced any disconnection issues that you can get from some other brands.

I plugged this OWC 8TB Express 1M2 Portable SSD into the Thunderbolt 3 USB-C port of my iMacPro. It backed up almost 4 TB in less than 1.5 hours and barely got warm. This is faster and cooler than any other external drive I have used for this purpose. The similarly fast Oyen Digital U34 Bolt 8TB external drive has open ventilation ports. By contrast the OWC drive does not have ventilation ports; its heat-radiating aluminum fins obviate the need for ventilation ports and prevent intrusion of dust into the drive. The OWC drive is sealed except for its USB-C port, which is effectively plugged when its cable is in place.

Did comparative testing with comparable Quiizlab model that I also purchased via Amazon Prime. Both connected to M1 Pro Macbook using Thunderbolt M.2 NVME SSD for all tests was a WD Blue SN5000 2TB model.Both enclosures performed IDENTICALLY across Black Magic Speed Test and Amorphous Disk Mark, which would be expected since the throttle will be the TB controller and the SSD itself exceeds those thresholds. Black Magic Speed Test results approx. 3000MBps Write and 3000MBps Read (compared to 5200/5200 internal SSD). Amorphous Disk Mark results 3400/3200, 2800/2500, 860/115, 45/30 ... again were IDENTICAL across the two enclosures.The OWC unit had very good cooling via the thermal pads to the huge aluminum chassis. Ran ~ 35 C degrees (95 degrees F). Comparably speaking, the Quiizlab unit ran hot ~ 40 C degrees.Very pleased with this OWC unit and will be using with my new M4 Mac Mini base model where I will be moving Home Folder to the external SSD. Both of these units outperformed write/read speeds on internal SSD for the 256gb base Mac Mini M4.NOTE: The one I received appeared to have been USED. The box was not sealed and the thermal pads were already affixed to the chassis. I did post a Seller Review on the issue and will be returning for a new unit.

If adding to Apple IOS "Time Machine" and "Disc Utility" (already in my standard software) was all I needed. I went 49% Time Machine back up and 49% everything else for files etc. Worked well, seems like quality, EZ to use (comes with a nice cable).

Data transfer speed is 6.0-6.1 GB/sec with Thunderbolt 5, and 3.0-3.2GB/sec on TB 4. Tested with Black Magic Disk Test on M4Max Studio. Enclosure runs warm even when not transferring data. May be due to WD 2TB Black NVMe SSD characteristics, I don't know. No complaints. Reasonably priced. Easy to mount internal drive, but removal looks to be a different outcome.

I create Youtube videos and have been editing with Davinci Resolve right off the SSD and have had zero problems. I also have some LLMs locally and keep the model files on the drive and haven't had any problems there either. Even when I am doing heavy work off the SSD, this thing barely gets warm. Out of all my enclosures of varying price ranges (this is my 4th enclosure), this one keeps the coolest . The enclosure itself is metal, nicely designed for heat dissipation, super sturdy constructions, and has a good heft to it. My complaints are that it is a chore to install the SSD into the enclosure and annoying if you want to take it out, especially if you added in the rubber footing to cover the screw holes. It's also a lot bigger than my other enclosures, but I don't necessarily dock any points for that because it needs to be the size it is to dissipate the heat as well as it does.

The case works very well and seems to move heat out very well. The supplied cable is sturdy and has fast transfer rates. Works perfectly with a new NVME drive. It's quite portable in size though mine is living on a desk. One star deducted for the cost and value for the money. I just don't think this thing needs to be over $100.