OWC 8TB 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.

Remarkably fast! The internal SSD I added is from Crucial / 1 TB. I'm used to the 900+mb read/write speeds with external drives and after running disk speed tests multiple times,I can confirm this casing from OWC was the right purchase.Only nit pick from the bottom of the casing, is you only need to remove (2) small Phillip screws and slide the casing open in an upward angle. Instructions can be better in this sense. The packaging does come with a miniature Philip screwdriver and additional rubber feet which I had to use. Benchmark results = just over 3,000mb read / write speeds. Significant upgrade attached to my Mac Mini M4. I'm pleased with this result. Why did you pick this product vs others?:Reputable, Reliability. I've worked with other OWC products.

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.

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.

Why did you pick this product vs others?:Very good quality, good passive cooling, fit my m.2 perfectly. I use it on a Macbook Pro.

The media could not be loaded. I've bought a few different external drive systems over my lifetime, but none as quality on par as this chonky boy. It is thicc, you may notice the same thing, but I'll tell you why it's for good reason. I purchased the 0TB version of the OWC Express 1M2 SSD enclosure and I paired this up with a Samsung 990 Evo Plus. My needs for more hard drive space was quickly realized when the base Mac mini M4's measly 256 GB of storage wasn't gonna cut it. #basemodelgangThe premium quality straight out of the box was noticeable in my hands. Heavy. It feels well made and the aluminum reminds me of an expensive tool. It looks cool, I think. Matches the color of my Mac enough. All the fins, slices, across the top of the enclosure allow a massive amount of heat to be dispersed passively. No fans, no noise. And it works well! I have noticed it gets warm to the touch, but nowhere near concerning. It supports PCIe 4.0.It's not the most portable SSD, I will say that is a downside, but it can be for the occasional need. I like that it's thin enough to slide into the front pouch of a backpack. The better part of this setback, is that it allows me to edit videos in Final Cut Pro directly from the drive right as it sits on my desk. Quietly operating, without a sound. It's fast, faster than anything I've used and almost double to internal Mac mini read/write speeds and averages above 3,000 for both.I think this product is for someone who wants to expand their computer with more storage, but doesn't mainly travel with it. If your priority is portability, you may already know this isn't for you. The things that make it not so great option to carry, are the exact reasons you want it when performance and sound are what you are looking for in your search for an external hard drive.