OWC Specific 4M2 overview: 4 SSDs are higher than one

Finest Costs At present: OWC Specific 4M2 Thunderbolt NVMe enclosure

£265.68

The OWC Specific 4M2 is a quick Thunderbolt 3 enclosure that lets you leverage as much as 4 NVMe SSDs for giant quantities of performance-oriented exterior storage. This may be as particular person drives/volumes, or amalgamated in RAID. (It’s good to provide your personal NVMe SSD modules.)

That’s properly versatile, however RAID is what you can purchase the Specific 4M2 for. Its non-RAID, single-SSD efficiency was disappointing, nevertheless.

OWC Specific 4M2: Options and specs

The Specific 4M2 is a Thunderbolt 3 enclosure with two Thunderbolt 3 ports in addition to a full-sized DisplayPort port. That’s a little bit of a giveaway to the unit’s older design. Inside, there are 4 M.2 slots supporting PCIe 3.0–one other giveaway.

OWC’s web site doesn’t cite any limitations on the capability of the SSDs you possibly can set up, so in the intervening time, you possibly can doubtless stuff this factor to the tune of 32TB.

The enclosure measures simply shy of two.5 inches tall (rubber toes included), a little bit over 4.5 inches deep, and nearly 5.4 inches broad. There’s a quite massive fan that it’s essential to take away to put in SSDs (our check unit was unpopulated), however it’s a simple deal, and stated fan could be very quiet.

As you would possibly guess, an AC adapter is required to energy 4 SSDs. On this case, a hefty 6-amp, 12-volt unit with a coax connector on the drive finish, and a detachable three-prong cable on the opposite.

OWC would possibly’ve been higher off renaming the Specific 4M2 after the introduction of its a lot quicker, much more versatile (and pricier) Specific 1M2 cousin. Because the Specific 1M2 is USB 4, it’s a little bit of a complicated advertising message.

To function the Specific 4M2 in RAID, you want software program. OWC supplies a license for its useful cross-platform SoftRAID, although the Professional portion that lets you create volumes expires three years from the date of buy. SoftRAID stays purposeful–together with the flexibility to rebuild in case of drive failure–perpetually.

You can too leverage macOS or Home windows RAID to the identical impact, although that kills any cross-platform use. Platform agnosticism is without doubt one of the causes I’m nonetheless a fan of {hardware} RAID.

OWC Specific 4M2: Pace and performamce

As I’ve already acknowledged, the Specific 4M2’s efficiency varies by drive configuration, however all informed, it’s a really quick reader and a quick author–relying on what you examine it to.

It’s not quick in comparison with the Specific 1M2, which proved quick throughout each bus we tried (5Gbps USB to 40Gbps USB 4/Thunderbolt). We included the 1M2 outcomes to indicate you simply how a lot you’re lacking.

We examined on a Mac Studio with Disk Pace Take a look at and AmorphousDiskMark, however we additionally examined utilizing sister publication PCWorld’s check mattress and suite. On each platforms, we examined the unit as 4 single 2TB SSDs (testing one), a single 8TB quantity in striped RAID 0, and a single 4TB quantity in RAID 1 + 0.

4 2TB, PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSDs have been employed–every simply able to 5GBps reads and 4GB writes. The outcomes shocked us a bit.

It was the single-drive efficiency that basically shocked us. This can be a PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD which is well able to outpacing 40Gbps Thunderbolt 3. I can’t say for positive, however the bandwidth is probably going cut up evenly throughout the 4 slots, leaving solely 10Gbps to play with. That’s what the outcomes learn like.

Subsequent up are the PCWorld check outcomes, which largely agree with the macOS testing–quick in RAID 0, quick with slower writing in RAID 1 + 0, and below-average efficiency in non-RAID mode.

Notice that to get prime efficiency beneath Home windows (examined for the charts), we needed to particularly set the Specific 4M2’s properties/coverage (the SoftRAID software program warns you about this) to Finest efficiency or write pace in each RAID modes was halved.

CrystalDiskMark 8 Learn efficiency was excellent in RAID 0, and implausible in RAID 1 + 0. RAID write efficiency was good, however as you possibly can see from the 1M2 and Sandisk Professional-G40, hardly excellent.

Once more, the very weak efficiency utilizing solely a single SSD signifies a partial bandwidth allotment. It’s quicker than a tough drive to make sure, however in the event you’re trying so as to add 4 separate volumes, you’ll be a lot better off with single-drive enclosures. Until in fact, you’re out of ports–few single SSD enclosures supply pass-thru.

CrystalDiskMark 8 rated random efficiency pretty much as good, and that is the one space the place the Specific 4M2 in non-RAID mode saved up.

Our real-world 48GB transfers mimic the CrystalDiskMark 8 conclusion. RAID 0 is finest, RAID 1 + 0 subsequent, and single SSD mode the worst.

We’re undecided why RAID 1 + 0 is so sluggish writing as there are nonetheless two volumes to shotgun writes throughout, however remember that that is software program RAID that’s on the mercy of your laptop’s CPU. The RAID 0 450GB write time is sweet for an exterior drive. The RAID 1 + 0 and single drive occasions aren’t.

In complete, we discovered the Specific 4M2 delivered the learn and write speeds you’re searching for in RAID 0, the learn pace in RAID 0 + 1, however quite weak studying and writing in single drive mode. Moreover, the 4M2 ran very cool in our testing–a lot of inside air and the fan noticed to that.

Caveat: RAID 0 provides no fault tolerance. As dependable as fashionable NVMe SSDs have confirmed, if one goes unhealthy, you’ll lose all of your knowledge. We don’t understand how a lot restoration for an SSD RAID setup would price, however it’s unlikely to be low-cost, even whether it is doable.

Must you purchase the OWC Specific 4M2?

For those who plan to totally populate the Specific 4M2 in RAID 0, go for it. The efficiency will largely stay as much as expectations. Different modes, not a lot. Once more, you could be higher off with a number of single drives similar to OWC’s excellent, quick, and tremendous versatile Specific 1M2.