# OWC Express 4M2



## mscp (Mar 21, 2022)

Has anyone used it to stream orchestral samples? How is it? 

I'm trying to decide whether to get one of these for my M1 Max so I can ditch my 2nd (networked) VEP computer.


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## Prockamanisc (Mar 21, 2022)

Not great. It has a fan that's much louder than my Mac. It's also not significantly faster than SATA SSDs. Go for something without a fan.


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## musicjon (Mar 22, 2022)

Prockamanisc said:


> Not great. It has a fan that's much louder than my Mac. It's also not significantly faster than SATA SSDs. Go for something without a fan.


This is such a disappointment! Thanks for the info. What are the actual speeds you are getting?


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## Prockamanisc (Mar 22, 2022)

musicjon said:


> What are the actual speeds you are getting?


I think it was in the range of 700. So still a bit better. I only got this as a stopgap for a few years until I get a more serious machine that can handle PCIe slots again. It was cheaper to buy the OWC and the NVMe drives, than it was to buy the SATA SSD drives, then purchase the NVMe drives in a few years. It's not a long term solution.

But honestly, I'm most bothered by the fan. My studio is whisper quiet except for that.


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## gsilbers (Mar 22, 2022)

how about this one?









OWC Envoy Express


For the first time in the history of Thunderbolt, you can buy a bus-powered Thunderbolt certified enclosure and install your own drive in it.




eshop.macsales.com


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## Prockamanisc (Mar 22, 2022)

gsilbers said:


> how about this one?


It's probably great. I had to go with the 4M2 because I've still only got TB2 ports, and they can't accept anything like that if it is drawing power from the TB port.


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## colony nofi (Mar 23, 2022)

I use a sabrent thunderbolt dock with a single sabrent rocket 8TB NVME drive. Thunderbolt I get around 1700MBps reads under ideal conditions. Its a great option if you need tonnes of space. Silent. 

The Glyph drives are great as well - have a 4TB version from them. Its only around 850MB/s read speeds, but real world I don't notice the difference. They have newer 8TB versions which are faster.

I've been someone using loads of different adaptors / multi bays in the past. But I now try use things which are easy to get / replace. Thats just me. YMMV.


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## ssnowe (Mar 24, 2022)

gsilbers said:


> how about this one?
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I have couple of those and they work well with my m1 macbook pro and mac studio. Speeds are a little bit above 1000 and haven’t really seen any issues.


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## ckett (Mar 24, 2022)

Contacted OWC asking about the 4M2. If you use it as separate ssd drives, no RAID, it only gives each drive one Thunderbolt lane thus reducing the throughput speed. To get the fastest out of this enclosure you would have to setup a RAID 0 or other. The fan is to cool the ssds only since it has an external power brick. I think one could disable the fan, remove it, and maybe have room to attach NVME heatsinks to each drive, maybe. Decided there are a lot of what ifs, so moving on to single or dual NVME Thunderbolt enclosure products.


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## mixedmoods (Mar 24, 2022)

I'm using a 4M2 for most of my Sample Libraries using two Sabrent 2 TB Rocket NVMe's.
I completely detached the internal fan and attached Sabrents heatsinks on top of them.
It works very well and I don't get any extreme temperatures. I guess the fan is more needed for constant write/read actions like video editing.
I set the Sabrent's as RAID using SoftRAID 6.2.


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## ckett (Mar 24, 2022)

You mean this Sabrent heatsink?


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## mixedmoods (Mar 24, 2022)

ckett said:


> You mean this Sabrent heatsink?



Yes, exactly this one.


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## ckett (Mar 24, 2022)

Wow! So removing that fan really created room. I wasnt sure. That heatsink performs very well in the tests I have seen.


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## mixedmoods (Mar 24, 2022)

ckett said:


> Wow! So removing that fan really created room. I wasnt sure. That heatsink performs very well in the tests I have seen.


Yes, it works like a charm. I'll post a picture later today when I'm back home.


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## BassClef (Mar 24, 2022)

I’m leaning toward this Thunderbolt 3 enclosure for my new Studio Ultra. I would insert two 4TB NVMe drives in a raid 0 Aray. That will give me throughput speeds of around 2700 write and 2200 read. Of course that drive will be backed up. 






Mac Studio (New Hardware Mac Computer)!!!!


341 tracks: Max: "This thing is going to be overkill for almost anybody" Wait until you meet a composer.




vi-control.net


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## Jett Hitt (Mar 24, 2022)

I have seen multiple Youtubers claim that this drive:



combined with this NMVe:



gets about 2700. Apparently, the performance of this drive greatly varies depending upon which NVMe you install. But multiple sources claim this combo works really well.


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## mixedmoods (Mar 25, 2022)

ckett said:


> Wow! So removing that fan really created room. I wasnt sure. That heatsink performs very well in the tests I have seen.



This is how it looks inside – so there is enough space for the heat sinks.
And then I placed it upside down to improve the air circulation a bit ...


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## Prockamanisc (Mar 25, 2022)

Brilliant! It's great to know that there's an option to get it quieter. But it'll still be capped at ~700MB throughput for individual drives.


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## ckett (Mar 25, 2022)

mixedmoods said:


> This is how it looks inside – so there is enough space for the heat sinks.
> And then I placed it upside down to improve the air circulation a bit ...


That looks amazing! Have you ever had any connectivity problems with this setup? Drives disconnecting, ect? Are you using Thunderbolt 3 cables to a Mac with Thunderbolt 3 inputs?


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## mixedmoods (Mar 25, 2022)

ckett said:


> That looks amazing! Have you ever had any connectivity problems with this setup? Drives disconnecting, ect? Are you using Thunderbolt 3 cables to a Mac with Thunderbolt 3 inputs?


It's connected to an Caldigit Thunderbolt4 Hub which is then connected to my M1Pro Macbook.
Both 2TB NVMe's are connected as RAID0. The more NVMe's you add the faster the speed should get as far as I know.
I am not an expert on how to read those numbers but this is what I am getting atm:






I never had any issues or disconnects ...


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## ckett (Mar 25, 2022)

mixedmoods said:


> It's connected to an Caldigit Thunderbolt4 Hub which is then connected to my M1Pro Macbook.
> Both 2TB NVMe's are connected as RAID0. The more NVMe's you add the faster the speed should get as far as I know.
> I am not an expert on how to read those numbers but this is what I am getting atm:
> 
> ...


Those numbers look about right. You might get a little faster speeds if the drives were APFS formatted. Good to know all is working smoothly. Which brand and model of SSDs are you using?


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## mixedmoods (Mar 25, 2022)

ckett said:


> Those numbers look about right. You might get a little faster speeds if the drives were APFS formatted. Good to know all is working smoothly. Which brand and model of SSDs are you using?


both are Sabrent Rocket Q 2TB


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