The OWC Specific 1M2 (begins at $119.99; $219.99 for 1TB as examined) has the excellence of being the primary exterior solid-state drive we have examined sporting assist for USB4, the newest USB taste. So it is no shock that the 1M2 is without doubt one of the quickest exterior SSDs we now have encountered, at the very least when paired with a pc that has both a USB4 or a Thunderbolt 4 port, which each use a USB-C-style connector. The 1M2 will run at decreased speeds for those who use it with older {hardware}, nevertheless, and it could require superior software program tweaks to get it engaged on a PC that does have USB4. Coupled with a comparatively excessive value, this makes it suited solely to tinkerers and early adopters who already know they want its groundbreaking velocity.
Design: Fins to Beat the Warmth
Different World Computing (OWC) is at the very least as well-known for making drive enclosures and housings as it’s for making SSDs, and the Specific 1M2 is a little bit of each. Its silvery body, designed to carry an M.2 inner SSD, is crafted of aircraft-grade aluminum and is roofed with 20 vertical fins. This makes it resemble a big heatsink of the kind you may discover cooling elements inside a desktop PC, and in reality the fin design does serve to maximise the dissipation of warmth from the SSD inside. Even so, throughout testing, the drive often felt fairly heat to the contact.
The 1M2 is out there with a PCI Specific 4.0 SSD (the OWC Aura Extremely IV) inside, in capacities starting from 1TB to 8TB. Alternately, you should purchase the enclosure by itself and add your individual SSD. Within the latter case you additionally get a tiny screwdriver with which to open the enclosure. OWC notes that the enclosure ought to work with even bigger M.2 SSDs (16TB, say) as they turn into out there.
The 1M2 is massive in contrast with most of at present’s exterior SSDs, measuring 0.9 by 2.8 by 5.2 inches (HWD), however it will possibly nonetheless slot in a pants or coat pocket. (Simply thoughts that the fin ridges do not get caught on something.) On one quick finish of the drive is a USB-C port that helps USB4—the port’s label identifies it as “USB4 40Gb/s.” The inclusion of a most throughput velocity is a welcome addition to port (and package deal) labeling, significantly as some USB4 units’ speeds will max out at solely 20Gbps and will probably be labeled as such.
(Credit score: Joseph Maldonado)The drive’s different quick finish features a (comparatively massive) status-light bar, the product title, and the OWC emblem.
You’ll be able to take a look at the drive household’s full speeds and feeds within the chart beneath. Observe that the sequential learn and write scores within the desk are uncooked scores taken immediately from OWC’s Crystal DiskMark testing on the totally different capacities, slightly than the “polished” scores (rounded to the closest 100MBps) that the majority producers present.
Testing the OWC Specific 1M2: Scorching Velocity Over USB4 and Thunderbolt 4
To benchmark the 1M2, we used two totally different Apple MacBook Professional laptops and our newest Home windows storage testbed desktop PC, which we additionally use to check PCIe 5.0 M.2 SSDs. It consists of an ASRock X670E Taichi motherboard, 32GB of DDR5 reminiscence (two Essential 16GB DIMMs), two USB4 ports, one PCIe 5.0 x4 M.2 slot (with lanes which have direct entry to the CPU), and three PCIe 4.0 slots. It sports activities an AMD Ryzen 9 7900 CPU utilizing an AMD inventory cooler and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Tremendous card, and it’s powered by a Thermaltake Toughpower GF1 Snow 750W PSU. The boot drive is an ADATA Legend 850 PCIe 4.0 SSD. All that is housed in a Praxis Wetbench open-frame case.
After connecting the 1M2 to one of many two native USB4 ports on the testbed’s ASRock motherboard, we ran our ordinary Crystal DiskMark 6.0, PCMark 10 Total Storage, and 3DMark Storage exams, in addition to the AJA System Check. Crystal DiskMark’s sequential velocity exams present a standard measure of drive throughput, simulating best-case, straight-line transfers of huge recordsdata. The PCMark 10 Storage check measures an SSD’s readiness for all kinds of on a regular basis duties. The AJA System Check, out there for each Home windows and Mac, isn’t usually a part of our testing because it’s just like the Blackmagic check we use on macOS (described beneath), measuring a drive’s potential to report and play again video. Nonetheless, we used it right here as a verify on the claims that OWC makes in its personal benchmarking outcomes.
At first, the 1M2 skilled points operating benchmarks on the Home windows testbed. It took a number of makes an attempt to even run Crystal DiskMark, and when it did full, the outcomes had been inconsistent. Additionally, each PCMark 10 and 3DMark Storage outcomes had been loads decrease than anticipated (decrease than many spinning-disk exhausting drives). And whereas AJA learn speeds appeared affordable, write speeds had been ridiculously low.
OWC urged that the issues could also be associated to a change in a Home windows default coverage for exterior storage. Beginning in Home windows 10 Model 1809, in late 2018, Microsoft modified the default coverage for exterior storage units from Higher Efficiency to Fast Removing. Whereas the Fast Removing setting means that you can detach an exterior drive from its port with out the danger of shedding information, Home windows cannot cache disk write operations below this setting, which explains the dismally low settings in our preliminary AJA testing. Altering the setting to Higher Efficiency solved the problem. You are able to do so both by following the directions on this Microsoft article or through the use of OWC’s Disk Efficiency device; we used the latter. It is a comparatively straightforward downside to repair, however OWC ought to make it clear that doing so is crucial for full efficiency. In the event you’re not conscious, it could take some time so that you can notice that you simply’re not getting the speeds for which this SSD is meant.
With that situation out of the way in which, we ran by means of all of the Home windows exams once more. In our Crystal DiskMark testing, the 1M2 proved speedy certainly. With sequential learn and write throughput speeds hovering round 3,000MBps, it simply outclassed the whole thing of USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 SSDs we in contrast it with. The one drive in our comparability group within the 1M2’s league is the Thunderbolt-only WD Black D50 Sport Dock NVMe SSD, which I examined utilizing a Thunderbolt 3-equipped Dell XPS 13 laptop computer. Whereas the D50’s sequential learn rating successfully matched the 1M2’s, its write rating lagged by practically 400MBps. The 1M2’s Crystal DiskMark 4K learn rating is in the midst of our group of comparability drives, and its 4K write rating is on the backside. (The 4K scores aren’t as related for exterior drives that do not function a PC’s most important boot disk.)
We aren’t together with a whole desk of scores for all of the exams we ran on the Home windows testbed, as a result of that is the one USB4 drive we now have examined and nothing else is immediately akin to it. Nonetheless, listed below are some highlights: It had the very best PCMark 10 rating (2,593) of the lot, with solely the Seagate FireCuda Gaming SSD coming remotely shut, at 2,445. Write and skim scores for the video-centric AJA system check had been each within the 2,600MBps vary.
For macOS testing, we reformatted the 1M2—switching from its native Home windows-only NTFS format to the versatile exFAT, which works seamlessly with Home windows, macOS, and Linux—on a MacBook Professional with a Thunderbolt 3 connection. We then ran the identical exams (Blackmagic, and our personal folder switch check) on a MacBook Professional with an M3 processer over a Thunderbolt 4 connection.
Over a Thunderbolt 3 connection, the 1M2’s Blackmagic scores of 948.2MBps for each learn and write are what we might count on for a USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 exterior SSD. With Thunderbolt 4, the outcomes had been a lot quicker: 2,625MBps write and a couple of,180MBps learn. It took a mere second to tug, drop, and save our 1.2GB check folder, placing it in an elite group that features the Samsung Moveable SSD T9, the Essential X10 Professional, the Kingston XS2000, the WD Black D50, and some different drives.
Verdict: A Zippy Exterior SSD, if You Have What It Takes
Showing within the type of a brash, finned aluminum heatsink enclosing a PCI Specific 4.0 M.2 SSD, the OWC Specific 1M2 exterior SSD cuts a placing determine. It tallied quick benchmark scores over USB4 and Thunderbolt 4, however you may want a pc with certainly one of these ports to reap its velocity advantages. Additionally, when operating the 1M2 on a Home windows laptop, you might have to tweak an deep setting within the working system to get constant efficiency out of it.
(Credit score: Joseph Maldonado)You pay a premium for the OWC Specific 1M2, however for those who’re on the lookout for speedy transfers of huge recordsdata, it could match the invoice if in case you have the proper {hardware}. It is available in capacities as much as 8TB, or for those who’re a DIY-er, you might need to purchase the enclosure alone and add your individual PCI Specific M.2 SSD.
The 1M2 is the primary of what we count on to be many USB4 exterior SSDs. It is off to an excellent begin, although it isn’t an apparent alternative for anybody however early adopters who already know they want its appreciable prime speeds and have a USB4 or Thunderbolt 4 port to allow them.
