[2024/01/07 – Additional models]
- Introduction
- Fastest external M.2 SSD enclosures
- SSD enclosure chipset list table
- Firmware
- Write Caching
- References
Introduction
There are four main vendors of controller chips used in external SSD enclosures: ASMedia, Intel, JMicron, and RealTek. Realtek and JMicron offer the only broadly available single-chip solutions that allow using either a SATA or NVMe SSD. These are commonly found in the $20-$50 enclosures like the Uni model I reviewed and are limited by USB 3.x speeds. Other vendor solutions only support SATA or NVMe SSDs, but not both. If you want the absolute fastest enclosure in 2024, there are two options for use with NVMe SSDs: USB4 or Thunderbolt 3.
Fastest external M.2 SSD enclosures
USB4 ASM2464PD SSD enclosures
These enclosures sustain higher throughputs compared to older Thunderbolt 3 designs which reserved bandwidth for DisplayPort and legacy USB. Real-world peak throughput is ~3.1-3.8GB/s with the latest Gen4 M.2 NVMe SSDs. Many enclosures since 2020 are marketed as “USB4 compatible” but are based on the older Thunderbolt 3 chips, so you need to pay attention to the fine print. Enclosures based on the ASM2464PD chipset typically exceed 3.2GB/s and should not have been listed for sale prior to July 2023. Some brands have had crowdfunding campaigns earlier. Few PCs available in 2023 are able to take advantage of these speeds. AMD CPU-based systems with built-in USB4 running the latest version of Windows 11 seem to yield the best results. Most of these enclosures use similar PCB designs and have almost identical performance characteristics. But some ship with old firmware that can affect performance in certain situations. See the firmware section below to see if updates to your enclosure are available.
Retail models
- AData SE920
- ships with 1TB or 2TB SSD pre-installed
- BlueEndless BS-M280U4 (alibaba)
- Linlijia (Amazon)
- C-Smartlink UD1101
- Hagibis XL-UD1101 (Amazon) (Aliexpress)
- Hyper NextDrive HD5001GL (ebay)
- Jeyi TB2464/TB2464Pro/TB2464Fan (Amazon/Ali)
- 3 different versions available: basic, larger Pro model, and Pro model with fan
- Maiwo K1695 (available at Amazon/NewEgg/BangGood)
- possibly same manufacturer as Jeyi but with different chassis design
- sold under various brands like iSheep with same K1695 model number
- Orico TCM2-U4
- has cooling fan but heatsink not in full contact with SSD chips so they run hot
- OWC Express 1M2
- available bare or with up to 8TB SSD pre-installed
- all-metal chassis
- Satechi ST-EU4NPM
- Stardom UBOX-B4BP (has second USB-C port for power to work on older USB 3.x systems)
- ZikeDrive Z666 ASM2464PD (successful Indiegogo campaign)
ODM models
- SSI SI-8301US4
- SSI SI-2222US4 dual SSD chassis (based on ASM2480B PCIe switch?)
- SSI SI-2422US4 quad SSD chassis
- Wavlink WL-ST401C / Winstars WS-ST402C
- Winstars WS-ST420C dual SSD chassis
In the future, this list will be migrated into a distinct article comparing all the ASM2464 enclosure options.
Thunderbolt 3 JHL7440 enclosures
Most Thunderbolt 3 enclosures are based on older DSL6xxx/JHL6xxx chips (Alpine Ridge) and were limited to 22Gb/s out of an available 40Gb/s due to the way the controller reserved bandwidth for DisplayPort and USB traffic. But JHL7440 (Titan Ridge) solutions provide ~10% higher transfer speedswith real-world speeds maxing out at ~2.6-2.8GB/s. Many of these models are marketed as USB4 or Thunderbolt 4 but are actually just Thunderbolt 3.
For TB3/TB4/USB4 hosts and NVMe SSDs only
- Acasis TBU-401/TBU-405 (several styles sold under different brand names- some are compatible with SATA SSD)
- Ankmax UC4M2
- Anyoyo TU44
- Orico TB3-S2 (several styles sold under different brand-names)
- Rocketek HY224
- Trebleet SSD-15
Backwards compatible with USB 3.2 host PCs and SATA SSDs
- DeLock 42012 (JHL7440+ JMS583/JMS581)
- DeLock 42018 (HHL7440 + RTL9210B)
- Trebleet SSD-20 (JHL7440 + JMS583/JMS581)
Portable SSD docking stations
- WD Black D50 (DisplayPort + USB 3.x + PD power + 1-2TB SSD)
- JEYI Thunderdock 7 mini/7+ (DisplayPort + USB 3.x + PD power)
SSD enclosure chipset list table
Depending on system configuration, (cables, hubs, mainboard, SSD enclosure PCB, SSD model, etc.) real-world speeds can be lower than what is noted below. The real-world speeds are the highest sustained throughputs that can be easily reproduced with high-end PCs.
| Vendor | Chipset | Upstream interface | Downstream interfaces | Theoretical speed | Real-world speed | Notes |
| ASMedia | ASM2464PD/ ASM2464PDX | USB4 with PCIe Gen4x4 | PCIe Gen4×4 | 40Gb/s | ~3200-3800MB/s | – TB3/USB 3.x compat |
| ASMedia | ASM2364 | USB 3.2 Gen2 x2 | PCIe Gen3x4 | 20Gb/s | ~1900MB/s | – faster than JMS586 |
| ASMedia | ASM2362 | USB 3.2 Gen2 | PCIe Gen3x2 | 10Gb/s | ~875MB/s | |
| ASMedia | ASM235CM/ ASM1352R/ | USB 3.2 Gen2 | SATA3 | 6Gb/s | ~525MB/s | – for HDD or 2.5″ SSD |
| ASMedia | ASM225CM/ ASM1351/ ASM1156/ ASM1153E/ ASM1153 | USB 3.x Gen1 | SATA3 | 5Gb/s | ~450MB/s | – for HDD or 2.5″ SSD |
| Intel | JHL8440 | TB4 with PCIe Gen3x4 | PCIe Gen3x1 | 8Gb/s | ~775MB/s | – TB3/USB 3.x compat – for docking stations |
| Intel | JHL7440 | TB3 with PCIe Gen3x4 | PCIe Gen3x4 | 24Gb/s | ~2600-2800MB/s | – USB 3.x compat – controller limits speed |
| Intel | JHL6x40/ DSL6x40 | TB3 with PCIe Gen3x4 | PCIe Gen3x4 | 22Gb/s | ~2500-2600MB/s | – controller limits speed |
| JMicron | JMS586 | USB 3.2 Gen2 x2 | 2x PCIe Gen3x2 | 16Gb/s | ~1600MB/s | – U variant supports SSD cloning |
| JMicron | JMS583 | USB 3.1 Gen2 | PCIe Gen3x2 | 10Gb/s | ~875MB/s | – A3 revision performs best |
| JMicron | JMS581 | USB 3.2 Gen2 | PCIe Gen3x2 OR SATA3 | 10Gb/s | ~875MB/s ~525MB/s | – LT variant includes SDCard support |
| JMicron | JMS580 | USB 3.2 Gen2 | SATA3 | 6Gb/s | ~525MB/s | – integrates USB-C PD |
| JMicron | JMS578/ JMS576 | USB 3.1 Gen1 | SATA3 | 5Gb/s | ~450MB/s | – for HDD or 2.5″ SSD |
| JMicron | JMS562/ JMS561 | USB 3.1 Gen1 | 2x SATA3 | 5Gb/s | ~450MB/s | – for HDD or 2.5″ SSD |
| RealTek | RTL9220DP | USB 3.2 Gen2 x2 | PCIe Gen3x4 AND SATA3 | 20Gb/s | ~1900MB/s ~525MB/s | – dual ports – RAID |
| RealTek | RTL9210B | USB 3.1 Gen2 | PCIe Gen3x2 OR SATA3 | 10Gb/s 6Gb/s | ~875MB/s ~525MB/s | |
| RealTek | RTL9211DS | USB 3.2 Gen2 | PCIe Gen3x2 OR SDCard | 10Gb/s 8Gb/s | ~875MB/s ~750MB/s | – supports PCIe & SDCard |
| RealTek | RTL9200 | USB 3.1 Gen2 | SATA3 | 6Gb/s | ~525MB/s | |
| TI | TUSB9261 | USB 3.x Gen1 | SATA3 | 5Gb/s | ~450MB/s | – for HDD or 2.5″ SSD |
| ViaLabs | VL717/ VL716/ VL715 | USB 3.x Gen2 | SATA3 | 6Gb/s | ~525MB/s | – for HDD or 2.5″ SSD |
| ViaLabs | VL713/ VL711 | USB 3.x Gen1 | SATA3 | 5Gb/s | ~450MB/s | – for HDD or 2.5″ SSD |
Firmware
If you notice your chassis is has poor write performance compared to benchmarks you find in various social media forums, consider downloading and updating the firmware.
Write Caching
To improve write performance, you can enable system RAM write caching in Windows. With any removeable storage device, there is a risk of data loss if the drive is disconnected during a cached write. But for certain SSDs, enabling this feature can improve overall system performance.
References
- Excellent background info on various chipsets with real-world enclosure photo examples: https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/58257546
Dan S. Charlton 
The ASM2464PD supports speed of up to 40 Gbps.
So far there are only a reference design from ASMedia, as they’re late to market with their USB4 products.
https://www.techpowerup.com/review/usb4-guide-info-technology-details/3.html
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JMICRON MASTER RACE.. asmedia and realtek users crying over chinkware JMICRON’S PRESENCE
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I’m out of the loop on this one – what’s wrong with JMicron? JM, RT, and AS are all based in Taiwan…
Are you referring to the StuXnet device driver signature cert thing from 13 years ago???
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Thank you for putting this together. It would be nice to also have a post discussing and comparing the controllers used for SATA interfaces. Like the one used in 10Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 2 5 bay enclosure https://sabrent.com/products/ds-sc5b
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Those 5-bay sata enclosures are probably using a JMicron usb-sata controller with a sata-sata expander chipset: https://www.jmicron.com/products/list/16
There are off-brand models on AliExpress for less than $50 usd.
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On July 31st 2023 ASMedia’s ASM2464PD USB4® Device Silicon World’s First to Receive USB-IF Certification:
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Sorry, the link isn’t clickable because of the four dots at the end of the URL. With a URL shortener it works: tinyurl.com/2xvrk5zl
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https://tinyurl.com/2xvrk5zl
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I have ordered this USB4 enclosure: https://www.hypershop.com/products/hyperdrive-next-usb4-nvme-ssd-enclosure made by HYPER a company created by Sanho Corporation and recently acquiered by Targus.
Will I find a ASMEDIA ASM2464PD controller inside it?
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Yes I expect it does have the ASM2464PD inside. Do post your Crystal Disk benchmark scores when you get it!
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actively waiting for this benchmark too lol
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What happens when you attach an enclosure based on the ASM2464PD controller to a Thunderbolt 4 port? A Thunderbolt 4 port supports USB 4 (up to 40Gb/s) on the Mac mini M2 Pro for example. Will the connection be negotiated to support the real-world 3600-3800MB/s ?
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The performance will vary depending on the Host PC implementation but in almost all instances, the throughout will exceed the equivalent Intel JHL7440 or JHL6xxx enclosures.
My understanding is that the Intel CPU or dedicated Maple Ridge host controllers like the JHL8540 /JHL8340 do not implement DisplayPort/USB bandwidth reservation like the expansion-device-specific JHL7440. So its possible to get the “full” bandwidth.
One example on an Intel platform: https://www.reddit.com/r/UsbCHardware/comments/16bqgtg/asm2464pd_usb4_throughput_testing_with_gpu_and/
On Mac, it should be the same.
I am not sure what happens when you connect the ASM enclosure to a Thunderbolt 3 host – I mean it will work, but I have no idea what the bandwidth would be.
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A TB 3 expansion device connected to a TB 4 host port establishes a PCIe Gen3x4 connection. Does the TB 4 host port maintain a PCIe Gen3x4 connection when connected to a USB4 device, which is offering Gen4×4 upstream?
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See this for some context: https://www.reddit.com/r/UsbCHardware/comments/16bqgtg/asm2464pd_usb4_throughput_testing_with_gpu_and/
On Intel platforms currently available, only PCIe gen3x4 can be tunneled.
On Mac I’m not sure but I suspect Gen3x4 is the limit as well.
On AMD platform, presumably Gen4x4 is possible with ASM4242 but I haven’t seen any evidence of this. I’m pretty sure AMD’s built-in USB4 implementation is limited to Gen3x4.
Upcoming Thunderbolt 5 and USB4 ASM4242 host controllers will be able to tunnel Gen4x4 from the host.
At the downstream device end, it appears that the ASM2464PD chip sustains PCIe Gen3x4 upstream while having a downstream Gen4x4 link. The host to device throughput would never exceed the Gen3x4 (~32Gb/s), but there may be some advantages in IOPS, scheduling, latency, etc by using the Gen4x4 link inside the enclosure. I’m not familiar enough with PCIe to understand if there would also be some fixed overhead penalty for having to “translate” or buffer Gen3 vs Gen4.
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Thank you Dan for providing such valuable information and keeping it updated. My main point of interest is portable SSDs and I have a YouTube channel on it in my local language (Turkish). I have just posted a video about USB4 enclosures and your blog has helped me so much during the research period. I currently own HyperDrive Next USB4 enclosure with ASM4242PD controller and had the chance to test it on a MacBook Pro M2 Max, an intel Z790 motherboard (Asus ROG Maximus Z790 Extreme) and on a laptop with AMD Ryzen 9 7940 HS processor (Asus TUF Gaming A15).
To give you and the other people reading this blog a quick summary, I can say that on Mac it reaches R: 3406 MB/W: 3220 MB per second. On intel Z790 mobo with Thunderbolt 4 ports it resulted in R: 3096 MB/W: 2917 MB per second. AMD system is where the controller shines and I was able to reach R: 3813 MB/W: 3826 MB per second speeds. On AMD system, I was able to copy a single 100 GB file in 42 seconds with an average speed of 2470 MB/s.
I would be glad to share further info with anyone who replies to my comment.
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Quite interesting – thank you.
I suspect the bottlenecks you’re seeing on the Intel platform is due to the JHL8540 chipset not wanting to saturate the bus in case DP or legacy-USB traffic comes along.
I think the AMD mainboard USB4 solutions will always be superior to Intel TB4 as they will not reserve bandwidth but just interleave as needed if/when DP and legacy-USB traffic show up.
Mac? Who ever knows what going on there 🙂
I think Thunderbolt 5 and USB4-v2 will make things even more interesting – in theory we can then run one of these SSDs AND have multiple DP monitors and USB without slowdowns all on one cable 🙂
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Dan! Thanks for this writeup! I made a blog post comparing two different NVMe on the HyperDrive and Zike Drive with my M2 MacBook Pro, and referenced your writeup as it was the start of my journey trying to build the fastest external SSD I feasibly could: https://benrabicoff.com/fastest-ssd/
From my understanding, the MacBook Pro caps out because you need PCIe 4.0 link rates through the entire chain, and Thunderbolt 3/4 on the MacBook Pro uses PCIe 3.0 x 4 lanes, limiting to 3,500 MB/s after PCIe overhead.
Much of this was over my head, but would love your take! Cheers!
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The HyperDrive I recently bought directly from Hyper a week ago did NOT come with an ASM2464 chip as far as I could tell.
The model number on the box says its a HD5001GL-90, and that it’s the “HyperDrive Next USB4 NVMe SSD Enclosure”
It benchmarks similar to what you’d get with a JHL7440 chip
It connects at 8 GT/s at 4x link width
System Information under macOS 14.2 beta 3 gives me this:
USB4 SSD DEVICE:
Vendor Name: HYPER
Device Name: USB4 SSD DEVICE
Mode: Thunderbolt 3
Device ID: 0x1701
Vendor ID: 0x339A
Device Revision: 0xE3
UID: 0x174C210D55882570
Route String: 3
Firmware Version: 12.34
Port (Upstream):
Status: Device connected
Link Status: 0x2
Speed: Up to 40 Gb/s x1
Current Link Width: 0x2
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The HyperDrive Next USB4 NVMe SSD Enclosure I received a few days ago does not seem to have an ASM2464 controller
here is what System Info says:
USB4 SSD DEVICE:
Vendor Name: HYPER
Device Name: USB4 SSD DEVICE
Mode: Thunderbolt 3
Device ID: 0x1701
Vendor ID: 0x339A
Device Revision: 0xE3
UID: 0x174C210D55882570
Route String: 3
Firmware Version: 12.34
Port (Upstream):
Status: Device connected
Link Status: 0x2
Speed: Up to 40 Gb/s x1
Current Link Width: 0x2
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Hi the Hyper does indeed have the ASMedia chip – but you won’t see the benefits on Current Mac models which are speed limited.
Plug it into an AMD CPU based PC with USB4 and you’ll immediately see the difference 🙂
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Hi DANCHAR, this website is pretty much the best site for enclosure chipsets. Many thanks for that. I am looking for an enclosure that allows me to update the firmware of SSDs. Unfortunately, this is now necessary again and again and not possible for me due to the lack of a desktop PC. Is there an enclosure out there that makes this possible? Possibly ZikeDrive USB4 NVMe SSD Enclosure Z666 with latest chipset? Thx.
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Thanks for the kind words.
For SSD firmware updates, the only reliable way is to connect the SSD to a desktop PC mainboard or laptop’s M.2 port and use the vendor’s bootable USB stick image to do the update.
With an external chassis it may still be possible but not recommended.
Assuming you can extract the actual firmware image from a vendor’s download package, you could experiment with the open source NVME tools and, in theory, load different firmware images into separate slots an switch between them:
https://nvmexpress.org/open-source-nvme-management-utility-nvme-command-line-interface-nvme-cli/
The same mechanism exists in Windows:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/storage/update-storagefirmware?view=windowsserver2022-ps
Unfortunately, that’s the extent of my knowledge in this area.
What is your need for SSD firmware updates?
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Thanks for your reply and inspirations, but its a bit too complicated for me :-). The reasons behind are mainly for that issue https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/02/samsung-releases-firmware-fix-for-rapid-failure-issue-in-new-990-pro-ssds/
or things like that https://www.techpowerup.com/310053/seagate-releases-directstorage-firmware-for-the-firecuda-530-ssd
It seems nowadays kepping a basic storage product also in the update loop is important, but what to do if you just have a notebook in place 😉 or a SSD in a PS5…
I hoped with actual SSD enclosure chipsets a direct connection to PCIe is possible, via ?Thunderbolt? and for the SSDs vendors update tool suite is now transparent, but it seems there is always a “bridge” in between :-(.
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Would this chipset give any advantage over the Acasis TB401 when used with a 2019 Macbook Pro that has a TB3 port?
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I doubt you’d see any difference on the older Macs – not worth swapping IMHO.
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I actually need to buy a new enclosure anyway, and prices don’t seem much different between TBU401/405 and the latest generation so figure I may as well go something future-proof. I’m looking for something as small as possible but with decent thermals. Have you tested any of the models with a fan? If you were buying now which one would you get? Thank you for any advice.
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Here’s another one (I think):
https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256806069118398.html
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By C-smartlink
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Hi,
Thanks for your writeup. I want to add a bit more info from my experience with two enclosures.
Computer is an M1 Mac Mini. SSD is a Solidigm P41 Plus 2TB which is a PCIe 4.0 Gen 4 NVME. Brand new.
I first purchased the Orico TCM2-U4 since I have owned other Orico enclosures and have been happy with them. Decent looking case. I like the crystal clear plastic, though the LED was a bit bright for my tastes. Fan noise was acceptable; about as loud as my Mac Mini’s fan, but silent would be better. Used the included USB cable.
Performance looked very good at first. 3600MB/sec reads and 2800MB/sec writes in Blackmagic Disk Speed test. However the speeds would drop off dramatically after a few minutes – down to below 1000MB/sec. I had a theory it was heat throttling, so I used smartctl and watched it. At idle, the SSD reported 55C (about 68F/20C room temperature). At load it would shoot up to about 70C after 30 seconds to a minute, and then throttling would happen, and it would be apparent in the smartcl report. Examining the drive carefully, it’s just a poorly designed enclosure. The fan circulates air from outside to inside the unit, but the heatsink doesn’t contact the drive directly (so why even bother including a thermal pad?), so it’s not doing an efficient job cooling as it’s relying on airflow past the bare SSD, not conduction through the heatsink.
I contacted Orico’s support team to inquire about the cooling and they pretty much said it was normal and expected behavior due to the design. Here’s what they said:
I’ve since returned the enclosure.
I then purchased a Maiwo K1695 enclosure. It does not have a fan, and uses a fairly standard approach of a thermal pad on the SSD, which touches the heatsink which is the outer aluminum case. It’s simple and effective – the case is warm, but not burningly hot. Performance is identical to the Orico (from System Profiler it appears they both use the ASMedia 246x chipset), but it doesn’t suffer from the same thermal throttling. It idles at about 40C, going up to 50C if I run benchmarks on it for 10 minutes straight to really heatsoak it. This is the one I’m keeping.
tl;dr Don’t bother with the Orico TCM2-U4 as it’s kneecapped with a poor thermal design and will throttle performance within minutes.
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I benchmarked both the Acasis TBU401 and the Zikedrive Z666 containing a Samsung 990 Pro 4TB attached to the thunderbolt port of my NUC-12 extreme.
Although sequential read performance was a spritely 3111 MB/s in both cases, I was disappointed to find that the write speed was only 463 MB/s for the Acasis and 466 MB/s for the Zike. I was able to achieve faster write speeds via USB 3.2×2 (1007 MB/s) than Thunderbolt.
danchar – do you have any idea why the write performance would be so much worse than read? I am wondering whether this is a prevalent issue affecting all 12th Gen Intel series PCs with thunderbolt 4 ports…
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I suspect this is a side effect of the specific firmware version loaded on the chassis. Try an alternate version from: https://www.station-drivers.com/index.php/en/component/remository/Drivers/Asmedia/ASM-2464-NVMe-USB-4.x-Controller-(40Gbps)/lang,en-gb/
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Thanks Danchar. I think I solved the issue. With external drives, by default windows does not check the “enable write caching on the device” flag in the Policies tab in the Properties found in Device Manager for the disk. When I enabled this I was able to achieve sequential write speeds of 2944 MB/s for the Acasis and 2985 MB/s for the Zike.
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Just looking at the OWC Express 1M2 on BH Photo and found the following interesting from their tech spec description:
“When used with a Thunderbolt 3 port on an Intel Mac or Windows computer, or a 10 Gb/s USB-C port on an iPad, Mac, or Windows computer, the Express 1M2 will run as a 10 Gb/s USB 3.2 Gen 2 device with speeds of up to 990 MB/s.”
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1801761-REG/owc_owcus4exp1mt01_1tb_express_1m2_portable.html
Unfortunately, I’m seeking an M2 enclosure (and possibly hub) solution for my Lenovo X280 (Win 11) business laptop, which only provides TB3 and USB-C 3.1 Gen 2 ports.
Click to access ThinkPad_X280_Spec.PDF
Would love the faster speeds and beautifully designed Express 1M2 enclosure, but not sure the added price is worth it given the far less expensive USB enclousure out there.
Thank you for the very helpful website.
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It looks like the hypedrive is sold out everywhere and possibly discontinued?
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Here’s another one. Prefer units with fans to have an on/off switch, but the design looks nice. PS – Only posting Amazon link because I can’t find it on UGreen website…
https://www.amazon.com/UGREEN-Enclosure-Anti-Drop-Compatible-Thunderbolt/dp/B0CLV3D3H6
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If anyone is having trouble with the Jeyi (or similar ASMedia 2464 based) USB4/TB enclosure having lower speeds than expected, it may need a firmware update. Until I installed the 2024 January 01 Jeyi firmware update, my enclosure was being reported in System Information / PCI (or System Information NVME, click on the external SSD) as a x2 link width PCI NVME controller.
Having only two lanes limited the bandwidth and the r/w performance of my (x4) NVME SSD, and for my use case it is significantly faster (almost but not quite twice as fast) after installing the new firmware. Your mileage may vary depending on the quality of your SSD–e.g. a fast PCIe 4.0 SSD might nearly reach USB4s practical maximums even when using only 2 PCI lanes, and a few SSDs might be x2 by design (rare nowadays, but some cheaper older SSDs were x2).
Note that although this problem seems to (either primarily or exclusively) affect Apple Silicon Macs, the firmware update tool runs only on windows. The files appear to be from ASMedia, so it might be possible to install this firmware on other enclosures.
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Does running the firmware update erase the NVME drive or cause data loss to it? Thanks
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Firmware updates generally do not affect the SSD data, however the vendor will always recommend a full backup prior to applying firmware. There is always a chance of bricking a device with any firmware change.
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I noticed this enclosure: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B0CR3PY8YL from Inateck (FE2028).
Does anybody know which chipset is using?
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I can confirm it is ASM2464
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Actually I can answer myself: Inateck FE2028 uses ASM2464.
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Hi Danchar en everyone here,
I am a noob when coming to this and have some questions. Is the enclosure not just an enclosure? What I mean with it, the board does all the work, so if I remove the board from the enclosure the board will still work, right? The reason for asking this is that I just want the board with the controller, no enclosure. I want you make an enclosure myself that is as thin as I can get it, with enough heat dissipation of course. Or is the firmware tied to the enclosure? So is it possible to order only the board? Or get the board? Hopefully my questions makes sense, if not let me know so I can explain it more.
kind regards,
Vids Yoh
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Yes you can safely extract the PCB and fashion your own bx with a superior heatsink with no ill effects. Many of these enclosures look nice but are not engineered with max cooling in mind.
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Great article. Thank you.
Question: These enclosures are listed as USB4. From reading, it seems Thunderbolt 4 specs exceed USB 4 specs. Are the enclosures with the ASM 2464 Thunderbolt 4 capable ? Or do they just meet the USB 4 specs ? Is this just a licensing issue ? Will a Thunderbolt 4 port on a motherboard work fully capable on one of these ASM2464 USB 4 enclosures ?
Thank you for any insights.
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Yes the ASM2464 enclosures are 100% Thunderbolt 4 compatible. In this context, Thunderbolt 4 is just a licensing nuance.
But this isn’t true for all USB4 devices. You can learn more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB4
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I can’t seem to get my JEYI TB2464 to connect to my Intel Titan Ridge (JHL7340) at TB3 speeds. I’m on Windows 11, I’ve upgraded the firmware on the AS2464PD controller to the latest one (March 8). On an M2 MacBook it works fine and I’m getting speeds up to 3000 MB/s. On Windows 11 the firmware tool shows it connects at “PLUSx1”, which seems to mean USB 3.1 SuperSpeedPlus (so 1 lane of 10Gbps). Sequential reads in Windows seem to max out at the 1 GBps mark so that about corresponds to that 10GBps lane. Has anyone had success in getting this to work at TB3 speeds in Win11 using a TB3 host?
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I have the same question, shoud i buy JEYI TB2464 or Acasis TBU405 for my Intel Nuc10?
I am afraid JEYI TB2464 will only connect with 10GBps , it is the same chipset as stated from
Steven on about the OWC drive.
I also have a Intel Nuc 11, this device got TB4 and should run fine with JEYI TB2464.
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Having Intel Nuc 11 is not a guarantee, as firmware versions matter as well.
Apparently NVM should be at least 46.1 or higher.
Adata is selling an external SSD based on TB2464, namely the model SE920, and they tested compatibility with various platforms; you can find their findings here: https://webapi3.adata.com/storage/downloadfile/SE920/SE920_Compatible_list.pdf
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Upgrading the NVM to v50 (from 46) didn’t make a difference for me.
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Which computer with Intel Mainboard do you have, Justin?
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Hello! Here’s another decent JHL7440 enclosure equipped with JMS583 for backwards compat: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/bitcube-carbon-fiber-40gbps-nvme-ssd-enclosure/x/14513277#/. I have it and it indeed can deliver slightly over 3,000 MB/s in synthetic tests.
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I’m trying to to update firmware for the ASM-2464PD in the Satechi ST-EU4NPM. It looks good it the updater software but at ~17% I get a message with “FAIL”. There are no other messages not even in the log file. The device still works as normal. I have tried several times. Has anyone seen this or have any suggestions?
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Are you using MPTools.exe ?
It is very quirky. If you are, I will reply with my observations about using the program.
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I’m using ASM246xMPTool.exe
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I have tried to post a detailed reply to DEVPATH and patrikthalin but I think the filtering service is blocking it.
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My experience is with the MPTool for the ASM235CM so the things I have observed may not apply to you, but I will share them anyway just in case they can help.
I have numerous enclosures with the AS Media ASM235CM acting as the USB to SATA bridge. I only recently acquired a motherboard that has USB C connections for Thunderbird 4 and power charging. So even though I have had the enclosures for awhile, it is only recently that I can use a USB C to USB C connection. Prior I was using USB C to USB A cables without a problem at 5 Gbps.
The enclosure from brand “B” has a firmware with date code for 2021. It works great with 10 Gbps transfer rates. The other enclosures from brand “A” have firmware date codes from 2017 and when they are connected to the same PC running Windows 10 Pro and using the same cable from the brand “B” enclosure, they connect at USB 2.0 speeds. So I felt that the firmware needed to be updated. I have not had success, but here is what I have learned about MPTool.
The AS Media firmware update package that you find on station-drivers or usbdev usually is a compressed file that contains the MPTool, the firmware .bin file, the .ini configuration file, and often .log files from whoever uploaded it, and .doc and .pdf files in Chinese. AS Media does not release the tool or firmware to end users. These packages are uploaded by people who have managed to get ahold of it.
The unlock code for this version of MPTool is asmedia
The firmware filename is yymmdd_Dx_xx_xx.bin The numbers to the left of the D are the date of the firmware. It is not the date it is uploaded to the website which can be very different. That is, an older firmware may have been loaded later than a newer one. The numbers to the right of the D are the version of the firmware for the particular company’s enclosure. The firmware has configuration information embedded into it for a particular enclosure for a particular company. SOME but NOT ALL can be changed in the configuration .INI file. The .INI file has plain english description of preliminary settings and Vendor ID Code and Product ID Code of the bridge circuit. AS Media’s vendor code is 174C For reasons unknown, some manufacturers like to substitute their own manufacturer Vendor ID Code which makes it very hard for Windows to know what driver to load for the enclosure. The product ID Code is another headache. Nowhere can I find the correct code for the ASM235CM. Sometimes it is called ASM2235 or ASMT2235. The brand “B” enclosure I have which functions correctly uses Product ID Code 55AA which applies to about 4 different AS Media bridge chips, but none of them are the ASM235CM. So Windows lists the device as a different chip, but in brand “B” enclosure it works just fine. I tell you all this because you may think you have the right firmware, but is it really right? Sometimes you can look directly at the circuit board and see what is there. Other times, the chip is covered up and you have no idea what is really soldered in there. RESIST THE URGE TO POKE AROUND WITH YOUR FINGERS UNLESS YOU ARE WEARING GROUND STRAPS ON YOUR WRIST AND ANKLE. These devices are very sensitive to static electric.
There are two parts to updating firmware with this tool, the configuation and the firmware itself. When you update the configuration, it seems to set the chip back to some preliminary version of the firmware. This may be some type of failsafe. When you update the firmware itself, it overwrites SOME of the configuration information based on what is embedded in the firmware .bin file. If you try to update both at once, it will fail. If you do not set the firmware filename and path and configuration filename and path both in the .INI file (use a plain text editor like NOTEPAD and save the original first), and also in the MPTool dialog, it will fail.
If you are doing this on the AS235CM, you need to use a USB C to USB A cable.
Update the configuration ONLY first by unchecking the boxes in the tool regarding the firmware and reflash. It should work quickly if you set the values in the .INI file correctly and loaded it into the MPTool dialog. Eject, power off/unplug. Wait 10 seconds, then power back on/plug back in.
Then, update the firmware ONLY by checking the firmware and reflash boxes, but unchecking the update configuration box. ALSO UNCHECK THE ADVANCE SERIAL NUMBER BOX. Remember, this was intended to by a mass production tool. It will take longer to update the firmware. When done, pass or fail, eject, power off/unplug, wait 10 seconds, then power on/plug in again.
Hope this helps.
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