I should have mentioned the fan noise. it’s a small fan, but much larger than the one in the Trebleet. Not really high pitched, I don’t think it’s cranked up very fast. It really is very quiet. Using an app on an iPhone (not very scientific I know) from 1 foot away I am reading 30 db, when I disconnect the drive it drops to 26 db. I noticed on Acasis’s site, they have introduced the TB 501 Pro, which adds a switch to turn the fan off and on. A good option, as really the only time you would need the fan is when pushing the drive hard, and with some SSD’s like the Samsung EVO Plus, which runs amazingly cool probably never need the fan.
Great work on this. I would modify one point though. Thunderbolt 5 is really a derivative of USB 4 (specifically V2) and not of previous Thunderbolt By calling it USB 4 V2 some of the mandatory parts of TB 5 are not required. The actual chip that Acasis is using is the Intel JHL9480 which is the Barlow Ridge TB5 one. So the speeds should still be the same between the two.
thanks for that info. Because of posts like yours I’ve been doing some research. As you mentioned I thought that USB4 v2 leveraged technology in TB5, similar to how USB4 adopted TB3, but as you said, it’s the other way around. TB5 adopted USB4 v2 protocols, and it seems the main difference at this point is Intels TB5 specs are a little more strict, and you must have Intel certify devices to use the TB logo. Does that seem like a decent “dumbed” down version of something that’s probably more complicated, or am I missing something?
@@cwaynefox - seems like you are saying the same as Wayne. The biggest pain in the anatomy (PITA) now has become that these standards need proper cables. USB-C only standardises the connectors, nothing else. TB cables may have a nr on them that means something. What we really need is the addition of TB or USB to that number. And we need the addition of Watts, maybe on the other side of the connector with the TB or USB protocol/speed version number. Say 65W, 100W, 200W. Up to some 8..12 inches of cable length, the cables may be completely passive and data speed may not be an issue. Longer cables will need a chip in each connector that does multiplexing between the two ends. One of the original mythbuster guys has a video on why an Apple TB cable of some 4 ft is more than US$ 100, or so. A see-through (CT?) scan of that cable reveals a network of multiple strands for data, as well as multiple strands for power. As there are two different approaches to going above original 5V/1A (IIRC) of old USG 2, for power relay, Power Delivery (PD) and the other one, I would also want that version added to the Watts, like, say, PD 3. This has become very finicky and my powerbank may or may not work with a device, depending on the cable I put in between. And if it works, it may not go fast. E.g. 100W PD3 on one side of the connector and TB4 on the other. Or my camera may not work with a lot of things in tethering. It's a total PITA without labelled-on standards.
@@cwaynefox Looks like the same trick used on 20 Gbps USB 3.2 v2 (doesn't work on Macs though) BTW: WD SN850X shouldn't have its cache overflow as quickly as the Samsung
@@cwaynefox Yes, correct. One thing that should be emphasized is that their is a wattage support difference. This is not that important if all you are doing with the cable is hooking up an external disk like in the video. The caution should be that if you are like me and have a bunch of Thunderbolt cables in a drawer, it could bite you when charging devices like Thunderbolt 5 docks are more prevalent. TB5 requires support for 240W charging and therefore the TB5 cable must be capable of that. So if you reached in the drawer and grabbed a TB4 cable to hook it to the dock and then to some new device that needs more current than 100W, it's a problem. USB-4v2 is even more irritating as it could be 60W or 240W. It would be as big an issue here as if it doesn't have TB label on some sort, you probably wouldn't grab it.
In an Article from 2023/05/27 Micron's Jon Tanguy, who works on SSDs under the company's Crucial product group ... explains, is happiest within a relatively narrow temperature band. "NAND flash actually likes to be 'hot' in that 60° to 70° [Celsius] range in order to program a cell because when it's that hot, those electrons can move a little bit easier ... " was posted on the Register but I can't post the link here. Thanks for testing, well done!
@@jfkastner thanks. I found the article you’re referring to. Very interesting. I’ve known that NAND memory operates better when warm but never seen an actual temperature associated with that concept.
Thanks for your efforts with another great review! Interesting that the USB4 gives higher speeds compared to TB4! Probably the USB4v2 cheaper compared to the TB5 license, without any compromise for storage connections. USB naming scheme is a mess since USB3, seems they follow that, not mentioning the USB-C cables, where you can’t be sure what you get for your money, regards the bandwidth, number of lanes and power transmission… You can go even lower with the SSD cost if you after oem or used drives, so it’s a no brainer. I also saw a Trebleet TB5 enclosure with additional power USB-C on it, so it probably help the port on the MAC as it not asking high power output, extending the life span of the voltage regulator of the laptop. Saw a lot of issues with previous M MacBooks with fried voltage regulators, let’s hope 🍎 changed those as TB5 can deliver higher power compared to TB4
Brilliant Wayne, you very considerately covered the large file concerns (400GB), caching, and the temperatures. I wonder tho, does this support booting and running a OS from this ACASIS model? I am looking now for an equivalent ACASIS model or other, that performs this well (Over 5Gbs) to clone two (2) drives.
Hey, I'm new to Mac computers. What is the diagnostic app you are using to show up the drive temparatures and so on? Where can I find it? Thank you for your videos, btw. :-)
Bing very old school the reason we went serial was it was faster than parallel data transfer so it would seem the 1:1 on the stack would be faster than 1:3?
thanks for pointing this out. Sorry I missed this, it runs so quiet I didn’t think to add it. but at my age my ears aren’t as sensitive as many. I pinned a comment at the top to discuss this.
Note to everyone regarding TB5 cables: don’t buy new cables just to get the little “5” printed on them. TB3 and TB4 PASSIVE (!) cables can do TB5 speeds just fine. Lots of engineers worked very hard to make your 40 Gbps (passive) cables work at 80 Gbps. Active 40 Gbps cables are stuck at 40 Gbps. And there currently are no active 80 Gbps cables yet.
I appreciate that info. didn’t think about that, but since active cables circuitry has to somehow managed the data, they would be locked in at whatever speed they are designed to operate at. Makes sense. I tested Apples 3 meter cable (best active cable I have) and I get about 3800MPS connected directly to the MacBook Pro, down from the 5800 I can get with any of my short (passive cables). I tried CalDigit, OWC, Apple, and Cable Matters passive cables and they all gave exactly the same results. I did see OWC has Optical TB5 cables coming which are rated at 80/120 Gbps, be interested to try one of them out. might be the only way to get cables over 1 meters (expensive)
@ I didn’t expect optical cables so soon, that will be cool. The active non-optical cables should be out soon, there’s nothing so different about the PAM3 encoding of TB5 that makes 2-meter electrical active cables impossible, they just aren’t ready yet I think. Glad your hardware tests bear out what would be expected, it doesn’t always go that way.
I have the Acasis and it's working well. I also have the OWC Hub and noticed that it's also USB4 v2. It does not work with the OWC TB Hub i.e. I was unable to chain them.
I have been running my OWC TB5 hub through its paces and I can chain the OWC TB4 hub, as well as the CalDigit hub. speed is an issue, with nothing else in that chain, I can only get about 6-700 MB/s write, and 2800 MB/s read from the Acasis 501.. I might try using the CalDigit downstream from the OWC TB5 hub, but just for maybe one 4k60hz display and USB ports connected to things like printers and scanners. Hope to have a video by Tues with quite a bit of throughput testing of the OWC.
The Acasis 401, not the Acasis 401 Pro? so no fan?, Using a SSD that runs “hot” might be a problem. However, you might want to check to make sure the thermal pad is thick enough and high quality. The 1mm provided pad was not thick enough for my Samsung 990 EVO Plus in my 401 pro or my 501, I’m not sure how that SSD compares to the 980 in thickness.
@ no room for a heat sink in these enclosures. The cooling system seems to work pretty well as long as your thermal pad can make good contact with the case. The western digital doesn’t ever seem to get above 125° even when I push it hard.
I should have mentioned the fan noise. it’s a small fan, but much larger than the one in the Trebleet. Not really high pitched, I don’t think it’s cranked up very fast. It really is very quiet. Using an app on an iPhone (not very scientific I know) from 1 foot away I am reading 30 db, when I disconnect the drive it drops to 26 db. I noticed on Acasis’s site, they have introduced the TB 501 Pro, which adds a switch to turn the fan off and on. A good option, as really the only time you would need the fan is when pushing the drive hard, and with some SSD’s like the Samsung EVO Plus, which runs amazingly cool probably never need the fan.
Great work on this. I would modify one point though. Thunderbolt 5 is really a derivative of USB 4 (specifically V2) and not of previous Thunderbolt By calling it USB 4 V2 some of the mandatory parts of TB 5 are not required. The actual chip that Acasis is using is the Intel JHL9480 which is the Barlow Ridge TB5 one. So the speeds should still be the same between the two.
thanks for that info. Because of posts like yours I’ve been doing some research. As you mentioned I thought that USB4 v2 leveraged technology in TB5, similar to how USB4 adopted TB3, but as you said, it’s the other way around. TB5 adopted USB4 v2 protocols, and it seems the main difference at this point is Intels TB5 specs are a little more strict, and you must have Intel certify devices to use the TB logo. Does that seem like a decent “dumbed” down version of something that’s probably more complicated, or am I missing something?
@@cwaynefox - seems like you are saying the same as Wayne. The biggest pain in the anatomy (PITA) now has become that these standards need proper cables. USB-C only standardises the connectors, nothing else. TB cables may have a nr on them that means something. What we really need is the addition of TB or USB to that number. And we need the addition of Watts, maybe on the other side of the connector with the TB or USB protocol/speed version number. Say 65W, 100W, 200W.
Up to some 8..12 inches of cable length, the cables may be completely passive and data speed may not be an issue. Longer cables will need a chip in each connector that does multiplexing between the two ends. One of the original mythbuster guys has a video on why an Apple TB cable of some 4 ft is more than US$ 100, or so. A see-through (CT?) scan of that cable reveals a network of multiple strands for data, as well as multiple strands for power.
As there are two different approaches to going above original 5V/1A (IIRC) of old USG 2, for power relay, Power Delivery (PD) and the other one, I would also want that version added to the Watts, like, say, PD 3.
This has become very finicky and my powerbank may or may not work with a device, depending on the cable I put in between. And if it works, it may not go fast. E.g. 100W PD3 on one side of the connector and TB4 on the other. Or my camera may not work with a lot of things in tethering. It's a total PITA without labelled-on standards.
@@cwaynefox Looks like the same trick used on 20 Gbps USB 3.2 v2 (doesn't work on Macs though)
BTW: WD SN850X shouldn't have its cache overflow as quickly as the Samsung
@@cwaynefox Yes, correct. One thing that should be emphasized is that their is a wattage support difference. This is not that important if all you are doing with the cable is hooking up an external disk like in the video. The caution should be that if you are like me and have a bunch of Thunderbolt cables in a drawer, it could bite you when charging devices like Thunderbolt 5 docks are more prevalent. TB5 requires support for 240W charging and therefore the TB5 cable must be capable of that. So if you reached in the drawer and grabbed a TB4 cable to hook it to the dock and then to some new device that needs more current than 100W, it's a problem. USB-4v2 is even more irritating as it could be 60W or 240W. It would be as big an issue here as if it doesn't have TB label on some sort, you probably wouldn't grab it.
Thanks Wayne.
In an Article from 2023/05/27 Micron's Jon Tanguy, who works on SSDs under the company's Crucial product group ... explains, is happiest within a relatively narrow temperature band. "NAND flash actually likes to be 'hot' in that 60° to 70° [Celsius] range in order to program a cell because when it's that hot, those electrons can move a little bit easier ... "
was posted on the Register but I can't post the link here. Thanks for testing, well done!
@@jfkastner thanks. I found the article you’re referring to. Very interesting. I’ve known that NAND memory operates better when warm but never seen an actual temperature associated with that concept.
Thanks for your efforts with another great review! Interesting that the USB4 gives higher speeds compared to TB4! Probably the USB4v2 cheaper compared to the TB5 license, without any compromise for storage connections. USB naming scheme is a mess since USB3, seems they follow that, not mentioning the USB-C cables, where you can’t be sure what you get for your money, regards the bandwidth, number of lanes and power transmission… You can go even lower with the SSD cost if you after oem or used drives, so it’s a no brainer. I also saw a Trebleet TB5 enclosure with additional power USB-C on it, so it probably help the port on the MAC as it not asking high power output, extending the life span of the voltage regulator of the laptop. Saw a lot of issues with previous M MacBooks with fried voltage regulators, let’s hope 🍎 changed those as TB5 can deliver higher power compared to TB4
Brilliant Wayne, you very considerately covered the large file concerns (400GB), caching, and the temperatures. I wonder tho, does this support booting and running a OS from this ACASIS model? I am looking now for an equivalent ACASIS model or other, that performs this well (Over 5Gbs) to clone two (2) drives.
unfortunately I can’t answer that, since I don’t boot from any of these devices, and I’ve never made a “boot” drive for my Mac.
Hey, I'm new to Mac computers. What is the diagnostic app you are using to show up the drive temparatures and so on? Where can I find it? Thank you for your videos, btw. :-)
Thanks for that test/review. What app are you using to display drive temps?
Use a MacOS app called TG Pro
@@cwaynefox Thank you!
Stupid me, it's in the App title bar 🤣
Thank you for this content , can you tell me which software you are using to read the temperature of the external ssd …thank you 👍
TG Pro for MacOS
Bing very old school the reason we went serial was it was faster than parallel data transfer so it would seem the 1:1 on the stack would be faster than 1:3?
Don’t know how loud the fan noise. Since the fan is small, the fan noise should be high frequency
thanks for pointing this out. Sorry I missed this, it runs so quiet I didn’t think to add it. but at my age my ears aren’t as sensitive as many. I pinned a comment at the top to discuss this.
Note to everyone regarding TB5 cables: don’t buy new cables just to get the little “5” printed on them. TB3 and TB4 PASSIVE (!) cables can do TB5 speeds just fine. Lots of engineers worked very hard to make your 40 Gbps (passive) cables work at 80 Gbps. Active 40 Gbps cables are stuck at 40 Gbps. And there currently are no active 80 Gbps cables yet.
I appreciate that info. didn’t think about that, but since active cables circuitry has to somehow managed the data, they would be locked in at whatever speed they are designed to operate at. Makes sense. I tested Apples 3 meter cable (best active cable I have) and I get about 3800MPS connected directly to the MacBook Pro, down from the 5800 I can get with any of my short (passive cables). I tried CalDigit, OWC, Apple, and Cable Matters passive cables and they all gave exactly the same results.
I did see OWC has Optical TB5 cables coming which are rated at 80/120 Gbps, be interested to try one of them out. might be the only way to get cables over 1 meters (expensive)
@ I didn’t expect optical cables so soon, that will be cool. The active non-optical cables should be out soon, there’s nothing so different about the PAM3 encoding of TB5 that makes 2-meter electrical active cables impossible, they just aren’t ready yet I think. Glad your hardware tests bear out what would be expected, it doesn’t always go that way.
I have the Acasis and it's working well. I also have the OWC Hub and noticed that it's also USB4 v2. It does not work with the OWC TB Hub i.e. I was unable to chain them.
I have been running my OWC TB5 hub through its paces and I can chain the OWC TB4 hub, as well as the CalDigit hub. speed is an issue, with nothing else in that chain, I can only get about 6-700 MB/s write, and 2800 MB/s read from the Acasis 501.. I might try using the CalDigit downstream from the OWC TB5 hub, but just for maybe one 4k60hz display and USB ports connected to things like printers and scanners. Hope to have a video by Tues with quite a bit of throughput testing of the OWC.
Rather than thermal pad. Would you get the SSD with heat sink instead?
Heat sink wouldn't fit in these external enclosures. SSD with heat sink is targeted for internal use.
Being New to Apple OS what is the Program (Upper Right) that shows Temps?
@@HoundDogMech is called TG pro
I have an Acasis TB401 + Samsung 980 Pro and it runs hot and is not recommended as bootdrive. Is booting from a Acasis TB501 better?
The heat may be because of the 980. David “Devo” Harry has a video in which he says the acasis/980 pairing is not a good one.
The Acasis 401, not the Acasis 401 Pro? so no fan?, Using a SSD that runs “hot” might be a problem. However, you might want to check to make sure the thermal pad is thick enough and high quality. The 1mm provided pad was not thick enough for my Samsung 990 EVO Plus in my 401 pro or my 501, I’m not sure how that SSD compares to the 980 in thickness.
Is there any tariff inusa if i order from acasis?
@@abusayeed892 no tariff unless Acasis deals with it and includes it in their online price. I didn’t pay any additional charges.
@ can 990 pro with heat sink be installed?
@ no room for a heat sink in these enclosures. The cooling system seems to work pretty well as long as your thermal pad can make good contact with the case. The western digital doesn’t ever seem to get above 125° even when I push it hard.
@ thnx for the info .