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Review on Thunderbolt 3 Dual-Slot M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosure with Thunderbolt 2 Compatibility for New M1 CPU by Matt Vanlaere

Revainrating 5 out of 5

Do not use with Apple Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 + Samsung 960 EVO (non-pro) adapter

I bought this case hoping to use it with a Samsung 960 NVMe 2280 m.2 SSD that I connect to my Mac Pro trash can via an Apple Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 (Apple th3x2) adapter wanted features 6 built-in Thunderbolt ports. Unfortunately, as this is a 2013 design, all of these ports are Thunderbolt 2 only. Unfortunately, plugging the case directly into the Apple Thunderbolt adapter does not provide (enough?) power to the drive inside the case. While the Apple Th3x2 adapter is bidirectional, it appears that a Thunderbolt 3 device connected to this adapter must provide its own power supply, which the Trebleet enclosure does not. I then decided to try a different, somewhat cumbersome approach, which has proven successful to some extent. Since I already have a Caldigit TS3+ Dock, I used an Apple Thunderbolt 3-2 Adapter to connect my Mac Pro to TS3+ via a Thunderbolt 2 cable connected to an Apple Thunderbolt 3-2 Adapter and the adapter to TS+ associate. I then used the Thunderbolt 3 cable that comes with the Trebleet case to connect it directly to the TS3+'s Thunderbolt 3 port. To my surprise, this provided (enough?) power to the drive and everything worked from there, including booting from an NVMe drive in the trebleet enclosure. Why did I say I kind of worked upstairs? Because the writing speed was only about 585MB. /s, and the write speed was only about 1250MB/s. The Samsung EVO 960 (Non-Pro) doesn't hold the write/read speed record by any means, but I suppose it could be better. If anyone has input on how to get it working directly with a Mac Pro, I'm all ears.

Pros
  • It's OK!
Cons
  • I don't remember