Article: USB 4.0 Is A No-Go, For Now

[bobfa]

I am using the  OWC ThunderBay Flex 8 as a DAS.  I have a 2TB NVME drive in one of the top bays and an 18TB Spinner in the lower bay.  Now the spinner is SATA so that is the bottleneck.  Note that the NVME in my ThunderBay is a two year old drive from the Samsung external T5 drive case.

 

NOTE I changed the fan in the ThunderBay to something a lot quieter.  Still hear the HD tick !!!

 

 

The M1 Mac mini has two Thunderbolt Ports and busses Each port is USB 4 with Thunderbolt 4 that can split out into two busses each.  I have one hooked to my 4k Display and the other to the ThunderBay.:

 

 

 

This is the internal drive:

This is the NVME in the Thunderbay:

 

This is the NAS spinner in the Thunderbay:

 

[bobfa]

52 minutes ago, jcbenten said:

NOTE:  ALL ANECDOTAL...NO SPEED TESTING PERFORMED.

 

I salvaged a couple of 512GB Samsung NVME OEM drives from a laptop that could not withstand a quick shower.  I put them in different housings (I can look them up if need be) and have USB-C connectors.  Off the top of my head...I have no idea of the specifications they "adhere" to...but they seem pretty quick.  Quick enough that I use my myriad of spinning drives (1.5 TB to 4 TB) to store stuff I may never see or use again.

 

No surprise to me that the USB 4 spec is out with no hardware available.  If the chip shortage is sidelining F150s no one wants spend fab space on geeky stuff.

There is some USB 4 hardware out there, but not much.  OWC sells a couple of Docking station things.  I am sure there are others.