OWC Envoy Extremely evaluation: Tremendous-fast Thunderbolt 5 storage in your new M4 Professional/Max Mac

Value When Reviewed

$400 for 2TB

Finest Costs Right this moment: OWC Envoy Extremely Thunderbolt 5 SSD

Should you’re trying to take full benefit of the Thunderbolt 5 ports in your M4 Professional Mac mini or M4 Professional/Max MacBook Professional and probably circumvent Apple’s avaricious storage improve pricing, you must contemplate OWC’s Envoy Extremely Thunderbolt 5 exterior SSD. The Envoy Extremely is hardly low-cost, but it surely’s nowhere close to what Apple costs.

On the draw back, there are extra backwards compatibility points than anticipated.

Thunderbolt 5 compatibility

Whereas the pace is alluring, and Thunderbolt 5 itself is backwards suitable with older Thunderbolt specs, it’s not practically as backwards suitable as you would possibly assume, we want, or is hinted at.

First, you want a Thunderbolt 5-enabled Mac or Home windows PC to take full benefit of Thunderbolt 5’s 80Gbps switch charges. 80Gbps? Sure. Whereas you will have seen 120GBps quoted in some articles as Thunderbolt 5’s prime pace, that’s solely unidirectional for shows. Bi-directional, as with storage, is restricted to 80Gbps.

The primary compatibility challenge is that to make the most of a Thunderbolt 5 drive, Apple silicon Macs want both macOS 14 Sonoma, or macOS 15 Sequoia. Thunderbolt 3 Macs with Intel chips should run Sequoia. Be aware that the Envoy Extremely did enumerate on my Mac Studio Thunderbolt 4 bus once I was again on Ventura, but it surely wasn’t obtainable in Disk Utility or Finder.

Additionally, whereas the Envoy Extremely’s captive cable prevents me from testing it on older Thunderbolt 1/2 utilizing an adapter, the picture above signifies that that is off the desk. OWC confirmed that Thunderbolt 5 gained’t work with the older requirements, so follow Thunderbolt 3 gear for older Macs.

Jon L. Jacobi

Moreover, in my testing for PCWorld, there was a slightly giant challenge with the official check mattress. That challenge is that the Envoy Extremely fully didn’t register within the BIOS, Disk Supervisor, or Thunderbolt utility. Oops. That is regardless of updating all of the drivers, eradicating all the things non-essential, and even updating Home windows 11 to the newest launch on the check mattress. Finally, a BIOS/Thunderbolt firmware replace from Asus solved the difficulty.

This iffy backwards compatibility could possibly be an issue should you’re working in a blended working system setting. Some older gear won’t be up to date.

Options

The OWC Envoy Extremely shares the good-looking, sculpted styling of the Thunderbolt 3 40Gbps/USB 3.2 10Gbps Envoy Professional FX. Nonetheless, it’s a bit bigger chunk of black metallic, measuring about 0.75 inches thick, 2.8 inches extensive, and 5 inches lengthy. The Envoy Extremely weighs in at a satisfyingly substantial 10.5 ounces or so.

I already talked about the captive cable, which is for weatherproofing (it’s not IP-rated, but it surely appears as if it might move the exams) and ensuring you possibly can’t lose it. It does, nonetheless, make it a bit tougher to stow the Envoy Extremely in tight quarters. Additionally, as with all captive cables, you must keep away from stressing the attachment level for longevity’s sake.

The OWC Envoy Extremely carries a three-year guarantee, however no TBW (Terabytes that could be Written) ranking was given.

Value

Should you thought a Thunderbolt 5 SSD was going to be low-cost….effectively, I’ve some attention-grabbing actual property properties you could be keen on. The Envoy Extremely prices a cool $400 in its 2TB type and $600 at 4TB.

Given you could seize a Thunderbolt 3/USB4 SSD for roughly half that, and a 20/10Gbps unit for much lower than half, you’d higher really want or need the pace. Be aware nonetheless, that regardless of a brand new 20Gbps 3.2×2 tunneling protocol which will work with docking stations, 3.2×2 SSDs nonetheless drop to 10Gbps when hooked up on to a Thunderbolt 5 port. 20Gbps USB4 SSDs will function at full pace hooked up to Thunderbolt 5.

Then once more, in contrast with Apple’s egregious value gouging for inner storage upgrades ($1,200 for 4TB???), the Envoy Extremely is a unbelievable cut price.

Efficiency

Quick reply: Very quick. Benchmarks confirmed anyplace from 5.2GBps (Blackmagicdesign’s Disk Velocity Take a look at), to six.5GBps studying (AmorphousDiskMark), to close 7GBps studying and 5.57GBps writing (ATTO). Even my real-world learn of roughly 330GB of .mov recordsdata confirmed a superb flip of type–virtually 6GBps studying. Alas, writing was significantly slower, solely round 1.5GBps.

Be aware I copied to and from the identical M4 Professional MacBook Professional (2TB) that I ran the artificial benchmarks on. By the use of comparability, and for the enlightenment of those that could be trying to keep away from paying ridiculous sums for Apple’s inner storage, I included the benchmark outcomes from the MacBook’s inner SSD. These are proven to the appropriate of the OWC Envoy Extremely’s within the photographs beneath.

The distinction between the interior and exterior storage isn’t as extreme as you would possibly anticipate. Lengthy story brief, learn outcomes are remarkably shut for probably the most half, although the interior SSD was deal quicker writing below practically all circumstances.

Be aware that the quickest exterior SSD we’ve beforehand examined, the USB4 Adata SE920 solely simply exceeded 3GBps studying. Sure…Very quick.

AmorphousDiskMark confirmed higher numbers for the Envoy Extremely studying–a slightly scintillating 6.44GBps. Not that far off the MacBook Professional M4 Professional’s inner SSD. Roughly 5GBps writing from the Envoy Extremely appears to be the consensus from all three artificial benchmarks.

ATTO Disk Benchmark paints largely the identical image, although learn speeds for the Envoy Extremely really exceeded these of the MacBook Professional M4 Professional’s inner SSD. Writes? No, although round 5GBps is hardly something to sneeze at.

Though our real-world file writes didn’t match the benchmarks, they had been nonetheless fairly good. In whole, the OWC Envoy Extremely is a really good improve performance-wise from the typical Thunderbolt 3 SSD, and a worthy companion for any Thunderbolt 5 Mac.

Be aware that the SSD contained in the Envoy Extremely is the Auro Professional IV. You possibly can learn extra about its efficiency (good on the time, not a lot now) in sister publication PCWorld’s evaluation. That stated, the Envoy Extremely, as soon as working on our up to date check mattress, turned in a really, very sluggish 450GB write time.

Must you purchase the OWC Envoy Extremely?

In order for you, and may afford absolutely the quickest storage in your new Thunderbolt 5 Mac, then the reply is sure. Have at it. Additionally, it’s a heck of loads cheaper than Apple’s rapaciously priced inner storage and practically as quick. That stated, Thunderbolt 3/USB4 SSDs are nonetheless loads quick, cheaper, and way more suitable with older Mac {hardware} and software program. I’ll depart the worth equation as much as you.