OWCExpress 4M2 4-Slot M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosure w/ Thunderbolt3 Ports with SoftRaid XT

So far this has been working fabulously for me. Yes the fan is too loud but overall performance of the enclosure itself with the way I have it configured as been perfect for me.I am using this as my primary RAID for video production. Mainly editing 4k and 6k .BRAW 8:1 footage - usually @ 23.97fps, but sometimes 60fps as well. I’m currently on the 2023 version of Premiere with Mac OS Ventura. This things screams. Tested with the BlackMagic Disk Speed Test app I’m getting just over 2900 MB/s.I’ve loaded it up with 4x 2tb Samsung 970 EVO Plus’s and built as a RAID 0 using Mac OS Ventura’s Disk Utility and formatted as GUID APFS. I did not want to be bound to OWC’s SoftRAID software because I need this to occasionally move to different Macs and I don’t want to rely on a 3rd party piece of software to access my data.Getting 4 fast M.2’s and doing a RAID 0 is the key to getting the enclosure’s advertised speed. I see many people make the mistake of only putting one or two drives in, or doing a RAID 1 on 4 drives. I knew this going into it and already had most of the M.2’s on hand so it wasn’t an issue for me, but something for everyone to keep in mind.I’ve tested the daisy chaining ability out by connecting a USB-C monitor that has a keyboard and mouse KVM’d to it and the Mac sees everything and I cannot detect any r/w performance hits when using it. I have not tested the display port on this yet.Power-wise the enclosure automatically powers down overall, once my Mac has turned off. I say “overall” because the fan and front LED turns off and the M.2’s do not generate any more heat so I assume they are off. But the blue LEDs inside are still lit.Speaking of heat. The M.2’s generate a ton of heat. And as many of you probably know by now, the fan is pretty loud. To that end, I decided to take the advice of other users online and purchased low profile copper heat sinks for them. I also changed out the very loud 12v 60mmx15mm fan with a 24v one. Because the enclosures is only providing 12 V to that fan, it spins at half speed. That has cut down the sound issues considerably and seems to keep air moving well. The unit feels cooler than it was before the fan and heatsink upgrade.For those of you who would like to do the same.This is the fan (its a tad smaller at 10mm thick”:https://a.co/d/8IbOUmLThe fan needs a 2-3 pin adapter:https://a.co/d/gzv6xqDAnd the heat sinks:https://a.co/d/7fW4Whh

The OWC Express 4M2 is a well-built M.2 NVMe enclosure with Thunderbolt 3 connectivity, but potential buyers should be aware of some misleading performance expectations.The product description advertises over 2,000MB/s speeds, which is what initially drew me in. However, after reading the fine print in the manual, I discovered that individual drives are limited to 817 MB/s reads and 711 MB/s writes due to the constraints of the 1X PCIe 3.0 bus. This was a big disappointment, as I had expected significantly better speeds for single-drive use.That said, if you configure it in RAID 0 using SoftRAID XT, you can achieve the advertised speeds—but that’s not how most people use these enclosures. If you’re planning to use it for individual NVMe drives or anything other than striped RAID, you won’t get anywhere near the claimed speeds.Pros:✔ Solid aluminum build – Feels premium and durable.✔ Four M.2 slots – Good capacity for expansion.✔ RAID support – You can configure RAID 0 for higher speeds.Cons:✖ Misleading speed claims – The advertised 2,000MB/s is only achievable in RAID 0.✖ Single-drive speeds are much lower – Capped at 817 MB/s read and 711 MB/s write.✖ SoftRAID software isn’t great – Some compatibility and setup frustrations.

I bought this for "bulk storage" through thunderbolt. The options are shocking limited unless you are looking at $500+, which I was not. With falling ssd prices, filling this with 4x2tb WD Blue nvme ssds was a very good value (roughly $700). Speed is, well, as advertised. There are practical limits to the thunderbolt spec so each drive gets a single pcie lane. This translates to about 800mbps in CrystalDiskMark, with 2 and 3 scaling linearly. 4x tops out at 2700mbps, which again, this is more a limit of the thunderbolt spec than the device. The best part is that since each drive get it's own lane, you can actually use this as a raid device! USB controllers suffer from bandwidth bottlenecks, with an enclosure needing physical raid to achieve speed. Not here. Thunderbolt does all the heavy lifting.Overall, very satisfied with the performance.My only gripe is the noise. Please OWC, just put a decent fan in the damn thing and charge $5 more, or have it be temperature controlled, something. It sits ~6ft away and you can 100% tell it's there and running. Seems like a stupid place to cheap out especially since the whole thing is surprisingly user serviceable with only phillips heads needed to install the drives and made with very solid metal construction