OWC Envoy Pro FX 2TB Portable NVMe M.2 SSD

Its pricey but works perfectly so its worth it. Never gets hot. Really fast (dont know data rate) connected to the Thunderbolt port. So, far, a real jewel

Great product! Super fast and reliable

I swapped out the included drive for a 980 pro very easily and I’m getting fantastic speeds (3000 read/3000 right on average), and so far the drive is staying reasonably cool. The way they have the ssd mounted, the heat goes up into the electronics, and the silicone pad is actually affixed to the bottom panel you remove to mount, so that’s odd, but so far it’s good. I spent a ton of time testing NVME thunderbolt enclosures and different drives, and this combination is solid. It’s not the cheapest way to go, but I’ve got fantastic speed (for PCIE gen 3), waterproof/dustproof/bombproof, TB3 with backwards compatibility all for roughly $200 less than the glyph atom pro or Lacey rugged pro, if I could even find one to buy. I’ll update if anything changes. Good luck!

I use this 2TB version as an external boot drive to try out new macOS versions before installing them on my internal drive. I havent found a better external drive solution, but I am disappointed that the best sustained write speeds I have gotten are around 1500 MB/s and that under heavy use (I dont know if it is heat, internal garbage collection, or a combination of them both) the write speeds have dropped to as low as 500 MB/s. Read speed vary about as much, although the seem rebound faster. (I doubt its heat, because I literally put the drive in a cooler with frozen cold packs and got the case down to the point where it was uncomfortably cold to hold, and still saw slowdowns. So I expect it is internal garbage collection.) For comparison, I have a SanDisk 2TB Extreme PRO Portable External SSD - Up to 1050MB/s - USB-C, USB 3.1, which is USB-C, not Thunderbolt, and has sustained write around 720 MB/s and read around 630 MB/s. That is now available for $320 compared to $549 for this. And the newer SanDisk 2TB Extreme PRO Portable SSD - Up to 2000MB/s - USB-C, USB 3.2 Gen 2x2, which has faster read and write speeds (though practically no one has the USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 interface to get the most out of the drive) is even cheaper as $290. All three are good drive choices, although at this point I see no reason to pay more for the slower, older Sandisk drive. And like I said, this OWC drive has a real Thunderbolt interface and can sustain 1500 MB/s for a while. I am mainly disappointed at how much the speed degrades under heavy use.

Sadly, I had to return this powerful little piece of tech. I realized after doing days of research that it was simply too much drive for my wifes needs. It would be like having an 800 HP Ferrari parked in the driveway but all you ever used it for was driving 50 feet to the mailbox and back. I will own one of these beauties some day (dont tell my wife please) but in the meantime I settled for a much less capable drive which cost about 1/4th as much. For simply storing data it will be more than enough. If you want to edit 4K video all day long without the thing getting hot or even breathing hard, then the OWC Envoy pro NVME drive is your ticket to paradise. Pro Tip: Never shop emotionally. Shop smart. If you need power and speed the smart thing to do is get the Envoy Pro. If you just need simple storage get a USB SATA drive like I did and save your money.

Heard about these external hard drives on some youtube channels i subscribe too and they suggested them. after some research and to see if they will go well with my new iMac and what i do (gaming and video/photo work), it was def right for me! crazy that its so small and not head and you can just simply plug in your computer and youre all set to go. i did test to run games of it and it ran smoothly and no lag. it loaded just as fast as if i loaded the game from my computer internally. though now i have my games on the actual computer to play of on but should you need to run off an external hard drive, its the go to external hard drive. As for photo and video editing i didnt notice any lag or anything. it ran smoothly and was able to edit my works while on it since i didnt want to fill up my internal hard drive. may get another one for something specific or to just get a new external hard drive to back up on

... only one OWC (Other World Computing). After buying this one, I ONLY invest in OWC external drives. Their customer support is superb, product quality is top-notch, and if you expect data to be stored reliably, OWC beats the larger, more established brands. This drive offers top performance on Thunderbolt; and, if only USB3 is available, that works too. I bought this one direct from OWC the moment it was released for sale, but the other external drives from Amazon. Now that Amazon has dropped the 1TB unit price, I dunno ... I might buy another.

Checked speed of a 1TB drive using TB3 ports on 2 computers, different cables and ports. Used Backmagic and AJA test. All were tests showed about 1000-1300 MB/s Write and 1900-2500 MB/s Read. A Fantom 1TB using the same computer and TB3 ports and cable consistently has 2400 MB/s Write 2600 MB/s Read. Tests were performed on newly formatted drives and then with data on drives. Considering ordering another OWC to compare. I selected OWC based on past good experiences.

Have tried using drive as a backup for my MacPro and it either will not connect and show as available or spontaneously disconnects with a message that its been disconnected unsafely. This without being touched. Tech support wants me to try it with a different machine or different cable, but didnt offer to send said cable. Since it has a 3 yr warranty, Im trying to return it for a refund.

Just arrived, & this is my initial impression. It seemed like 10Gb was copied before I connected it to my MacBook Air! Too bad SSD’s are still so expensive.