ZIKE VS ACASIS Thermal Throttling Stress Test Thunderbolt USB4 SSD Enclosures - Apple Silicon M4 Mac

After 5 minutes you've transferred about 1TB ...
I'm using a passive USB4 enclosure as a start-up drive - it's fast and fine, as I'm not swapping terabytes in the process
An SSD in a passive TB4 enclosure will also throttle after extended periods of operation at max throughput

Hi David, I normally avoid longer videos. The exception to that is your videos. Yours are always interesting and quite helpful.

David great video as usual very complete. Question: not in this video but you mentioned why it was a bad idea to move home folder to external. Could you talk about that?

Great timing! I built a contraption to hook up a noctua 40x10 fan up to USB and point it at my zike enclosure. Idle temps dropped from 41C to 35C!
I need to pretty it up a bit and test it with the OWC 1M2 enclosure.

Great video Dave. I appreciate you going above and beyond to make these comparisons as I know that takes a huge amount of time 👍

The ACASIS TB501 is already out and is way faster.

Thanks. You really pump out the videos!

Hi David. I run several Acacis enclosures. One is the TBU 405 with a Samsung 4Tb 990 Pro and the other is the TBU405 with the fan and a 4Tb WD 850. I have a Mac Studio M2 Max and park them both on the top of the Studio using it as a large heat sink. I found by doing this I never need to activate the fan. My external temps run 28-32C using the Mac Studio as a large heat sink.

I've seen a lot of videos recommending the Zike, but after this, I'm glad I found a deal on the Acasis. I thought an active cooling fan on a fast SSD was a good idea. I'm getting over 2,800MB/s read and write on the base M4 Mac Mini with a KC3000 2TB gen 4 drive inside. No issues so far. Never had it get more than slightly warm.

That was a REAL stress test. Your comment about these fast SSD's getting hot even while idle is an important point. I have an unopened (a Christmas gift) OWC Thunderbolt 4 enclosure; the case is a large finned, heat sink and I'm hoping it won't throttle with my new Samsung 990 EVO Plus 2 TB NVME. I'll get to test it after Christmas on a new Mac Mini M4 Pro (another XMas gift to myself).

It depends if the NVMe has a DRAM cache, and how large it is. Also, system RAM, may play a role in performance. I prefer a hub box with a good fan to keep NVMe's cool, plus one may get SD/CF card slots, 10GBe Lan, more USB/TB slots, etc.

Great video! I’m researching online for SSDs and enclosures for a macbook pro M4 and your video definitely guided my purchasing decision! Thank you! I was also wondering about the 990 pro but read in previous comments that it runs hotter than the WD.

Hi! Have you checked firmware versions on both enclosures and nvme drives? I have seen imthat latest updates can improve “hotness” and performance

Tons of people are going to buy even TB 5 external drives with only passive cooling. But they don’t know better.

You couldn't possible test the GEWOKLIY or Quiizlab ES40UR Thunderbolt 4 enclosure? (that the same product)

Hey David, enjoyed your analysis and agree that passive cooling is not ideal in some circumstances. However, active cooling has its issues, noise, dust accumulation and fan failure in particular. When the fan fails (not if), in many cases the enclosure becomes a throwaway item as many of these fans are made from low quality components, specialized in form factor or design, where replacement is not an option. Noise from these cheap, small form factor fans running at high RPMs can be very annoying to some and dust accumulation is a given.

Laughs in OWC 🤣🤣🤣

Yikes. Just bought the Zike today and was considering the OWC for my SN850X. I am on the fence now what to do. Maybe get the Lexar 790 and move the WD into the PC.

Please test the OWC 1M2 enclosure with 990 Pro.

I tried the passive cooled ACASIS SSD enclosure with a Samsung 2TB 980 Pro and I was getting an external temperature of 50 degrees C!. I replaced it with a better thermally designed passive cooled ORICO NVMe SSD enclosure at 38 degrees C, far better and faster too.

IMO, if heating is your absolute top major concern, the best but also the most expensive way is to get a external thunderbolt-PCI chassis + PCI SSD adapter card to use with the SSD.

Really useful comparison - thank you! I'm pleased that I opted for the same Acasis enclosure as the one in your test. I settled on it because an NVMe enclusure I had before got so hot it was uncomfortable to touch and I thought a fan would be most essential. As it happens, the Samsung 990 PRO I fitted seems to run very cool, even with the fan switched off. Anyway, this is a great test using real-world parameters and is all the better for it. Great job!

Thanks Dave you literally tested all the products i've being viewing online for purchase.

Brilliant video! Watched a lot of videos on ssd enclosures for the Mac and none have gone into this as much as you have! Thank you!
Nearly bought the zike 😂

Can you recommend this Acsis for iPad Pro with M4? Also, what is the recommendation for memory cards?

Thank you for the detailed stress test for those enclosures. I did purchased the Acacia with fan for my Mac Mini M4 base model :)
Since I do a lot of 360 video editing for tour business, I needed some external SSD that works consistently and your video did help me to choose the good enclosure. Just FYI, I did pair with Crucial T500 Pro 2TB SSD and the speed is consistent at 2800~2880 ish both way all the time. Mahalo

It is my understanding that:
--The Acasis TBU405ProM1 fan defaults to OFF until the switch on the enclosure is pressed.
--Either the user must monitor the unit's SSD temperature and switch the fan ON or OFF as appropriate to avoid thermal throttling, or switch the fan ON when the unit is connected to the TB4 port and leave it on continuously 24/7.

Is there macOS software that would have access to the SSD temperature? What would be the expected service life of a fan like this running 24/7?

I noted that only the Zike writes throttled while the reads did not, and that both before and after stressing the Zike reads are 20% faster than the Acasis'. Before stressing the Zike writes are also 20% faster, but after stressing the Zike writes are 31% slower. For some use cases that reads vs. writes tradeoff could make the Zike a better choice. In a week or so I will have both drives and will be able to this test with Lexar NM790 NVMe SSDs.

Hi, thank you for this comparison! I just got my Zike Enclosure today and wonder: when doing the test, did you take off the transparent protective case of the Zike or you left it on the enclosure? Thanks in advance!

Really in the REAL WORLD except for tests who wrights 5 MBs for 50 minutes in any application.

A stresstest is one thing, but how realistic is that for the average person during normal use of the computer?
As an example, a Toyota Corolla will work perfectly for the normal person, but take it for a trash around the Nurburgring Nordschleife, and it will throw "Check Engine" lights and go into limp mode.

Thanks for all the great info, and the accent is brilliant as well!!!! Bob's yer Uncle, mate!

Thank you for the effort you put in this video to test the different enclosures. I just saw it for the second test of the Acasis, did you consider after the data test load, that the fan is still running without any load and have an additional cooling effect, but it is not the operational temperature. for the Zike enclosure the temperature testing should be more accurate because it's just the environment which cools the case, but the other case get constantly as a fan until you plug the cable. This is just a thought, anyway your video is very helpful and thanks a lot.

Zikes! I just bought two Zikes! One odd thing I've noticed is it has a thick clear plastic sleeve totally covering the aluminium extrusion. I wonder if that is supposed to save you from burning your fingers on it? But it cannot help with cooling. Did you have this on when testing? This was supposed to be a really silent option. I guess I can try clamping it to a bigger heatsink (without the plastic cover).

Thank David for this DETAILED & HONEST video. I love your HONESTY when you say you can't recommend the Zike enclosure after demonstrating your testing. Some people complained their Acacis fan failed after 3 months of use. How long have you been using it? Have you got any problem with the fan? Thanks again.

Nice comparison test. I currently have a 2018 Intel 15 Mac Mini and I'm planning to buy an M4 Mac Mini soon so I've been watching various videos of how to set it up for efficient performance, and videos like yours are of great help. However, I do have a small problem with your test. Since this is supposed to be a real world test of copying data, you should have let the drive finish copying for both enclosures so we can actually see the time that they finished and how much faster one is over the other in accomplishing a copying task that takes over 50 continuous minutes to do. I don't trust using Black Magic before and after as a real world measurement. Better would be to compare actual copy finishing speeds for set number of files and gigabytes, from fairly small amount of data, to medium amounts, to large amounts. That would allow different viewers with different normal day to day use gauge which would work better for them.

It seems that the Acasis wins. Having a fan for cooling, won`t it make considerable noise? What level of noise compared to the noise level from the Mac itself? Thanks for the video.

Bought the Acasis.. How do you know if the fan is on..Im not hearing or feeling anything, when I put my hand over it ? there is a switch, but no way of knowing when its on..also the 2 thermal pads that came with it, don't fill the gap between the lid and the Samsung SSD ?? any thoughts thanks
Its running very warm to touch

If you knew how i struggled with enclosures, ssd and thermal throttling. The money I threw at it... Finally I settled with a trebleet u.2 to tb4 enclosure and an u.2 SSD since even 8tb SSD were starting to become a bit small. It's a bit of a coincidence but mine can do 6.5 tb in about 50 minutes. An u.2 is just built differently.

Another review of Acasis where the reviewer received the product direct from the manufacturer. Pretty hard to be unbiased when you get the merch for free. (FYI, I've yet to find a review of their products where that was not the case)

@DavidHarry Hi David after watching this video i ordered the Acasis TBU405PROM1 and WD Black SN850x 2tb not the 4tb as you have used in this video. after placing the order on amazon i read the following:

Several users have reported issues when using a WD Black SN850X 2TB SSD in an Acasis TBU405PROM1 enclosure, including the drive not being recognized, sudden disconnects, excessive heat, and inconsistent performance, often attributed to potential power limitations or compatibility issues with the enclosure itself; it's generally considered a low-quality enclosure that may not adequately support high-performance NVMe drives like the WD Black SN850X.

Key points about the problem:

Recognition issues:
The enclosure may not properly recognize the WD Black SN850X SSD, causing it to not appear in your computer's file explorer.

Heat concerns:
Due to potential power limitations, the enclosure might not provide enough power to the SSD, leading to overheating issues.
Unstable performance:
Users have reported erratic data transfer speeds and sudden disconnects while using the enclosure, impacting overall performance.

What to do:

Try a different enclosure:

If you experience issues, consider using a higher quality NVMe enclosure from a reputable brand that is known to support high-performance SSDs.

Check your USB cable:
Make sure you are using a high-quality USB-C cable that is capable of handling the power requirements of a high-speed NVMe SSD.
Update firmware:
Check if firmware updates are available for both the enclosure and the SSD to address potential compatibility issues.
Contact support:
If the problem persists, reach out to Acasis customer support for further assistance.

I read through all the comments on this video and saw nothing that was talked about above. Obviously very concerned I have cancelled the order and straight away contacted Acasis for there vital opinions on the WD Black 850x 2 TB SSD. Very much looking forward to your reply. Thanks.

Hi David i just checked to see if this was not an issue with the 4TB Version and it said: If you're experiencing issues with an Acasis TBU405PROM1 enclosure containing a WD Black 850x 4TB SSD, the most common problems reported include potential performance throttling due to overheating, occasional disconnections, and potential compatibility issues with certain systems, particularly when transferring large data volumes; this is often related to the enclosure's limitations in managing heat dissipation and power delivery, especially with a large capacity SSD like the WD Black 850x 4TB.

Thanks David! Your videos are not boring! Just want to confirm, I have to turn the Acasis fan on and off to activate it, it doesn’t automatically turn off by itself?

Thanks for this. I would love a comparison between the Acasis and the OWC 1M2 enclosure. From what I read, it does a terrific job dissipating heat.

Unfortunately the Acasis TB5 enclosure I received ejects the drive when the enclosure is handed when hot. Acasis has not responded to my requests for support where this alone should give pause to anyone considering their products.

I’m using a WD SN850X 4TB in the Zike enclosure on a M4 Mac Mini Pro. It’s attached using a OWC TB4 cable. I’m getting 3500+ MB/s read and 3400+ MB/s writes.

Hi, Robert. The SN850X in the Zike will be very fast and about as fast as any 40Gb/s drive. However, you may may want to keep an eye on the temperatures, I've done another video with the Zike showing high temps in certain scenarios. Cheers, Dave.

Have to say, your videos are very interesting and a must for REAL LIFE tests, I especially like the test on the Samsung 990 Pro with throttling after a few mins, I have the WD 850x 2 TB and was considering the 4Tb ver of the 990 Pro, but due to the cache and other videos about firmware upgrade issues, I will go for WD 850x 4Tb, so thanks for your great videos, keep up the good work!!

How loud is the fan on the Acasis enclosure?

To anyone reading this comment please make sure you have watched the video properly since it is wonderfully made and compelled me to leave a comment on how it cleared all of my confusions revolving around SSD's and Enclosures. To the Creator . Thank you very much for such a proper detailed comparison. I have watched more than 30-40 videos trying to buy the best SSD and Enclosure , however i was confused up till now. But this real world test actually has just cleared all of the confusion. This review was so genuine and perfect to understand the real world usage. Only thing i would want to further see is the comparison between Acasis and OWC 1m2 .