The Battle of Bus-Powered Thunderbolt 3 PCIe Flash Storage

February 21st, 2018, by rob-ART morgan, mad scientist
September 20, 2018: Thermal Throttling Problem Solved

Who doesn't like bus-powered storage? No need to find an AC outlet. No power brick to lug around. Small and light when you travel. But traditionally, bus-powered Thunderbolt drives were slower than AC powered Thunderbolt drives. Not any more.

GRAPH LEGEND
TekQ Rapide - TekQ Thunderbolt 3 SSD Rapide PCIe Flash Drive (tested 480G; available up to 960GB).
Sonnet Fusion - Sonnet Technologies Fusion Thunderbolt 3 PCIe Flash Drive 1TB

LARGE SEQUENTIAL
We used AJA System Test to benchmark file level sequential transfer speed using a 16GB test file. HIGHER number in megabytes per second = FASTER

small random
Quickbench includes a small random transfer test with file sizes from 4KBytes to 1024KBytes. HIGHER number in megabytes per second = FASTER

WHAT DID WE LEARN?
The latest bus-powered Thunderbolt 3 storage options that use PCie based flash record impressive performance numbers.

UPDATE: As of September 2018, the TekQ Rapide's Phison E7 flash blade has been replaced with the Phison E12. According to this 8 minute YouTube video, the E12 does not exhibit the thermal down-throttling of write speed. In addition, the large sequential WRITE speed has been increased from 1300 to 1800MB/s.

As you can see from the images above, you can easily replace the flash blade with one of your choosing.

We measured the Fusion at 4.1 x 2.8 x 1.25 inches while the Rapide measured 3.75 x 2.13 x .5 inches. Weight without cable? Fusion weighs 10.8 ounces versus the Rapide's 4.5 ounces (311 versus 131 grams).

ADDENDUM: A third bus-powered Thunderbolt 3 flash storage device to consider is the OWC Envoy Pro EX (VE) which is available in 1TB and 2TB capaciity with read speeds up to 2600MB/s. Dimensions are 5.6 x 2.6 x .8 inches. Weight is 8.5 ounces (241 grams). We hope to review this product soon.

ONE MORE THING: Consider the possibility of a pair of bus-powered PCIe-based flash drives striped across two Thunderbolt 3 controllers. On an iMac Pro, that setup produced 4791 MB/s sequential READ with dual Fusion TB3 Bus-Powered PCIe-based Flash drives!

Feedback or comments? Feel free to email me,
Also, you can follow me on Twitter @barefeats

WHERE TO BUY THE OWC ENVOY PRO EX AND EX (VE)
The OWC Envoy Pro EX (VE) with max read speed of 2600MB/s can be purchased directly from OWC in 1TB and 2TB version. The Envoy Pro EX (max read speed of 1800MB/s) is available in 250G and 1TB versions.

WHERE TO BUY THE SONNET FUSION TB3 PCIE FLASH DRIVE
Order from the Sonnet Online Store. B&H Photo Video also carries the Sonnet Fusion.

WHERE TO BUY THE TEKQ RAPIDE TB3 PCIE FLASH DRIVE
The updated version with the NEW Phison E12 TLC flash blade is sold on Amazon. If it shows as 'unavailable,' it means 'temporarily out of stock.' If you don't want to wait, contact Alister Chen (alister@tekq.com) at the factory in Taiwan.

SHOP APPLE STORE USA
Help support Bare Feats by clicking our Apple display ads or THIS Apple USA link when ordering any Apple product or Apple compatible product. Check out Apple Certified Refurbished products with same warranty as new.

Has Bare Feats helped you? How about helping Bare Feats?

copyright 2018 Rob Art Morgan
"BARE facts on Macintosh speed FEATS"
Email