T2 Macs

[chriskleeman]

Hi,

Many of you may know this already, but when I tried to boot from an external drive on my newer 2020 MBP, a security setting within the Startup Utility for the T2 chip prevented it. Simple enough to fix, but not necessarily readily apparent. The Startup Utility can only be accessed in Recovery Mode, and here's the method: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208198

Also, here is a list of Macs that have the T2 Security Chip: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208198

Also, I took one for the team and bought an 1TB NVMe drive, and a Thunderbolt 3 external enclosure to try for a backup drive. Startup is lightning fast compared to USB 3. And once booted it runs very fast as well.It was definitely a DYI project, but the components cost about $85 less than OWC's NVMe and enclosure. If anyone wants the specs on what I used, let me know. We'll see how durable it is, time will tell.

 

Chris

[Xairbusdriver]

Email is on the way! Sounds like a much faster method than what I have now. And I'm certainly spoiled by now having both my computers running on SSD's!

[chriskleeman]

Hey Jim,

Here's the links to the products I bought. I gotta tell you, getting the little screws in on the side of the WavLink are a pain in the butt.
Newegg seems to have the best selection and pricing on these guys. I bought the previous version of the Intel NVMe SSD, but there are even faster choices if you poke around a bit.

https://www.newegg.com/Wavlink-WL-UTE02-Enclosure/p/0VN-0069-00025?Item=9SIA6PFA3D8575

https://www.newegg.com/Intel-660p-Series-1TB/p/N82E16820167462?Item=N82E16820167462&cm_sp=SH-_-463840-_-8-_-3-_-20-167-462-_-intel+ssd-_-intel|ssd

[Paddy]

Good grief...NewEgg in Canada wants $181.99 for that beastie. (the drive enclosure). Interesting - one of the reviews notes that you can't put an SSD in there thicker than 2.5mm - something that eliminates quite a few SSDs. So be careful...

Amazon Canada has it for $79.99 + $9.60 import duty...well, that's certainly a better price! The listing there has some pretty impressive test data. (MacBook Pro, 2018, 2700 Mbps read, 1500 Mbps write)

https://www.amazon.ca/WAVLINK-Thunderbolt-Enclosure-External-Aluminum/dp/B07ZYQ3R1P/

Have you tested any transfer speeds with it, Chris?

[chriskleeman]

Hi Paddy,

Wow, that's crazy pricing!

Well, early on while backing up today I saw transfer speeds up to almost 800 MB/s. Right now towards the end of the backup it's going at around 160MB/s. A pretty significant speed bump from USB3. Seems to get slower as the drive heats up. Drive enclosure is pretty warm right now. Not uncomfortable to hold or pick up, but the heat is noticeable. Looks like SuperDuper will finish up in a couple of minutes, elapsed time is going to be around 35 minutes for 271GB. I think there may be drive enclosures that dissipate the  heat better perhaps. Supposedly any Slimline M.2 2280 form factor SSD should fit in there, it was a fairly tight fit for the Intel drive. Now they are offering a Samsung 1TB for $129.99, probably a better drive https://www.newegg.com/samsung-1tb-980/p/N82E16820147804

It was a bit of a scary moment when I put the drive together with the heat sink, as it has little plastic holders that need to go through the holes built into the ends of the drive to hold the heat sink in place.

Biggest improvement seems to be using it as a boot drive, very much faster operation than with a traditional USB 3. What kind of speeds are you seeing with your Samsung USB-C drives?

ATTO Disk Benchmark shows 1.62 GB/s write and 1.50 GB/s which translates to 1620 Mbps and 1500 Mbps respectively. Bear in mind that the Intel SSD is only rated for 1800 MB/s both read and write, so I think it's doing the job ok. There are definitely faster drives available in the same form factor

HTH,

Chris