OWC's Thunderbolt 5 External SSD for Latest Macs is Impressively Fast

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Apple's new Mac mini with the M4 Pro chip and MacBook Pro models with M4 Pro and M4 Max chips feature support for the faster Thunderbolt 5 specification, and reputable accessory maker OWC is ready with a new external SSD.

MacBook Pro OWC Envoy Ultra
Announced in September, OWC's Envoy Ultra external SSD is compatible with Apple's latest Macs, and it has Thunderbolt 5 support for advertised data transfer speeds of more than 6GB per second. That is up to double the speeds that OWC's previous high-end external SSDs with Thunderbolt 3/Thunderbolt 4 support can achieve.

The external SSD has a built-in Thunderbolt 5 cable, and it is powered by the Mac that it is connected to, rather than an external power supply.

Unsurprisingly, these impressive speeds come at a steeper price compared to the average external SSD. OWC is now accepting pre-orders for the Envoy Ultra through its online store in the U.S., with 2TB and 4TB storage capacities available for $399.99 and $599.99, respectively. Orders are estimated to begin shipping in early November.

OWC plans to announce a Thunderbolt 5 dock with an array of ports later in November.

Apple's new Macs launch on Friday.

Tags: OWC, Thunderbolt 5

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Top Rated Comments

Return Zero Avatar
Return Zero
12 months ago
Drive speeds these days are just crazy. We’ve come so far from the 5400rpm spinner days, which wasn’t even that long ago if you think about it.

Definitely continues to make apple’s upgrade pricing structure look more and more ridiculous each year.
Score: 26 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MikeAllaway Avatar
MikeAllaway
12 months ago
$400 for a 2TB drive sounds expensive, until you remember it's $600 to upgrade from 2TB to 4TB directly with Apple

and the $600 4TB drive is half the price of Apple's upgrade from 4TB to 8TB at $1200!
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Joe Rossignol Avatar
Joe Rossignol
12 months ago

I purchased a 2Tb ssd drive from Amazon this summer for $89. This is no bargain to me.
Nobody said it was a bargain. The one you bought for $89 obviously doesn't reach anywhere close to 6 GB/s transfer speeds like this one does. That might be totally fine for you, but I don't get the point of your comment. It's not an apples-to-apples comparison.
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Rychiar Avatar
Rychiar
12 months ago
meh. I just want an empty enclosure to put an 8TB WD Black NVME In
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jphall Avatar
jphall
12 months ago

$600 for 4TB TB5 is unhinged. I don't care what anyone says about it being super fast or top tech. Just delusional pricing.
Obviously not a product intended for you.

This is a great deal for people who will need very fast drives on their new ThunderBolt 5 enabled computers and don't want to pay for the very fast internal storage that Apple offers.




no enclosure option?
This first ThunderBolt 5 drive has just been announced. Enclosures will come later, and will require drives fast enough to take advantage of ThunderBolt 5 and the computers with interfaces to take advantage of a fast drive.




Meh, not even full PCIE 4.0 speeds I get in my PC. Grabbed a 4TB SN850X for £215, tyvm.
Great. You know this is an external drive, right? And will be used for high end production on computers that aren't even available yet? How is your comment relevant to this article?



meh. I just want an empty enclosure to put an 8TB WD Black NVME In
There are plenty of enclosures for ThunderBolt 4 for NVME drives. I have several WD Black drives in currently available enclosures.

ThunderBolt 5 enclosures will become available not long after there are actually computers that could use it. At some point there will be enclosures that have not even been announced yet, perfect for those fast drives and faster than the enclosures I have now.



I purchased a 2Tb ssd drive from Amazon this summer for $89. This is no bargain to me.
Obviously not a product intended for you. It's great that the Amazon drive works for you, i have some of those too. But I need very fast drives on my video editing computers and the $89 drive is not in the same market as the ThunderBolt 5 drive.

Seriously, some people need to work on their reading comprehension and context. These new drives are announced before the computers that can use their optimal speed are even available. This is great news for those of us who are more productive when using very fast drives and didn't spend the extra thousand dollars on internal storage.

I'm never going to buy a Ferrari, but I don't tell everyone that they should buy a Nissan Versa instead because it's cheaper.
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ignatius345 Avatar
ignatius345
12 months ago
Expensive, but also a lot cheaper than spec'ing additional terabytes of storage when you buy a new Mac.

Fortunately my needs are quite modest and I get away with a much slower external SSD for the media I've offloaded from my iMac's internal drive (Photos, TV and Music libraries).
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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