Question *STABLE* NVMe - USB Adapter?

[cyberjedi]

I'm looking to buy a *RELIABLE* NVME-USB external adapter, that doesn't disconnect randomly, can keep up the close to 1GB/s speed.
So far all adapter's reviews contain frighteningly high % of reports of malfunction, random disconnects, sub-par speeds, falling to even under USB 2.0 speeds, etc.
There are 3 main chipsets in the market: JMicron JMS583, Asmedia ASM2362, and Realtek RTL9210 (no product has surfaced with the latter yet, so no REAL reviews, experiences yet UPDATE: it is on the market already).
Also ASUS has a new product, ROG Strix Arion, but there isn't enough feedback about it yet, and I mean real life feedback not just being able to run a few benchmarks, but real stress test to see if the device (adapter) can keep it up, without disconnecting or slowing down hard.
I would really appreciate any feedback from those who have GOOD experiences during stress-tests, like tons of random 4k writes with a stable speed, cloning 100's of GB-s at a stable high speed close to 1GB/s.
I know SSD's very well, so please stick to the point and don't start to educate me on how their speed falls after some writes, etc. I'm aware and this is NOT the point.
You can help if you can point me to a STABLE and RELIABLE NVMe-USB-C adapter that WORKS as expected.
Thank you in advance!

 

[BrallyO]

I finally got my RTL9210-based JEYI i9 GTR adapter from Aliexpress. This is the one with the USB-C female port. It took 2-3 months due to the virus outbreak.

I will do more testing in the next few days, but so far no problems. It's obviously running much cooler than my previous drives. I did a full badblocks check on my USB 3.1-based linux laptop and that was fine. I also tested on some of the USB ports on other computers that had given me problems with the JMicron drives and no problem there. I was able to boot from it twice.

Smartmontools/smartctl on linux doesn't appear to support this adapter yet, so I can't poll any info from it.

I will update again in a few days after more testing.

 

[BrallyO]

cyberjedi, how do you know the ASUS ROG Strix Arion uses the Asmedia ASM2362 chip? I did find one review (unboxingtreatment.com) that says it uses the ASmedia chip, but the Asus site doesn't say and I did some googling but didn't come up with very much. Previously it was thought this was going to use the Realtek chip and Anandtech did a story claiming/speculating that it was using the RTL9210, so that's interesting. Thanks for your info.

 

[Surgeon100]

I got a Sabrent Rocket Q 2TB with an SSK enclosure (JMS583 chip v206) with the intention to run it semi pemamently on my PC. Ofcourse it is completely unstable on both USB 3.1 Gen1 and Gen2 ports, idependently if the ports are coming from the Intel Z370 chipset or the ASmedia3142 USB3.1 Gen2 controller of my MB.
I have tried everything mentioned here plus the AHCPI changes and the behaviour is exactly the same.
I ordered now this ASmedia2362 based enclosure: https://www.amazon.co.uk/UGREEN-Enc...+usb+ugreen&qid=1585919678&s=computers&sr=1-3
based on the review there of a buyer who was running Windows (via bootcamp) on his Macbook reliably, after a bad experience with JMS583.
Will post any findings.

 

[BrallyO]

After several hours of testing, I have not yet been able to reproduce any of the problems I had with the JMicron adapters on my new RTL9210 adapter. It's working perfectly. I've tested on all of my computers and it's even booting on the USB ports where I couldn't get any of the JMicron adapters to work.

I can't poll the device in linux to get temperatures because it's not supported yet, but it's obviously running much cooler than any of the JMicrons. I've observed a maximum temp of 94F/34.5C with 80F ambient while doing sustained transfers. I was able to get this same SSD to hit 60-70C easily in the JMicron adapters. Performance seems good though I've not payed much attention to the numbers and don't' care as long as it's decent and stable.

While I'm here and since I'm not going to do a review anywhere else, I'll say that the JEYI i9 GTR adapter is pretty good. The one they sent me was obviously used. It had small scratches all over the back cover and the screws had evidence of torquing, but it works and I'm going to keep it. The screws on the back are nicely flush, the cables are good and snap into the USB plug nicely. The activity/power LED is green and very nicely diffused and not too bright. It shows up simply as "RTL9210" in my BIOS or EFI boot menus; you don't see the name of the NVME itself like with the JMicron drives. Applying thermal pads is super easy as long as you have the right thickness.

One other thing I've learned today is that Pluggable has apparently switched from using the JMS583 chips to Realtek RTL9210 in their adapters! That's cool, so there will definitely be more RTL9210 drives out there, and I'm likely to get one since I like the pluggable name and they are a linux-friendly company, even though it's more expensive than it probably should be. Pluggable has some tech notes on their product page, including a note about some firmware issues with Silicon Power Phision E7/E12 SSDs having trouble with the RTL9210, so watch out for that. Apparently firmware fixes it.

Finally, good luck Surgeon100 and let us know how that UGreen goes. I have a bunch of UGreen adapters and cables and they generally make some pretty good quality stuff for a Chinese brand.

 

[BrallyO]

I just updated my Jeyi drive with the Pluggable firmware package from the Pluggable website for the RTL9210. Worked great. I can give the drive a better name and a real serial number too to make it easier to ID.

Thanks fantom3l for your files and notes on the firmware.

 

[Surgeon100]

Just an update regarding the Ugreen (ASM2362 chip) enclosure.
It has been 100% stable during the last two days. No disconnections or interruptions. I had the drive working for 10 hours straight, downloading and gaming, without a hiccup.
The bechmark results are lower than before (around 720mb/s read and 900mb/s write vs 970mb/s read and 990mb/s write on CrystalDisk). However, when transfering files, it seems quicker at 700ish mb/s vs 650ish mb/s with the JMS583 based SSK enclosure.

 

[ppptech]

Been talking back and forth with Sabrent. Trying to get them the information to start working on maybe a fix for this for their enclosures and their external SSDs. Not really getting anywhere fast. I think I will have to return the enclosure. Too bad as it seems very well built, uses decent screws and has a large heatpad. The ASUS strix looks good but it's so expensive and gaudy. Maybe I will reach out to pluggable and ask them why they switched chipset and if they know anything.

Just an update regarding the Ugreen (ASM2362 chip) enclosure.
It has been 100% stable during the last two days. No disconnections or interruptions. I had the drive working for 10 hours straight, downloading and gaming, without a hiccup.
The bechmark results are lower than before (around 720mb/s read and 900mb/s write vs 970mb/s read and 990mb/s write on CrystalDisk). However, when transfering files, it seems quicker at 700ish mb/s vs 650ish mb/s with the JMS583 based SSK enclosure.

What's your opinion on the soft TPU piece that holds the SSD in? Which drive are you using? Do you think the drive got quite hot?

 

[Surgeon100]

The soft TPU holder is getting secured by the top lid when you slide it in, so it seems that it does the job well. Also there is no rattling.
The lid to the top of the drive has a 4mm distance. I don't think you can add a thermal pad. The enclosure is getting warm but not hot. But then again, I use the drive for gaming and dowloading. I am not transfering files 24/7.
I think heatsinks on nvme drives, that are desinged to work barebones inside thin laptops, are a bit overrated anyway.
Most importantly the enclosure is 100% stable on both my desktop and laptop.

 

[ppptech]

The soft TPU holder is getting secured by the top lid when you slide it in, so it seems that it does the job well. Also there is no rattling.
The lid to the top of the drive has a 4mm distance. I don't think you can add a thermal pad. The enclosure is getting warm but not hot. But then again, I use the drive for gaming and dowloading. I am not transfering files 24/7.
I think heatsinks on nvme drives, that are desinged to work barebones inside thin laptops, are a bit overrated anyway.
Most importantly the enclosure is 100% stable on both my desktop and laptop.

Doesn't sound so bad. Does it come with a spare?

Which laptop model/cpu do you have?

 

[Surgeon100]

Doesn't sound so bad. Does it come with a spare?

Which laptop model/cpu do you have?

Laptop: lenovo t490s with i7 8665U
Desktop: i5 8600k on MSI z370 based motherboard

I had problems on both with the JMicron chip.

 

[Surgeon100]

Doesn't sound so bad. Does it come with a spare?

Yes, spare included.

 

[ppptech]

Laptop: lenovo t490s with i7 8665U
Desktop: i5 8600k on MSI z370 based motherboard

I had problems on both with the JMicron chip.

Interesting. I have tested a few laptops thunderbolt ports with the Jmicron:

Razer Blade 15 2018 - i7-8750H - Unstable
Alienware 13 R3 -7700K - Stable
MBP15 2017 - 7700HQ - Stable

I am really feeling like there is a compat issue with Coffee Lake. Anyone else want to chime in on what CPU/Chipset they are having issues on?

Yes, spare included.

That's not too bad then. Thanks!

 

[BrallyO]

I'm declaring my RTL9210 stable. Everything where the multiple JMicron adapters I tested failed is working great on the RTL9210, and it runs super cool. On the JMIcrons I was able to hit thermal throttling on multiple SSDs, even with all the thermal pads applied.

For example, the hottest SSD I have is a 500GB Samsung EVO 960 that starts throttling at 70C, which was easy to hit with sustained reads/writes on the JMicron adapters. On the RTL9210 I can't get it over 36C with ambient at 27C. Basically it runs +5C ambient and about +10C at full-throttle after 5-minutes. The difference is crazy.

I can't talk too much about performance because I don't really care as long as it's decent. I did run Crystalmark once and it looked similar to the other bencharks I've seen: The JMicrons are better in a few places and the Realtek is better in others but they are pretty similar and seem mostly limited by the USB port.

I ran tests on both Windows and Linux on multiple computers, including booting and upgrading the OS from the drive itself, even with a USB extension cable that should be causing some power loss, the drive just works every time.

 

[cyberjedi]

cyberjedi, how do you know the ASUS ROG Strix Arion uses the Asmedia ASM2362 chip? I did find one review (unboxingtreatment.com) that says it uses the ASmedia chip, but the Asus site doesn't say and I did some googling but didn't come up with very much. Previously it was thought this was going to use the Realtek chip and Anandtech did a story claiming/speculating that it was using the RTL9210, so that's interesting. Thanks for your info.

Hi BrallyO, I was researching like a Sherlock Holmes with Google and found the same website as you did, https://www.unboxingtreatment.com/2019/10/asus-rog-strix-arion-ssd-enclosure-release.html as a source of info. I find it too expensive to buy it just to look at the chipset, but I can't wait for someone to send an actual photo of what is inside.

And thanks for all your contributions to this topic, they are very valuable! I love it that the cross-flashing has already started Let's admit: we are hobbyists and we love tinkering!

Let's keep this topic alive until we made all necessary conclusions and can nail it down for others what to buy and what to avoid.

By the way, my Jeyi i9 GTR soon arives, for the second time (first shipment got cancelled because of Corona), that looks like a keeper - I'm happy that you have found it stable!

 

[ppptech]

I have pointed out to Sabrent the problems with multiple different platforms and their JSM583 powered enclosures. Their R&D department is saying that it is a problem with my laptop's motherboard. It's like talking to a brick wall. Not impressed by JMicron or Sabrent. Though the Sabrent enclosures are surely some of the nicest on the market in terms of build quality.

I will have to buy another enclosure and move on with life. One could hook up some usb capture software and see if they can spot a problem but I am thinking it's probably going to need debugging from the device side not the host side.

 

[waterboyd]

Hi I'm back....
4 months my usage environment
ASM2362 the best stable.
RTL9210 sometime fault.

If you guys need the latest firmware for jmicron or realtek here they are from jeyi link
They should probably work with other brands with the same controllers but you try it at your own risk.
I have the jeyi i9 (jms583) and it upgrades to fw 0208
I downloaded the one with 5minutes (there was no delay though)

OH MY GOD!!! JEYI firmware fixed my Orico JMS583 ugly bug always run USB2.0 when connect Orico USB Hub 10Gbps.
Well done! Many Thanks!

 

[White7561]

Hi guys. I've been reading this thread for the past hour . And I want to buy an enclosure. Should I go with the ugreen with ASM2362 or Orico with JMS583? Any news? Which is more stable and speedy? Thanks guys!!

Is the ASM2362 better? After researching more about it. It seems like the JMS583 have some compatibility issue with newer CPUs? As seen with a review here and also a review from a user on Amazon (ugreen enclosure page) saying that JMS583 froze his/her Mac . So prob not good eh?

Does the ASM2362 have fw updates too?
I found this : https://www.station-drivers.com/ind...ository&Itemid=353&func=select&id=632&lang=en
But can't find anything about fw update on ASM2362

 

[razel]

Own both Pluggable JMicron and Orico Realtek based. I don't have 10Gbps ports and have been happy. However JMicron is 1st gen and it appears the newer 2nd gen NVME to USB chips are doing better. My Realtek one from Orico, out of the box was pretty bad. It didn't support TRIM! Luckily an unofficial firmware update fixed that. I hope Orico will eventually release a firmware update. Not supporting TRIM for SSD these days is pretty big miss.

I would recommend the Pluggable if you can find it on sale. It's generally $50. I also didn't mind the Orico if you know what you are doing and consider it a hobby toy. I got it for $24 direct. However if you want luxury I would also consider, ASUS' ROG enclosure. Why? It's their expensive gaming brand so they'll be supporting it with any update when necessary. I'll be getting one when it's on sale or used on ebay just to play with.

 

[White7561]

Thanks for the response!! I decided to get the ugreen one. It seems better and a safer option . I really hope I chose the right one!🤣 Really wanted the Asus one but it's too dang expensive here haha

 

[Charlie22911]

I have the Sabrent EC-NVME, been using it for a couple months now with no issues at all on any device I've tried. Until now.
I have an MSI PS63 Modern to hold me over until I repair my Aero 15x, and this enclosure has given me nothing but problems with it. Not only that, but I also have a dual 2.5in enclosure with 2x2TB disks in RAID 0 for my steam library that also has the same issues. Both use JMicron controllers oddly enough, but this laptop is literally the only device I've tried that has issues using both Windows 10 and Linux (Ubuntu 19.04).
I've recently tested the EC-NVME on the 2019 iPad pro, Raspberry Pi 4, Xbox One, PS4 Pro, NUC7, Several other laptops, as well as my desktop and HTPC... This MSI laptop is only device to have trouble.

So this begs the question, could it be that the host device is the problem?

I've tried with Western Digital, Samsung, and Crucial SSDs with no difference.

 

[White7561]

I have the Sabrent EC-NVME, been using it for a couple months now with no issues at all on any device I've tried. Until now.
I have an MSI PS63 Modern to hold me over until I repair my Aero 15x, and this enclosure has given me nothing but problems with it. Not only that, but I also have a dual 2.5in enclosure with 2x2TB disks in RAID 0 for my steam library that also has the same issues. Both use JMicron controllers oddly enough, but this laptop is literally the only device I've tried that has issues using both Windows 10 and Linux (Ubuntu 19.04).
I've recently tested the EC-NVME on the 2019 iPad pro, Raspberry Pi 4, Xbox One, PS4 Pro, NUC7, Several other laptops, as well as my desktop and HTPC... This MSI laptop is only device to have trouble.

So this begs the question, could it be that the host device is the problem?

I've tried with Western Digital, Samsung, and Crucial SSDs with no difference.

Prob the the jmicron not being compatible with newer CPUs? Idk. It seems like jmicron ones isn't that compatible with many things.

 

[ppptech]

Prob the the jmicron not being compatible with newer CPUs? Idk. It seems like jmicron ones isn't that compatible with many things.

It seems to be new AMD and Intel systems. My Coffee lake ports don't work. I have been emailing Sabrent back and forth for a few weeks. They haven't gotten anywhere yet with it.

 

[Charlie22911]

The MSI PS63 has two separate USB controllers, ASMedia and the integrated Intel. The ASMedia ports on the right hand side all work great, both 5gbps and 10gbps without issue. It’s the intel ports on the left side that have an issue.
Also, connected it to my CFW Nintendo switch and iPhone today and it worked just fine on both.

It’s hard to accept that the issue is not with the MSI laptop.

 

[ppptech]

The MSI PS63 has two separate USB controllers, ASMedia and the integrated Intel. The ASMedia ports on the right hand side all work great, both 5gbps and 10gbps without issue. It’s the intel ports on the left side that have an issue.
Also, connected it to my CFW Nintendo switch and iPhone today and it worked just fine on both.

It’s hard to accept that the issue is not with the MSI laptop.

Well. My Coffee Lake Razer blade doesn't work with JSM583 either but 40gbit thunderbolt and other 5-10gbit devices seem to work just fine.

It goes both ways. Both devices must be compatible with standards. I would be much inclined to think that JMicron has cut corners on standards based implementation than Intel but it's possible.

Even if it is Intel's mistake JMicron or companies like Sabrent should be grabbing one of the devices mentioned as incompatible in this thread and figure out what the deal is. It doesn't make sense to not list such a large incompatibility or fix it if it exists.

I believe that AMDs new boards have had some similar problems too? Weren't they reported in this thread? Maybe the implementation isnt complete in JSM583 and additional parts of the standards are in the new controllers in Coffee Lake and AMD's new boards?

 

[ppptech]

I have ordered a Ugreen enclosure from Amazon which uses the asm2362 as references above in this thread. Will report back when I have tested it out.