OWC Express 1M2 SSD Enclosure Review – Fast and Fanless

Introduction

Other World Computing or OWC is a brand well known in the art community for being a strong supplier of accessories and hardware for Apple Macs. Over the years, the company has spread its wings beyond the Apple ecosystem, and now appeals to creatives, graphics professionals, and a wide range of workspaces and businesses. The OWC Express 1M2 is an attractive new 40 Gbps enclosure SSD from a company of innovators and professionals on the go. Designed to sit on a desk where it matches the aesthetics of the latest MacBook Pro, Mac Pro, or Mac Studio; and easily slips into bags. The enclosure works with any operating system, and across a range of devices including PCs, Macs, workstations, and iPads.

The OWC Express 1M2 comes as an empty enclosure (0 GB) like we’re reviewing today, or with pre-installed drives, with capacities including 1 TB, 2 TB, 4 TB, and 8 TB. The enclosure supports SSDs up to 16 TB in capacity. Accommodates one M.2 NVMe SSD in 2280, 2242, or 2230 formats. The enclosure connects to the drive via PCI-Express 4.0 x4, and cables it out using 40 Gbps USB4 and Thunderbolt 4. It offers its native 40 Gbps bandwidth to a wide variety of devices with 40 Gbps-capable USB-C connections, including PCs, Macs, and iPad Pros. It is also backward compatible with 20 Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 2×2, and 10 Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 2, without Thunderbolt 3.

Perhaps its biggest feature is its coolness. 40 Gbps class enclosures often include some form of active cooling, like the AGEEN TB001 we just featured. Even portable 40 Gbps-class USB4 SSDs tend to come with fan-based cooling. On the other hand, the OWC Express 1M2 is completely fanless. Its body consists of two parts made of aluminum alloy. The upper part, which makes contact with the SSD underneath, has aluminum ridges, and doubles as a heatsink. We think that given its size and weight, the enclosure should be comfortable with thermal loads of 12-15 W.

We chose the 0 TB (enclosed) variant of the OWC Express 1M2 so we could compare it apples-to-apples with our small but growing number of portable SSD enclosures, for which we use a standard SSD, the Samsung 990 PRO 1 TB Gen 4 NVMe drive. This drive can fill the bandwidth of the Express 1M2, allowing us to highlight its speed. The drive will also allow us to test the cooling capabilities of the Express 1M2.

OWC sells the Express 1M2 through its popular store, Macsales. It is also available in popular online marketplaces like Amazon. The 0 TB variant (enclosed) is priced at $120. If you want to know about the preinstalled SSD variants, the 1 TB variant for $280 (+$160 in the enclosure), the 2 TB variant for $470 (+$350), the 4 TB variant for $800 (+$680), and the top 8 TB variant for $1,1,20 (+$20) (+). You may have upgraded from a Gen 3 NVMe SSD to a Gen 4 or Gen 5 drive, have an old one lying around, and there are plenty of Gen 3 SSDs available online for cheap prices, especially those without DRAM. These are the TB variants that are attractive depending on your price.