Expert’s Rating
Pros
Cons
Our Verdict
UGreen ’s solid , good - looking CM850 USB4 enclosure outperforms everything except Thunderbolt 5 , and gives that more than a run for its money in real - human beings transferee . it also does so for importantly less Johnny Cash .
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The CM850’s interior M.2 slot. Note the fan underneath the screw that’s used to secure the NVMe SSD.
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Best Prices Today: Ugreen CM850 USB4 NVMe enclosure
If you ’ve shop Thunderbolt in your quest for fast international Mac storage , you ’ll know that stumper jounce is often a booby trap of the process . you could reduce the pecuniary jolt by switching your search to USB4 , which , being an outgrowth of Intel ’s PCIe over - a - wire technology is just as fast as Thunderbolt 4 .
And it ’s importantly cheaper than Thunderbolt , peculiarly if you hustle your own with something such as the UGreen CM850 NVMe M.2 envelopment .
The CM850 is a more affordable variant of the Ugreen ’s CM642 that uses the same ASMedia ASM2464PD chip . It ’s a gun - metal gray aluminum enclosure that ’s close to 4.75 by 2.1 by 0.6 in and weigh 4.4 ounces .
The CM850’s interior M.2 slot. Note the fan underneath the screw that’s used to secure the NVMe SSD.
Its heft is nice , as is the top panel that pops off to unwrap the internal M.2 / NVMe slot that supports 2230 ( 22 millimetre wide-cut , 30 mm long ) to 2280 SSDs secured by a confined screw . The control board does n’t have small screws to deal with ( or lose ) .
Your options on the Mac for 20Gbps/40Gbps functioning are Thunderbolt 3 , 4 , or 5 , all of which call for significantly costly envelopment , and are not bear out on the majority of Windows motorcar . That can be important if you work in a miscellaneous environment .
Adding an NVMe SSD to the CM850 will cost you anywhere from $ 40 ( 256 GB ) to $ 650 ( 8 TB ) , with the scented touch being the 1 TB ( $ 60 ) to 2 TB ( $ 160 ) range . notice that USB4 ( or Thunderbolt for that subject ) ca n’t use the extra bandwidth provided by PCIe 4.0 or 5.0 SSDs . PCIe 3.0 SSDs are quickly vanish , but the percentage point is , do n’t overbuy .
The CM850 with it’s silicone jacket in place. Artistically lit as well…
Beyond that , avoid QLC SSDs if you regularly write large quantity of data , and buy a DRAM design if you ’re going to run an operating system off the drive or require top random carrying into action . The beneficial bang for the horse however will be cheaper TLC emcee memory cowcatcher ( HMB ) drives .
Ugreen CM850: Performance
The CM 850 is darn fast . In fact , in the aggregate , it ’s the fastest outside SSD we ’ve tested . Take that with several grain of salt , however , as I populated the CM850 with the top-notch - fast8 TB WD850Xfor my testing .
Also , theThunderbolt 5 OWC Envoy Ultrawas significantly faster in Mac synthetic benchmark , though its actual - world transport were little faster than SSDs with less imperious benchmark results .
The charmingly dim-witted , but generally quite accurate Disk pep pill Test from Blackmagicdesign shows the 3GBps plus you get both reading and writing with the CM850 – given a fittingly fast NVME SSD inside .
The charmingly simple, but generally quite accurate Disk Speed Test from Blackmagicdesign shows the 3GBps plus you get both reading and writing with the CM850 — given a suitably fast NVME SSD inside.
AmorphousDiskMark ( a larboard of the original CyrstalDiskMark ) also shows well over 3GBps transfers .
ATTO Disk Benchmark says that the CM850 is perfectly capable of utilizing much of the operation any NVMe SSD will redeem . Within the confines of 40Gbps that is . PCIe 4.0 and 5.0 SSDs can go much faster than the 3GBps USB4 and Thunderbolt 4 permit .
I also ran the CM850 through PCWorld ’s battery of tests , which is how that “ fastest ” claim is substantiated .
AmorphousDiskMark (a port of the original CyrstalDiskMark) also shows well over 3GBps transfers.
The survey are the resultant role from CrystalDiskMark 8 , as well as PCWorld ’s 48 GB transfers and 450 GB write . These are all run on the PCWorld storehouse test bed ’s Thunderbolt 4 ports , not a Mac . They ’re still revelatory of superior performance — given a higher-ranking NVMe SSD within of course of action .
Overall , the CM850 is number one among all external SSDs tested on that political platform , with the CM642 finishing a very close second . That said , theAdata SE920andOWC Express 1M2are still both very fast drives that did n’t have the uber quick WD 8 TB SN850X to help out .
In both CrystalDiskMark 8 ’s successive ( above ) , and random ( below ) carrying into action tests , the CM850 did very well .
ATTO Disk Benchmark says that the CM850 is perfectly capable of utilizing much of the performance any NVMe SSD will deliver. Within the confines of 40Gbps that is. PCIe 4.0 and 5.0 SSDs can go much faster than the bus allows.
The CM850 , again with the economic aid of the WD SN850X was the fastest outside inclosure we ’ve test with our 48 GB transport .
The CM850 turn in the fast 450 GB write we ’ve fancy from an external movement . Bear in psyche that the CM642 had the same 8 TB WD SN850X inside .
I did run into an issue with the CM850 . While performing the 450 GB write in the PCWorld testing , the drive would vanish with the sleeve on . No doubt due to thermic emergence , internal buff or no . Removing the silicone polymer jacket allowed it to end up , as did run a fan over it .
The UGreen siblings give their pre-populated rivals more than a run for their money. Keep in mind the super fast WD SN850X was inside. Longer bars are better.
Other than that , I was absolutely charmed with the CM850 ’s performance . ( Who other than PCWorld compose 450 GB files on a regular basis ? )
Should you buy the Ugreen CM850?
The CM850 ( or its pricy CM642 cousin ) is an absolutely wondrous fashion to add 40Gbps warehousing to your Mac without paying that heavy Thunderbolt surtax . If you already have an NVMe SSD great , if you do n’t , buy one and have at it . expert problem , Ugreen .
The UGreen siblings didn’t dominate in the 4K tests, but the results are still very good. Again, the super fast WD SN850X inside helped. Longer bars are better.
The CM850 and its cousin bested both their rivals in our 48GB transfers, though the difference is within the margin of error. Shorted bars are better.
The WD SN850X allowed the UGreen enclosures to finish number 1 and 2 in our all time 450GG write times. Shorter bars are better.
