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OWC Envoy Express is a Thunderbolt-certified DIY NVME SSD enclosure

OWC's new Thunderbolt 3 Envoy Express M.2 drive enclosure

Last updated

Long-time Mac upgrade vendor OWC has released the Envoy Express — a bus-powered, Thunderbolt certified enclosure for M.2 SSDs, at an affordable price.

OWC's Envoy Express allows users to insert their own M.2 2280 SSD into a first-of-its-kind Thunderbolt-certified enclosure. Additionally, the enclosure comes with a temporary adhesive mount, so it can be attached to the back of a MacBook Pro or iMac for convenience.

Drives in the enclosure can deliver up to 1553 megabytes per second real-world performance. The Thunderbolt 3 cable is a standard one, with an internal connector, held in place by the enclosure, and easily replaceable if it breaks.

OWC says that the enclosure is ready to go for any M.2 2280 drive now. Future sizes are supported "without limit" according to the company,

The OWC Envoy Express retails for $79.99. It is presently up for pre-order at a discount, with early purchases available for $68.00.



30 Comments

bsbeamer 16 Years · 77 comments

The price is decent and cable mechanism is unique and interesting, but this is not the "first" BYOD 40Gbps TB3 NVMe M.2 enclosure on the market.  Bring Your Own Drive solutions from Ineo, Trebleet, Avolusion, Shell Thunder, Yottamaster, Tekq, and others exist and have for months.

sflocal 16 Years · 6138 comments

bsbeamer said:
The price is decent and cable mechanism is unique and interesting, but this is not the "first" BYOD 40Gbps TB3 NVMe M.2 enclosure on the market.  Bring Your Own Drive solutions from Ineo, Trebleet, Avolusion, Shell Thunder, Yottamaster, Tekq, and others exist and have for months.

Yes, and those I have deemed as too unreliable, with quality issues, thermal issues, firmware issues, and sketchy compatibility issues with flavors of MacOS.  I’ve been wanting an external, portable TB drive but nothing on the market provided me with a comfortable feeling.

hope this one does.

tmay 11 Years · 6456 comments

sflocal said:
bsbeamer said:
The price is decent and cable mechanism is unique and interesting, but this is not the "first" BYOD 40Gbps TB3 NVMe M.2 enclosure on the market.  Bring Your Own Drive solutions from Ineo, Trebleet, Avolusion, Shell Thunder, Yottamaster, Tekq, and others exist and have for months.
Yes, and those I have deemed as too unreliable, with quality issues, thermal issues, firmware issues, and sketchy compatibility issues with flavors of MacOS.  I’ve been wanting an external, portable TB drive but nothing on the market provided me with a comfortable feeling.

hope this one does.

So, I have a 2014 iMac with Fusion drive. and i'm wondering if it would make sense to use something like the linked device above as a boot drive. 

rcfa 17 Years · 1123 comments

Will this work, at slower speeds of course, when attached to a USB port, or must this be a TB port?

rem#1 21 Years · 67 comments

What is the sizes & cost of the SSD that can be put into the device?