The new OWC Express 1M2 80G Portable SSD is Thunderbolt 5-compatible external storage that has massive transfer speeds over 6,000MB/s.
Fast storage is essential in industries that have high data throughput needs, such as content creators editing high-resolution video. The latest external storage release from OWC claims to provide that in spades.
The OWC Express 1M2 80G Portable SSD is an external storage enclosure that takes advantage of high bandwidth connections. It's an enclosure that has support for USB4 and Thunderbolt 5, allowing it to work with the connections at up to 80Gbps.
According to OWC, it is capable of speeds in excess of 6,000MB/s when reading from or writing to a drive. That is, however, depending on having ideal conditions such as the connection to the host device and the installed drive.
While it works at blistering speeds, it is also compatible with earlier connections, including Thunderbolt 4 and Thunderbolt 3. However, on those connections, it will operate at slower speeds.
OWC adds that it is compatible with Mac, PC, iPad Pro, Chromebooks, and Surface devices.
It is sold in both enclosure-only and ready-built configurations. Going down the roll-your-own route, it will work with 2280 and 2242 NVMe M.2 SSDs, which can be upgraded in the future if needed.
The ready-made versions are also available ranging from 1TB to 8TB in capacity.
To keep the drive cool while under load, the enclosure uses a solid aluminum casing. It has heatsink-like fins across the body, helping it air-cool without needing a fan, and so running silently.
The OWC Express 1M2 80G is available now from OWC directly, as well as from Amazon.
The enclosure alone is priced at $219, while the ready-made versions start from $349 for 1TB, rising to $1,299 for 8TB.
