The Pledge upgraded the Shell Thunderbolt SSD design with a larger form factor and superior fan. Due to its excellent air circulation ability, it does not heat up easily even after long use. Being able to use it for a long time in a cold state means there is no heat bottleneck, and it can maintain a stable 2GBps speed. It also has the advantage of being cheaper than the popular Samsung's X5.
Design and Specification
The surface material is metal, and the color is silver, similar to the latest Mac models. It measures 3.75 inches long, 2.5 inches wide, 0.5 inches thick, and weighs 1 or 2 ounces. By turning 4 screws and removing the bottom plate, it can be mounted on the motherboard or M.2.NVMe slot and a screwdriver used for this is included. This is because the groove is very small to use the driver generally used at home. You can use a single screw to fix the SSD.
 |
| Connection accessories required in most cases, such as a C-type T3 cable, are included as standard |
When you open the bottom plate, a fan appears on the Pledge Shell USB drive, but not on the existing Thunderbolt models. Thunderbolt's high data transfer rate generates a lot of heat. The new shell product is larger in size, so it can use more air for cooling, and there are many vents for air circulation.
Performance
Any SSD you want can fit inside the Pleasing Shell Thunderbolt. Two types were used in the test. Pleasing provided a 256GB WD SN750, but it wasn't enough to get full write speed, so I used the 1TB Aura P12. The Crystal Disk Mark 6 showed 2,838MBps read and 2,394MBps write, as high as using Thunderbolt 3.
At Black Magic Design's Disk Speed, it wasn't as fast as the 2019 MacBook Pro, but it still exceeded 2GBps. It is a high speed similar to that of the Samsung X5.
 |
| In the Pledge Shell Thunderbolt, the NVMe SSD is almost at full speed |
The surface temperature is kept cool due to the fan and thermal cycle. The measurement temperature was slightly higher than the ambient temperature of the testbed at 30 degrees Celsius. The old product without a fan was an uncomfortable temperature after long use.
Priced at $80, the OWC Envoy Express was a bit slow. The write speed is about 1,250MGps and the read speed is 1,350MBps, which is not bad, but it is not similar to that of the shell product. Express may be better if you use older x2 PCIe or NVMe SSDs as you won't be able to take advantage of the shell's improved bandwidth. In other scenarios, you can use shells together.
As expensive as fast
The Pleasing Shell Thunderbolt, which doesn't include an NVMe SSD, costs $145. The mid-range 500GB NVMe SSD usually starts at $70, and the Samsung X5 500GB is $199 on Amazon, so buying a shell doesn't make sense when it's small.
However, the cost is reduced from 1TB. Pricing for a high-performance 1TB NVMe SSD starts at around $120 ($265 for a shell). 2TB is usually available starting at $180 (a total of $325 for a shell). The X5 costs $400 for 1TB and $600 for 2TB, so it's easy to see that Shell Thunderbolt is worth buying if you consider performance.
It also sells products with built-in SSDs such as 256GB $190, 512GB $250, 1TB $300, and 2TB $400. You should ask which drives are included. In Macworld's test unit, the WD SN750 ran fast enough, but if you want the best write speed, I recommend choosing a product of 512GB or more.
0 Comments