In the External SSD/NVMe recommendations thread from the DUC Darryl shares that his current preference for a high-performance solution would be to use a “well regarded” NVMe M.2 card in your own portable enclosure.

OWC Express 4M2 + Aura P12 Thunderbolt 3 external DAS Combo

So far we have mentioned NVMe drives as being super-SSDs, but you may have also seen the term M.2 drives used in this context. I'm running mostly Samsung 980 Pro M.2 drives in different external Sonnet Thunderbolt 3 expansion chassis-old Sonnet GPU chassis or an Echo Express 3 slot chassis with multiple PCIe to M.2 cards in it.”Customise your Express 4M2 with up to four NVMe SSDs, RAID them however you wish and connect it all with Thunderbolt 3 — the fastest and most flexible interface around. The sheer performance of the Express 4M2 helps you meet deadlines faster, giving you more time to explore your creativity and push your projects further. Pint-Sized Powerhouse If he was building new desktop Thunderbolt storage with M.2 drives, it won’t be dissimilar to what he already uses, but he would go for a larger Sonnet enclosure and a mix of NVMe drives. When it comes to a PCIe enclosure he suggests… OWC Express 4M2 is limited to ≈750 MB/s (less than 970 MB/s) per NVMe drive since each one is connected as PCIe 3.0 x1 Pint-Sized Powerhouse Small in stature. Big on capability. The OWC Express 4M2 is ready to serve with four easy-to-access M.2 NVMe SSD slots customizable for any workflow with vibration damping feet that allow for vertical or horizontal orientation. Install up to 8TB of capacity and experience up to 2800MB/s of mind-bending performance via Thunderbolt 3. The Express 4M2 is an amazingly small digital workhorse with world-renowned OWC quality and award-winning support built-in.

Fast external storage? OWC Express 4M2 | MacRumors Forums Fast external storage? OWC Express 4M2 | MacRumors Forums

Other computer peripherals like wi-fi cards can come in the M.2 format and use the dedicated M.2 connector slot, but the most common use for M.2 is SSD data storage, so you can get NVMe drives in the M2 form factor. Commenting on our article New Mac Studio Announced - The Machine Studios Have Been Waiting For Forest said… The OWC Express 4M2 fully supports Windows workflows as well. Using Windows Storage Spaces you can pool the four M.2 NVMe SSDs together with support for all the Storage Spaces configuration options including the ability to add another OWC Express 4M2 to expand your storage pool on the fly.Michael covered his chosen solution for his Mac Pro 7,1 in his article Mac Pro 2019 & Trash Can Processing Power Available Compared - Mac Pro 7,1 & Mac Pro 6,1 Go Head To Head in which he listed the Sonnet M2 4x4 PCI card with four 2TB Samsung EVO 970 M2 cards for VIs. He configured this as an 8TB RAID-0 drive, which has given him speeds of around 6575 MB/s write and 7997 MB/s read. Using a Mac Pro, Michael didn’t need a PCIe enclosure, but it does show the kind of performance you can get from this technology.

OWC Express 4M2 (0 TB) Four-Slot M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosure with

Silence: so I could use this storage in the same room as the Mac Studio and not be forced to run long cables into my basement machine room. It's smaller and easier to fit into your workflow, studio and on stage. It's faster with four easy-access M.2 slots so you can swap, upgrade or expand your Express 4M2 to configure and reconfigure it to serve any project need. Game-Changing NVMe SSD Performance The OWC Express 4M2 comes equipped with OWC SoftRAID which provides the amazing capability to RAID across multiple drive enclosures. You can also add more Express 4M2 drives to your storage pool using Windows Storage Spaces. Configure and reconfigure your storage however you need by combining multiple OWC Express 4M2 drives together on Mac and Windows. Connect to Thunderbolt and Thunderbolt 2 Systems with EaseSize: at least 6TB single volume size (without resorting to exotic software RAID solutions that group smaller volumes together). It has also allowed me to move nearly all my instrumental samples and libraries onto a drive format that is over 10 times faster than my current system. My orchestral template now loads in just under 60 seconds. And there I was, about to go and make another cup of tea.” In Conclusion This is where prebuilt solutions become much rarer and we currently will need to turn to DIY solutions and build our own. Small in stature. Big on capability. The OWC Express 4M2 is ready to serve with four easy-to-access M.2 NVMe SSD slots customisable for any workflow with vibration damping feet that allow for vertical or horizontal orientation. Install up to 16TB of capacity and experience up to 2800MB/s of mind-bending performance via Thunderbolt 3. The Express 4M2 is an amazingly small digital workhorse with world-renowned OWC quality and award-winning support built in.