Wavlink UTE02 NVMe M.2 Thunderbolt 3 Enclosure  

Ordered mine some day ago from ebay at 59£...

@itsage

I was rather impressed by the quality and packaging as well - was not expecting much at 50$ but this enclosure is pretty neat! Don’t have an SSD to test with right now though. 

The Wavelink enclosure has a similar orientation to the Trebleet M.2 enclosure I've been using so you'll have similar considerations for adapting it for eGPU use. I think a 5cm R43MR might be the best solution with the enclosure placed under the GPU to minimize volume. A 5cm R43ML might be the second best solution with the enclosure placed on the back plate side of the GPU (you might want the extra volume for cable management, since the GPU requires PCIe power). The flexible cable should be able to compensate for the longer length of the Wavelink at the Thunderbolt port end (compared to the Trebleet).

Has anybody managed to get Windows 10 installed on M2 drive with this enclosure?

I have Kingston A2000 drive installed, but no matter what I tried, I couldn't make it work. The furthest I got was a freeze after booting into partition created with wintousb.

Installing bootcamp on this drive freezes on "downloading support software" stage.

I also tried installing OSX on it and creating bootcamp partition in that external OSX. That worked up to the point where Windows installer complained about missing drivers.

I have two 15" 2018 MBPs, both running Catalina. Same result on both machines.

On a different note, both the enclosure and Kingston A2000 are rated for 2000+ MB/s read/write speeds. But I only get 1370MB/s on write and 1750Mb/s on read. Judging from the post above, this seems to be a problem with the drive, not the enclosure, right?

Hey Guys,

I ordered the wavlink UTE02 thunderbolt enclosure, too.

My system partition is on the ssd (Samsung 970 Pro) build in the external wavelink enclosure.

But I had some issues with sleeping/waking my mac reliable.

1. If I set him to sleep and try to wake up, there is a turqouise blue screen - I have to restart. (without eGPU)
2. If I do the same with eGPU, my monitors seems to recognize a signal, turns on from standby, too … but had a black picture and I need to restart again. Also while mac mini is in „sleep mode“, the eGPU is not in standby.

These two scenario happened, if I wake up my mac after 5 Minutes sleeping. If I wake up my mac quickly after sleeping (1-2, maybe 3 minutes), everything is fine apart from my eGPU isnt sleeping.

My Thunderbolt3 enclosure from another manufacturer is working as expected with system on it. (sleeping/awaking from mac and simultaneous sleeping + awaking eGPU independently from sleeping time). So I isolated the issue to the new wavlink enclosure.

Do you have the similar problems with your enclosure?

Is there a way to solve this, maybe with the terminal?

By the way, I’m following this forum by more than one year and learned nearly everything from here to set up my eGPU-Mac-System. Thank you a lot, you all are doing great work. Your experimenting and experience is BIG help and saves other peoples time and nerves . Thank you (:

————————————————————————

My Setup:

Mac Mini 2018 3,2 Ghz i7 (Mojave 10.14.6)

Akitio Node Pro

AMD Radeon RX590

LG 27“ UHD-4K Monitor

@pavel_shpilev I bought two of these enclosures with plans to use the second one for a custom TB3 to M.2 eGPU build. I did notice low Read and Write performance with one of them. I checked the firmware version and they are both the same. I wonder what is causing one enclosure to perform full speed while the other is seemingly half speed.

Windows installer would struggle if it doesn't have the appropriate drivers for your NVMe drive. Look on the Kingston Support website and see if there's drivers you can download onto a USB stick to load during the installation process.

@itsage Check the Thunderbolt link speed/width in macOS? Compare lspci output for each?

Hello, today it's arrived to me. I purchased the ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro (1T) for about $140. The results are good even if I don't have the "perfect score":

I have some trouble in Windows about writing performances. It seems something wrong with drivers...

update:

Partially resolved after this modify (and reboot):

@jefniro Which side Thunderbolt 3 port do you connect the M.2 enclosure?

Posted by: @itsage

@jefniro Which side Thunderbolt 3 port do you connect the M.2 enclosure?

 

On the left side. I tried also it alone without any other device connected to the MacBookPro.

Hello, bought Wavlink UTE02 , samsung 970 evo plus low write speed (~900), read speed normal, connected to iMac 2017, why?

I tested the second Wavlink UTE02 enclosure again with the SanDisk NVMe drive. It is now running full Thunderbolt 3 speed. The SSD installed makes a difference in throughput for some reason.

@itsage

Samsung 970 evo plus 1TB not slower SanDisk Extreme Pro 1TB, SSD new, date 09.2019 (last firmware), but write speed only ~ 1000.

If connect M.2 macbook pro 2014 write speed ~1500 (Link Width: x2), iMac 2017 Wavlink UTE02:

Generic SSD Controller:

Samsung SSD 970 EVO Plus 1TB:

  Capacity: 1 TB (1 000 204 886 016 bytes)

  TRIM Support: Yes

  Model: Samsung SSD 970 EVO Plus 1TB

  Revision: 2B2QEXM7

  Link Width: x4

  Link Speed: 8.0 GT/s

@stas To be honest I don't really know how the Thunderbolt 3 controller in this UTE02 decides to run full speed. The only NVMe drive I could max out the Thunderbolt 3 bandwidth is the SanDisk Extreme Pro. I tried an HP EX920 1TB and it was capped at around 1,2XX Mb/s. The good news is it provides full TB3 bandwidth when I used it in a R43SG M.2 to TB3 eGPU configuration [link].

Wavlink management has finished their MBA and now they ask USD 149.99 for the enclosure to maximise profits.

https://www.newegg.com/wavlink-wl-ute02-enclosure/p/0VN-0069-00025?Item=9SIA6PFA3D8575

It is still cheaper on eBay I reckon.

JEYI LEIDIAN at 83 is the current cheapest version.

Wavlink UTE02 is now US$90 on Aliexpress.  A few dollars more than a JEYI LEIDIAN.

Posted by: @itsage

I tested the second Wavlink UTE02 enclosure again with the SanDisk NVMe drive. It is now running full Thunderbolt 3 speed. The SSD installed makes a difference in throughput for some reason.

Has anybody found any SSD model that gets the same speeds as the Sandisk?

I have received the Wavlink unit and I am waiting to buy a 1 TB SSD for it. Having more choice apart from the Sandisk would help.

I recall someone saying that if you want to have better write NVMe performance through TB3, it is better to find the original performance of NVMe which is not too much over TB3 spec 2750 MB/s. So I chose Kingston KC1000 480GB (Sequential Read/Write: up to 2700/1600MB/s).

It has better write speed than my 960 PRO 512GB:

even though it's specced up to 3500 MB/s read and 2100 MB/s write.

I've tested both Asus Hyper M.2 x4 mini and Netstor NP631N via TB3 eGPU enclosure.

960 EVO 1TB and OCZ RD400 1TB compared here:

https://egpu.io/forums/thunderbolt-enclosures/netstor-na611tb3-thunderbolt-3-nvme-ssd-storage-review-storage-not-egpu-related/#post-30209

I got finally the Sandisk Extreme NVMe in 500 GB format, the 1 and  2TB options are still too expensive.

My speeds are below, 2187 and 2517 MB/s.

I have read on a review of the SSD that this unit is more appropriate for big files, not so much for random access for general use. The issue reported by @itsage where he only found close-to-TB3 speeds with this drive may invalidate that assumption, which was probably based on tests performed on a motherboard PCIe slot.

I wonder if it's the NVMe controller on the drive that negotiates with TB3 controller for max throughput. I have tried 3x 1TB NVMe drives: HP EX920, Samsung 970 EVO, and SanDisk Extreme Pro. Only the SanDisk achieves max Thunderbolt 3 speed.

Posted by: @pley_sto

Hey Guys,

 

I ordered the wavlink UTE02 thunderbolt enclosure, too.

My system partition is on the ssd (Samsung 970 Pro) build in the external wavelink enclosure.

But I had some issues with sleeping/waking my mac reliable.

1. If I set him to sleep and try to wake up, there is a turqouise blue screen - I have to restart. (without eGPU)
2. If I do the same with eGPU, my monitors seems to recognize a signal, turns on from standby, too … but had a black picture and I need to restart again. Also while mac mini is in „sleep mode“, the eGPU is not in standby.

These two scenario happened, if I wake up my mac after 5 Minutes sleeping. If I wake up my mac quickly after sleeping (1-2, maybe 3 minutes), everything is fine apart from my eGPU isnt sleeping.

My Thunderbolt3 enclosure from another manufacturer is working as expected with system on it. (sleeping/awaking from mac and simultaneous sleeping + awaking eGPU independently from sleeping time). So I isolated the issue to the new wavlink enclosure.

Do you have the similar problems with your enclosure?

Is there a way to solve this, maybe with the terminal?

 

By the way, I’m following this forum by more than one year and learned nearly everything from here to set up my eGPU-Mac-System. Thank you a lot, you all are doing great work. Your experimenting and experience is BIG help and saves other peoples time and nerves . Thank you (:

 

————————————————————————

My Setup:

 

Mac Mini 2018 3,2 Ghz i7 (Mojave 10.14.6)

Akitio Node Pro

AMD Radeon RX590

LG 27“ UHD-4K Monitor

@pley_sto

I do not use it for an eGPU setup but for a Sandisk SSD and I agree it does not manage the sleep/wake thing properly. 

If the Mac goes to sleep it ejects the SSD (it does not eject an Adata SSD I have on a USB-C connection) and Mac OS complains I did not eject it before disconnecting. While waking up it does not reconnect it, does not even appear after doing diskutil list on Terminal. 

Does anybody find the same behaviour? @itsage? 

If I would have known I may have passed my way, it is very inconvenient, I wanted to have it as a main SSD and it is unusable as such.

I have not found any firmware on the manufacturer's website to solve this. No Customer support available.

Best regards,

JA

Some news: 

Wavlink contacted me in less than 24 hours with a solution for the issue. The video is on YouTube already:

I have no PC at home, and even less with a TB3 port. I need to borrow one from a colleague after the holidays. 

If anybody can flash their unit please report back. 

Does anybody know a way of doing the above from a Mac?

Best regards,

JA

I tried to flash the unit from my Mac on bootcamp, got stopped at the middle with the following message:

Has anybody tried?

@jangoloti_1 Good to see WavLink is responsive to Support inquiries. That TB3 firmware update procedure is fairly involved. Which Intel Thunderbolt Software version are you running? I will give it a shot on a PC laptop first to make sure I don't break the firmware on the board.

@itsage

Where do I check that version you ask for? On device manager?

Macs running Boot Camp do not have/need Intel Thunderbolt Software or the newer Thunderbolt Control Center. You can read this topic to install Intel Thunderbolt Software manually. I'd recommend downloading and installing version 17.4.77.400.

@itsage

Thanks., you are right, I should be careful. I would not like to fry my unit.

Posted by: @jangoloti_1

@itsage

Thanks., you are right, I should be careful. I would not like to fry my unit.

Same error here, I followed the procedure but now the wavlink is blinking with this error. Every TB3 drivers/SW was updated as suggested.

@jangoloti_1 definitely your firmware ROM is wrong for UTE02. Here the correct link with all documentation and correct new firmware:

https://www.wavlink.com/en_us/firmware/details/d2c01db1f7.html

The file name is: UTE02_WAVLINK_455_NVM40.bin

Unfortunately I used yours.... I'm in contact with the wavlink support!

Looks like Newegg is running a sale on this at $90.  How unfortunate that the manufacturer has seen the value of this piece of hardware - from $50 -> $70 -> $90 -> $200 MSRP.  Maybe it's also a sign that when Newegg has deeply discounted new HW, it may not be bad thing to pick up...

Posted by: @jefniro

@jangoloti_1 definitely your firmware ROM is wrong for UTE02. Here the correct link with all documentation and correct new firmware:

 

https://www.wavlink.com/en_us/firmware/details/d2c01db1f7.html

 

The file name is: UTE02_WAVLINK_455_NVM40.bin

 

Unfortunately I used yours.... I'm in contact with the wavlink support!

I am sorry, I attached the files they sent me.

As I was stopped halfway I did not realise the .bin file is not the same that appears in the video.

I hope you find a solution for your unit.

new firmware solved problem disconnect wavlink after sleep, but Samsung 970 EVO (plus) not achieves max Thunderbolt 3 speed, i'm wait new firmware.

Posted by: @stas

new firmware solved problem disconnect wavlink after sleep, but Samsung 970 EVO (plus) not achieves max Thunderbolt 3 speed, i'm wait new firmware.

Good to know. Does it also reconnect by itself upon waking?

About the speed, has Wavlink mentioned they are working on that too?

J

Posted by: @jangoloti_1

Posted by: @jefniro

@jangoloti_1 definitely your firmware ROM is wrong for UTE02. Here the correct link with all documentation and correct new firmware:

 

https://www.wavlink.com/en_us/firmware/details/d2c01db1f7.html

 

The file name is: UTE02_WAVLINK_455_NVM40.bin

 

Unfortunately I used yours.... I'm in contact with the wavlink support!

I am sorry, I attached the files they sent me.

As I was stopped halfway I did not realise the .bin file is not the same that appears in the video.

I hope you find a solution for your unit.

No problem, I will resolve it. But I suggest you to remove your link from the forum... 😉