When It Works, When It Fails – ACASIS TB501 Pro Thunderbolt 5 Tested Geekazine podcast

Content provided by Jeffrey Powers. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by Jeffrey Powers or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://podcastplayer.com/legal.

Geekazine »
When It Works, When It Fails – ACASIS TB501 Pro Thunderbolt 5 Tested

3d ago 19:38

MP4•Episode home

ACASIS TB501 Pro Pros and Cons

Make a Logo on Fiverr

Last Updated on May 30, 2025 3:37 pm by Jeffrey Powers

Thunderbolt 5 has landed in Mac and PCs, promising fast transfer speeds. NVMe storage is also getting faster, so do we have an enclosure that can keep pace? That’s where the ACASIS TB501 Pro Thunderbolt 5 enclosure might come in — a sleek, aluminum-clad NVMe container that claims up to 6,000 MB/s transfer speeds for NVMes that support it.

But is this really the case? We’ll test a few NVMes across Mac, PC, and see how this stacks up.

ACASIS TB501 Pro Thunderbolt 5 Enclosure

The TB501 Specs

_{*NOTE: Most links in this article are affiliate links and support the channel}

Get ACASIS TB501 Pro Here

The ACASIS TB501 Pro is built with performance in mind.

Transfer Speeds: Up to 6,000 MB/s read and write
Compatibility: Thunderbolt 5, Thunderbolt 4, USB-C
Chipset: Intel JHL9480
Material: All-metal enclosure for heat dissipation
Cooling: Smart adjustable fan with vented housing
Drive Support: PCIe 4.0 NVMe (PCIe 5.0 is not supported)
Cross-Platform: macOS, Windows, phones, tablets
Tool-Free Design: Rubber stopper pin for easy drive swaps

No Screw Installation

The case has the feature where you can replace the NVMe without having to pull out the screwdriver.

On the Mac Mini M4 w/ Thunderbolt 5

To start with, I am testing on a Mac Mini M4 Pro with 12-Core CPU, 16 core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine. 24 GB unified memory, 512 GB SSD, 10 GB Ethernet, and THunderbolt 5 (x3) ports.

Lower Speed NVMe Drives

I started with some NVMe drives lying around, including the Kingston NV2, Crucial P3, and an older Samsung 850 EVO.

Testing PCIe 5.0 NVMe

I also have a new Kingston Fury Renegade G5 NVMe – with speeds up to 14,500MB/s. Since it’s running PCIe 5.0 technology, I knew it might not work in this enclosure. And while it didn’t, I hope there is a future firmware update that can at least allow running at PCIe speeds (since Intel mentions PCIe 5.0 is backwards compatible).

The speeds were comparable to their sticks, but I did see some interesting facts:

Some disks slowed from their initial speed in a long test (something expected with external drives)
The 850 EVO would not be recognized by the enclosure (tested to make sure it was still working)

Lexar NM800 Pro

The Lexar NM800 Pro is an NVMe that states speeds of up to 7500MB/s. However, I could only get the following speeds from the Mac Mini.

Write: 3,800 MB/s
Read: 4,500 MB/s

Enclosure Temperatures

With extended 30-minute load tests, temperatures stayed within spec—about 111°F on the case, and up to 147°F internal. The enclosure ran whisper-quiet, and performance was stable enough to edit 4K and even 8K video comfortably.

USB-C?

While the drive connects to the Thunderbolt 5 port, when I tried to connect to the USB-C 3.0 in the front, it would not recognize the drive. The enclosure did power up.

Also, I plugged into an OWC TB3 device, and the drive in the USB-C. Mac did not recognize the drive.

Other Apple Devices

The ACASIS TB501 does connect up without issue to a Macbook Air M2, and an iPad (M1 with USB-C connection).

Is Windows the Fail Side of the Equation

Windows users might want to think twice about this drive. No TB5.0 MoBo in shop, but I do have plenty TB3 and TB4 (which ACASIS says will work). I had major difficulties recognizing the drives on a couple of machines.

On the ZBook Fury with Thunderbolt 4, speeds dropped dramatically:

Write: ~345 MB/s
Read: ~2,500 MB/s

I had issues connecting this to ASUS motherboards. The NUC with TB3 recognized the drive, but couldn’t initialize the partition table.

There was not a successful connection to a PC. A Thunderbolt 5 PC might yield result, but limits connections

Is a Screwless Enclosure or Rubber Pin a Good Idea?

Tool-less is great—until it’s not. The back cover pops open easily, with no locking mechanism. Rubber NVMe stoppers feel fragile and might degrade over time due to heat.

The unit also doesn’t have any locking USB feature, so the enclosure could fall off a table, break free from the TB5 cable, and hit the floor causing the door to open and pin to pop out.

If ACASIS was to build in self-locking mechanisms to the NVMe and cover, this could be averted and still have a screw-less option.

Are the Thermal Pads Touching?

Another issue: I am not seeing the pads pressing into the NVMe. ACASIS says you can double up the thermal pads, but how would that affect the closure of the case?

The Verdict

The ACASIS 501 Pro is a high-speed enclosure for single drive storage — if you’re using an Apple product. I don’t see this as a travel case since it could pop open, and concerned the NVMe isn’t staying protected or even cool without using a different thermal pad like this one.

There is a list of approved NVMe that will hit that 6000 MB/s according to ACASIS. I recommend the Samsung 990 Pro NVMe. It also is 7500 MB/s read/write.

The $299 Price Tag Worth It?

The enclosure is $299, but you can probably get it for a discount (as I did – I did pay for this product). If you decide to purchase, I hope you use the affiliate link here: Get ACASIS TB501 Pro Here

Geekazine merch - I AM AI — **Check out the Geekazine Merch, including "I AM AI " T-Shirt.**

Thanks for reading! Don't forget to subscribe to Geekazine:

RSS Feed - YouTube
Twitter - Facebook

Tip Me via Paypal.me
Send a Tip via Venmo
RSS Bandwidth by Cachefly Get a 14 Day Trial
Be a Patreon: Part of the Sconnie Geek Nation!

Reviews: Geekazine gets products in to review. Opinions are of Geekazine.com. Sponsored content will be labeled as such. Read all policies on the Geekazine review page.

Reviews: Geekazine is also an affiliate of Amazon

The post When It Works, When It Fails – ACASIS TB501 Pro Thunderbolt 5 Tested appeared first on Geekazine.

23 episodes

#Tech #Video #News #Tech News #Jeffrey Powers #Music #I Talk