Solidigm D5-P5336 122.88 TB as external Mac disk

[Gabriel]

We want to place a large corporate order of Solidigm D5-P5336 122.88 TB to be used as external Mac disk. Which enclosure or adapter is recommended? Thanks!

[SolidigmJose · Accepted solution]

Thank you for your interest in the Solidigm™ D5-P5336 122.88TB SSD.

Regarding the use of this drive as external storage on a Mac system, Solidigm recommends connecting SSDs directly to a supported motherboard whenever possible. While third-party adapters, enclosures, and Thunderbolt™ solutions may function correctly, Solidigm does not validate or recommend specific enclosure or adapter vendors, nor do we provide support for third-party connectivity solutions.

When using adapters or enclosures, compatibility depends on several factors, including proper protocol translation, power delivery, operating system support, and whether the enclosure correctly exposes the SSD information to the host system.

Additionally, because Apple hardware and macOS environments are highly customized, we recommend consulting Apple regarding compatibility with third-party NVMe storage devices and external storage solutions before making a purchasing decision.

Your use case is particularly interesting to us, and we would like to learn more. To better understand your project and investigate whether additional guidance may be available, we have created a support case on your behalf and will follow up with you privately.

Thank you for considering Solidigm for your storage needs.

[Gabriel]

Thanks for the information. We have seen the following adapters/enclosures, and wonder if someone has experience with them (or other possibilities):

Icy Dock - EZ-Adapter Ex MB307U-1VB (USB4 to U.2/U.3 NVMe SSD External Adapter)
https://global.icydock.com/product_395.html

USB4 40Gbps Compatible with Thunderbolt 3 to U.2 NVMe SSD Enclosure, Up to 3000M
https://www.trebleet.com/product-page/hunderbolt-3-to-u-2-nvme-ssd-enclosure-40gbps-up-to-3000mb-s

Thunderbolt 5 to U.2/3 NVMe SSD Enclosure, Up to 7000Mb/s
https://www.trebleet.com/product-page/thunderbolt-5-to-u-2-3-nvme-ssd-enclosure-up-to-7000mb-s

We know that it is important to test before placing the large corporate order, as described here:

U.2 AND U.3 DRIVES COMPATIBLE WITH APPLE MAC COMPUTERS RUNNING MACOS
The situation is different with Apple mac computers with Silicon processors, i.e. M1/M2/M3 and macOS. Unfortunately, few drives work with macOS and even fewer allow booting from a compatible U.2 or U.3 drive.
https://abart.pro/en/blog/page/u2-and-u3-drives-compatible-with-apple-mac-computers-running-macos

Other information as requested in your eMail:

Expected number of SSD to be purchased or budget: 1,000 units
Apple device model that will be used with the SSD: Mac mini (top model) now M4 but expected M5 soon.
MacOS version: macOS 26 Tahoe now and macOS 27 Golden Gate soon.
Intended enclosure, adapter, or Thunderbolt solution (if already selected): See above.
Planned workload: bioinformatics and molecular biology.
Expected connection method between the Mac systems and the SSD: Thunderbolt 5, which also supports USB4 v2 and previous versions of of both.

Thanks again for all.

[mkush]

Hi Gabriel. I received your PM and forgot to reply. I'm sorry about that.

Personally, I use a PCIe to Thunderbolt 3 chassis by Sonnet, with the cards mounted to U.2 to PCIe adapter cards made by StarTech. I've used several different Sonnet chassis and they all worked fine. I have also tried a StarTech PCIe to Thunderbolt chassis that worked fine. I'm sure OWC chassis also work.

I tried the Trebleet USB4 device you mention and it worked fine. I also tried a similar device from Acasis that worked.

My current Sonnet solution, with two D5-P5336 drives mounted:

https://www.sonnettech.com/product/echo-express-se3e/overview.html

I've also used this one for one drive:

https://www.sonnettech.com/product/echo-express-se1-tb3/overview.html

Any of their chassis should be fine. If you're looking for just one card, get the one above. They also have a Thunderbolt 5 version of it, which I have not tried:

https://www.sonnettech.com/product/echo-se1-t5/overview.html

These are the U.2 to PCIe adapter cards I use:

https://www.startech.com/en-us/hdd/pex4sff8639

I have not used the 122.88TB drives but the 61.44TB drives are fine, both in OPAL and non-OPAL. I'm sure the larger drives would be fine. Except for the price!!!

I hope this helps. The drives have been awesome for me on my Macs.

[Gabriel]

Thanks for the information.