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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.

*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.

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

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.

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

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:

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.

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.

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.

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

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:

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

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.

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 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 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

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