Macworld - USA (2019-09)

38 MACWORLD OCTOBER 2019

MACUSER REVIEW: FLEDGING SHELL THUNDERBOLT 3

(reduce speed to avoid
overheating) later. That means
external cooling (blowing air on it)
will be more effective, but also
means, as I said earlier, that the
Shell can be hot to the touch. Not
burn-you hot, but close enough to
cause a self-preservation (i.e., hot
potato) reaction.

BOTTOM LINE
The Shell Thunderbolt is

mmmm

Shell Thunderbolt

NVMe enclosure

PROS

• Close to 3GBps burst
  performance.


• Small and light.
  CONS


• Runs hot to the touch
  under heavy loads.


• Pricey.
  PRICE
  $165
  COMPANY
  Fledging

marvelous for light

use. It’s as fast as

the Samsung X5

and saves you

money—about

$100 with a similar

capacity and

quality drive. And

while $165 may

seem like a lot for

a tiny enclosure

with a bridge

board, all the

similar devices I

found on Amazon

were even more

expensive. Hey, it’s

not as expensive

as an Apple Pro

Display stand!

For heavy

duty use such as

video editing or running your

OS, I’d skip the Shell and the

X5 because of the thermal

issues. If portability is not a

concern, opt for an external

enclosure such as the Node

Lite or the Highpoint R6661A

(go.macworld.com/r61a). These

will keep the drive cool,

eliminate thermal throttling, as

well as work with older Macs

via Apple’s adapter. ■

The 512GB 970 EVO inside the Shell ran out of cache sooner than the
1TB drive inside the Samsung X5

0 40 120 160

48GB Folder Write

48GB COPIES (Seconds)

143

Lower scores are better

123

123

48GB Folder Read

142

134

126

80

48GB Write

58

36

31

48GB Read

37

31

30

Fledging Shell (970 EVO) Samsung X5 Akito Node Lite