Softraid 6: OWC Mercury Pro U.2 Dual with 4x ADATA SX8200 2TB very slow performance, unstable - Hardware Compatibility https://forums.softraid.com/hardware-compatibility/softraid-6-owc-mercury-pro-u-2-dual-with-4x-adata-sx8200-2tb-versy-slow-performance-unstable/ SoftRAID Discussion Board en-US Wed, 22 Apr 2026 01:27:29 +0000 wpForo 60 RE: Softraid 6: OWC Mercury Pro U.2 Dual with 4x ADATA SX8200 2TB very slow performance, unstable https://forums.softraid.com/hardware-compatibility/softraid-6-owc-mercury-pro-u-2-dual-with-4x-adata-sx8200-2tb-versy-slow-performance-unstable/paged/2/#post-13617 Tue, 28 Dec 2021 17:54:19 +0000 @thotha

Posted by: @tal

Each bay in the U.2 Dual is two PCIe lanes

Each bay of the U.2 dual is x2, so a total of x4 (2+2). The point being is to use slot A and B in RAID0.

Since the total bandwidth of Thunderbolt is x4, two x2 drives in RAID0 will achieve a total of an x4 uplink. I'm presuming you're using two Shuttles (4 blade slots per Shuttle) for a total possible configuration of 8 blades? If so, a x4 to each bay would be overkill, since each blade would only be able to provide a subset of that before saturating the Thunderbolt bus.

 

Described differently, put one Phison blade in Slot A of the U.2 dual. Put the other blade in Slot B. RAID0 and you'll achieve full x4 bandwidth. The dual+shuttles combo allows you to use up to 8 blades, so 8x the capacity at a total of a x4 uplink. Does that make sense?

]]> Hardware Compatibility tal https://forums.softraid.com/hardware-compatibility/softraid-6-owc-mercury-pro-u-2-dual-with-4x-adata-sx8200-2tb-versy-slow-performance-unstable/paged/2/#post-13617 RE: Softraid 6: OWC Mercury Pro U.2 Dual with 4x ADATA SX8200 2TB very slow performance, unstable https://forums.softraid.com/hardware-compatibility/softraid-6-owc-mercury-pro-u-2-dual-with-4x-adata-sx8200-2tb-versy-slow-performance-unstable/#post-13606 Mon, 27 Dec 2021 23:30:35 +0000 @thotha 

You can upload .txt or .jpg files, they both work. (RTF or other text extensions do not upload.)

Forums are blasted by spammers/hackers, so we are careful on allowed extension types, sorry for that.

 

Maybe Tal can comment on whether you missed anything in technology, I have some ideas, but he is a better hardware expert. ;-)

]]> Hardware Compatibility SoftRAID Support https://forums.softraid.com/hardware-compatibility/softraid-6-owc-mercury-pro-u-2-dual-with-4x-adata-sx8200-2tb-versy-slow-performance-unstable/#post-13606 RE: Softraid 6: OWC Mercury Pro U.2 Dual with 4x ADATA SX8200 2TB very slow performance, unstable https://forums.softraid.com/hardware-compatibility/softraid-6-owc-mercury-pro-u-2-dual-with-4x-adata-sx8200-2tb-versy-slow-performance-unstable/#post-13604 Mon, 27 Dec 2021 21:47:48 +0000 @softraid-support, @tal

Hello all
Hope you did have time for relaxing and happy x-mas time with family and friends.

@softraid-suppor:
I guess I found the problem of the low speeds.
According to the System Profiler, the OWC Mercury Dual U.2 does ONLY use x2 lanes on NVME BUS with ONE NVME Blade installed, where as the DeLock 42012 with Intel Chip Controller does use x4 lanes on NVME BUS also with ONLY ONE blade installed.

If I would have known this earlier, I could have saved about 500.- bucks for the two Silicon Power P34A80 2TB with the Phison PS5012-E12 chip I bought because I thought the ADATA Drives are NOT compatible with macOS and/or OWC Mercury.

So I'm wondering how to go on with this or did I oversee some important technology rules?
What are the next steps?

And as I'm still not able to upload any PNG or JPG pictures, here is the download link for the pictures.

Regards
Thomas

]]> Hardware Compatibility Thomas Th. https://forums.softraid.com/hardware-compatibility/softraid-6-owc-mercury-pro-u-2-dual-with-4x-adata-sx8200-2tb-versy-slow-performance-unstable/#post-13604 RE: Softraid 6: OWC Mercury Pro U.2 Dual with 4x ADATA SX8200 2TB very slow performance, unstable https://forums.softraid.com/hardware-compatibility/softraid-6-owc-mercury-pro-u-2-dual-with-4x-adata-sx8200-2tb-versy-slow-performance-unstable/#post-13546 Thu, 23 Dec 2021 07:54:09 +0000 @thotha 

I agree with getting the phison.

]]> Hardware Compatibility SoftRAID Support https://forums.softraid.com/hardware-compatibility/softraid-6-owc-mercury-pro-u-2-dual-with-4x-adata-sx8200-2tb-versy-slow-performance-unstable/#post-13546 RE: Softraid 6: OWC Mercury Pro U.2 Dual with 4x ADATA SX8200 2TB very slow performance, unstable https://forums.softraid.com/hardware-compatibility/softraid-6-owc-mercury-pro-u-2-dual-with-4x-adata-sx8200-2tb-versy-slow-performance-unstable/#post-13545 Thu, 23 Dec 2021 07:27:22 +0000 @tal 

What NVME SSD's would you suggest?
As I can understand I should go for Phison E12 controller, right?

]]> Hardware Compatibility Thomas Th. https://forums.softraid.com/hardware-compatibility/softraid-6-owc-mercury-pro-u-2-dual-with-4x-adata-sx8200-2tb-versy-slow-performance-unstable/#post-13545 RE: Softraid 6: OWC Mercury Pro U.2 Dual with 4x ADATA SX8200 2TB very slow performance, unstable https://forums.softraid.com/hardware-compatibility/softraid-6-owc-mercury-pro-u-2-dual-with-4x-adata-sx8200-2tb-versy-slow-performance-unstable/#post-13532 Wed, 22 Dec 2021 19:56:01 +0000 @tal 
Thank you for feedback about the ADATA SSD and the controller chips used.
We'll see the tests and I'll give feedback.

]]> Hardware Compatibility Thomas Th. https://forums.softraid.com/hardware-compatibility/softraid-6-owc-mercury-pro-u-2-dual-with-4x-adata-sx8200-2tb-versy-slow-performance-unstable/#post-13532 RE: Softraid 6: OWC Mercury Pro U.2 Dual with 4x ADATA SX8200 2TB very slow performance, unstable https://forums.softraid.com/hardware-compatibility/softraid-6-owc-mercury-pro-u-2-dual-with-4x-adata-sx8200-2tb-versy-slow-performance-unstable/#post-13529 Wed, 22 Dec 2021 17:15:00 +0000 Hey Thomas- heads up that the DeLock enclosure is PCIe 3x2 (2 lanes). This is a limitation of Thunderbolt as Intel will only certify empty enclosures with 2 lanes instead of 4 for power draw limitations. Not that it makes a big difference here- you should see similar results as having 1 blade tested between the Mercury enclosure and DeLock.

 

Could also be limitation of the ADATA ssd and MacOS in general. The ADATA ssd uses SMI2262EN, which is not as consistent of an SSD as a Phison E12/E12s-based drive. So your speeds jumping around could be a result of the ADATA ssd...

Your videos show good peak speeds but inconsistent sustained, which makes me think the SSD is the culprit. If the speeds remain with the DeLock enclosure, you'll want to maybe test out a different SSD. Not all M.2's are created equal.

]]> Hardware Compatibility tal https://forums.softraid.com/hardware-compatibility/softraid-6-owc-mercury-pro-u-2-dual-with-4x-adata-sx8200-2tb-versy-slow-performance-unstable/#post-13529 RE: Softraid 6: OWC Mercury Pro U.2 Dual with 4x ADATA SX8200 2TB very slow performance, unstable https://forums.softraid.com/hardware-compatibility/softraid-6-owc-mercury-pro-u-2-dual-with-4x-adata-sx8200-2tb-versy-slow-performance-unstable/#post-13524 Wed, 22 Dec 2021 15:58:14 +0000 @softraid-support, @tal

Here is a URL download link for the several test files and videos.
In the videos it gets very very interesting after about 45-60 seconds.

]]> Hardware Compatibility Thomas Th. https://forums.softraid.com/hardware-compatibility/softraid-6-owc-mercury-pro-u-2-dual-with-4x-adata-sx8200-2tb-versy-slow-performance-unstable/#post-13524 RE: Softraid 6: OWC Mercury Pro U.2 Dual with 4x ADATA SX8200 2TB very slow performance, unstable https://forums.softraid.com/hardware-compatibility/softraid-6-owc-mercury-pro-u-2-dual-with-4x-adata-sx8200-2tb-versy-slow-performance-unstable/#post-13522 Wed, 22 Dec 2021 13:08:56 +0000 @softraid-support 
Thank you to for your feedback.

See my response to @tal
https://forums.softraid.com/postid/13521/

]]> Hardware Compatibility Thomas Th. https://forums.softraid.com/hardware-compatibility/softraid-6-owc-mercury-pro-u-2-dual-with-4x-adata-sx8200-2tb-versy-slow-performance-unstable/#post-13522 RE: Softraid 6: OWC Mercury Pro U.2 Dual with 4x ADATA SX8200 2TB very slow performance, unstable https://forums.softraid.com/hardware-compatibility/softraid-6-owc-mercury-pro-u-2-dual-with-4x-adata-sx8200-2tb-versy-slow-performance-unstable/#post-13521 Wed, 22 Dec 2021 13:07:42 +0000 @tal 
Thank you for your writing.
The blades have been installed equally split on slot C and D of both NVME tu U.2 cases in the Mercury Dual U.2 box.

Now I did swap them both to slot A and B.
There was NO difference.

Right now I do the tests again and will send a download link for the test result files so you can download them.
This will take some time and will happen later today.

I did also order this two NVME cases for test purpose.
Delock USB4™ 40 Gbps Enclosure for 1 x M.2 NVMe SSD - tool free
Delock External Enclosure for M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD with SuperSpeed USB 20 Gbps (USB 3.2 Gen 2x2) USB Type-C™ female


They should arrive hopefully by thursday so I can then compare them with the OWC Mercury.
Still, my beleve is that there is either a compatibility problem
- between the controller chip of the ADATA NVME Blades and the OWC Mercury
- between the controller chip of the OWC Mercury with MacMini 7.1 and 9.1
- with macOS Catalina/macOS Monterey
- some mixture of all above combinations....

 

]]> Hardware Compatibility Thomas Th. https://forums.softraid.com/hardware-compatibility/softraid-6-owc-mercury-pro-u-2-dual-with-4x-adata-sx8200-2tb-versy-slow-performance-unstable/#post-13521