Review of the Oyen Digital U34 Bolt SSD: Amazing pull speed in a ruggedized package

Oyen Digital U34 Bolt Review
Last updated 1 hour agoApple SSD prices are high for what they offer, so external drives are a popular choice. The Oyen Digital U34 bolt is a great external SSD that’s fast and affordable. Oyen Digital does not have the same pronunciation problems as other brands on Amazon. The company has existed, without you even knowing, since the early days of FireWire. They’ve been offering higher-end storage since 2005. I bought a few of these products in a previous life, when I was working. This was before I started writing about such things on the Internet. The labels are gone or faded but they still function. I still have a couple of enclosures from them that are 15 years old. They’re not in use, but they come in handy for certain needs. They’re still working well when these needs arise. Oyen Digital continues to excel at cost-effectiveness and quietness with the U34 bolt external SSD. The Oyen Digital U34 Bolt is a chunky SSD measuring 4.5 inches by 2.75 inches and 0.75 inch thick. This is largely due to the heavy-duty construction of the drive and its rubber sleeve, which protects its contents. It’s not the lightest portable drive at 8 ounces — but that’s okay. A silicone sleeve protects the aluminum core on the outside. In the main enclosure, a silicone inlay is used to reduce shocks caused by drops and knocks. Oyen Digital U34 bolt review – drive with no bumperThe main core measures 4.35 by 2.56 by 0.67 inches without the external sleeve. It is built to MIL-Standard specs, which means it can handle the odd drop onto the floor. We don’t recommend that you bounce it off surfaces very often. However, it is still a good idea to keep it away from sharp objects. The aluminum core also helps to manage the drive thermals so that storage can run as fast and cool as possible. A USB-C connector with USB4 connectivity is located at one end of the connector, next to an LED indicator. It can also be used with Thunderbolt 3 devices at speeds up to 40Gbps. There’s no reason to not use USB4/Thunderbolt with a new Mac. Oyen Digital U34 Bolt Review – Thunderbolt portInside of the U34 Bolt aluminum core, there is an ASMedia USB chipset (ASM2464PD) and a Phison SSD controller (PS5018-E18), which manages Triple Level Cell NAND Flash. The flash is paired up with 2GB RAM cache. The drive is formatted for macOS in HFS+, which is convenient for Mac users that want to use the drive quickly. However, we still recommend APFS. It can be formatted to exFAT to work with both macOS desktops and Windows desktops. According to the company the drive can transfer data at speeds up to 2,800 megabits a second under optimal conditions. It is important to use a Thunderbolt, USB4 or USB3 connection and ensure that the Mac or PC being used is fast. Oyen offers the U34 Bolt with capacities of 4TB and 8.TB. AppleInsider was provided with the 8TB model to review. Oyen Digital U34 bolt review – performance We are used to the 2,800 megabytes a second claims made for performance. It’s a standard number that has more to do than anything else with PCIe allocation in Thunderbolt. Some drives exceed the number, but many fall short. The Oyen Digital U34 Bolt easily exceeds this number. On my Mac Studio and M3 Macbook Air, which I used to test the device, we regularly hit peak transfer rates of more than 3,000 Megabytes per Second read and 2650 Megabytes per Second. The speed of data transfers did not drop dramatically after a half-hour. This is probably due to the PCI-E4 capable NVMe media and enclosures that cannot hit these speeds. Strangely, USB4 speeds are different on Windows. We got half the Thunderbolt speed with write caching enabled or disabled on USB4, even though Windows reported 40 gigabit USB4 connections. We saw the same results on a Thunderbolt port in Windows as we did on our Macs. We don’t believe this has anything whatsoever to do with Oyen’s engineering or design choices. This seems more like Windows shenanigans, but we’ll watch it. The enclosure is the heat sink. After using the drive for four consecutive days as a boot volume on an Apple Silicon M2 Mac Mini, moving files and playing 2 4K videos continuously and simultaneously, the external case reached 25C in a space that was 21C. After my last storage reviews, I was asked more than once about case noise. It’s not coil whine that you should hear with a well-engineered case and bridge board. It’s mechanical noise. This is a strange request, since I have been clear that there are no fans and that the drive does not chatter, like with metal drives. The case is quieter that any environment in which you would be working. I’m not sure why this needs to be said but here we go. The drive is cool and maintains its speed over time. What’s there not to like? Oyen Digital U34 bolt review – great value for money The 8TB drive costs $1,099 when purchased at full retail. It’s expensive, but still within the range of other drives on the market. The Oyen Digital E18-8TBICS5 for example is a single 8TB NVMe PCIe 4.0×4 drive that costs around $850. The enclosure and additional protection will cost you around $150, which is comparable to the “build your own pricing”. Oyen Digital U34 bolt review – reviewer’s hand for scaleOWC’s 8TB express 1M2 drive retails at $1297. It’s a great drive from a great vendor, but the price difference is obvious. It works perfectly with a USB C iPhone, as expected. You can shoot ProRes footage indefinitely if you use one of the MagSafe wall-mount sticker. Flash media is a commodity with all the ramifications that comes with it, both from a consumer and financial perspective. We’ve heard rumblings about production changes in the summer of 2024. This will lead to price increases for SSDs and other products, as we don’t expect manufacturers to tolerate cutting profit margins that are close to zero to keep prices stable. If you’re interested in large external SSDs, I believe now is the time. The Oyen Digital U34 Bolt offers a great value and is a great choice. Oyen Digital U34 bolt review – pros Excellent speed, often more than promised by vendor
Review of the U34 Bolt by Oyen Digital – Cons 8TB of high-speed SSD is expensive no matter how you slice it.
Oyen U34 Bolt Thunderbolt SSD review — Score of 4.5 out 5 Where to Buy the Oyen U34 Bolt Thunderbolt SSD Oyen’s U34 Bolt Portable SD is available in four capacities: 4TB, 8TB, and retail prices are $529 and $1099 respectively. Both versions are available at Amazon and B&H Photo. At the time of this review, the retailers were running a promotion on the 4TB version, making it more affordable at $459. Oyen Digital U34 Bolt Thunderbolt4 External SSD, 4TB: $459 (70 dollars off) at B&H Photo and Amazon
Oyen Digital 8TB Bolt Thunderbolt 3 External SSD: $1099 at B&H & Amazon