I recently got a UGREEN enclosure meant for my Crucial P3 1TB SSD to use it for media streaming as network-attached storage. Instead of a full NAS setup, I just transfer files directly from my PC, which has USB-C 40Gbps ports. Initially, when I transfer MKV files, the speed starts off strong at about 700 MB/s, but it quickly drops to around 70 MB/s after a few seconds and stays there until the transfer is complete. I tried reformatting the drive and transferring a 25 GB MKV file, which went well at 700 MB/s, but when I plugged it back into my PC later, the speeds dropped again to 70-90 MB/s. What could be causing this — is it an issue with my motherboard, the enclosure, or something in Windows?
2 Answers
Sounds like typical behavior for SSDs that use QLC flash like your P3. They often slow down significantly once the SLC cache fills up, unlike better drives that use TLC flash, which tend to reduce speed but not as drastically.
It might not just be about the enclosure but rather what's going on with the SSD itself. If you're using a lower storage SSD, like a 500GB model, and transferring larger files, that could definitely be affecting the speed.
Actually, I'm using a 2TB Crucial P3 I saved from an old laptop.
Could you suggest an M.2 drive that uses a different type of flash?