M.2. SATA USB Enclosure Recommendation

Ian

Ian

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I've got a spare M.2. SATA drive, which I'm considering using in an external enclosure so I can make a multi-boot OS drive that I can use on a couple of servers/PCs. Previously I've just use something like Ubuntu Live from a USB stick, but there have been performance penalties.

I had a look at Amazon and there are several enclosures that exist, but all of them appear to be from no-name brands and I'm a little concerned about heat dissipation. I know that these drives can get pretty hot, and from what I can tell, there is no ventilation or heatsink.

Has anyone used one of these M.2. (NGFF) enclosures before? If so, what are your thoughts?
 
Thanks for the suggestions guys, sorry I should have put more emphasis on the USB part - I need it to be a portable enclosure that I can unplug and move around.

I was originally going to go for an internal expansion card like that, but I like the idea of going USB3 and having something portable to work on multiple machines.
 
so, you got USB 3.1 second gen or you not bothered about the limitations of USB 3, like it being only half duplex, meaning a device can not send and receive data through the cable at the same time.

Stick it on an expansion card and leave a screwdriver on the top of the case. :)
 
muckshifter said:
so, you got USB 3.1 second gen or you not bothered about the limitations of USB 3, like it being only half duplex, meaning a device can not send and receive data through the cable at the same time.

Stick it on an expansion card and leave a screwdriver on the top of the case. :)
Click to expand...

Only USB 3.0 on the PCs I'll be using it on, but I'm fine with that for now - although a future proof 3.1 enclosure would be nice, as it'll still work for now. One of the servers I'll be using this device on is an Intel NUC, so I really do need a USB based solution - I just want something that I can use in the same way as a thumbdrive (but without burning it out as it'll be used as a temporary OS drive).

TriplexDread said:
An m.2 in in a external case using USB3?

Does that not defeat the object of using a m.2 drive?
Click to expand...

It's certainly not optimal, but as it's a spare drive and I need something portable, it's the cheapest and most practical option. It's a SATA m.2 drive, rather than NVMe, so it's not a total waste of speed.

I'm going to take a look at AliExpress, as they've got a larger selection and some of them seem to deal with heat issues a bit better.
 
I've found myself in a similar position and just bought one of These but it's going to be used with an external HDD dock so not portable but as it's exposed to air in use I doubt if there will be heat issues.

So far, though, it's working well as an external 240Gb storage device.
 
Oh that's an interesting idea, that way I could use the drive internally or in a USB enclosure! Best of both worlds :).
 
Cheers @TriplexDread - that's one of the ones I was looking at, but I think I'm going to go with the 2.5" adaptor that floppybootstomp suggested as I can use that internally, or in a portable enclosure. It's a little more long-winded, but more flexible :D.
 
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