M.2. SATA USB Enclosure Recommendation

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?
 

Ian

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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.
 

muckshifter

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

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

Ian

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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. :)

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).

An m.2 in in a external case using USB3?

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

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.
 

floppybootstomp

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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.
 

Ian

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Oh that's an interesting idea, that way I could use the drive internally or in a USB enclosure! Best of both worlds :).
 

Ian

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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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