Mike Wuerthele
Announced on Wednesday, Plugable's new NVMe SSD enclosure is tool-free, and utilizes the full speed of USB 3.1 type C generation 2.
Resembling the handle of a Phaser from the original "Star Trek" series, Plugable's new enclosure fits a standard M.2 NVMe drive, allowing for compact, and fast data transfer. The single connectivity port is a USB 3.1 type C generation 2 connector, allowing for up to 10 gigabits per second of data transfer at maximum.
The Plugable USB-C NVMe Enclosure opens with an end-mounted slide-lock. The user inserts a NVMe M.2 drive into the socket and a tensioned rubber peg holds it in place. The enclosure itself is a heat sink for the drive.
AppleInsider was provided a unit for testing prior to release. Speeds approached that 10 gigabit per second maximum for USB 3.1 type C with both a 256GB Samsung 970 EVO, as well as a higher-end 512GB Samsung 970 Pro, and the case does support UASP to facilitate the speedy transfers.
USB-C port on the Plugable enclosureBoth drives are capable of higher speeds in native slots in a PC, or Thunderbolt 3 enclosures, though. Fast storage demands a fast enclosure, but that can get expensive. Plugable's new USB-C NVMe enclosure isn't as fast as Thunderbolt 3 can be, but it is cost effective.
There are less expensive enclosures available, and we've tested a few along the way for one reason or another. However, most of them suffered speed degradation due to heat very rapidly, eliminating the value of the NVMe media versus less expensive SATA drives. We didn't see the same with the Plugable in our testing, even over multiple-hour workflows moving data on and off the drive continuously.
The Plugable USB-C NVMe USB 3.1 Gen 2 NVMe Enclosure retails for $49.95 on Amazon. It ships without a drive, but includes short USB-C to USB-C and USB-C to USB-A cables.
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Charles Martin
Malcolm Owen
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Andrew Orr
29 Comments
That’s actually a good price for this. Considering that top speeds of USB 3.1 gen 2 tops at 10Gb/s, and not the 3.5Gb/s the fastest NVMe 2 drives do in sequential, you can get a less expensive drive for this, as long as the other specs are ok too. Just remember that those speeds are only available for sequential reads and writes. Everything else is a lot slower.
Nifty. Haven't used a NVM drive yet, but the speeds are compelling. Tho as Mel points out it sounds like the NVM max (3.5 GB/s!) won't be achieved via this. Has anyone used NVM onboard somewhere yet?
Thanks for this article. I have been shopping around for a NVMe SSD enclosure and most I have found are in the $200-250 range. I thought, there's got to be a more affordable enclosure out there. And here you go. Hopefully this is the harbinger of more affordable NVMe SSD enclosures.
I bought this with a Crucial M.2 Amazon had on sale:
https://www.amazon.com/ADWITS-High-Performance-Adapater-External-Enclosure/dp/B07F2S836J
I had one that was more similar to the one in the article, but it cooked itself to death the second time I used it. The one I have now is slightly larger but so far has stayed cool to the touch.
Blackmagic test speeds with a 2016 MacBook Pro Touch Bar are around 950 to 1K-ish each way. Not awesome, but double what I get with a SanDisk Extreme portable.