SABRENT [Upgraded Version Support UASP] Ultra Slim USB 3.0 to 2.5-Inch SATA External Aluminum Hard Drive Enclosure [Black] (EC-UK30)

This thing is a snap to put together. I had it assembled in, I kid you not, under a minute. It took me longer to get out of the package and to unbox the SSD itself. Putting the disk into the enclosure takes seconds, and locking it in place with the super clever twist lock takes less than that. I wish motherboard manufacturers would use that little twist lock for SSDs!The outer door of the enclosure, where you see the thumb ring thing, snaps right into place and locks easily. The hardest part of that? If you're not paying attention, you can easily put it on upside down. If you do that—like I did—it will have a propensity to fall off. This is *not* their fault. They clearly mark with little triangle arrows, right there on the door and the case, how not to do this. I was just being a dope.It's ROCK solid. You could probably throw it like an MLB pitcher and knock a seagull out of the sky, and it'd be completely unharmed when it hit the ground. The whole thing is a nice, substantial aluminum that feels meaty and protective without being overly heavy.From a technical standpoint, yes, it is Thunderbolt 3! This is distinct from USB 3. This is distinct from USB-C. Let me explain:If you have a port on your computer that looks like "USB-C" and you know it's Thunderbolt 3: it will work at ridiculous full speed, way faster than a "USB SSD." You're getting an NVMe device directly on your bus.If that same port is TB4: It'll work just fine but you won't get the extra speed of TB4. It'll just be the same as above. Honestly, there aren't that many TB4 compliant devices out there yet, and definitely not at this price point.If you have a port that looks like "USB-C" but it's some vague, unspecified "USB 3", or if you have a port that looks like "regular USB," but probably has like a blue part inside the socket and then you use an adapter cable: You'll get... okay speed. I can't write a massive treatise for you on the complete mess that all the different things "USB 3" could mean (and it's a MESS because of dumb marketing reasons), but the possibilities here range from being acceptable performance to "hm, not bad!"This thing's got one major weak point: they give you a *ridiculously* short little cable with it. Like, absurdly short. It's an okay quality cable, vinyl rather than braided unfortunately but still okay, it's just that it's stupid short.Anyway, if you're looking for a Thunderbolt 3 SSD enclosure, and you're poking through all the different no-name brands and thinking you might just go with one of the major brands like this one (btw, Sabrent is a major brand) the answer is: YES. THIS ONE. But when you put it in your cart? Add a longer Thunderbolt 3 cable.

I bought this for a new Mac Mini M2 Pro I bought so it could have a huge, fast external drive for various projects. Use was as dead simple as it can be. You turn a very easy to use semi-circular handle that flips up, remove the metal panel, snap in your NVMe card, replace the panel and turn the handle back to its original position, plug it into a Thunderbolt/USB C port, and you are done. It takes less time to install a drive in it and get it hooked up than it took me time to write this. Fast transfer speeds that take advantage of Thunderbolt 3/4. Heat is not a problem even with intense use, and its so rugged I bet I could throw it up against a brick wall and it would hurt the wall before harming itself. The design seems, well, Apple-like in its ease of use and functionality. (Remember the easy-to-remove side doors of PowerMac G5’s and MacPros? It’s that well made.) Can’t think of how I would improve on it. Well worth the money.

Ok, for the price, it's a really good case. First of all it's like a black anodized aluminum case, just big enough to fit the 2.5" drive. There is like a small rubber pad on the inside that seems to isolate it and hold it in place, nothing else holds it in place on the inside. The electronics plugs right into the sata interface on the drive, and is the other end of the case cover as well. It ships with 2 small screws and a small phillips driver which didn't work well, i used a slightly larger one i had at home and was able to screw it in tighter. Comes with a short usb 3.0 cable, the standard size on both size (rectanguler), plugged it into my laptop and at first nothing. But i forgot, it was from a ps4 so i had to go into the computer management and repartition the drive, and format it, then it worked fine as an external. It comes with with a vinyl like case to carry the drive around. So overall, it's sort of made cheap, but for the price, it's a great little case in my opinion. I noticed the the usb port was a little wonky as i almost plugged it in backwards (thought i broke the connector) but it's still working (tiny blue led shows disk access). Going to buy a few more of these for my extra drives i have sitting around, and the drive is powered by the usb cable as well, so couldn't be easier then that to add some storage to stuff like your tv, blu ray player, to store all the smart tv apps and things, or to your network router as a network drive. So far working well, and formatted as my F: drive.Update:Ok, assembled 4 of these so far. I did read that one person had problems with the circuit board touching the aluminum case. When you attach the drive, and insert it into the case, try both ways, flip it around, i always found that it fit better one way rather then other for whatever reason, but they all assembled fine. None of mine touched the case, BUT, if the 2 screws get loose, i can see the small soldered ends possibly can touch. So what i did, was the cases come packed with like this black foam, i cut just a super thin layer of it, to cover the ends and just shoved it on top, i'll see if i can take a pic and post it, but it's just the foam, i just pushed it on there, super thin layer lol. So far though, i have one on my ps4 pro, i have one on my network router, i'm using one as a small backup for my laptop, these are great so far. using 3 2.5" drives, 2 standard, 1 ssd, 1 hybrid, they all work fine.