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Although M.2 is commonly referred to as an interface, that's not the whole story. M.2 is also a shape or physical form factor, and governs the keying that lets a drive fit onto a motherboard. WATCH THAT BOOT. If your desktop is getting a PCI Express/NVMe drive for the first time, verify with the motherboard or PC maker that the drive will be bootable. It's unlikely, but a BIOS upgrade may be required to get you there. (This is an issue with older motherboards, not current ones.) The T700 is for gamers, creatives, and professionals seeking the ultimate in solid-state drive performance that today only a Gen 5 SSD offers. Just know that being able to run a PCI Express 5.0 SSD at peak speeds can require a considerable additional hardware investment. You must be willing to buy a recent desktop with the hardware to support SSDs built on the PCIe 5.0 standard, upgrade an existing recent rig, or build one from scratch. By making such an investment and having the T700 serve as its brains, though, you're future-proofing your entire setup. Ready to shop? Not quite: Increasingly, mainstream drives now cite support for PCI Express 4.0 as opposed to 3.0. We've tested our share of M.2 SSDs that support the upgraded interface, and they are fast indeed. How much you'll be able to tell the difference, though, comes down to what you do with your PC. South Korean memory-chip maker SK Hynix is a relative newcomer to the consumer solid-state drive market, but you would never know that based on its first offerings. The SK Hynix Platinum P41, a PCI Express 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD, is its best yet. It dominated our PCMark 10 and 3DMark Storage benchmark testing, setting several new records in the process. The P41 supports 256-bit AES hardware-based encryption. SK Hynix provides a clone utility tool, the SK Hynix System Migration Utility, for its SSDs, in addition to Easy Drive Manager software, which lets you see detailed information on drive health, run diagnostics, and erase the drive. And the P41 can be had for a very reasonable price in its 1TB and 2TB capacities. Who It's For
If you're a custom PC builder with RGB-lighting fever, and have RGB-ified just about every inch and corner of your system, perk up: ADATA has brought pretty lights to the internal SSD final frontier. The XPG Spectrix S40G is the most flamboyant NVMe drive we've seen to date. With the S40G's fine 4K write speeds, top-notch sequential-read speeds, and respectable durability rating, ADATA makes having a top-of-the line, over-the-top SSD affordable and fun, in one fell swoop. Who It's For Also, make sure that if your system supports and you're shopping for an NVMe drive, any PCI Express drive you're considering is specifically an NVMe model. Merely using the PCI Express bus is not necessarily a guarantee of that; PCIe M.2 SSDs existed before NVMe, and though all current models support NVMe, some oldies are still on the market. Today's mainstream solid-state drives are PCI Express 3.0 and 4.0 x4 NVMe M.2 devices, and they leave the fastest SATA-based drives in the dust. The StarTech.com USB-C M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD Enclosure is drop-proof and waterproof for extreme durability. Third on our list was the ORICO M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosure. This is a more affordable enclosure that can get you set up on a budget. It’s compatible with both SATA and NVMe SSDs, so you don’t have to worry about what type you’re using. And while it only supports up to a 2TB drive, you get the benefit of a 10-minute auto-shutoff timer to save power.One thing we appreciated about the design of the UGREEN enclosure is the easy, tool-free installation. The outer shell of the case is hollow, and you can slide it off with a little effort. Once you’ve pulled out the inner case, you install your M.2 drive in the enclosure. It’s large enough to fit any standard-sized NVMe drive: 2230, 2242, 2260, and 2280 will all fit. In practice, all of today's PC builder- or upgrader-minded M.2 drives and slots are 22mm wide, so you can expect this number to start with 22. The most common lengths are 80mm (M.2 Type-2280) and 60mm (M.2 Type-2260). Drives as short as 30mm (M.2 Type-2230) or as long as 110mm (M.2 Type-22110) do exist, however. Why the differences in length? The longer the drive's PCB (printed circuit board), the more surface area it has to hold memory chips.
We started out our list with the UGREEN M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosure. This enclosure accepts any length NVMe SSD, and installation takes just a few moments. That’s convenient if you intend to swap different drives in and out of your enclosure. We also appreciated the large, 8TB maximum capacity, which is great for archives. The data bus, or pathway, over which your data travels to and from an M.2 drive is a whole other matter, which is where PCI Express and NVMe come in. We'll get to the significance of NVMe in a moment; first, let's discuss the key physical traits of an M.2 drive that you need to understand. (The video below is a good primer.)SATA-based M.2 SSDs are all well and good, but mostly restricted to economy models these days—PCI Express is where the cutting-edge speed is. Your system specifically needs an M.2 slot that supports PCI Express to use these drives; some desktop motherboard slots support both kinds. A given laptop might support only M.2 SSDs that use the SATA bus, which limits what you can do in terms of upgrades. The only reason you'd upgrade in that situation would be to boost the available storage capacity. You can use these PCIe 4.0-based SSDs in PCIe 3.0-only systems, but they'll just dial down to PCIe 3.0 speeds. So should you opt for one? If you'll be assembling or upgrading a late-model AMD or Intel PC with the right chipset, by all means. Hardcore gamers and content creators working on today's newer PCs will stand to gain the most. If you have a PCIe 4.0-capable slot for one, get one; otherwise, 3.0 will likely do you fine. Installing your M.2 SSD is straightforward, although you’ll need to use the included small screwdriver. Remove the screw from the lid and slide it away to reveal the inner housing. Inside is a thermal silica gel pad that helps transfer heat to the outside. The compartment will accommodate any sized M.2 SSD, from 2230 all the way up to 2280. And it supports both NVMe and SATA SSDs, so you don’t have to worry about compatibility. The data transfer speed will depend on what type of drive you’re using. For NVMe drives, you get a full 10Gbps maximum speed. If you’re using a SATA drive, this will top out at 6Gbps. You’ll also be limited to 2TB of drive capacity. That said, you get everything you need to get started. Along with the enclosure, there’s a pair of 15.7” USB Type-C to Type-C and Type-C to Type-A cables. Best Durability: StarTech.com USB-C M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD Enclosure As we discuss in our parallel roundup, The Best M.2 Solid-State Drives, M.2 drives are differentiated by a four- or five-digit number listed in their names or specifications. The number is a measurement in millimeters, with the first two digits being the drive's width and the remaining two or three digits telling you how long it is.
Though it can't quite match the gaming prowess of some of the latest generation of PCIe 4.0 speedsters, the SSD 990 Pro With Heatsink still offers respectable gaming performance while being a thoroughbred workhorse for creative tasks. It's an appealing choice and a worthy upgrade from the SSD 980 Pro.
Lexar NM790
Some PCI Express M.2 SSDs can run hot under sustained use, so having the M.2 module mounted on a vertical card can also mean better ventilation, and in theory less throttling due to heat. That said, these drives are so fast that under most normal use they finish data transfers before heat can become a major issue. The UGREEN M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosure is an aluminum and silicone enclosure that allows for tool-free installation. The ORICO M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosure is made entirely from aluminum and boasts a 10-minute automatic sleep mode. The SK Hynix Platinum P41 is a worthy choice for anyone looking to buy a high-performance PCI Express 4.0 NVMe SSD without breaking the bank. It blew away several of our benchmark records. The P41 provides AES hardware-based encryption and a clone utility tool as well as SSD management software. Just be forewarned that with its blistering speed, you will want to add a heatsink, the one item of note that it is missing. Most M.2 drives aren't exactly pretty; they look like bare circuit boards with silicon chips grafted onto them. Some may be topped by a heat spreader or heatsink (usually an array of metal fins) that is equal parts practical and decorative. The most important thing to know about M.2, though, is what it is and what it isn't.
Why did SSDs take so long to get so small? Actually, from a strict manufacturing viewpoint, they never needed to be that big in the first place. Classic 2.5-inch SSDs have a lot of dead space inside, as memory chips are much smaller than rotating drive mechanisms, but they were designed to fit into existing bays to replace hard drives. In the move from bulky desktops to ultra-slim laptops and tablets, one thing came clear: That fatter kind of drive would have to go. An M.2 drive reduces an SSD to its essentials: just a strip of a circuit board studded with silicon, much leaner and easier to fit into tight spaces. The USB port supports the USB 3.2 data transfer standard. This allows you to read and write files at a rate of up to 10Gbps. The enclosure itself will support up to a 8TB drive. That’s a larger capacities than most enclosures will allow. A pair of 12-inch cables are included for connecting to your computer or other device. Both are male-to-male, and one is USB Type-C to Type-C, while the other is Type-C to Type-A. Many of today's premium laptops can make use of PCI Express M.2 drives. (Important: Some, like the latest Apple MacBooks, have PCI Express drives soldered, in not-upgradable fashion, to the laptop's mainboard, so "PCI Express SSD" doesn't necessarily imply "removable M.2 SSD module.") As mentioned, almost all new desktop motherboards have M.2 slots, most of which support PCI Express drives.Of course, these are just the basics. To truly understand these enclosures, we’re going to have to take a much closer look. Once we’ve given them a thorough evaluation, we’ll know enough to deliver a verdict. Let’s get started! Best Overall: UGREEN M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosure
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