Wanna improve my external storage solution. My main external storage, that is.

[Smart_Guy]

Hello all. How's things?

I keep all of my non essential storage in an external multi HDD enclosure. This means everything that does not require immediate installation in the computer; e.g. videos, music portable games like emulation and source ports, system backups, etc... In the computer I only have the OS drive and another one exclusively for games.

I use this enclosure in different places so I keep carrying it in a bag every now and then. Total capacity is 14TB (in 4 HDD's right now) and it supports any traditional SATA storage, so SATA m.2 is not included. I'm looking for other solutions to reduce the weight. It's 2025 now and I'm fed up with the way I carry it. 10 years ago it would have been an ultimate solution, but not now. I could replace the HDD with 2.5" SSD but the size of the enclosure won't change even tho the weight will be reduced, let alone I can't find high capacity 2.5" SSD's to at least take up the current used space.

Are there, like, fast multi PCIE nvme enclosures? I couldn't find any. Perhaps I'm using wrong keywords? I thought of PCIE to SATA adapters to use in the current above enclosure but not sure how practical that is. HELP

 

[Joe C]

You can get external M.2 NVME drive enclosure to hold your NVME drive to access.
Today these drives or fairly cheap for their size, and durability. When I went from Windows 7 to Windows 10 I upgraded my NVME drive from a 250 gig Windows 7 to a 500 gig Windows 10 drive and have an external NVME drive enclosure to mount my Windows 7 drive to access any data I might have missed from the 7 to 10 upgrade. This enclosure connects through the USB 3.0 port on my pc so it will be limited as far as speed goes the the 3.0 port.
Reviews from Toms Hardware:
https://www.tomshardware.com/best-picks/best-ssd-and-hard-drive-enclosures

 

[PP Mguire]

The unfortunate truth is that even over 15 years after consumer SSDs have been introduced to the wild we haven't seen prices for high capacity drives decrease. Mainly because they want to keep us stuck at 4TB and just increase the "speeds". Replacing 14TB of spinning rust with SSD won't be cheap.
The other unfortunate thing is there isn't much in the way of multi-bay 2.5" USB enclosures.

 

[Smart_Guy]

I'd could use an NVME enclosure, but need it with multiple slots and couldn't find one. I did get the Asus ROG Strix Arion found here:
https://www.tomshardware.com/best-picks/best-ssd-and-hard-drive-enclosures, you guys provided above, for general portability and to backup Windows 11 builds directly from their NVME since they dropped the Windows 7 style backup, and to create OS images for my miniPC's. It's fast enough at 10gbps thru USB 4.

It's indeed unfortunate that 2.5" SSD are kinda capped at 4TB, hence I need multi slot enclosures. Also noticed that many NVME's are getting cheaper than them. I think I'll have a look at NVME to standard SATA6 adapters, but it seems like a gamble, dunno.

Here's the bulky thing I'm using:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/285703372099

And it served me well over the last ~5 years with four HDD's in it. It's fast enough thru USB3. That's like ~500MB/s. Worst case scenario I'll keep it and just replace the HDD's in it to lighter ones. Maybe 2.5" HDD's? I'll have a look at that too. They are known for they slow speeds, but let's see.

Then a again, a multi-bay 2.5"-only enclosure would be fantastic.

 

[PP Mguire]

I'd could use an NVME enclosure, but need it with multiple slots and couldn't find one.

Yea they don't really exist. Companies think that people wanting fast SSD storage in bulk is doing enterprise grade stuff.

It's indeed unfortunate that 2.5" SSD are kinda capped at 4TB

There are 8TB drives out there in SATA but they are more than double the cost of the 4TB drives. There are also 8TB and 16TB NVMe drives but they are in the thousands. Teamgroup had a 'reasonable' 16TB SATA SSD with QLC NAND but they stopped making them a couple years ago. I had my eyes on those hoping they would go down but they never did.

NVME's are getting cheaper than them. I think I'll have a look at NVME to standard SATA6 adapters, but it seems like a gamble, dunno.

That doesn't exist.

And it served me well over the last ~5 years with four HDD's in it. It's fast enough thru USB3. That's like ~500MB/s. Worst case scenario I'll keep it and just replace the HDD's in it to lighter ones. Maybe 2.5" HDD's? I'll have a look at that too. They are known for they slow speeds, but let's see.

If you did 2.5" then you could do 4 4TB SSDs. 2.5" drives in larger capacity are usually 5400RPM.

Then a again, a multi-bay 2.5"-only enclosure would be fantastic.

I looked for one because I could use one too but didn't find any.

 

[Smart_Guy]

Oops, I meant nvme to sata adapters, without 6. Weird typo. Something like this:
https://a.co/d/hHJuUbd
Or maybe the sata m.2 variant if those are cheaper since the adapter is limited to ~500 MB/s.
l'm not a fan of converters, but beggars can't be choosers.

 

[PP Mguire]

Oops, I meant nvme to sata adapters, without 6. Weird typo. Something like this:
https://a.co/d/hHJuUbd
Or maybe the sata m.2 variant if those are cheaper since the adapter is limited to ~500 MB/s.
l'm not a fan of converters, but beggars can't be choosers.

What I mean is neither of those would be NVMe. They're just M.2 SATA SSD adapters. NVMe to SATA converters don't exist.

 

[Smart_Guy]

This is Bad. Is the printed nvme a scam, then? I also thought that pcie m.2, which is also printed on them, was another name for nvme.
Aaaany way, sata m.2 SSD would be fine, I guess. But I can't find more than 1tb so far.
Found a 2.5" 4tb here locally but it's only one. Will rethink my options. Otherwise it's back to square one.

 

[Smart_Guy]

Okay, got an external bare bone enclosure and a 16tb hdd.
Did that instead of getting a ready external drive so I can make use of the enclosure separately in the future and to get the fastest option available.
Drawback is that the best enclosure I could find only supports up to 16tb.
Solved!
Thank you all for your help.

 

[PP Mguire]

This is Bad. Is the printed nvme a scam, then? I also thought that pcie m.2, which is also printed on them, was another name for nvme.
Aaaany way, sata m.2 SSD would be fine, I guess. But I can't find more than 1tb so far.
Found a 2.5" 4tb here locally but it's only one. Will rethink my options. Otherwise it's back to square one.

PCI-E M.2 would just be an older basic AHCI SSD, whereas NVMe M.2 is the NVMe protocol.