DIY external M2 Nvme Case decisions.

For context, in January I'm going to be building a new 13th gen DDR5 multipurpose Desktop. This will include the use of PCI-e 4.0 x4 M.2 NVMe drives like the Samsung 980 Pro. The sort of NVMe I'm interested in read/write around 5000-7000MB/s. I will likely have two, one that remains within the system at all times and another which is used for media that I'm editing (photos, videos, etc), which I will remove when needed.

When it is removed from the motherboard, I will obviously need a suitable case in order to use it externally.

This brings me to the main reason for this thread:

What type of connector is sufficiently quick as to not bottleneck the drive's capability in real-world use?

• USB 3.2 Gen2x2 (20Gb/s)
• USB 4.0 (40Gb/s)
• Thunderbolt 3 (40Gb/s)

My gut says they'll all limit the drive, but I'm overwhelmed with all of the articles and videos out their juggling all of the different standards. I've spent a few hours on this topic already.

Maybe it makes more sense to get a cheaper second NVMe drive for media since the fastest ones will be limited by external cases?

Are there any specific case + drive combinations you could recommend?

Well, that MB doesn't have TB3 or USB4 according to specs, so USB 3.2 it is.

Sabrent makes nice ones https://sabrent.com/collections/nvme-enclosures

One of the problems you might have is that a M.2 TB enclosure connected with USB-C won't work on a PC that doesn't have a TB port. Unless someone knows of an enclosure that falls back to USB 3 if the PC doesn't support TB?

Thanks for the quick responses.

bluestang said:

Well, that MB doesn't have TB3 or USB4 according to specs, so USB 3.2 it is.

Click to expand...

Imagine I picked a motherboard that did support USB 4.0, what NVMe would you recommend?

bluestang said:

Sabrent makes nice ones https://sabrent.com/collections/nvme-enclosures

Click to expand...

Maybe I missed an option, but I think most of those are limited to 10 Gb/s except maybe this one?

And if I went with a 3.2 2x2 option, would something like a WD Blue SN570 be the best value to combine with it?

grim4593 said:

One of the problems you might have is that a M.2 TB enclosure connected with USB-C won't work on a PC that doesn't have a TB port. Unless someone knows of an enclosure that falls back to USB 3 if the PC doesn't support TB?

Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm likely to have a motherboard with either USB 3.2 Gen2x2 or USB 4.0 (which I think works as TB3/4) depending on my final budget. That's why I'm looking to see what makes sense.

For anyone stumbling across this thread, I found this video very helpful.