Reddit mentions of SSK Aluminum M.2 NVME SSD Enclosure Adapter, USB 3.1 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) to NVME PCI-E M-Key Solid State Drive External Enclosure (Fits only NVMe PCIe 2242/2260/2280)

It’d be a challenge to crack it open and put it in yourself, but you could buy an external USB 3.1 Gen 2 SSD that should be quite fast.

Something like this:
https://www.amazon.com/SSK-Aluminum-Enclosure-Adapter-External/dp/B07MNFH1PX/ref=mp_s_a_1_8?keywords=usb+3.1+gen+2+external+enclosure&qid=1559230895&s=gateway&sprefix=usb+3.1+gen+2+external&sr=8-8

plus a PCIe NVME flash drive. Fast.

> And do yourself a favor and make sure you’re offloading to an SSD RAID (to dump the mags as quickly as possible and do QC), and then also a pair of backup drives are AT LEAST RAID 0 arrays running a pair of 7200 RPM drives.

> Although honestly 8K is the point where you kind of do need SSDs all the way around for any projects that are going to last more than a day or two.


NVMe SSD pricing has fallen through the floor in recent months.
Especially for 8K I just wouldn't bother with hard drives anymore.
Just buy a bunch for NVMe SSDs. Make sure they use TLC flash, not QLC.

I also do not recommend RAID 0. Use RAID 1 if you really want to, but remember, RAID is not a backup

As soon as you offload footage from a Mag, immediately make a second physical copy.

My personal recommendation would be to grab a bunch of these NVMe SSDs (as many as you would need for duplicate copies of all your footage):

https://www.newegg.com/hp-ex920-1tb/p/N82E16820326778

And put them inside these 10Gbps USB enclosures:

https://www.amazon.com/SSK-Aluminum-Enclosure-Adapter-External/dp/B07MNFH1PX/

This way at least storage transfers will not be a bottleneck in your workflow.

Alternatively, these are pricier and slower, but the Samsung T5 is a favorite of mobile editors:

https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-T5-Portable-SSD-MU-PA1T0B/dp/B073H552FJ/

An alternative would be an external PCIe NVMe case with a USB connector. Below is an example; I am going to buy a SATA version since I want to replace a m.2 SATA 256GB SSD in of my laptops with either a 1TB or 2TB m.2 SATA SSD.

https://www.amazon.com/SSK-Aluminum-Enclosure-Adapter-External/dp/B07MNFH1PX/ref=sr_1_3?crid=3UH80PO5H10WM&keywords=pcie+nvme+m.2+adapter&qid=1572723629&sprefix=pci+nvme+m%2Caps%2C166&sr=8-3

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Simply install the new m.2 SSD in the case, then use software to clone the old SSD to it. Swap the SSDs and you can use your old SSD now as an external storage device.

You could buy an external enclosure for that type of SSD, they're fairly cheap: https://smile.amazon.com/SSK-Aluminum-Enclosure-Adapter-External/dp/B07MNFH1PX/

(Just remember to check if your drive is NVMe or PCIe, on such a new machine I'd guess NVMe?)

SSK No real experience, but as long as the M.2 is an NVME M key this one should work fine.

You have a couple options. You can definitely get an external enclosure like this one for $30-50 on a site like Amazon and then do a direct clone from one SSD to the other. What I did was to create an image of the SSD onto an external hard drive and then restore it to the new SSD and adjust the partition to take advantage of the expanded space.

Whichever route you take, Clonezilla is the tool I used and it works great for either creating a disk image or copying between drives directly.

I just did the upgrade using an Intel SSD 660p 2TB drive. It's working great!

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/intel-ssd-660p-qlc-nvme,5719.html

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I used this enclosure and Macrium Reflect Free: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07MNFH1PX/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

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When cloning, I had to tinker with the partition order in Macrium Reflect so that I could extend my Windows drive to use the full disk. (The recovery partition was preventing me initially from extending the drive but I got around that.)

Alright, how's this look? I believe the key is right along with everything else.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MNFH1PX/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_e7WTDb5QKBGH5

Would this drive be suitable for use in a usb-c (non thunderbolt) external enclosure?

Example: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MNFH1PX

Yeah, an enclosure is generally just an adapter that turns a drive into a USB external one. You don't necessarily need an enclosure, you can just get a USB adapter, but the purpose is so that you can copy all files from your current drive to the new one. Here's an example:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MNFH1PX/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_nYiWCb6SKSHQT

Ideally your laptop has more than one slot and you won't ever have to deal with this.

Tl;Dr : Stay away from used/referb. Most any hdd aside from Toshiba (often doa) is great at mass storage. Ssds are fast and efficient on power with super fast speeds and basically all of them are good. Just keep an eye on reviews for the most part. If warranty is a factor to you pick Samsung/seagate.

Here's the long answer:

In terms of drives, if you have a 2.5" bay then a hard disk drive or hdd would give you the most storage per dollar but at a much lower speed. You already have a fast drive to boot on so you'll only notice a difference for anything you put on it. I've seen a lot of DOA drives from Toshiba. I've also noticed that often times for hdd's they are cheaper purchasing external ones and seagate in particular (Only seagate!) you can remove the drive from an external one and pop it into an internal slot. Good brands are Western Digital, Seagate, and HGST. Those are probably going to be the only companies you see anyway for hdds.

For solid state drives or SSD you get much faster and efficient performance and they can even come in 2.5" size, M.2 sata, and nvme. You'll want the nvme and luckily for you those are the fastest but generally 10-20% more expensive. Nearly all ssds perform within 15% of each other and ssds are generally pretty safe. If you want to pay close attention you can look out for which ever ssds have the least layering. When ssds have multiple layers it increases storage for cheaper but at a reduced life (we're still taking petabytes of use and averages of over 5yrs), but not extremely important just can be considered. Good brands are Crucial, Samsung (seagate), Adata, Sandisk, Western digital, and I think PNY has been doing better.

Also definitely stay away from used/referb drives. They will have their life span directly effected by use and may not live long.

There's not really much to suggest because there's so much out there but that's just a few pointers. Generally speaking ssds are great for booting and putting frequent things you access while hdds are great for mass storage like movies and giant games such as GTA5. However if you have the money, there's not a reason to stop you from wanting to have more ssds.

The last thing to mention is that if there are multiple drives you can use, and they are the same size, and ideally same model, you can use RAID. But I'll let you research that up if you want.

Yes, I am sorry did not checked before hand. Only has a U.2 adpater which is not useful. You can however, convert to a USB3.0: https://www.amazon.com/SSK-Aluminum-Enclosure-Adapter-External/dp/B07MNFH1PX/ref=sr_1_7?keywords=nvme+to+sata+adapter&pd_rd_r=30b90928-5930-43f7-8ccc-661275d1b9eb&pd_rd_w=imglN&pd_rd_wg=59ld7&pf_rd_p=40a9039f-51eb-4146-81bc-7c99576627d3&pf_rd_r=164R6CAKH8AR7P6TR64W&qid=1568958944&sr=8-7

I was thinking about using an enclosure like this for an NVME ssd.

I also found something else interesting though, but it's sketchy at best.

I could connect the above enclosure internally using a usb-c to sata adapter and then connecting a male to male sata connecter to that. That would enable me to use the sata cables in the PC to connect it. I already have a usb-c to sata cable lying around, so the only added cost would be the male to male sata cable. If it didn't work I could just fallback to the enclosure and use it via usb 3.0. I'm pretty skeptical that it would even work though, I'd be surprised if it did.

EDIT: Had to fix links to remove referrals, didn't even know that was a default thing with amazon