The festive season is upon us, and if you’ve been fortunate enough to find a brand-new SSD in your holiday stocking, it’s time to delve into the world of USB M.2 enclosures. If Santa or a loved one has gifted you a new gaming rig this year, there’s a good chance you’ll need to clone your existing drive so you can use the new one as your primary storage device.
Additionally, there’s the possibility that disaster has struck, and upon trying to install your new SSD for gaming, you find you have one fewer SSD slot on your motherboard than anticipated. In either scenario, I’ve got just the gadget for you. UGREEN manufactures excellent compact accessories for PC gaming, and its M.2 USB enclosure has come to my rescue several times this year. It can accommodate even the latest Gen 5 SSDs and connect them to your computer or PS5, making it a highly versatile tool.
An enclosure like this can help you either connect your new drive temporarily while transferring data or serve as a long-term solution, allowing you to use your speedy new SSD as an external hard drive. Priced at $19.99 at Amazon currently, it’s a reasonable price for such a versatile little gadget.
If you’re curious how to clone your SSD, you might want to check out my handy guide. Not everyone will require a USB enclosure since many of the best gaming PCs can have multiple M.2 slots on their motherboard. However, if you discover that one of those slots is a Gen 4 lane and the others are slower Gen 3 lanes, it’s up to you to decide if you want to place your newer, faster drive in that optimal slot. In that case, cloning your drive before it’s fully integrated into your PC could be a simpler approach, especially if you want to keep your boot configuration intact without altering BIOS settings.
If that sounds like complicated PC jargon, the TLDR is that having an M.2 enclosure could significantly simplify the entire transfer process.
UGREEN’s M.2 Enclosure could be the perfect solution for anyone lacking space on their motherboard and wanting to create their own portable SSD. External drives can be quite expensive nowadays, especially if you seek the performance of the best PS5 external SSDs. If you’ve got your hands on a high-quality Gen 4 or Gen 5 drive, it could serve you well as a portable device. UGREEN’s product comes equipped with a heatsink, ensuring that your PCIe-powered storage won’t overheat during operation, and it includes cables that support speeds of up to 10GBps.
The only downside I’ve encountered with using this as a portable storage option is its susceptibility to damage. Moving your data around can lead to bumps and drops, which is why many portable SSDs come with padded outer shells nowadays. UGREEN’s enclosure includes a rubberized jacket that you can place around it for protection against minor impacts, but the aluminum chassis still feels somewhat fragile. Dropping it directly into a backpack filled with heavier tech items might not be the safest idea.
Still, an M.2 enclosure like this is a valuable tool to have in your arsenal, whether you are upgrading your current PC’s storage or find yourself with a spare drive for console gaming and data transfers.
Looking for some last-minute gifts for gamers this holiday? Check out the top PS5 gifts, and the best Xbox gifts.