Cable Matters Premium Aluminum 10Gbps Gen 2 USB C Hard Drive Enclosure for 2.5" SSD/HDD with USB-C and USB-A Cables - Thunderbolt 4 / USB4 / Thunderbolt 3 Port Compatible with MacBook Pro, MacBook Air

Great! Here's a version tailored for an Amazon review—clear, helpful, and with a consumer-focused tone:---I use a desktop with USB-A ports and a laptop with Thunderbolt USB-C, so I needed an SSD enclosure that could work seamlessly with both. This one fits the bill perfectly.It’s incredibly easy to install an SSD,no has sle at all. The enclosure feels sturdy but is still lightweight, making it great for on-the-go use. I was so impressed with the quality of the USB and Thunderbolt connections that I’m planning to buy two more for my other external SSDs.Performance-wise, it’s a game-changer. I tested the mounting speed and read/write performance on both my machines, and it completely outperforms my old enclosures. The difference is like night and day.Highly recommended if you're looking for something reliable, fast, and future-proof.

I bought this enclosure to use with a Crucial BX200 2.5 inch ssd and an old 2.5 inch Seagate hard drive, and the enclosure works as advertised.The enclosure is very easy to open and slot a drive into, and I have switched out multiple drives with this and all have worked. I have downloaded large files onto the Crucial ssd with no issues at a very reasonable speed. Now, I have not speed-tested this enclosure, so refer to other reviewers on that regard, but I do not believe my 2.5 inch SATA ssd can even surpass the advertised speed, so I do not believe I can even fully test this enclosure's speeds. I have also used this with a 500gb Seagate hard drive, which works great (for a hard drive, at least), and I have used this with another old hard drive as well. Included with the enclosure is a USB C to A cable and a C to C cable, both of which I have used and work well.The one complaint I have is the build quality. While the aluminum top is nice and works well for heat dissipation, the bottom plastic section has a very weak clip, and does not stay on extremely well. It stays, but a nicer clip, or a latch of some sort would be a much more elegant and functional solution. Also, most modern thin 2.5 inch drives will flop around in the enclosure if it is moved because of all the extra space in the enclosure. A very small insert is provided to aid in this regard, but once again, it is not a very elegant or practical solution and a better solution should have been provided.All things considered, these are very minor concerns, as the enclosure does its job where it counts, and has worked well in my testing. Now honestly any new ssd buyers should probably just opt for an affordable nvme ssd instead of a 2.5 inch drive as prices for nvme drives have been dropping rapidly in the past year, but for those who opt for a 2.5 inch drive, or in my case, have older 2.5 inch drives, it works excellently.

I've bought two of these type C enclosures and I must say, they're such a great deal that I couldn't believe there wasn't any reviews. These are my new go to enclosures that I'll be recommending to anyone needing a good, solid, stable 2.5" enclosure. I made them tool-less with thumbscrews, see photos. The thumbscrew legs are M3x6mm thumbscrews and look fantastic. The clear rubber pads were in a variety pack of assorted "bumpers" that I picked up at Walmart. Any thin silicone/rubber non-slip pads should work and these were pre-cut. The pads fit almost perfectly but I'd like to have some that are a little thinner, these are about 1.5mm thick. These drives are used around the house as DVR/PVR drives so they're not transported too much. Because of that I don't use any screws inside, they're really not needed and the thumbscrews made drive swaps a breeze. These thumbscrews also fit the MiniPro, Vantec GX and Tripp Lite type C enclosures. I noticed the price went up by $4.Edit 10/25/2018: I've now bought three and am using this last one with a 240GB OCZ 460 SSD. It's getting 445 MBs, reading from a HDD and writing to the enclosure. Read speed is just as good. It's maxing out a USB 3.0 5 Gbps port. More on this below.I have two Cable Matters USB 3.1 Gen 2 type C enclosures, a MiniPro Type C, and a MiniPro USB 3.1/eSATA combination. There are several aluminum enclosures available which are very similar in design on the inside, but have a little different outer housing. Compare the Cable Matters enclosure to the MiniPro Type C and you'll see what I mean.This one is the better design. The Cable Matters enclosure doesn't plug the hole in the drive rack so it gets much better air flow, where the MiniPro outer casing curves up to cover the air flow hole. The Cable Matters enclosure stays cooler, no doubt about it. I tested it with a SATA III WD Black 7200 RPM drive (requires 0.58 amps, more on this later). Look at illustration 2 in picture 6 of this listing and you'll see the large hole in the drive deck that I'm referring to. There is a space below the drive rack, visible from the front and back, and it gets great air flow through there.I say this is the best package deal because it not only comes with the USB 3.1 Type C cable, but also a Type A cable for older ports, and it also includes the USB power cable. No other USB C enclosure includes the power cable and many don't have the external power port at all. Many other enclosures only supply one interface cable, too, either Type A or C, but not both. With a AC to DC adapter at 5 volts, 2 amps (3.5mm tip), you have a complete drive kit that'll power the most power hungry drives you can find, drives that other enclosures choke on.Speaking of power, people plug their drives into USB 2 ports because their USB 3 ports have problems. Assuming your cables, hardware and drivers are ok, you're likely having power issues, especially if you're using a hub. A USB 2 port only supplies 500 milliamps or .5 amp (1/2 amp), and many drives require more power than that. A USB 3.0 port supplies 900 milliamps or .9 amps, and a USB 3.1 port provides 1.5 amps. Many times too little power is the problem from the start and switching to a lower power USB 2 port doesn't help at all. Don't use your USB 2 ports for your power cable, they're too low power to be of any use. My WD drive is .58 amps. Of course, I'm taking about if you're having problems, first try to make sure the drive is getting plenty of power. If you have a USB wall charger, that'll work great. Make sure it's one amp or more.Power problems also arises when you use a USB 3 hub. They also require power to function, then you plug in a keyboard and mouse etc, and you use up a lot of the 900 milliamps before you ever plug your drive in. I highly recommend a powered USB 3 hub if you're going to be using external USB 3.0 or 3.1 enclosures, or really any USB enclosures. It'll alleviate many of the problems people complain about in reviews. This isn't so much of a problem if you're aware of the power requirements of your particular hard drive, and you take steps to make sure the drive gets plenty of power.Some problems I've seen from low power issues is an error that says the drive is write protected, or it writes very slow at around 1-2 MBs etc, and frequent disconnects and just plain acting flaky. I hope these tips will make your life a little easier, at least as far as getting along with USB hard drives goes. If you read some reviews, you'll be able to spot the people with power issues very quickly.Oh, speed. Of course everyone is interested in speed. These are fast little enclosures and your drives will run cool. I copied 330 GBs to one and it felt very slightly warm, but not anywhere near hot. It had been powered on a couple of hours to reach running temperature, then the transfer was done. Speed is hard to measure with caching etc, but they'll do over 100 MBs, even with SATA II drives. Again, caching makes it hard to tell exactly, but I was getting over 450 MB/s using a 240GB OCZ Vertex 460 SSD (Not the newer 460A model, but older plain 460 which is a faster MLC SSD). I was using a 5 Gbps USB 3.0 port and SATA III speed is 6Gbps, so it's bottle necked just a little if you're not using a USB 3.1port at 10 Gbps.The packaging is good with individual items sealed in plastic and the enclosure is well protected. Overall this is the best 2.5" aluminum hard drive enclosure packaged deal on the internet (that I can find). It comes with a complete set of cables and it's a very good looking enclosure. The photos don't do it justice if you ask me.It also includes a nice small screwdriver, so now I have a screwdriver in my drive carrying cases. I like carrying cases with plenty of room for all of the accessories. There is nothing like not being able to do the job when you arrive. I think you'll be very happy as long as you're aware of power requirements etc. You'll be copying and moving files in no time. This is a 5 star deal all day!Oh, one more thing, cost. I did a lot of research because I needed more external or USB C enclosures. I originally bought a Minipro USB 3.1/eSATA model for the eSATA, and it's just too expensive to buy a lot of those. All of the other Type C enclosures I mentioned cost from $10 (ten) to $18 (eighteen) MORE, at $29, $30, and $38 for the Tripp Lite. The MiniPro is $29 and the Vantec is $30 and none come with as many cables . USB C is the fastest if it's plugged into a 10 Gbps USB 3.1 port but these are plenty fast on a USB 3.0 port, too.At 10 Gbps, USB 3.1 Gen 2 is even faster than eSATA but I can't comment more on that because I only have 3.0. I'll be getting a couple of more of these pretty soon and they'll be right at home when I upgrade my motherboard. You can also install an add in 4x PCIe card if you absolutely must have 10 Gbps USB 3.1, but I'm using my last PCIe slot for a NVMe SSD. I'm also running Linux but tested in Windows 7 too. Good luck.

Works fine, good speed and compatible with Linux. Does not go into sleep mode automatically as some do.Downside - bad design for activity light. The activity LED is extremely faint - not invisible in ambient room lighting - because it is a surface mount LED on the board and the light must go straight up and then make a right turn through a pinhole size activity aperture cut into the plastic. So, I modified it by adding a light pipe made from a clear pen clip (sanded and polished) glued directly to the top of the SMD LED and cut a rectangular hole in the case directly above the LED and glued the other end of the light pipe there as well. Sure my warranty is voided now, but have an indicator light that is visible in room level lighting. Additionally, the power down (or eject) function works well in Linux and the activity LED displays a slow blink when the enclosure is safe to remove.Other downside - as with so many usb drive enclosures, usb cable is really short. I use a longer quality usb cable and have not seen an impact on transfer rate or reliability compared the super short cable that came with the enclosure.