Turn your old M.2 NVMe SSD into a capacious USB drive for just £16 with this Sabrent enclosure
A clever piece of kit.
If you're like me, you might have a stack of PC components and stuff laying around that you aren't using. Inevitably, they'll either go to the big recycling centre in the sky, or be sold on the Wild West of eBay. However, with a simple tool like this Sabrent M.2 to USB-C enclosure/adapter that's been marked down to Amazon, you can breathe new life into some older SSDs and turn them into a modern, snappy USB-C drive.
It is, essentially, a small metal box with a M.2 slot inside that fits in virtually any size of NVMe drive, be it one of the smaller 2230 drives used in Steam Decks, or the more commonly found 2280 drives used in desktops and laptops. You don't even need the fun of an M.2 screw, as this enclosure comes with a small rubber standoff which can be moved and placed where a screw would go to keep the drive in place. On the top side of the enclosure is a thermal pad for better heat disspitation to keep your drive cooler, which is useful.
This is a USB-C enclosure, so it'll fit well with modern systems that feature the connector, such as MacBooks from the last 5+ years and a lot of Windows laptops and desktops. To be specific, it supports USB 3.2 Gen 2 with the UASP acceleration protocol to offer theoretical speeds of up to 10Gbps - that's especially brisk, and works out to read and write speeds on your SSD of up to 1000MB/s. It may not maximise the true read and write speeds of even older PCIe 3.0 drives, but is still a damn sight faster than comparable capacity USB-C flash drives.
You get a USB-C to USB-C cable included in the box for the sake of convenience, while there is also support for older SATA drives if you don't have any NVMe drives knocking around. There is also no need for installing extra drivers, either. Simply slot the drive in, and plug the enclosure in, and you should be good to go.
If you want to repurpose an old SSD as a speedy flash drive, this Sabrent M.2 NVMe to USB-C enclosure offers you the chance for a bargain price from Amazon.