If the price were right, I'd simply put it into my tool chest.
With SATA 2.5" SSDs (and HDDs), life was perfect for a while, because I use these carrier-less dual hot-swap bays on all my PCs and I have similar USB3 cases, which allow for screw-free mounting of SATA devices for notebooks.
I could move drives between systems super easily, do imaging forth and back the file server: Complete flexibility!
With all this M.2 and NVMe stuff things got way more complicated and often enough I was forced to balance ease-of-use vs. the extra performance (or smaller size) of this new interface and form factor.
This would allow for some flexibility again, because USB3 at least up to 5Gbit, is fairly standard now and good enough for imaging drives, when you're not doing it all day long.
Still wished U.2 wasn't such a nasty markup on SATA in terms of general pricing and you could have a chassis that supports both U.2 and USB3/4 mounting around the €50 mark.
M.2 PCIe (or SATA) to USB cases have been around for quite a while (SATA for longer than PCIe). If you can get to the M.2 slot of the machine easily, ease of use should be the same as normal SATA drives (one of my M.2 slots is covered by the CPU cooler and the GPU and the other is covered by the GPU cooler). :D The increased speed should make up for it in the long run. I'm personally pretty happy with it, the over 1 GB/s transfer speed of my internal storage is pretty nice and not having any more power or data cables messing up my build is cool. But I also build in small systems and not giant towers where those cables can be more hidden and better routed.
I'm not a fan of the m.2 form factor honestly. There are only so many places you can stick an m.2 slow and only so many PCIE lanes (this coming from a guy with Threadripper). A SATA case can hold over a dozen 2.5" drives and you can usually plug at least half of those into the motherboard, but you only get 2-4 m.2 slots unless you buy an expansion card. I also wonder what kind of power limitations we run into when it comes to an m.2 drive. Since it runs off the motherboard's power, I imagine we'll start to see issues with PCIE4 or PCIE5 and boards with several m.2 slots. As much as I despise having to run a cable from the PSU everywhere, I think we would have been better off with SATA Express and succesors to it.
There were dedicated PCIe lanes for the m.2 slot on Socket AM4, so there shouldn't have been a problem with those. It's more an issue with motherboard real estate for where to put the M.2 slot.
Then Realtek doesn't know about the USB standard themselves. USB 3.1 Gen 2 is now known as USB 3.2 Gen 2, because reasons. Same as USB 3.0 now being USB 3.2 Gen 1 and the realy next generation being USB 3.2 Gen 2x2. At this point it is honestly better to just refer to them by bandwidth (5 Gb/s, 10 Gb/s or 2x10Gb/s).
It's not as dumb as it sounds, if you look at it from a different point of view. USB gets faster with every release. New features are also added that most folks don't even bother looking at. If you compare a USB 1.1 flash drive to a 3.1 flash drive for example, the USB 3.1 drive is definitely faster. Most of the decent USB 3.1 flash drives today are faster than hard drives.
While it looks great, being ROG and have RGB means price will be high.
In another hand, I can see some wasted space inside making the whole enclosure big, which kinda makes the point of having a small M.2 drive pointless as it's big here, yes smaller than 2.5" but it's like twice the size of M.2.
I'm curious how hot it will get. I bought one of these cheap "thumbdrive" M.2 to USB adapters to use it with the short 2242 Intel Pro 1500 drive. It gets so hot, that I can't touch the drive after some file operations and it's performance gets quickly thermal-throttled.
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abufrejoval - Friday, September 27, 2019 - link
If the price were right, I'd simply put it into my tool chest.With SATA 2.5" SSDs (and HDDs), life was perfect for a while, because I use these carrier-less dual hot-swap bays on all my PCs and I have similar USB3 cases, which allow for screw-free mounting of SATA devices for notebooks.
I could move drives between systems super easily, do imaging forth and back the file server: Complete flexibility!
With all this M.2 and NVMe stuff things got way more complicated and often enough I was forced to balance ease-of-use vs. the extra performance (or smaller size) of this new interface and form factor.
This would allow for some flexibility again, because USB3 at least up to 5Gbit, is fairly standard now and good enough for imaging drives, when you're not doing it all day long.
Still wished U.2 wasn't such a nasty markup on SATA in terms of general pricing and you could have a chassis that supports both U.2 and USB3/4 mounting around the €50 mark.
Death666Angel - Saturday, September 28, 2019 - link
M.2 PCIe (or SATA) to USB cases have been around for quite a while (SATA for longer than PCIe). If you can get to the M.2 slot of the machine easily, ease of use should be the same as normal SATA drives (one of my M.2 slots is covered by the CPU cooler and the GPU and the other is covered by the GPU cooler). :D The increased speed should make up for it in the long run. I'm personally pretty happy with it, the over 1 GB/s transfer speed of my internal storage is pretty nice and not having any more power or data cables messing up my build is cool. But I also build in small systems and not giant towers where those cables can be more hidden and better routed.eek2121 - Sunday, September 29, 2019 - link
I'm not a fan of the m.2 form factor honestly. There are only so many places you can stick an m.2 slow and only so many PCIE lanes (this coming from a guy with Threadripper). A SATA case can hold over a dozen 2.5" drives and you can usually plug at least half of those into the motherboard, but you only get 2-4 m.2 slots unless you buy an expansion card. I also wonder what kind of power limitations we run into when it comes to an m.2 drive. Since it runs off the motherboard's power, I imagine we'll start to see issues with PCIE4 or PCIE5 and boards with several m.2 slots. As much as I despise having to run a cable from the PSU everywhere, I think we would have been better off with SATA Express and succesors to it.Targon - Monday, September 30, 2019 - link
There were dedicated PCIe lanes for the m.2 slot on Socket AM4, so there shouldn't have been a problem with those. It's more an issue with motherboard real estate for where to put the M.2 slot.erinadreno - Friday, September 27, 2019 - link
I'd be surprised if the controller is not made by Jmicron. I can't think of another company that bothers making USB to pcie bridge chip.erinadreno - Friday, September 27, 2019 - link
My bad, it literally says in the article "RTL9210". I'm still a bit sceptical about ASUS tho.Targon - Monday, September 30, 2019 - link
Asus ROG tends to be good quality, and it's only the RMA process for defective products that should make people concerned.RohitMathew - Saturday, September 28, 2019 - link
The Realteks website show the RTL9210 bridge to be USB3.1 Gen2 not USB3.2Death666Angel - Saturday, September 28, 2019 - link
Then Realtek doesn't know about the USB standard themselves. USB 3.1 Gen 2 is now known as USB 3.2 Gen 2, because reasons. Same as USB 3.0 now being USB 3.2 Gen 1 and the realy next generation being USB 3.2 Gen 2x2. At this point it is honestly better to just refer to them by bandwidth (5 Gb/s, 10 Gb/s or 2x10Gb/s).Ashinjuka - Saturday, September 28, 2019 - link
As mind-numbingly dumb as the USB 3 nomenclature has become, who can really blame Realtek?eek2121 - Sunday, September 29, 2019 - link
It's not as dumb as it sounds, if you look at it from a different point of view. USB gets faster with every release. New features are also added that most folks don't even bother looking at. If you compare a USB 1.1 flash drive to a 3.1 flash drive for example, the USB 3.1 drive is definitely faster. Most of the decent USB 3.1 flash drives today are faster than hard drives.jabber - Saturday, September 28, 2019 - link
For my job in IT support a basic USB NVMe caddy with 500MBps would do for data retrieval and diagnostics. Cheaper please!!!Death666Angel - Saturday, September 28, 2019 - link
You can get JMicron JMS583 based M.2 NVME to USB caddies for 20€ that do about 1GB/s.henkhilti - Saturday, September 28, 2019 - link
Why is 2230 module wider in the picture than the rest (while all should be 22mm wide)Flunk - Saturday, September 28, 2019 - link
I'd guess the graphic artist messed up the scaling.PixyMisa - Sunday, September 29, 2019 - link
An ROG RGB LED USB SSD?Xajel - Sunday, September 29, 2019 - link
While it looks great, being ROG and have RGB means price will be high.In another hand, I can see some wasted space inside making the whole enclosure big, which kinda makes the point of having a small M.2 drive pointless as it's big here, yes smaller than 2.5" but it's like twice the size of M.2.
Targon - Monday, September 30, 2019 - link
It isn't about size as much as needing to deal with heat generation by the SSD itself. Small enclosure means you might see thermal throttle issues.regsEx - Sunday, September 29, 2019 - link
Why is it so huge? There are tones of compact and much cheaper M.2 aluminum enclosures on Ali.regsEx - Sunday, September 29, 2019 - link
Brand NVMe USB Gen 2x1 enclosures from Ugreen for $35. And SATA USB Gen 1x1 for $20.GL1zdA - Monday, September 30, 2019 - link
I'm curious how hot it will get. I bought one of these cheap "thumbdrive" M.2 to USB adapters to use it with the short 2242 Intel Pro 1500 drive. It gets so hot, that I can't touch the drive after some file operations and it's performance gets quickly thermal-throttled.