Question Internal SSD versus external SSD ?

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tinpanalley

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Feb 23, 2011
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I remember years ago I'd buy an external HDD and when I needed it internal I would just strip the case. Can you do that with external SATA 2.5 SSDs? I need a 2TB (ideally 4TB) to travel around with for a few months and I was just going to put it in a USB 3.0 enclosure I have. But I'm seeing such great deals on externals today. I just don't want to get stuck only having it as an external in the future.

The use for this "portable" drive is to play music and video from every day basically for the next few months during an international move with a laptop. I'm thinking a 2.5 SSD instead of an m.2 because if I understand correctly, the m.2 will get very hot used like that and also I won't really benefit from the speed when I'm just reading and copying small amounts. Is that all accurate?

And, add on question, does it really matter anymore what brand 2.5 SATA one buys? Must it be Samsung?
Thank you!
 
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I remember years ago I'd buy an external HDD and when I needed it internal I would just strip the case. Can you do that with external SSDs?
You void warranty.

If you do decide to pick up an internal M.2 SSD and chuck it into an enclosure, don't buy internal M.2 SSD's that come bundled/attached with heatsinks as removal of heatsinks can void your warranty.
 
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Lutfij said:
I remember years ago I'd buy an external HDD and when I needed it internal I would just strip the case. Can you do that with external SSDs?
You void warranty.

If you do decide to pick up an internal M.2 SSD and chuck it into an enclosure, don't buy internal M.2 SSD's that come bundled/attached with heatsinks as removal of heatsinks can void your warranty.
Click to expand...
I'm buying SATA not m.2
 
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tinpanalley said:
But I'm seeing such great deals on externals today. I just don't want to get stuck only having it as an external in the future.
Click to expand...
It depends on the model, some have normal sata drives, some have proprietary connectors, you have to research the model you want to buy.
tinpanalley said:
And, add on question, does it really matter anymore what brand 2.5 SATA one buys? Must it be Samsung?
Thank you!
Click to expand...
Doesn't have to be samsung but there are better brands and worse ones.
 
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The complication in an HDD is in the spinning platters and the heads flying above the disk surface at a few nm as it rotates at high speed. Having designed and manufactured the assembly for that with the associated electronics, it was presumably economically better to create an external drive by placing an internal drive inside an enclosure and add an intervening circuit board to go to USB, than to design and build a second spinning-disk + heads assembly to sit directly in an external enclosure.

The core of an SSD is just a circuit board. It's presumably economically better to design an SSD board to sit in an internal drive housing linked to SATA connectors and a different board to sit in an external drive housing linked to USB, than to manufacture an internal drive plus the intervening board to go to USB and place it all in an external enclosure.

This Samsung T7 teardown and this Crucial X9 article show that the internals are just boards with USB soldered directly on. I think it's extremely unlikely that you're going to find an external SSD that you can strip and use internally.
 
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I dont know if this will be of any use to you.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/SanDisk-Ex...refix=sandisc+portable+ssd,aps,80&sr=8-4&th=1

My internal ssd's were getting full so i opted for this external ssd , the cable is not very long but is long enough for it to sit on top of my tower. I chose this option because i have limited movement in my hands and did not want to risk damaging anything fitting another internal one.

Some people say dont put games ( steam client ) on an external drive but i have not had any problems with it.
If you plan on removing it from time to time ( i dont ) you might want to change the properties settings because when i do right click like you do on flash drives i dont have the option to eject and safely remove
 
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tinpanalley said:
years ago I'd buy an external HDD and when I needed it internal I would just strip the case.
Can you do that with external SATA 2.5 SSDs?
I just don't want to get stuck only having it as an external in the future.
Click to expand...
Get internal drive and a separate enclosure.
This way it's guarantied, the drive can be used internally.

Some external drives are USB only and are not to be removed from external enclosures.
They do not have sata connectors.

tinpanalley said:
I'm buying SATA not m.2
Click to expand...
BTW - there are external enclosures, that support NVME M.2 drives also.
They are way smaller and more convenient than external 2.5" drive enclosures.

71M4RKd9CzL._UF894,1000_QL80_.jpg
 
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tinpanalley said:
I remember years ago I'd buy an external HDD and when I needed it internal I would just strip the case. Can you do that with external SATA 2.5 SSDs? I need a 2TB (ideally 4TB) to travel around with for a few months and I was just going to put it in a USB 3.0 enclosure I have. But I'm seeing such great deals on externals today. I just don't want to get stuck only having it as an external in the future.

And, add on question, does it really matter anymore what brand 2.5 SATA one buys? Must it be Samsung?
Thank you!
Click to expand...
Unless you can find someone who has been successful at removing the 2.5 from an ext I would assume the parts are married and the answer is no
 
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One solution is to buy a normal 2.5"ssd and connect it externally with a USB to sata adapter cable
like this:
https://www.amazon.com/Cable-Drive-...cphy=9011555&hvtargid=pla-2281435177578&psc=1

Internally, connect it to the sata power from the psu and a sata data cable.
If you have an external usb3.2 type port, you can use a m.2 external enclosure that is very quick.
I bought this one:
https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-Type...752069125&sprefix=sabrent,aps,126&sr=8-3&th=1

To use internally, the m.2 ssd could slot into a m.2 adapter port, but often these are hidden and awkward to use with any degree of regularity.
You might be able to find an adapter card with a usb 3.2 internal connection that would be easier.
 
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SkyNetRising said:
BTW - there are external enclosures, that support NVME M.2 drives also.
They are way smaller and more convenient than external 2.5" drive enclosures.
Click to expand...
So, I've been reading since last night and it would appear people tend to think that m2 NVMe drives get very hot when in use. This drive will be playing music and video every day while we move in between homes for the next few months.
 
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USAFRet said:
For this use, I might consider just a couple of 1TB flash drives.
https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Ultra-Drive-Type-C-Flash/dp/B0CKJB51M8
Click to expand...
Totally understand why you'd recommend that, but I've lost count of the number of drives purchased like that over the past 10 years that no longer get used because they're too small, too slow, etc now. I don't like waste. I want things to have as many uses as possible and I simply don't have nor have ever had use enough for portable file storage. This move is an exception.
 
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tinpanalley said:
Totally understand why you'd recommend that, but I've lost count of the number of drives purchased like that over the past 10 years that no longer get used because they're too small, too slow, etc now. I don't like waste. I want things to have as many uses as possible and I simply don't have nor have ever had use enough for portable file storage. This move is an exception.
Click to expand...
If you want to take a chance buy an ext ssd.

If you want to be sure buy a 2.5 ssd and use the enclosure you have.
 
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I think a purpose built USB drive is a perfectly useful option, but I'd opt for this as it's actually a SSD: https://www.amazon.com/SK-hynix-Windowsbased-Androidbased-Smartphones/dp/B0C4KNB2YK/

I have the other model they used to sell, the Tube T31, and when plugged into a 10Gbps USB port sustains 1GB/s. These won't be as small as a USB flash drive, but they're going to be smaller than most external SSDs and the speed tradeoff is worth it in my opinion.
 
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I've gone with this m.2 NVMe. Couldn't be passed up at $309 CAD. No DRAM -- now that I know what I'm talking about a bit more -- isn't a problem given the use it will get. I've gone 4TB because though I only needed 1.8TB, that gies headroom and also after we're settled in the new home eventually, I plan on making this the new C drive on our desktop. The 250GB SSD in there is really pushing its limits in space. I hope to be able to just copy over the contents I really really hate reinstalling Windows and having to set everything up again, but that's another show...)

What I need now is a good enclosure for this. Toolless or not, I just need something that can go USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 into my laptop and USB 3.2 Gen2 (Type-A + C) into my desktop.
 
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