Enclosures have become popular and are used a lot as an alternative to external SSDs. But, are they worth it or not? Well, this depends on your requirements more than anything else. External SSDs are good if you want to have convenience, reliability, and performance. However, an enclosure can help you save money and give you the ability to work with multiple internal drives.
Both have their own pros and cons but if you are storing some critical data, it is better to go for an external drive rather than an enclosure.
Enclosures are more like a temporary solution for those looking for flexibility, customization, and a cost-effective solution, especially if they want the freedom to switch drives whenever they want. On the other hand, the people who prioritize ease of use, reliability, durability, and portability, and don’t mind paying a bit more for a ready-to-go should go for the external SSDs.
Benefits of External SSD over SSD Enclosure
1. External SSDs are Convenient
External drives are made for use externally with proper assembly and thermal management. Because these are ready-to-use, you have more convenience using them compared to an SSD inside an enclosure. They are generally built well and are easy to carry. External SSDs are convenient because you don’t have to open the enclosure and install a drive often with screwdrivers.
2. They generally have better performance
External SSDs have optimized hardware and software designed for external usage. Also, they come with faster interfaces such as Thunderbolt and USB Gen 3.0, etc. The integrated power management and firmware optimizations also contribute to the higher performance of external SSDs. Pre-built external SSDs often deliver more stable, low-latency data transfers.
3. External SSDs are more reliable
The external SSDs are more effective in handling shocks and vibrations because of their purpose-built designs. Some drives are even rated for different stability standards like military-grade drop protection, 2/3/4 meter drop Protection, IP65 Water/dust Resistance, etc. For example, the Samsung T7 has got a specially designed shock-proof design which you will hardly see with any enclosure.
4. External SSDs have better thermal management
I have seen that the external SSDs use their bodies as heat dissipators in a much more effective way. Because heat is an inevitable part of fast SSDs, it should be handled properly for the drive to work properly. SSDs have built-in thermal throttling mechanisms to reduce heat by hampering performance. Now, enclosures also do this and many come with thermal pads but they aren’t as effective as the external SSDs. The external SSDs (with Gen 4.0 or above NVMe drives) are generally bottlenecked by the USB interface and don’t work at their full potential but using them for the long term can create a significant amount of heat. But, it is good to have a metallic body that can be employed for pretty good heat management. However, I have seen some metallic enclosures without anything for this. The body doesn’t even touch the SSD except its connector and screws.
5. You get to use encryption and other security features
The external SSDs have an advantage over their official software. These software can be used to monitor many things like usage, temperature, and SMART data. The most important thing with this software is that you can protect your data with the official encryption methods. You can also password-protect your drives which adds another layer to the data protection. All the enclosures that I have tried never allowed me to use the encryption features. In fact, software like WD Dashboard and Samsung Magician didn’t recognize their own drives on their own software just because it was installed on a third-party enclosure.
Benefits of SSD Enclosure over External SSD
1. Enclosure setups are cheaper than external SSDs
As we discussed above, both the enclosures and external SSDs face serious bottlenecks mostly when they have the NVMe SSDs. If an enclosure is offering you a speed near around 1000 MB/s, it’ll surely have an NVMe or some kind of PCIe drive inside it. These drives are more expensive than SATA drives and you have no option not to choose what is inside the enclosure. These expensive drives make the external SSDs more expensive even you don’t get the actual benefits of that drive.
A good 1TB external SSD will easily cost you between 80$ 140$.
On the other hand, with an enclosure, you can install a 1TB NVMe starting from just 50$. The maximum speed with the fastest USB interface (Thunderbolt 4.0) is 40 Gbps or ~5000 MB/s. And those external SSDs are very expensive. For example, the very popular SanDisk Professional Thunderbolt 3 1TB with 3000 MB/s maximum speed costs around 175$. So, no matter what type of external drive you are buying, the actual working drive inside is facing some bottleneck and you are paying for its full price. With the enclosure, you can save this money by using a comparatively cheaper drive with an enclosure that otherwise will never work at its full speed.
2. You get more customization opportunities
Most M.2 enclosures come with support for both NVMe and M.2 SATA drives. You don’t get this level of customization with the external SSDs. Also, you can choose enclosures for the SATA 2.5″ drives which also work with the 2.5″ hard drives. So, if you have many drives lying around, it is good to use an enclosure for them. With one enclosure, you are always free to try different drives and use whichever you like.
3. You can easily upgrade your enclosure
SSD enclosures are cheap and this allows you to get many of them and choose the one as per your requirements. If you ever see a new enclosure with much faster USB interface like a thunderbolt which can reduce the drive bottleneck, you can easily switch without thinking about it too much.
4. You don’t pay for unwanted features
Some people just use their external SSDs inside their homes and offices. They just never try the water resistance or drop protection. The ruggedized casing is of no use to them. As a budget-friendly solution, the enclosures don’t come with these things but a lot of people don’t really need those things.
Who should choose external SSD?
External SSDs are suitable for non-technical users, although setting up an enclosure isn’t that tough. For people, who want an on-the-go solution for their storage needs, external SSDs are more suitable. The external SSDs come with much more reliability and the enclosures look more like a “solution”. Most importantly, if you prioritize reliability and durability, just go for an external SSD. If features like water and shock resistance seem important, just go for an external with these features.
If you have heavy data read/write demands, an external SSD is going to be good because of its good thermal management. Also, they adhere well to the promised performance on their product pages. As we discussed above, if you want to use data encryption or features like password protection, you get these with the external SSDs along with their official software. All in all, the best thing about the external SSDs is their reliability and ease of use.
In simple words, don’t Choose an External SSD if you’re looking to save money, need a highly customizable or upgradeable solution, or don’t need the added durability and features like water or shock resistance.
Who should choose an SSD inside an enclosure?
If you don’t have critical data storage requirements, an enclosure can be a good thing for you. For people like me, who have some free SSDs inside their closets, there is no need to spend money on external SSDs. For casual and even some sort of professional work, an enclosure is more than enough. Again, enclosures aren’t the plug-and-play solution. You have to do the installation and check for drive compatibility before purchasing the enclosure.
Also, if thermal management is a concern, it is better to either choose an external SSD or pick an enclosure with proper heat dissipation methods.
In simple words, don’t Choose an SSD with an Enclosure if you prefer a simple, ready-to-use product, or need the highest level of durability and portability for rugged environments. Also, if you want to use the encryption or some other in-built features like an external SSD, you don’t get them with an enclosure.
I hope I haven’t contributed to your confusion more here. I just tried giving you a clear idea of what should you expect from an enclosure and an external SSD.
Thanks for reading!