SABRENT Thunderbolt 3 to Dual NVMe M.2 SSD Tool Free Enclosure (EC-T3DN)

I wanted a solution to add another hard drive to compliment my 1tb Mac mini pro. I wanted to make sure to take advantage of the thunderbolt speed but I don't want to pay too much. If I would have gotten the 4tb Mac mini pro it would have been a whopping $2500. Instead I was able to secure a refurbished from Apple with 1 year warranty for $1200, then 2 - 2tb SSD M2 (4tb) from HP for $140 for both and then I found this Sabrent dual enclosure for $150, fan and heatsinks were $30 for a total of $1520. About $1k savings in my book with little compromise. Before getting this I did try other individual high speed M.2 enclosures unfortunately I found them cumbersome since there are two of them and was unreliably frustrating to format and use.I found this Sabrent dual enclosure. The price was fair considering an individual thunderbolt enclosure is averaging at $100. I also learned that I can format this as a RAID so two M.2s can act as 1 and run faster. When I got the item, I found the built quality in excellent condition. The aluminum enclosure is very thick. Everything was great except for the USB cable more on that later. Advertised as a tool free installation, I did had to use a small pin to move the rubber grommet that's holding the M2 cards, other than that very easy to put together. One issue I had was no mention of the power button if it was just a one push or had to hold it. The LED lights were very small so I was not sure if it was already on or not but I did eventually figured it and I'm okay with it. My Mac mini recognize it right away. I immediately set it up in RAID form and combined the two. The amazing part is how fast this thing is. Over 2k of both write and read speeds. Way far off from the setup I was coming from topping HD speeds of 120mb, I did not realize how far tech has become. One issue that I hope it will not be a problem in the future is how hot this thing gets (108º f) under normal use. I emailed Sabrent and they actually acknowledge that although it seem hot it is operating under normal conditions. They do offer an extra 1 year warranty when you register so if any failure will occur the next year I should be covered right? Still, I did not want to take a chance and would like for this to work for years to come so I ordered a couple of heatsinks and a quiet computer fan and it's operating much cooler now at around 89º.I actually did not find any other dual enclosure that offers this type of quality and speeds here in Amazon so thank you Sabrent for making this product.The only thing I hope they can improve on is maybe a better solution for the USB connection as it came loose every now and then disconnecting easily behind the device.

The enclosure is really well built, with high quality metal and precision tolerances. Installation is very easy yet sturdy, with the screw lock and the rubber hold tips. Although the rubber hold tips seem flimsy at first glance, in reality once the lid is locked closed with the thermal heatsink pads installed, the rubber tips are wholly unnecessary; those drives aren't going anywhere.Be aware of what you're getting into with this enclosure. It supports Thunderbolt 3 and up only. You cannot connect this enclosure via USB 3.2. If you have Thunderbolt 3, the performance is well worth it. Drives installed in this enclosure are just as fast as those installed on motherboard slots. On some of my Linux systems the second drive in the enclosure is intermittently not detected, but it works perfectly on other systems so I don't think the enclosure is at fault here.If you intend to open up this enclosure and swap internal drives frequently, be aware that there are two different types of thermal pads that come with the enclosure: a 1.2mm thick pad for single-sided drives and a 0.8mm thick pad for double-sided drives. You must use the correct type of pad. If the pad is too thin for the drive type then it won't contact the drive for heat transfer; if it's too thick then the enclosure won't be able to close. Once a thermal pad is installed, you cannot peel it off without ruining it. If you need to deal with both types of drives, you could install one pad of each type (the enclosure supports two internal drives after all), but this is not suitable for RAID configurations where you want both drives to be of the same type. For RAID installations where you want to swap drives frequently, I recommend buying two enclosures, putting the thick thermal pad in one and the thin one in the other.Some drives come with pre-installed copper stickers for heat transfer, and are too thick even for the thin thermal pads. You can peel off the copper stickers and just use the thermal pads from the enclosure; this will work, but peeling off any stickers likely voids your drive warranty, so be aware of the consequences. The other option is to purchase even thinner (say 0.5mm) thermal pads from a third party.