Review on Enhance Your Storage Efficiency with StarTech Com M 2 2 5In SATA Adapter by Jesse Stewart

Purchased to clone my current laptop's SSD to a higher capacity using the laptop's 2.5" HDD bay. It did the job flawlessly. The new SSD was a Samsung 860 EVO M.2 500GB. A few notes, small details, but it may be useful to someone. Pros: This adapter supports UNFORMATED (non-dedicated) drives, which is a big plus! To my knowledge, none of the current m.2 to USB adapters support raw SSD, which means you have to remove your current SSD, install a new one, format, remove, reinstall the original SSD, only then can the new SSD be used are used with USB adapters, a rather cumbersome process. That was one of the reasons I bought this particular adapter. And it worked fine, the cloning software identified the new SSD adapter as an unallocated drive and cloned it immediately. Circuit board, soldering, adapter mounting, metal rails show good quality and not cheap crap I usually see in this price range. Cons: 1. The adapter is kind of inverted, the power and data connectors are on the back compared to standard connectors for 2.5" HDD/SSD. On desktops this may not be a problem as the power/data cables are separate and you can mount the adapter however you like for optimal heat dissipation from the SSD. However, in laptops, in most cases, 2.5" drives are mounted with an aluminum cover facing the outside (PCB side in) of the laptop, and only one combo cable is attached, which typically cannot be reversed. Example: Dell Inspiron 7559 laptop. The adapter will fit into the 2.5" bay only when the SSD faces the inside of the laptop, which doesn't help heat dissipation at all. There was no way I could mount its SSD to the outside as the laptop connector is right angle and cannot be flipped. Just compare the location of the adapter ports to any 2.5 HDD port and you will understand. Please keep this in mind if you are concerned about cooling the SSD with thermal pads, etc. adapters. They don't have a flush edge, which is a bit disappointing, but didn't cause any problems when fitting them into the bay. If your laptop's SSD mount is not flexible enough, you may have trouble mounting it with 2280 length SSDs. I wish the manufacturer had placed the SSD connector 1mm more inboard so the bracket doesn't overhang and sits flush. All in all a great product and well deserved 5 stars if you are doing a clone or desktop install. For permanent installation I would give 4 stars due to heat dissipation issues due to reverse installation on some laptops. Something to consider depending on the application.