This Device Needs Some Work M.2 NVME Drive PCIE Adaptor Sabrent EC-PCIE

#Sabrent #M.2Adaptor #PCIeNVME #TechTools #AddaNVME
Please don't buy this m.2 nvme drive pcie adaptor until you have watched this video.
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Some things need explaining and Sabrent should be aware of this as they actually make m.2 drives!
A overly complicated install and lack of instructions and possible drive damage or overheating means we really can't recommend this for the less experienced used but with a few caveats.
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[@mikesunboxing]

Available from affiliate links: Amazon Local: amzn.to/3pYgBYq Ebay UK: ebay.us/rcYog6 Ebay US: ebay.us/oQ0x04 Ebay CA: ebay.us/143WwO Ebay AUS: ebay.us/lDUXrh

[@UsingUsing01]

Hi I want to buy a fast and longevity SSD so I saw on KZbin and some people say that NVMe is "short life" and sometimes "crash" your desktop. I am doubt , I don't know what type of SSD to buy , only fast and longevity, I don't care about prize anly two things: lifespan, longevity and very fast . Thank you

[@mikesunboxing]

@@UsingUsing01 that is three things! Maybe look at the samsung 990 pro

[@UsingUsing01]

@@mikesunboxing Thank you

[@lecramdldrow]

"Dont buy it - but here are links to the product with a affiliate link..." Wtf.. xD

[@bliiblaablue]

Okay, I finally got this working and as well got a reply from the Sabrent support. Apparently those thermal pads are meant to be put only between the top of the NVMe and the top heatsink. The reason why there is so many different sizes is so that you can try to find the best fit for your NVMe brand. You still need to peel of those plastics from both sides before sticking it in between. You can also cut those into right size and shape as well. My Samsung 980 PRO has the other end a little bit lower, so you can put two smaller ones there and cut them in half in length.

[@mikesunboxing]

thanks for the info, appreciate you taking the time to comment

[@openlyracist8055]

It's in the Chinese manuals

[@johnoconnell8192]

Thanks for sharing!

[@tarron3237]

I'm pretty sure the thermal pads are meant for both sides of the SSD. One of the thin pads on top, and the other thin pad below for double sided SSDs, or the thick one for single sided SSDs.

[@bliiblaablue]

@@tarron3237 this is incorrect, because it is what I tried initially and it simply doesn't fit when closed.

[@morvaypeter]

I bought this adapter 2 weeks ago. Like you said in the video, the installation manual is very unfortunate and poor, as it doesn't tell how/where to use those thermal pads. Anyway, after few tries, I think I found out how Sabrent wanted to use the pads. I used it on Samsung 970 Pro 512GB in the following way: One of the thin pads goes on top of the drive (did not peel off the sticker) and the thick pad goes underneath (the gap between the adapter and SSD was too big so the thin pad would not make a sufficient contact). This is how I have put it together and works me. Temperatures are around 50°C even under heavy activity. (Without the heatsink it was reaching 70°C). For those who are still reading and wondering what happened to the 2nd thin thermal pad, here we go: I also tried to install the 2nd thin pad between the back plate and the PCIe card adapter, however, I had difficulties to put this "sandwich" together, as the screws were not long enough. However,when I pressed the whole "sandwich" really strong together, I managed to screw all 4 screws. But after doing so, the whole thing looked deformed and the card was of a curved shape. It really didn't look nice, and I didn't want to push this curved thing into my PCIe slot, so I took the 2nd thermal pad off.

[@mikesunboxing]

thanks for the info

[@mikesunboxing]

@@bliiblaablue Thank you

[@michaelhansen6802]

Thank you for this precise clarification. I am installing one now, and your post resolves the questions I still had after watching the video, and then reading all the comments to up until I found your post.

[@dazzer_]

Bought this a few months ago, no issues. Temp before in an M.2 slot, 33c. Temp after install, 27c. I would definitely buy another one.

[@mikesunboxing]

Thanks for sharing

[@dennmillsch]

I will give my opinion as an electronic engineer. Since a heat sink is provided, I would use it. A general rule of electronics is that the hotter it runs, the shorter the lifespan, so use the heatsink to help keep it cooler. Even 10 degrees could make a difference in lifespan. As for the pads, the goal is to get the heat from the device to the heatsink as quickly as possible. So use the thinnest pad possible with the heatsink. A thicker pad has greater resistance to the flow of heat, so use the thinnest one directly attached to the electronic components and directly attached to the heat sink. It is true that the circuit board will also help dissipate heat, but this will be almost insignificant compared to the heatsink, so focus on optimizing the heatsink by using the thinnest pad there. If you want to also route heat to the circuit board, then I would use the thinnest pad underneath that as well. That leaves the thickest pad to hold on the back piece, which is the least efficient place to get rid of heat. So I'd think the thick pad goes here, to help hold everything together and make it mechanically stronger. Without seeing it, probably just one thin pad to the heatsink is all you need, and just set aside, or dispose of, the other pads. Again, the heatsink is by far the main heat dissipation device, the circuit board and the back panel being almost insignificant by comparison. Focus on the heatsink and don't worry much about the rest of it. If it fits, I would probably put a little bit of padding under the device to help physically support it.

[@Granby64]

I have this adapter and used it with a sabrent & wd nvme drives without any problems, I’ve only ever used 1 thermal pad on top of the drives and didn’t get any temps problems over long use

[@surfx4804]

I have this adaptor and used it a few times to copy/clone a drive. The adaptor will fit in the 4x PCI slot I think as there are gaps in the adaptor. You don't need a 16x slot as it is only wired for 4x. Yes it is fiddly, and I only used thermal pads on top of the drive and not under it or on the back (that never occured to me). With most of these things I have a bunch of pads that I use to ensure contact and that's maybe why they include a few. I have used it with a SN850, SN750, Crucial P2. The speeds I got were in line with Gen3 as it was on my B550-F board in the lower Gen 3 16x slot.

[@dvdr866]

Yeah I thought that with the gaps reminds me of those double sided pci cards

[@oaninor]

so, even with the x4 or x16 transfer, with this card an SN850 will never reach the 7.000 mb/s in a gen3 board? :(

[@surfx4804]

@@oaninor That's a Gen 4 NVME, and no matter what you do a Gen 3 4 lane pcie max speed is ~4GB/s. It will be treated as a Gen 3 drive anyhow. If you have a Gen 4 PCIe motherboard then you would be better putting the SN850 in the main m.2 slot.

[@oaninor]

@@surfx4804 yeah, but my mobo is an MSI z390. I was looking at this adapter over the one who use pci x1 because I thought he could use the x16 which is 16gb/s. Thing is, until I read your comment, I don't know that this adapter is capes to x4. Do you know if even exist any adapter like this one who use x8 or x16? :(

[@surfx4804]

@@oaninor NVME is limited to 4 lanes. You can get cards that will do 8 or 16 but they also do 2 and 4 NVME cards, so 4 lanes per card. I don't know that you can add PCIe 4 to a PCIe 3 system. To be honest you won't really notice the speed diff between Gen 3 and Gen 4 storage.

[@tonac13]

Hello Mike, got this one for quite some time now with a 2TB drive and it runs perfectly. Drive temperature rarely goes above 41 degrees C (used HWinFO64 for keeping track of the thermals). My system NVME WD Black SN850 goes up to 60ish degrees, just for comparison, and he is mounted directly on the motherboard. For the Sabrent drive, I used only one thermal pad (the thickest one) between the drive and the heatsink. Absolutely no problems with it.

[@mikesunboxing]

i think the single sided drives are largely fine with this, double sided are the ones that cause more headaches, and hopefully this video will help to illustrate that

[@timrideout]

Like many users here, I had to figure it out for myself before discovering your video :) My solution was also putting just the one (thicker) thermal pad on the top of the M.2, to couple it with the finned heatsink. FYI: I would think that the title of this video ("Don't buy this product") is a bit misleading. I think the product in itself is great - but the manual's instructions very poor. Maybe the title should reflect the excellent help you gave? ("How to properly* install this product...") Thanks for the great explanation

[@mikesunboxing]

i might change it to be honest

[@timrideout]

@@mikesunboxing Especially since there's an affiliate link to purchase said item ... ;)

[@zounds13]

I just went through this yesterday and I have some answers for you. 1. The heat transfer pads only go on one side (the heat sink side). 2. There are three pads of different thicknesses so that you can mix and match them and get exactly the right thickness to work with your particular M.2. Before I peeled off any of the backing plastic, I tested all the combinations and found out that I needed to stack the two thinner ones in order to make good contact with the heat sink but not prevent the cover from fitting fully into its recess.

[@tarron3237]

Hello, I just finished putting a Samsung 980 into this adapter. The deciding factor for me was build quality. Sabrent is a somewhat known brand, and the heatsink design looked good to me. I wanted something with screws instead of rubber bands which will very likely eventually snap. The fact it has a metal backplate was a very pleasant surprise. I have to agree that, yes, this adapter is not really beginner friendly, due to the horrible manual. But if you know what you're doing and already own some decent thermal pads, maybe even a caliper, it's a solid choice. Why caliper? I've noticed that on some drives the chips don't have the same height. So in order to have a nice level contact with a heatsink, it's best to measure it with a caliper and use thermal pads with different thickness. Personally I use the Arctic pads, because they provide good heat transfer and softness. I ended up putting one of the provided 0,5mm pads plus a 1mm pad under the (single sided) SSD. The thick pad is probably meant to go there, but I noticed a slight bend in the SSD when doing that, so while it's probably not a real issue I chose not to use it. A soft 2mm pad might be the optimal choice. On top of the chips I went for 1mm on the controller and 0,5mm on the memory chip. When opening the adapter to check for contact I could see the chips' indent on the pads, so it fits all very nicely. Admittedly, as stated before, that's not beginner friendly at all. But the base design of the adapter is the best I've seen so far.

[@EliteRock]

I have two of the Riitop versions of this (seem to be identical), used with Kingston SN750 and Samsung 970 Evo Plus nVME's. I too thought that the intention was to have pads on both sides of the nVME, but actually the variety supplied is to allow combinations totalling the thickness needed between the top/chip side and the main heatsink. Problem is that the only way of ascertaining which are needed is trial and error which is not practical with expensive but fragile, mineral pads (like the Gelids I used in preference to the cheap, rubbery silicon ones supplied) or using a caliper (which I did) to measure thicknesses and depths of the components. I found that the Samsung and Kingston were 1.25 and 1.00mm (can't remember which was which) . With a good, intimate contact achieved the nVME's don't need any more cooling than this arrangement.

[@kevinu.k.7042]

Thanks for the helpful review. I had an issue with Samsung NVME's getting hot when in a USB enclosure. I telephoned customer support (level 2) and was told that Samsung do not support their NVME's being used in enclosures. The heat is likely the reason, but they wouldn't give me a reason. I have a couple of USB enclosures, one of them a Sabrent which is very like the one you review here, excepting that it is hinged and USB connected. Using an enclosure, If I transfer a lot of data, as in a system image, the temperature can reach 83 deg C. Samsung say that max temp is 85 deg C. With no enclosure at all. E.G plugged directly into an NVME slot on a motherboard or PCIe temperatures rarely go over 55 deg C. I have also used USB enclosures without the outer case on so that the NVME is exposed. Weirdly the temperatures are higher than with the outer case/heat sink.

[@SC-hk6ui]

There have been some interesting studies suggesting that a high temperature is not such a bad thing with memory chips. My guess is that a lot of insulation goes on above the rate of conductive transfer, so a thinner better quality pad would make more sense. But the thing that gets me is all of the black paint. If this was just bare aluminium then i would be happier. Thanks for letting us know your results.

[@mikesunboxing]

yeah these devices can actually hinder performance when under sustained loads. They need airflow to allow convection

[@kevinu.k.7042]

@@SC-hk6ui Thank you for that info too. For me it is labels stuck on 'em as well. Be well - Your channel is one of two go to's I use to keep up to date... Always learning. Thanks :)

[@KEWords]

Had one, I had no problem adding the heatsink. But as you found the heatsinks not needed. I took it off. The card ran great as my PCIE Boot drive of a couple years. I would say, buy it if you are using a GEN 3 drives.

[@mikesunboxing]

Thanks for sharing

[@davebing11]

looks like the card itself only has the first 4 PCIE channels wired (look at the pcb traces at 4:10).. at 8:53, you do not need the thermal pad between the metal backing plate and the metal pcb as the exposed traces are all grounded. This reduces the need for long screws. Also note that a fiberglass based PCB (as 98% are) is NOT a heatsink. as it holds heat without radiating or conducting it.

[@pallas_wept]

These fibreglass based PCBs ARE a heatsink, as they do not hold heat without radiating or conducting it, they have plated thru-holes and vias which conduct heat away from the hot components. This is common practice in PCB design where heatsinking is desired.

[@uglybob7505]

I actually have one of these but I only got it so that I could clone an M.2 drive and when that was done I took it out of my system, didnt use it for an extended period of time. Judging by your video that was a wise choice too ! Canny bit of kit to have in your toolkit should you need it but would much rather have an M.2 drive in a dedicated slot. Thanks for the review, Mike and Kath :-)

[@mikesunboxing]

agreed, for quick data transfers or those with limited space this is a handy bit of kit, but i little to fiddly for me to recommend to everyone

[@timoleary5815]

To be honest I can't say I found it confusing at all. As soon as I saw the 3 pads it seemed obvious to me these were only to be fitted on top of the drive, giving you a choice depending on the drive thickness, as the heatsink is going to be screwed down with the same distance between the cooling plate and the drive top. Trying to do what you did and fit it together with all three pads didn't make any sense thermally? I suppose it all depends on how your brain works, but it helped me make a decision anyway and I've just ordered one. So thanks for the review, which despite being a bit negative I still found to be helpful information. Cheers Mike.

[@mikesunboxing]

it depends if you have a double sided nvme, which mine was, that was my issue that it seemed that they assumed everyone would be using single sided a only give the thermal pads for a single sided drive setup. it is one of those things that you think it is simple until you actually have it in front of you and you end up scratching your head :-) i think the majority of drives on the market are now single sided so this problem is somewhat obscure

[@mikegord]

Just ordered one. There is a Sabrent KZbin video on where the pads go titled 'SABRENT NVMe M.2 SSD to PCIe X16/X8/X4 Card'

[@linchester8464]

the product does look like a rebrand of some startech or other unknown brand PCI-E adapter. the heatsink is wrapped around the PCB and have the similar thermal pads the reason why we need to cool the SSD is mainly because of the SSD controller when under high load will overheat and cause the transfer rate to fall off after getting hit with a high load. on another video, they suggests cutting the thermal pad to length and have the thicker one on top of the controller/DRAM and the thinner one for the NANDs. Single thermal pad is a bad idea since the controller wont be in contact with the thermal pad and using a single thermal pad means both the controller and NANDs get heated up together. which we don't want. The other product i may want to suggest is the one that has the combo m.2 SATA and NVME slot on the same card and physically slots into the x4 PCI-E slot

[@mikesunboxing]

good points

[@Wildmutationblu]

You are only supposed to use one thermal pad. I have one of these adapters and it works fine. I highly recommend it.

[@mikesunboxing]

you use a pad on each side that has a ram module or controller on, some are dual sided

[@ChairmanMeow1]

Haha, I had the same issues. The adaptor works great but putting what should be a simple thing together... they made it as hard as possible lol.

[@mikesunboxing]

Exactly!

[@tech_jims]

Nice review cheers Mike, think I will take your advice and pass on this one 🤔

[@mikesunboxing]

Fair enough!

[@Senrab46]

Thanks for highlighting the pros and cons Mike. Seems crazy as packaging clearly states "Heatsink" yet higher temps and may not suit yur storage! Thanks for sharing Mike and Kath👍

[@mikesunboxing]

yes a little disappointed and glad i checked the temps before just leaving it to do its job. I have kept it as it will come in handy one day

[@jeremybadlon]

Thanks Mike. It's been on my cart since I am not sure to purchase it and now it's clear to me not to continue buying it.

[@mikesunboxing]

get one as they are handy, but be aware of the setup and things you might need to do to get the best results

[@PaulBakewell]

Great video, thanks Mike. Interesting product maybe version 2 will be better?

[@mikesunboxing]

We shall see, i would hope so. longer screws would fix the problem straight way allowing as many pads as you want, simple fix, but trying to buy screws like that isn't easy - ask me how i know :-)

[@PaulBakewell]

@@mikesunboxing Mike “How do you know”

[@mikesunboxing]

@@PaulBakewell I know, because I can't find any anywhere! lol

[@danielbeccar269]

If you follow the tracks on the back of the pcb I guess that leds are displaying the power/ activity of the 4 pcie lanes. Only the x4 part is wired, 8x and 16 are support only.

[@mikesunboxing]

seems like a logical approach

[@OlettaLiano]

Hi, Mike. I already have one of those installed in my system with a 2TB Samsung 970 EVO Plus, and it works perfectly. Also, I've not had any heat related problems with mine. It's wokrking at the same temp as the other three m.2 mounted on my motherboard. I'm curious as to why you were trying to sandwich the drive between two thermal pads. All it needs is one pad between the drive and the heatsink. Note: I didn't use the pad that came with the adaptor. I had a few extra 1mm Thermal Grizzly Minus Pads leftover from when I water-cooled my GPU, and I used one of those.

[@mikesunboxing]

the drive i was using had dram on both sides so needed to cool both, or at least that is what i was trying to achieve

[@OlettaLiano]

@@mikesunboxing Okay, that makes sense. Perhaps two .5mm thermal pads would make the unit thin enough for the accompanying screws to work.

[@zybch]

@@mikesunboxing The controller on NVMe drives needs a bit of cooling, but not so much the actual 'drive' RAM chips. They generally operate optimally at 60c, which seems counter intuitive but thats just how it is. I find that cutting the thermal pad so that theres a gap between the controller and RAM helps keep the controller a bit cooler than using one continuous pad.

[@mikesunboxing]

@@zybch Thanks for the tip

[@SA77888]

@@mikesunboxing " Thanks for the tip " able to take advice as well as give it. Thats a good sign.

[@jean3030]

I bought one. Immediately stripped a screw rendering the heatsink useless. I ripped it off and the PCB underneath was still usable.

[@PapaMav]

Your volume was a bit on the low side but thank you for the heads up !

[@mikesunboxing]

Noted!

[@everope]

@@mikesunboxing +4.2 dB to be precise. It says in "stats for nerds" :)

[@mikesunboxing]

@@everope Thanks

[@rickh8380]

Thanks Mike and Kath for the review. I have bought some of their other products...but this looks like a Hot Mess to me. Going to pass on this one. Take care all and be safe out there. Cheers

[@mikesunboxing]

Our pleasure! see you tomorrow for a relaxing day in the chair

[@mikep9418]

Looking at the pictures on Ebay they only show.1 thermal pad being used. Perhaps they supply 3 different thicknesses to suit your particular drive? Thanks for the review 😊

[@mikesunboxing]

yes it is all a bit hit and miss, you shouldn't need to validate temps with a device like this and you could potentially damage a drive from overheating if done wrong, this could also lead to data loss. Not ideal

[@weitzhandler]

Thanks for the headsup Mike! Any other budget's that you would recommend? I actually thought x16 would work fast, no? How about a dual slot NVMe?

[@mikesunboxing]

It isn’t that bad and if you have a “normal” modern drive it will be easier to use. We have reviewed other options that were better in my opinion like the glotrends one

[@nielsdebakker3283]

It only electrically connects to the first 4 pcie lanes, so no need for a bigger slot if you also have a 4 lane slot. You can see the electrical connections running below the black paint when the pcb is shown.

[@Nick_R_]

The printed instructions are not good, but Sabrent made an installation video themselves. In that and in their marketing pictures, they only put one pad on top of the NVME, with the thickness dependent on the drive. In my case, using a WD SN570, one thin pad just makes contact with the heatsink. The thick pad was too thick, though I could have compressed it to fit. I'll see how it goes, but might yet add the second thin pad to the first (the two together are still thinner than the thick one). Had I been using a double sided NVME drive, then a thin pad might also have connected the drive to the PCB. Certainly with my single sided one none of the pads are the right thickness for that and it isn't necessary. Likewise, you can use a thin pad behind the PCB, but it's not designed that way. Ultimately, it's fairly easy to assemble, if fiddly, when following the Sabrent video, but the included instructions aren't so clear, hence people are trying all sorts of other combinations! In my case this will go into an old PC, where the SATA ports are all in use, but I want an extra drive. It's only PCIe 2, so it won't run at full speed, but still faster than SATA.

[@FlyingPigNJ]

would your xpg work better if you had removed the plate or heat spreader on top?

[@mikesunboxing]

it might but the last time i removed a drive label it took the chip with it and killed a drive so i am rather against it

[@FlyingPigNJ]

@@mikesunboxing ah true....

[@RebornDPK]

of course, it Sabrent... i heard m.2 drive fail, i recent bough hub and one of port is dead. good to know

[@Wellibob68]

Not convinced on any m.2 pcie adapters tbh. Definitely not this one. 🤣 Cheers Mike.

[@mikesunboxing]

this one is okay, but not brilliant

[@AmosAAnderson]

I recommend finding the official video from Sabrent on this device. They never mentioned using any of the pads under the drive and they referenced using the one that fits properly on the top instead.

[@mikesunboxing]

Yes I agree they completely overlooked that some drives are dual sided and will need full contact on both sides, the majority don’t need this but it should have been covered

[@UltimateTechHub]

I've never heard of this brand. I installed a NVMe M.2 adapter last month that I got for 14 bacon. LOL. My adapter fit in most PCIe slots easily. It even came with a cheap heat sink. Worked good for my computer. Thanks for the review Mike.

[@mikesunboxing]

Thanks for sharing

[@zybch]

Sabrent are one of the better 'generic' type brands out there. I use a lot of their USB3-NVMe cables and other storage device accessories. I've used several of these PCIe/NVMe cards with no temperature issues (all my computer have very good airflow).

[@ellsgeiwitz2234]

The graphics on the Amazon web page show the installation of the mounting screw and thermal pad.

[@mikesunboxing]

thank you

[@simonfaulkner5596]

Thanks for the video - for a thumbs up please tell me what NVME carrier you *would* recommend?

[@mikesunboxing]

i liked this one kzbin.info/www/bejne/hZq2oKhvf5qLoa8

[@simonfaulkner5596]

@@mikesunboxing Cheers Mike - ordered, liked, subscribed. Top man.

[@mikesunboxing]

@@simonfaulkner5596 Awesome - thanks, thanks & welcome to the Channel 🙂

[@Daniel_WR_Hart]

Would the cooling be a lot better if the pad was a lot thinner?

[@mikesunboxing]

maybe

[@jefflowry4112]

Is there a better version of this then?

[@mikesunboxing]

if you have a modern generic drive it isn't bad now, especially with most being only single sided

[@GeordiLaForgery]

I think this will also fit a small pci-4x slot, if so it's quite versatile. Could be wrong though.

[@mikesunboxing]

i did try and the gap in the pcb isn't wide enough sadly

[@GeordiLaForgery]

@@mikesunboxing Oh my bad! Thanks for checking. 👍

[@stevenbauer7744]

I bought this adapter with a small 256gb ssd to offload the page file in a small form desktop pc that only has space of a single HDD. I found the stand-off frustrating as the SSd I purchased is too thick for the machined groove and doesn’t fit well. Even then, the drive doesn’t seem to lay parallel to the adapter. After seeming your video, I chose to forego the heat transfer mess.

[@KINGPHANTOMw85]

would the Bejavr rgb one be a good alternative. would it perform like this one. please answer

[@mikesunboxing]

never seen or heard of it sorry, where is it from?

[@timparhamsr9598]

Greetings Mike ;). and thanks for this helpful video ... although I am looking to upgrade the PCIe SSD in my 2015 MacBook Pro ...and it has a 12 /16 connector on it , that seems to be very difficult to locate a USB ( external drive case - for ?!?!?1? I am guessing that ppl are being pushed into the newer NVME's ? Anyhow , I am thankful for any & all help in this endeavor in advance :) Thanks again ... Tim

[@mikesunboxing]

this adaptor might be just the thing you need amzn.to/3lFl0wn

[@Kai_O_Cad]

I bought this adapter so i can mod it with Sabrent silver heatsink for a 4tb ssd, should be fun

[@EldaLuna]

i have a micro connections branded type thing of nvme in my case its like a normal add in card but has support for one nvme and one sata (using the sata plug out to mobo feature) but just have nvme in it. now the heatsink came with it is just as terrible in some cases cause they use a sticky thermal pad for it and stick it to the drive and of course eventually it came off but i didnt need it anyways cause its a wd blue running at x4 2.0 anyways so i strapped it to my faster wd black main drive using tie straps to cool it down as it was reaching 70c all the time and been cooler since with that at least.

[@alansungki7687]

I don't think the heat sink is the main purpose of the adapter as most similar adapters don't include a heat sink at all because realistically most NVME ssds will run fine without any additional cooling hardware. I don't agree that this shouldn't be bought since it performs as advertised provided the buyer knows how to properly install it. The only part of an nvme ssd that would benefit from cooling is the NAND chip which is the only part which has a significant rise IN temperature while in operation and the effectiveness of the heatsink would be determined by the airflow within your case and how your fans are oriented. The main reason I bought this adapter as my GPU covers the secondary M.2 slot for my secondary ssd. I found this adapter allows me to swap NVME ssd's without having to remove my GPU and made it easier overall since it's easier to swap different NVME ssds on the adapter rather than having to do so on the motherboard which is really inconvenient and puts more wear and tear on that motherboard M.2 slot. NVME ssd thermals dont really require any cooling, NVME ssd heatsinks and other cooling products marketed towards cooling these ssds is just a gimmick. It is not likely that users will be doing any type of demanding reading or writing tasks that would have an effect on the performance. I think you missed the target on this product, it's not a cooling device, it's an adapter which includes a heat sink which is more for esthetics as most users don't like the appearance of an exposed pcb.

[@thepoliticalstartrek]

I use the external USB typ C single unit one. It is rock solid. The internal one does work in a 4x or 8X. It really only needs into an X 16 physical slot if you are using it in the case when you move the machine a lot.

[@Joshinken]

What do you mean it needs a pcie x16 slot? Do you not see those giant cutouts strategically placed to fit into a smaller pcie slot? And what do you mean you were confused by the thermal pads? Its a thermal pad, it goes between the heat source and the heat sink, and yes they actually did put it in the manual, you can even see it in their amazon pictures. NO YOU DONT PUT IT BETWEEN THE HEAT SOURCE AND MAGNETIC SHIELDING what are you doing!?

[@mikesunboxing]

the heat source can be on both sides on some m.2 drives. but thanks for commenting.

[@KenSellers]

Former PC motherboard designer here. I have the exact same questions Mike did about thermal pad placement. I cannot believe there's not one word in the instructions about it.

[@Johan-rm6ec]

WD black is perfect because its pcb is very thin. But the cheaper black. Beware nvme drives wit a fat pcb cant hold that brass part where the screw from beneat goes into. Shame its not mentioned in the video.

[@catalystguitarguy]

I bought a silver stone PCIe to dual m.2 adapter It’s a NVMe closest to the board and a SATA M.2 in the upper slot with a SATA data plug on the end. It came with a standard and a low profile bracket that went into my sff build. Solid little add in card. I’ve seen some people use ones like these in The older Mac Pro towers to get better ssd speed: and extend the life on those.

[@mikesunboxing]

i fancy a dual card model, might have to take a look at the silverstone one

[@catalystguitarguy]

@@mikesunboxing It's the Silverstone ECM22. 1 NVME, 1 Sata M.2 it's $30 in the US on amazon not sure over there on pricing or availability.

[@mikesunboxing]

@@catalystguitarguy Thanks, I'll take a look :-)

[@1111comment]

this adapter has a lot more pins than the one i put on. Trying to add the adapter as a boot drive. windows recognizes it; old mobo. Do you think this adapter might help recognize it in bios so i can boot from it?

[@mikesunboxing]

it will depend more on the bios of the motherboard really i think

[@haydn-db8z]

If your motherboard doesn't support booting from an NVME, you may be able to do a BIOS mod in addition to using one of these adapters. Both my old Ivy Bridge systems can be modded in this way, but I haven't done it.

[@Paul_85-]

Wtf man. You messed it up the product works absolutely fine. I've got two of them.

[@mikesunboxing]

it works fine for some drives and the instructions could be better

[@Paul_85-]

@@mikesunboxing look at your headline " please do not buy this M.2 " nothing wrong with it

[@hog_pokemon5006]

if I have already put two SSDs on the motherboard, this one is on the real PCI, seen?

[@mikesunboxing]

yes it should be

[@batouranger2553]

I have one M2 slot with only 2 lanes and one pcie x4 slot which should be much faster. Is it better to place my NVME Drive in the M2 slot where i get only half speed (1700 MB/s instead of 3400) or should i buy an adapter for pcie x4 slot?

[@mikesunboxing]

if you have an gen4 x4 drive it makes sense to use a slot appropriate for it

[@busastars]

Mike, does this cut the GPU lanes in half, ie: from x16 to x8? On my ROG Gaming 2 motherboard even if I use the 2nd nvme slot it cuts the GPU lanes from x16 to x8. Be nice to know if it does the same using the PCIE slot. Thanks.

[@mikesunboxing]

it is limited to x4 speeds so on most lower slots it will be the same the top slot on most boards is x16 but it will only attach to the x4 pins

[@derik_niez]

Mine is running at about half the read speed of my 970 evo+. Going to put it in my second X16 slot to see if results differ.

[@mikesunboxing]

let us know how you get on

[@derik_niez]

Moved it up one slot and it’s running up to spec

[@mikesunboxing]

@@derik_niez Great to hear!

[@patricklebel1141]

I bought a generic pcie card that can take inexpensive m.2 cooler right on the drive instead of Integrated to the card. Still, with most gen3 drives, cooler are not really necessary, but it surely add to the look. By the way, I've been able to pick a 5600g for 250$ cad, which is 50$ cheaper than regular price. Slowly modernizing my cpu fleet with already obsoletetech.. Damn, those 6000 series apu are looking good. Hope ddr5 price will stabilize soon!

[@mikesunboxing]

nice price on the 5600G get job there

[@SA77888]

With so many options and 'oportunities' to eff things up, it would be nice if the PCIe/m.2 adapter and an SSD, already assembled, was available to buy, so theres no work to do and no chance to mess things up.

[@leightaylor8069]

Aluminun?

[@mikesunboxing]

yes what you said

[@johnosborne1151]

if not Sabrent, would appreciate recommendations for well designed PCIe x4 adapter (for 970 Evo Plus)

[@mikesunboxing]

the glotrends one we looked at was pretty decent amzn.to/3iVp8ab

[@johnosborne1151]

Looks ok mike. As an engineer, am skeptical of rubber bands. If the goal is to optimize thermal embrace, best to use compression; screws, clips, vice, pins, rivets, etc., rubber bands, no matter how resilient are not good engineering, and wonder what else may be compromised? Here is a list of requirements/ wish list which may help others: + PCIe 3.0/ 4.0 (confirm motherboard spec) + PCIe x4/ x8, x16 + Heat sink; Thick and beefy. Copper if possible. Or choose one with a heat sink which is sandwiched between thermal pads (see Silverstone EMC26), + No rubber bands. Screws are best. The Silverstone EMC26 runs screws down center line which is just good engineering. + Gold or copper inlay on PCB mount with punched holes for ventilation. + Native drivers for Linux, etc., + LED indicator, one low level light which blinks when operational, + Low/ high brackets (check case), + Supports single and double sided drives, + Make sure motherboard and bios supports M.2 NVME drives (do not assume)! + Check PCIe x4 slot to make sure adapter will fit without bumping into something and to ensure that air circulates freely. Note: on some boards, PCI slot(s) may become unavailable if x4 or x8 slot is used (check mobo spec). Note: Silverstone and Micro-Connectors brands seem reasonable. StarTech, Ableconn and Lycom may have merit too, but do not appear to have heat sinks. Yikes! @@mikesunboxing

[@Carlos_Teixeira_Drums]

Hi Mike would you think this would be fine if someone just wanted to add another NVME drive to the system to keep their game library ? so no major data transfer etc... thanks in advance mate :)

[@mikesunboxing]

yes i think that would be fine

[@soplam9555]

Will a X4 to x4 riser suffice

[@mikesunboxing]

yes should do

[@soplam9555]

Thx for the reply

[@peermancolin]

i have this and don't use the metal bit. seems no point. works fine and temps are normal without the heatsink

[@mikesunboxing]

yes i am tempted to say this is the safest option

[@OLDUSAFMedic]

I have 5 of these lying around because they work so good and are so cheap. I can't understand your logic about not recommending them.

[@mousamousa1686]

thank you

[@mikesunboxing]

Welcome!

[@sonnieslim5973]

My PC isn't even detecting the SSD in my system.

[@SkaterKonks]

So why shouldn't I buy this?

[@mikesunboxing]

poor instructions and better cheaper models available

[@Karottenbrot1]

Guess what I have ordered yesterday🙈?

[@mikesunboxing]

let us know how you get on with it

[@leew8812]

This thing didn't sit in the pcie slot correctly....just flopped about and was easily pulled out.

[@volgg]

I regret buying this because: - I don't know if anyone else experienced this but one of the screws on the back is EXTRA tightened and the screw driver that was provided immediately stripped the screw... I tried every method to get the screw out but it just made it worse.... I think I have no choice by to saw it

[@mikesunboxing]

sorry to hear that

[@volgg]

@@mikesunboxing it's all good, I did manage to get it out, but I literally had to destroy the corner to let the screw be free. But yeah, now to see how it performs!

[@Lastlifemike007]

Name rolls off the tongue 😂

[@mikesunboxing]

almost 😎

[@WilliamAPBodie]

Worthy of Support comment 🙂

[@mikesunboxing]

cheers! i need support today just bought a RX6500XT and feel sick now

[@WilliamAPBodie]

@@mikesunboxing The gpu must be very bad. since you feel sick 😞

[@mikesunboxing]

Spending money makes me feel Sick the card is probably fine

[@WilliamAPBodie]

@@mikesunboxing I did look it up. and it's bad news 😞 you better warn the people about it 👍

[@life2hardman179]

I bought this literally last night. One of the screws stripped using the screwdriver that came with it. Had to rip it out so there goes my warranty. The little circular bit that keeps the nvme in doesnt fit in my samsung 990 pro... decided to say fuck it and install it anyways. Doesnt even show up in the bios. Waste of money 0/10 dont recommend

[@mikesunboxing]

yeah i didn't think much of it either but for different reasons

[@facelessvaper]

if only I could lip read🤣😆👌

[@mikesunboxing]

you would have to be able to ignore my chins though

[@vikkye2691]

Anybody struggling to get the screws undone should know they are probably rusted in place, 3 of mine were fine but 1 of them was rusted so bad i had to wrap the screwdriver in a washcloth to actually get the grip needed to break it loose.

[@mikesunboxing]

wow rusted?

[@DxBang3D]

The new version (for PCIE 5) is even worse than this. it is basically just a 3mm +0.5mm thermal pad in a PLASTIC box with a metal cover... Here is my review: This is what is typical about Sabrent heatsinks, a thick thermal pad with no real performances. The backside of the heatsink is plastic. Yes, I'm not kidding here, plastic, so if you need cooling on the back side, then you better look for something else. As for the top side, we have a 3mm thick thermal pad between the M.2 and the heatsink itself, which isn't even enough for the standard flat M.2 drives, so you need to apply another 0.5mm pad between as well, so we end up with 3.5mm thermal pad with zero backside cooling. The images they used in the product pictures are clearly a lie.

[@mikesunboxing]

wow, hard to make this worse, but yet they achieved it :-)

[@DxBang3D]

@@mikesunboxing at this point I am done with Sabrent. I just had a support dialog running with them due to a failed Rocket 4 Plus which got bended inside of their own heatsink HTSS/HTSK and they claim that I have misused it. I followed their instructions to a double-sided NVME and after 3 years their Rocket 4 Plus had bend itself near the connection.

[@jamesmiscellaneous]

won't buy.

[@mikesunboxing]

it isn't horrible but has some issues that could be leading to death or a drive or loss of data, both are bad things 😉

[@jamesmiscellaneous]

@@mikesunboxing Sabrent's a good brand most of the time. But I like that you are saying here not to reward them for phoning it in on this one. It's the message consumers need to get behind and apply to all of the products and brands being sold to us.

[@OlettaLiano]

Hi, James. I have one of these adaptors, and it works fine for me.

[@jamesmiscellaneous]

@@OlettaLiano Yeah because you probably water cooled it. 😆

[@OlettaLiano]

@@jamesmiscellaneous But, of course. With the Bykski M.2 SSD PMMA Hard Disk Water Block. 😉

[@DarthSamuraiRyuu]

n'importe quoi! this is a great adaptor! just put the right thermal pad on top deppending on your ssd thickness and you're good to go! 🙄

[@mikesunboxing]

okay i will 😉

[@Wraith_of_Wrath]

This should help clear things up on the Thermal pads and installation … kzbin.info/www/bejne/rHObaIqEntiJgKM

[@mikesunboxing]

thanks

[@darrenthrasher755]

Looks frustrating

[@mikesunboxing]

you hit the nail square in the balls - exactly what it is

[@darrenthrasher755]

Ya their are them moment's that a brick wall is in view chuck it at wall lol

[@julianjohnston5092]

This review sucks, this guy doesn’t know what he is talking about.

[@mikesunboxing]

Merry Christmas you miserable person

[@cheesefries7436]

lol