Finding enclosure for M.2 2230 with high power consumption

Here's the unbadged version of the RIITOP

www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006165971224.html

any reason you cant use aliexpress?

if you get one can you check the firmware version to see if its newer than the latest ASM2364 firmware we have atm
i can seperate it from the nvram and make it a flashable package

210901_91_00_00, 01 September 2021
Is the latest firmware we have atm

@Shonk, it's a political and commerce/commercial thing. Long story short, I live in a relatively isolated location, currier and postal services, especially packages from overseas, are problematic for me (mentioned in my original post). Yeah, in 2024.. This is the world we're living in. That's why I have to find everything within Europe, so packages can be, and will be, delivered directly to my home. I found that product as well in my search results, but yeah.. Anyway.

Checked the date I bought my SST-MS12, and the bill is from 25th October 2022. Sure, my particular unit could have been manufactured anytime before that, but I could check the firmware version/date on that, if that helps.

Thank you.

Update1: Never mind, mine is an older version. Sorry.

Update2: Dang! I've found the Riitop on Amazon  (not sure how I missed it in my previous searches). The price is a bit steep for what it is.. I'll wait some more, maybe someone pops in with a different proposal. But if not, this will be it.

"a bit steep" he says lol

dont forget to check its firmware when you get it for us

Hello again,

Well, semi-good news. I have a colleague, who is also passionate about technology like me, and talking about the enclosure situation with him, he showed interest in that as well (he owns a Steamdeck, and upgraded it's drive, so the original one is unused for the moment). As it turns out, unlike me, he does order quite often from AliExpress (we are not living in the same area), and placed an order for the one above, and is also willing to lend me it for a couple of days when it arrives. Delivery is expected at the beginning of next month, if everything goes smoothly (wouldn't be surprised if it takes longer).

So in a few weeks I'll report back with my experience about the enclosure. If those are positive, I'll ask him to order one for me, too. In the meantime, I don't consider "case closed", so if someone has other ideas to add, please feel free to do so, the more information we have, the more educated decisions we can make, and everybody wins.

Thank you.


Update: In the meantime, for my other, less demanding needs/solutions, I've ordered the Hikvision MD202 , and just received it. Will also add my experience with it.

Hello again,

Back with my findings. Will try to pinpoint what I think is worth mentioning.

About the (dark grey) Hikvision MD202 equipped with the RTL9210B chip, paired with my Kingston drive, and good quality USB3 10Gbps cable (not its own).
Mostly I found everything the same, as described in the  review  so I will not repeat the same. What words cannot convey, is how the enclosure feels in the hand, and how it looks in person. Must say, I was pleasantly surprised, about how thin and elegant it is. Very nice indeed. Since mine also came without a thermal pad on the chip-side, and my drive is 2230 anyway, I've cut the one it came with, and covered most of the chip-side with it (the thickness is perfect for both sides). While the printed circuit-board has a hole for the 2230 sized drives, there is no support for a screw. Honestly, this is not a problem. The temperature was not good, it was great! Not only the enclosure hardly got warm (even when stress-testing), but it cooled down very quickly as well. CrystalDiskInfo reported around ~30-35C when lightly used, and ~50C after an unrealistic 10 minutes torture-test. The firmware it came with was version 1.27.xx, and found no issues during my tests, but since not sure which drive will end up in it in the future, and for the random 4k blocks improvements, I've updated it to 1.33.xx without any hassle (didn't noticed any significant difference in speed and temperature). Near the USB-C port has a blue activity led which is not too bright so it is not disturbing.  All in all, very pleased with it.

I've been also testing the last couple of days the small enclosure (which tomorrow will have to hand back to my colleague). The ~15cm USB-C cable it came with is labeled as 20Gbps, but cannot confirm it, since I don't have a proper USB 3.2 Gen2x2 port. By the way, we are talking about  this , the smaller version of the one described  here . Many aspects are the same, the thermal pad pre-applied to the chipset can be qualified as "non-existent". It is pretty small, thin, stiff, not sticky at all (I don't think it even touched the enclosure at all), while the one which is supposed to put on the drive, is a tad bit thicker, sticky, and almost too soft. Be aware that it is pre-cutted to small squares (almost invisible to the naked eye) and very easily came apart, so it was fiddly to use. Wanted to reuse the pad from the Hikvision, but it was too thick for this, and the enclosure could not be closed properly. Once applied its own (both on the chipset side, and on the disk), it was fine, though the lack of a screw to hold it together still doesn't convince me (doesn't have any clicking sound when it is latched). The temperature is not reassuring either. Very hot all the time, even if not in use. One could argue that this is a good sign, meaning the enclosure is doing its job, acting as a proper heatsink, but when you see ~50C while simply plugged in, and over 65C when heavily used, you cannot, anymore. Now, is this because it doesn't have an idle setting, not sure, could be (see image below). Is it worrisome? Yes. My Silverstone enclosure gets warm, not hot, but it also has a ton more thermal mass. The firmware it came with is 201012_91_00_00 and I haven't upgraded it (since it is not mine to play with). Here is a screenshot with MPTool:
 
And the inner side:
 
Again, since I don't have a 20Gbps USB port at hand, cannot confirm 100% if this is a proper ASM2364 or not (see the screenshot), but I took a picture of the chip:
 
So, even seeing the picture, I'm not sure what to think. It is, I suppose (then again, with so many re-batches stories around... make of it what you will). On the opposite side of the cover (the top side?!), there is a tiny hole with a green activity led, which emits a stronger light than the other one, but still not disturbing.

To illustrate the size comparison, I've shot this:
 

Both are bootable, so no issues there. Now the speed. I could flood you with data, but the gist of it is this. The test data consisted of an ~84GB folder, with files around the 4GB mark in it and with both computers, only keyboard/mouse was plugged in, nothing else.

On my Minisforum EM780 miniPC, there are USB4 type-C ports with AltDP and PD up to 65W, as well as USB type-A 3.2 Gen2x1 10Gbps ones. The USB4 ports are not full bandwidth, Minisforum confirmed that they used the 20Gbps variant, but these ports are not compatible with the USB 3.2 Gen2x2 20Gbps protocol, so the next negotiated speed level is at 10Gbps. Yeah, technology, I must love it.. So due to the manufacturer's choice and the way the PCIe lanes are allocated to the usb hubs, in every port, both enclosures performed more or less the same. Also, I've tried a 10Gbps cable, instead of the 20Gbps it came with, but with my setup the results were the same. Another thing is that I've had to stop between tests, and unplug the drive, so it can cool down, as performance took hits when too hot. Here is a small set of data:
 

My desktop consists of a Gigabyte Aorus Elite B550 motherboard paired with Ryzen 5 5700x, and has a couple of USB type-A 3.2 Gen2x1 10Gbps ports, so I obviously used those only. Not much else to add. Here are some results:
 

As you can see, despite both desktop and miniPC using the 10Gbps bandwidth, and the miniPC being much more modern/newer, and with arguably better specs all around (at least on paper), the results are favoring the desktop, depending on the use case, by much. And yes, for each Windows, the highest power configuration was selected. 
Worth mentioning that HardwareInfo 8.10 reported bigger numbers while reading and writing, than what File Explorer and FastCopy was showing on both machines. Another interesting observation is related to the drives I've been reading from/writing to, during the tests. On the desktop pc, using the system drive, I thought would yield better results, at least for Windows 10, as the drive's PCIe lanes are going directly to the CPU, but in reality the performance was slower, and very "wavy" (with constant dips and rises), while at the same time, using the drive connected through the southbridge, was pretty much flatlining at the given speeds. I have pretty good Gen3 NVMEs on the desktop, so not sure why this was happening, and I've repeated the tests three times, with restarts in between and everything. This is true for both enclosures. And just for completeness, I've used the latest Zen kernel when on Linux.

The conclusion? Well, a bit disappointed. Other than my miniPC's poor choice of hardware engineering (resulting in lesser performance), there is the heat issue with the small enclosure, and I'm not sure what can be done about it. I've seen others complaining about that too, with the small sized enclosures in general. Given the current climate and options, I will still ask my colleague to order one for me as well, and will try to play around with the firmware settings. In the meantime, if you know why it is so damn hot, and you have a solution, please come forward, so others might fix theirs as well. Thank you.

And despite having found this, seeing in person how comparable an RTL9210 is, with much less heat, on a 10Gbps protocol, I might get another small enclosure of that flavor and will write you if that happens. Thanks everyone.

Andrew.