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The storage market is taking a beating lately, and with prices on the rise, plenty of people are looking for alternative solutions to help repurpose older hardware.
External SSD enclosures that fit an M.2 drive are not a new idea, but they’ve recently begun to sport Thunderbolt 5 compatibility for greatly improved performance. Without as much of a speed penalty when connecting a drive to a port on your laptop, enclosures are more useful than ever.
Cale Hunt
I have what some might consider an unhealthy obsession with docking stations, and that transfers over nicely to removable Thunderbolt 5 storage. I have a clear idea of what works and what’s best left behind.
This review was made possible with a review sample from Orico. It had no input nor saw the contents of this review prior to publication.
Where can I buy the Orico X50?
Orico’s X50 is available to buy without an internal SSD included for $189.99. It has also handed us a limited discount code — ORICOUSX50 — to use at Amazon, which knocks an additional 10% off the sale price. The code lasts until February 15.
That might seem a bit steep, but it’s in line with the competition. UGREEN’s option with active cooling costs about the same when it’s on sale, while WAVLINK’s version with a cooling fan costs about $205.
Orico also sells its X50 with an M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD already installed. Technically available in 512GB, 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB flavors, I could only see 1TB ($259.99) and 2TB ($499.99) options available at Amazon.
Is the Orico X50 a good external SSD?
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What stands out to me immediately is the Orico X50’s build quality. Its aluminum chassis wraps around the outside edges with smooth, rounded corners, extending to a removable bottom plate. This plate is ribbed — the grooves are quite deep — and is held up off a surface with four rubber feet. It’s heavy enough that it doesn’t feel cheap, but light enough to slip into your pocket.
This design, along with a full plastic mesh top panel, allows the SSD inside to keep its cool without an active solution. That means there’s no fan noise when the drive is in use. I ran a 65-minute sustained write stress test on the drive, and it remained stable and below any dangerous temperatures. The case got hot, but certainly not too hot to handle.
The only I/O on the X50 is USB-C with Thunderbolt 5; that’s really all you need for this type of accessory. Thunderbolt 5’s abilities top out at about the PCIe 4.0 level, and Orico says you can expect up to 6,000MB/s read and 5,800MB/s write performance from its enclosure. Sure, you can pop a PCIe 5.0 drive in there, but its boosted speeds will mostly go to waste.
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Plugged into a laptop via its Thunderbolt 5 port, I tested the Orico X50 with an SK hynix Platinum P41 M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD for a 6,191.67 MB/s sequential read speed and 5,546.99 MB/s write speed. The write result is a bit below Orico’s advertising, but read performance is better than claimed.
Compare that with prior testing I performed on the drive connected to an Intel B560 motherboard, and there’s a difference of less than 1,000MB/s on the read side and just more than 1,000MB/s on the write side. Not bad at all, and I’m always impressed at what Thunderbolt 5 can do. I left the drive plugged in for days at a time and never had any unexpected disconnects.
I was also curious to check out how the Orico X50 performs with a Thunderbolt 4 laptop. I pulled all my results into one table below.
| Row 0 – Cell 0 |
Sequential Read (MB/s) |
Sequential Write (MB/s) |
|
SK hynix Platinum P41 (Intel B560 motherboard) |
7,149.03 |
6,789.53 |
|
SK hynix Platinum P41 (Orico X50 – Thunderbolt 5) |
6,191.67 |
5,546.99 |
|
SK hynix Platinum P41 (Orico X50 – Thunderbolt 4) |
3,881.91 |
3,214.01 |
Does the Orico X50 external SSD have any issues?
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Considering the Orico X50 worked flawlessly in real-world use, I don’t have much to say here. Heavier use than I put it through might cause some unforeseen thermal issues. If you’re particularly hard on your storage, something with a built-in fan might make more sense.
The screw holding the bottom panel in place is a nice addition — no risk of the enclosure popping open should you drop it — but getting the bottom panel off once you’ve installed an SSD and a thermal pad is a pain. The panel sticks to the thermal pad, and there’s really nothing to get ahold of to pry it free. I scratched up the aluminum on my unit for my efforts.
Although the enclosure does work when connected directly to a Thunderbolt 4 port on a laptop, it won’t work if you’re connecting it through a docking station attached to a Thunderbolt 4 port. It doesn’t matter if the dock supports Thunderbolt 5.
And finally, the X50 only supports M.2 2280 drives. Anything smaller simply won’t work.
Should you buy the Orico X50?
✅ You should buy it if …
- You want to make use of an extra M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD.
- You want a compact SSD enclosure that feels like it can take a beating.
- You have a laptop with Thunderbolt 5 connectivity.
❌ You should not buy it if …
- You have anything other than an M.2 2280 drive lying around.
- You don’t have a Thunderbolt 5 laptop and don’t plan to upgrade any time soon.
Orico’s X50 Thunderbolt 5 SSD enclosure worked as expected during the testing period. Connection remained stable, performance was as advertised, and it’s built well.
The bottom panel is a pain to remove once you have an SSD installed, and it only supports M.2 drives of the 2280 size, but those issues are not dealbreakers. If you’re hoping to repurpose an old drive for use with a Thunderbolt 5 laptop, this is a good way to go.
Orico
X50
Orico’s X50 Thunderbolt 5 SSD enclosure is well-built and durable, easy to use (just plug it into your PC), and isn’t overpriced. It offers fast read and write speeds, and it’s available with or without included storage. Just make sure you’re using an M.2 2280 drive and that your workflow doesn’t require active SSD cooling.
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