Introduction
The SilverStone MS12-40G is a compact and lightweight portable SSD enclosure that turns your M.2 NVMe internal SSD into a fast portable drive with 40 Gbps USB4 bandwidth on tap. The enclosure uses active, fan-based cooling, which is why it’s able to keep its weight below 125 g, which barely scrapes 150 g with a drive and thermal pads installed, as opposed to fanless enclosures that can be over twice its weight. The enclosure uses a modern single-chip bridge from ASMedia that doesn’t just tap into 40 Gbps upstream bandwidth, but also provides PCIe Gen 4 x4 downstream, letting your Gen 4 SSD perform a little better than Gen 3 x4. 
SilverStone’s designers have been wizards with aluminium metal works for decades. The company specializes in premium PC cases made from aluminium, as well as a growing portfolio of storage enclosures and DAS leveraging this lightweight metal. The company of course has a vast lineup of CPU coolers, so it knows a thing or two about cooling. The MS12-40G features a black anodized aluminium body that doubles up as a lightweight heatsink for your SSD and its own controller, while much of the heavy lifting is done by its 30 mm sleeve bearing fan. The enclosure also offers a LED that glows to indicate normal connectivity, and blinks to indicate activity.
The enclosure is held together by a series of hex screws. Inside, it uses a rubber standoff to hold the M.2 NVMe drive in place. The enclosure supports M.2-2280 and M.2-2242 drive sizes, although surprisingly there’s no support for M.2-2230. Capacities of up to 16 TB are supported. This isn’t SilverStone’s first rodeo with portable SSD enclosures, the company has been selling a nearly identical-looking enclosure for 20 Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 2×2, that comes with gamer RGB lighting, which the MS12-40G lacks. It very much does support older USB standards, including 20 Gbps and 10 Gbps USB 3.2, 5 Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 1, and USB 2.0. The ASMedia ASM2464PD supports a wide range of platforms, including PCs, Macs, iPads, Android tablets, and iPhones.
SilverStone is offering the MS12-40G enclosure for $88, which seems a fair price for a 40 Gbps-class enclosure, considering that we’ve seen certain fanless enclosures well above the $100-mark. In this review, we put the enclosure through its paces, powered by our Samsung 990 PRO 1 TB Gen 4 NVMe SSD, which should fully utilize the bandwidth offered by its controller.
SilverStone MS12-40G EnclosureBrand:SilverStone TechnologyModel:MS12-40GCapacity:No drive included (up to 16 TB supported)Controller:ASMedia ASM2464PDDimensions:46 mm × 21.8 mm × 106 mm (W×H×D)Empty weight:124.5 g (4.39 oz)Interface:USB4 and Thunderbolt 4, 40 GbpsInternal SSD Interface:M.2-2280 with PCI-Express 4.0 x4Warranty:One yearPrice at Time
of Review:$88