ORICO M.2 SSD Enclosure and J10 2TB SSD Review

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Usman Saleem

At HI Digital I test and write about different hardware configurations to show other PC users what they can expect from their build. My end goal is to educate the masses to make the right decision when they are looking for new PC parts to buy

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I am taking a look at the combo unit from ORICO that includes a USB Enclosure and J-10 2TB PCIe 3.0 NVMe SSD. The model of this enclosure is TXM2M-C3 and it is based on USB 3.1 Gen2 having a maximum transfer rate of 10Gbps. It is a tool-less and see-through design that looks quite appealing in person.

The SSD is J-10. It is a PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe SSD having a throughput of 3100MB/s. It has 3D NAND Flash chips and does not have a DRAM chip which makes sense this SSD is being offered with this enclosure for external communication. This SSD conforms to the 2280 form factor and has been rigorously tested at the ORICO lab for durability and reliability.

Key Takeaways

• The ORICO USB Enclosure and 2TB NVMe SSD combo offers a super speed plus data transfer rate of 10Gbps, USB-C to USB-C connectivity, and a tool-less design in a complete package.
• You should buy the ORICO USB Enclosure and 2TB NVMe SSD combo if you’re looking for a portable SSD enclosure that offers top-notch speeds.
• You should not buy the ORICO USB Enclosure and 2TB NVMe SSD combo if you just want a bare-bone SSD without the enclosure.

The specification of the enclosure includes:

The specifications of the SSD are:

Packaging And Unboxing

The product is shipped inside a standard paperboard container. There are transparent containers inside the main packaging boxes. The following is provided with the enclosure:

• 1x Enclosure
• 1x USB C Cable
• 1x Thermal Pad
• 1x Aluminum Cover
• 2x Silicon Push Pins
• 1x User manual

The following is provided with the SSD

• 1x Drive
• 1x Heatsink Assembly
• 2x Thermal Pads
• 1x User Manual

Design

Here are the main features of this combo:

• PCIe Gen 3 Speeds for SSD
• USB 3.1 Gen2 Speed for Enclosure
• Stylish Design with good build quality
• Aluminum heatsink for heat transfer
• Thermal Pads
• Tool-Less Design
• USB-C interface

Enclosure

I will start with the enclosure in this combo deal.

The dimension of this enclosure is 107x35x12mm (LxWxH). The main action has an M.2 slot with active circuitry. The enclosure is made of acrylic is a see-through design that looks quite well in person. The M.2 port side has a silver color cover with ORICO branding that gives a premium feel to this unit.

One concern for this design is heat transfer since there are no cutouts or holes to transfer heat from inside the enclosure to the outer surface. This is why this enclosure works with PCIe Gen3x4 NVMe drives as they produce less heat compared to the Gen4 drives.

Looking at the backside of the enclosure, you can see that the active circuit is on the backside of the PCB. This enclosure conforms to M.2 NGFF/NVMe drives. Despite using the acrylic material for the main housing, the overall build quality is good on this unit.

The main driving force behind this enclosure is a powerful RealTek bridging controller named RTL9210B. This controller is a USB bridge that connects or combines the USB device with the PCIe controller using the M.2 interface.

This controller supports USB 3.1 Gen2 rated for a bandwidth of 10Gbps (Super Speed Plus). It supports Bulk Only Transfer and USB Attached SCSI Protocol. The BOT functionality makes this enclosure compatible with Android OS.

During my search on the internet about this controller, I found that this controller is listed as PCIe Gen3 x2 for USB to PCIe mode. In this mode, this controller provides the PCIe host function supporting NVM Express enabling the host driver to connect with NVMe SSD.

This controller supports a Type-C connector which is why we have a USB-C to USB-C cable with this enclosure. This controller also features power saving mode using an algorithm to balance power consumption and performance.

The bundled USB C cable has a smaller length which is probably due to the consideration of using this enclosure with notebooks/laptops.

ORICO J-10 NVMe SSD

Now, it is time to take a look at the J-10 NVMe SSD.

I am looking at the 2TB NVMe SSD from OCIRO that is bundled with the enclosure at AMAZON. This SSD is available in 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB sizes. This is a DRAM-less design and utilizes host memory buffer (HMB) technology in which your PC memory will be used as a cache by this SSD.

There is a blue color sticker over the main components. It is a PCIe 3×4 protocol drive using the NVMe interface. This SSD is powered by a RealTek RTS5765DL controller. DL implies DRAMLess. This is a slow controller and supports four NAND channels over a PCIe3.0 x4 interface. However, its efficiency is better than RTS5762/RTS5763DL.

This SSD has 4x 3D NAND Flash chips each having a size of 512GB. The product code is mentioned as PF29F04T2ANCQK. However, I could not get more details about the type of NAND Flash.

There is a white color sticker over the backside of this SSD. This SSD is rated for +3.3VDC at 1.5A. There is a serial number mentioned on the sticker as well.

This is a single-sided SSD meaning all the components are located on one side of the main PCB. You would only need one thermal pad for this SSD.

ORICO has provided a heatsink assembly for this SSD as well. There is a tray on which a thermal pad is applied first and then SSD is placed over it. Then, a second thermal pad is applied on the SSD’s top and a black color aluminum heatsink is placed over this assembly.

Installation

The installation is quite simple:

• Place a thermal pad over the top of the J-10 SSD.
• Place a black color aluminum heatsink over the SSD.
• Slide out the top cover of the enclosure and lift it off.
• Plug the SSD in the M.2 port.
• Secure the SSD using a silicon push pin.
• Slide in the removed top cover of the enclosure.
• Connect the USB-C cable and you are done.

Testing

Here is the test configuration:

• AMD Ryzen 9 7950X
• GIGABYTE X670E AORUS MASTER
• Kingston Fury Renegade 32GB 6400MHz CAS32 DDR5
• ARCTIC Liquid Freezer – II 420
• Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus 2TB NVMe SSD [Data Drive]
• XPG S50 Lite 1TB NVMe SSD [OS Drive]
• ASRock Radeon RX 7600 Phantom Gaming OC 8G [For Display]
• be quiet! Straight Power 11 850W Platinum PSU
• Open-air Test Setup

We have used the following software:

• ATTO Disk Benchmark 4.0
• CrystalDiskMark 6
• Anvil Pro Storage Utilities 1.1.0
• DiskBench
• 3DMARK Storage
• PCMARK10 Storage
• Blackmagic Disk Benchmark
• Real World Performance using Disk Bench

Microsoft Windows 11 22H2 is used for the testing.

There is a blue color LED indicator on the enclosure that blinks to show that data transfer is in progress.

I am showing a run of CrystalDiskInfo above. The firmware of this drive is VC2S038E. The drive supports NVMe 1.4 over PCIe 3×4. The interface is UASP.

Please remember that SSD is tested using the ORICO Enclosure with a maximum data transfer rate of 10Gbps and I am showing the results from this testing; hence the actual performance data of the SSD is not included.

Test Results

It is time to take a look at the test result starting.

Thermals

I saw a maximum temperature of 46°C at an ambient temperature of 18°C on this drive.

Game Load Time Test

The game load time was measured using Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers Benchmark. It took 10.304 seconds to load the game which is quite well given that we are operating at 10Gbps cap.

Should You Buy It

Buy It If

✅You are looking for an SSD Enclosure: The normal USB Flash drives are limited by size. If you are looking for a better alternative then ORICO TXM2M-C3 enclosure checks all departments that you might be looking for. It is sleek and stylish and uses USB-C connectivity.

✅You want a high data transfer rate: This enclosure supports 10Gbps over USB 3.1 Gen2 protocol using a USB Type-C interface.

✅You want lots of portable storage: If you are an on-the-go user and want to carry your data including heavy media files then this combo from ORICO should be on your list as it has a 2TB NVMe drive using PCIe3x4 over NVMe interface.

Buy It If

❌You need a bare-bone SSD: If you already have an external enclosure and are looking for an NVMe SSD only then this combo is not for you. However, ORICO provides J-10 NVMe SSD separately as well.

Final Words

I have tested a combo package from ORICO that includes an M.2 SSD Enclosure and an M.2 NVMe SSD. This enclosure has a dimension of 107x35x12mm (LxWxH). It has a transparent housing that would show your assembled SSD. There is silver color housing towards the M.2 port and USB-C port. This enclosure uses a RealTek RTL9210B controller that is a USB bridge between USB 3.1 Gen2 and PCIe using NVMe over the M.2 interface.

This enclosure only supports PCIe 3.0 NVMe drives at x4 link speed. It uses UASP protocol for data transfer and is compatible with M.2 NGFF/NVMe drives. It uses USB Type-C to Type-C cable and has a blue color LED indicator for progress indication. This is a tool-free design.

ORICO has also provided J-10 NVMe SSD with this combo. This is a 2TB NVMe SSD that conforms to a 2280 form factor and uses an NVMe 1.4 interface over a PCIe 3×4 link. Yes it is a Gen 3 drive and it makes sense since the enclosure will operate at 10Gbps speed so using a Gen4 drive will not make any sense and a Gen4 drive will produce more heat output as well.

This SSD is using a RealTek RTS5765DL controller. This is a slow controller and supports four NAND channels over a PCIe3.0 x4 interface. However, it is more efficient compared to the previous generation. This SSD has 4x 3D NAND Flash chips each probably having a size of 512GB. The product code is mentioned as PF29F04T2ANCQK. However, I could not get more details about the type of NAND Flash.

ORICO has provided thermal pads and an aluminum heatsink with the SSD and the enclosure as well. This is a complete package that is retailing at USD 139.99 at the time of this writing. This combo has performed quite well in my testing and the average data transfer speed was somewhere at 147MB/s depending on the data size and type. The maximum operating temperature was 46ᵒC and it took 10 seconds to load the game.

Coming Next: ORICO M.2 NVMe USB4.0 SSD Enclosure Review

Usman Saleem

[How-To Guides Expert]

Laiba, our tech guru at HI Digital, simplifies and crafts How-To Guides with a Google IT Support Certificate. Beyond tech, she captures the city’s aesthetics through her lens. Join her journey where tech meets creativity!

Get In Touch: Laiba@hidgt.com