What is your best suggestion(s) for a Thunderbolt adapter for M.2 NVMe to Laptop?

• Thunderbolt
• adapter
• M.2

• MJ

  Manuel Jordan

  4/13/25, 3:32 PM

  Hello 

  Two cousins need to solve the following situation:

  Exists two laptops where each one:

  • Have M.2 NVMe with 500GB and 1TB respectively
  • Have Thunderbolt 3 and 4 respectively
  • Can not be opened to increase the SSD, they are new and is not wise lose the warranty

  About storage and being  not the case:

  • If is only need it more space to store then is enough buy a pendrive (USB Flash Drive)

  But the situation and being the problem is:

  • Is need it more space to store and use data at realtime

  For example for:

  • Rendering in architecture
  • Editions of video
  • VirtualBox .vdi files for each one with 500GB

  Therefore because is not possible:

  • Upgrade the current "M.2 NVMe"
  • Buy a new "M.2 NVMe" and put it within the laptop itself as secondary storage

  I thought the following:

   

  1. Buy a "M.2 NVMe" with a higher capacity (2TB, 4TB)

  2. Buy a Thunderbolt adapter for "M.2 NVMe" to Laptop

   

  Yes, I know the difference about data transfer between

  • "M.2 NVMe" directly to the Laptop's mobo
  • "M.2 NVMe" through the Thunderbolt adapter

  Of course the latter should be slower than the former. How slow? I don't know but because it is Thunderbolt it should be faster than USB Type A,B etc.

  Therefore you as company and according with your own products

  Question

  • What is your best suggestion(s) for a Thunderbolt adapter for M.2 NVMe to Laptop?

  I am assuming should exist as:

  • Hybrid adapter to work as either 3 or 4
  • Specific adapter to work as 3
  • Specific adapter to work as 4

  Of course, it involves the Generation and  Lanes of the "M.2 NVMe" too

  Thanks in advance

  p.d: If you have a better suggestion, pls let me know

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• S

  Sabrent Staff

  4/14/25, 4:08 PM

  @Manuel Jordan A direct M.2/PCIe connection will always be preferred, even if the maximum throughput is lower. For external use, Thunderbolt or USB4 will provide the best experience with PCIe tunneling. Thunderbolt 3 and up should be fine for this as even the lowest 22Gbps data speeds are plenty. Devices lacking TB/USB4 will fallback to USB 10Gbps though. If purchasing a drive now, a Gen 4 SSD is recommended, like our newer Rocket 4. Any of our Thunderbolt 3+ enclosures will work, we have recently put out a Thunderbolt 5 one and are continuously working on USB4 products that work with Thunderbolt 3/4.

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