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Cable Matters “foldable” USB4 SSD enclosure Teardown & Review
Introduction
I have admired Cable Matters’ product selection on Amazon for years and have purchased a few USB hubs on behalf of friends/family, but never actually bought one for myself. So when Jeff Jiang from Cable Matters reached out to me in January and offered to send an evaluation unit of their new “foldable” USB4 enclosure, I got a little excited. Although I have many SSD enclosures, I was intrigued by the “foldable” form-factor with a cable that tucks away inside.
Full disclosure: While this is not a sponsored post, the product(s) reviewed were provided at no cost for evaluation purposes. Products received in this capacity are destined for teardowns, future device interoperability testing, and/or charitable donations.
Feature summary
Anodized aluminum chassis
Based on AsMedia ASM2464PD USB4 controller
Active cooling fan
Up to 3800MB/s read and 3600MB/s write
Integrated 20cm USB4 40Gb/s cable
Tool-free M.2 installation supporting 2230, 2242, 2260, and 2280 SSD sizes
Dual color LED indicator (blue = USB4/thunderbolt | green = USB 3.x)
Physical characteristics and unboxing
The enclosure is shipped in an unremarkable thin cardboard box with the product manual and an extra rubber m.2 stopper. Overall dimensions are 114mm x 68mm x 23mm which is a little larger than many other USB4 enclosures. Weight is ~187 grams without an SSD and ~193g with an SSD installed – similar to many other enclosures.
Testing
Usability
The usability of the enclosure is excellent. With a flick of the latch, the lid pops open with some upward pressure provided by an internal mechanism. Installing an m.2 SSD is simple with a rubber SSD retention stopper. It’s a truly a tool-less experience since the rubber stopper can be bent out of the way and then pulled back to secure the SSD. Cable Matters thoughtfully provides a spare stopper in case the original is damaged or lost. Some care needs to be taken to properly align the SSD in the m.2 slot as the stopper has some flexibility and if the SSD is askew, it just won’t work. But once you have it in the correct spot, it should stay put. The integrated USB4 cable is 20cm (8 inches) long and coils up inside the chassis neatly. This length is perfect for me as it allows positioning the enclosure away from my mouse when typing on a laptop but isn’t so long as to get in the way of other items I might have on my desk.
The only odd aspect to the product is that when you open the lid to retrieve the USB-C cable, the thermal pad stays attached to the lid – so you’re actually pulling the thermal pad off the SSD each time. I did this a few dozen times and haven’t noticed any issues aside from the pad collecting a bit of dust, but I imagine that the pad won’t last forever and might need to be replaced after a year or two.
Performance
For testing, I used a brand new 1TB Kingston SNV2S/1000G rev2 m.2 SSD (based on the TenaFe TC2200 controller and two NAND chips by either Intel or YMTC – I couldn’t tell by the markings). This is a budget 1TB SSD that happens to perform better-than-advertised when used with certain USB4-equipped laptops. During testing, I noticed the enclosure getting warm, but not hot. I could hear the tiny cooling fan spin up after starting a stress test, but its noise level was low and the timbre of the sound was not obnoxious.
My Surface Laptop Studio 2 with Intel 13th gen CPU achieved just under 3800MB/s read and just under 2700MB/s write which is good and similar to other ASM2464PD-based enclosures with this class of SSD and recent firmware.
On an older Surface Laptop Studio based on an Intel 11th generation CPU, read speeds were limited to ~3200MB/s due to the nature of the older Thunderbolt controller.
I did not test USB 5Gb/s, 10Gb/s, or 20Gb/s.
Power consumption
Power consumption will vary depending on the specific m.2 SSD and the usage pattern. But below are the results I got while running CrystalDiskMark stress with a Power-Z tester. Based on these results of up to 6.9W, I expect this enclosure to run OK on USB-C ports providing 7.5W with 1TB or 2TB SSDs. But high-performance 4TB and 8TB SSDs might need the additional headroom of a 15W port to run reliably long-term. Luckily, all laptops shipping with USB4, Thunderbolt 4, or Thunderbolt 5 provide 15W by default. But Some USB4 dock stations only provide 7.5W, so do check the fine-print.
Thermals
To-do: add thermal images from stress-testing run.
Teardown
After opening the lid, the chassis comes apart by loosening 4 Philips (+) #0 screws. This frees a black plastic mid-frame that houses the PCB and a plastic cable strain-relief clip. A 3-pin fan cable must be disconnected to provide access to the strain-relief area. Then a single Philips #0 screw can be loosened to remove the strain-relief clip. One more Philips #0 screw holds the PCB to the plastic mid-frame. Once the mid-frame is removed, a 30mm x 5mm blower style fan is revealed which is fastened with 2 Philips #0 screws. So a total of 8 screws.
Analysis
The mechanical design is elegant with good use of aluminum to provide weight/heat-sinking capabilities and plastic to provide a simple structure to mount everything. The 30mm blower-style fan is a good choice and draws sufficient airflow in its location and orientation while minimizing noise. The lid is held securely with a latch. When opening the lid, a captured ball bearing with a spring underneath provides upward pressure from the plastic mid-frame. Upward pressure is needed to overcome the stickiness of the lid-mounted thermal pad and keep the latch open and the lid ajar. This attention-to-detail is immensely helpful to folks with disabilities as it can be quite frustrating to open a latch only to have it immediately re-close. Great job CM! The edges of the aluminum are a little sharp and if the enclosure is dropped on a wood floor, it might leave a mark.
The PCB is sparsely populated with power delivery components on the top and the ASM2464PD chip on the bottom. Most of the PCB is covered with a ground plane – this extra copper is good for heat-sinking. On the bottom, a thin thermal pad connects the ground plane to the aluminum chassis – good attention to detail here. The ASM2464PD chip has its own thin thermal pad also connecting to the chassis next to the cooling fan – the best possible placement really.
The top of the PCB has a ~2.75mm thermal pad adjacent to the m.2 slot. This pad serves as an SSD-positioner as much as a heat-sink. If you try to install a double-sided 8TB SSD, it might not fit and this pad may need to be removed or replaced with something thinner.
The integrated USB4 cable is soldered to its own tiny PCB, and then that PCB is soldered to the main PCB. This provides flexibility in the manufacturing process where one vendor can build the cable assemblies while another builds the main PCB. It also provides for a reasonable method to repair a unit that has a broken cable. A better approach would have been to have a USB-C receptacle mounted on the main PCB and use a regular USB-C cable while still having the cable secured by the strain relief clip. This is the method HP uses on many of their docking stations. With this approach, cables could be replaced in-the-field, but this might mean added cost for manufacturing and additional certification hassles. I suspect the PCB design accommodates for this possibility, so a future revision of the product could come with a replaceable cable.
I’m not sure why Cable Matters chose the word “foldable” to describe the enclosure. There is a hinged lid and the cable coils inside, but nothing actually folds. I guess with so many folding mobile phones available these days, that word is sure to get some attention.
Firmware
The SSD shipped with firmware from September 2024 (v240913_85_2b_01) just one version older than the latest available on the station-drivers forum. Using the ASM246x MPTool, I read the original config data and wrote updated firmware (v241129_85_00_00) without changing any config parameters. The updated firmware did not change the performance characteristics. Cable Matters did not take the step of customizing description strings and instead opted for the default values from AsMedia. This is probably a cost-saving measure.
Conclusion
Overall, I like this new enclosure. Cable Matters has paid attention to details that other vendors ignore such as strategic thermal pad placement and a spring-loaded mechanism to help pop the lid open. The key benefits are:
Good thermals
Good performance
Quiet fan
Cannot lose the cable
Ease-of-use
Compared to other enclosures, there are some drawbacks:
Cable cannot be easily replaced
Larger size/weight
Higher list price
The enclosure is not for everyone – many customers are simply not interested in USB-C products without easily replaceable cables. How much might it cost to repair a cable after the 1-year warranty period expires? Also, the fact that the SSD is exposed each time you open the lid to retrieve the cable may be off-putting to some folks, especially as the thermal pad can collect dust over time. I think the hinged lid approach is a reasonable engineering tradeoff between having the SSD secured vs having the cable secured and easy to retrieve.
Even with the notable drawbacks, I cannot argue with the ease-of-use features and performance. At its $90 USD list price, it is in a “premium” brand category. There are several budget brands with enclosures in the $60-80 range yielding similar performance including one by Wavlink, but these don’t have the same elegance and ease-of-use. The Cable Matters unit is currently discounted to $72 USD which makes it quite compelling. So if you don’t mind the permanently attached cable or larger size, I really have no problems recommending it at this price. At the $90 price price-point you have to consider a little more carefully if the added features are worth the additional cost.
I do think Cable Matters should take advantage of the existing PCB layout and solder a USB-C receptacle and use a regular USB-C cable that can be fully captured inside. Then they can advertise that the cable can be tucked inside and easily replaced. Best of both worlds and a much broader potential customer base.
[When searching for an SSD enclosure, marketing info can be confusing and contradictory, so consider consulting my article listing various equivalent enclosures and the underlying chips that determine their speeds.]
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