Building a custom external SSD using an NVMe drive can be significantly more economical than purchasing a pre-built model, often costing only about $15 for an enclosure compared to $100 for a standard external SSD. This approach allows for upgrades in both speed and storage, which is not an option with traditional USB SSDs that lock users into their initial specifications.
Recent advancements in SSD technology have led to M.2 drives achieving transfer speeds exceeding 14GB/s with PCIe 5.0. In contrast, conventional USB SSDs, such as the Samsung T7 Shield and Crucial X10 Pro, remain limited to their original performance metrics, typically capped at USB 3.2 10Gb/s.
The decision to build a custom SSD stemmed from the need to transfer an Adobe Lightroom library for use across multiple devices. Instead of relying on the restrictive capabilities of pre-built SSDs, the individual repurposed existing hardware, enabling future upgrades without incurring high costs.