Unboxing a Transparent 2.5-Inch HDD Enclosure: Finding a Nice Home for an Old SSD from My Student Days

Preface

Hello everyone, I'm Xiyuan.

This time I'm bringing you a very "practical but inexpensive" unboxing: a transparent 2.5-inch HDD enclosure.

My old SSD has been gathering dust, so I figured I'd find it a new home and, while I'm at it, check how it's holding up after all these years.

The HDD enclosure in this article costs ¥16.50

Packaging

Shot at night, the fill lighting isn't great—just make do with it.

Back

Unboxing

This packaging box is pretty crude, but at this price, what more could you ask for

Accessories

The accessories are a manual and a data cable, that's it

(The keyboard in the background is the RK-S75 Keyboard I introduced before—a familiar face 😄)

The Unit

The enclosure is made of transparent plastic. I specifically bought this model

so you can see the drive installed inside. It somehow feels like it's got a bit of a digital vibe.

There's a protective film on the shell to prevent the plastic from getting scratched. Looks like this thing scratches pretty easily 🌚

Standing it up

Removing the Protective Film

It still looks pretty good after removing the protective film

Let's see it standing up

Installing the Drive

Next, time to install the drive

The Drive Makes Its Appearance

The drive I chose this time is the "Maxsun 240G SATA SSD" I bought in college

PS: Seems to be the infamous "Beggars' Sect Leader" 🤣

Back

Opening It Up

I have to complain about how you open this enclosure. It's similar to a sliding-cover design

It's so damn hard! I studied it for ages and only pried it open with brute force working a miracle

Once opened, it splits into two halves

After Installation

This is how it looks after installing the drive. The sense of unity is still pretty good

Drive Info

Let's take a look at this SATA SSD's info

Power-on time: 6743 hours! That's equivalent to 280 days. Used on and off until now, that's about 6–7 years. It's no exaggeration to say it's even more durable than a mechanical hard drive 🤣

Speed Test

This speed can't compare with today's NVMe SSDs, but back in those days when most people were still on mechanical hard drives, the improvement was huge!

After switching to an SSD, the computer's boot time and everyday operations were so fast they took off~ Even today it's not outdated

Comparison

Let's compare it with another SSK enclosure I had before

This one is all-metal and quite heavy. Of course the metal texture feels a bit nicer too

The middle part is plastic

The thing about this SSK enclosure is that disassembly is rather troublesome—you have to unscrew it

Wrap-up

The transparent HDD enclosure's advantages are obvious:

• Cheap
• Looks good
• Quick to install and remove
• You can see the internal structure (spiritual satisfaction for digital enthusiasts)

The downsides are also right there:

• The shell scratches easily
• The way you open the cover is a bit anti-human
• The plastic feel is average

But overall, for bringing an old SSD back to life, using it as an external drive or a backup disk, this price fully lives up to the performance.