VisionTek mSATA Mini USB 3.0 SSD Enclosure Review

Final Thoughts on the VisionTek mSATA Mini Enclosure

The VisionTek mSATA mini Enclosure is a fairly simple product that takes a mSATA drive that is about to be antiquated and gives it a chance to give you years of additional service as a super fast portable USB 3.0 drive. We absolutely love products that re-purpose something and this is certainly one of those! It is also great to have for cloning your existing mSATA SSD to a new one. Some mSATA enclosures that we have seen over the years become pretty hot and while this one does get pretty warm. The mSATA SSD you use though will play a role on how how this enclosure gets. For example a number of mSATA adapters have warnings that say not to use Toshiba branded mSATA SSDs inside due to overheating issues.

The VisionTek mSATA mini Enclosure comes with everything you need to get going and it took just a couple minutes to pop in the mSATA and get this drive running on your PC. We tried it on Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 systems without any issues. We’ll have to take VisionTeks’ word that it will work on all Windows XP and higher PCs, Macs running OS X 10.4 and higher, and Linux systems, granted they have a functional USB port.

When it comes to pricing the VisionTek mSATA mini Enclosure costs $29.99 plus shipping and is backed by a three-year warranty. The MSRP is $29.99 as well, so in the months ahead after this product has been on the market for a bit we expect to see the price come down under $25. This is typical of any new product, but there are a number competing products in this market that cost less. For example there is the ZTC Sky Board mSATA to USB3.0 SSD Enclosure Adapter Case (Model ZTC-EN002) that runs $16.99 shipped and the MyDigitalSSD Bullet Proof USB 3.0 mSATA SSD Enclosure Adapter (Model MDMS-BP-USB3) that runs $24.99 shipped that came out in January 2013 and appears to be identical down to the housing and the ASMedia controller being used. For VisionTek to be competitive they will have to bring the price down.

We most certainly recommend getting a mSATA adapter if you think you need one as it is handy and inexpensive.

Legit Bottom Line: The VisionTek mSATA mini Enclosure is pretty cool in the sense that it takes an mSATA SSD and turns it into a portable USB 3.0 drive for under $30, but it does get warm when used.