Cooler Master Oracle Air NVME M.2 SSD Enclosure Review

A Closer Look

Taking the Oracle Air out of the box, it’s by far one of the coolest external drives I’ve ever seen. It looks like some kind of futuristic aluminium-forged harmonica, and I absolutely love that about it. It’s pretty big too, not so big that I couldn’t put it in my pocket, but big enough that I’m confident it’ll deliver some serious heat dissipation and protection for my NVMe of choice.

It’s actually a multi-part construction too, with the outer exoskeleton being mostly aesthetic and removable. It’s also going to allow for a lot of customisation, keeping in line with the “make it yours” philosophy that Cooler Master has been building on for many years now.

Not that it doesn’t look great as it is. But Cooler Master will make 3D model templates available so you can make your own external shells for the internal drive mount, which I think is really awesome.

Should something happen to any part of this though, Cooler Master was eager to point out that spare parts would be made available on their online store. Not only that, but this is just the first part of their new Oracle ecosystem of products, so expect all kinds of stuff to hit the market to support this range.

What’s really cool is that while this is the USB Type-C, they’re already working on a beta test of USB4 units, so it’s clear they’re taking this thing pretty seriously.

It’s a durable bit of kit though, and it has a weight of quality about it that isn’t going to be a burden to carry around, but heavy enough to give you confidence in its abilities to protect and cool your drive.

On one end there’s MOLLE compatible clip, the same standard used in the military to attach things to other things. Cooler Master even added a sort of gun magazine reload release clip to open this up too. They say it was to create a sort of “fidget-toy” experience, and well, it kinda works.

It’s a very satisfying thing to handle, the button has a nice action, and it does slide back in with a pleasing click and lock.

On the other side, it’s a Type-C header, and a good-quality cable is included. However, being Type-C, you can use your own aftermarket cables too, they’re easily replaced these days.

Slide the exoskeleton off, and you’ll find a very robust chunk of aluminium with deep fins to provide a huge surface area for heat dissipation.

This opens out, revealing the NVME M.2 SSD mount, which comes with support for 2230, 2242, 2260, and 2280-sized drives. It’s fully compatible with PCIe 3 and 4 drives, but of course, limited to the bandwidth of the Type-C connector you’re using, but they do use the very good quality JMS583 bridge, which gives the Oracle Air impressive support overall.

The little orange bit is a tool-free lock for the drive, so no need for those tiny screws. Plus, there’s a spare one should you lose it. There’s also an extra thermal pad included too, should you ever feel the need to replace it.

The included USB Type-C cable is super chunky but still surprisingly flexible, so it should withstand quite a lot of punishment throughout its life.

Pop the drive in the bay, easy enough.

Slap on the thermal pad, simple again.

Close it up.

Slide it into the outer casing, and bam, you’re good to go.