SilverStone TS231U-C Dual-Bay USB-C RAID Enclosure Review

2.5-Inch Drive Installation Attempt

My first attempt to install 2.5-inch SSDs into the SilverStone TS231U-C wasn’t a success. I dug out some old 2.5-inch to 3.5-inch adapters that had come packed with some drives over the years. It looked promising, but the ports wouldn’t align with the units connectors. So that was a bust, but it takes more to make me give up on an idea I got into my head.

So, I kept digging through by cupboards and boxes with hardware and found something else that could be used. In the past, I have reviewed the SilverStone MS08 and the Enermax EMK3203 devices. Both are hardware RAID units that utilise two 2.5-inch drives in a standard 3.5-inch form factor.

Since these units are built to be compatible with 3.5-inch drive bays, they’ll work. I configured both units to a no-RAID mode and installed a single SSD in each of them. That worked like a charm and the two drive adapters slid right into the unit.

So yea, it is possible to install 2.5-inch drives into the SilverStone TS231U-C, despite it not being built for it. It does require extra adapters and hardware, so it might be cheaper to find a unit that has native support for it. That said, it is possible and I will be able to hit the maximum performance of this DAS.