We have covered a number of ways you can take advantage of the U.2 port that can be found on certain motherboard models. Now, there is yet another purpose, this one aimed at dedicated enthusiasts that have a computer with U.2 swappable bays on the front-side of the system. This is the OWC U2 ShuttleOne, and it was recently just launched by OWC, providing experienced users the ability to use NVMe (including PCIe Gen4) SSDs within such U.2 equipped bays.
Hot-swappable and no other wires needed since both data and power are being provided by the bay, it allows the users to swap between drives quickly while providing up to 8,000MBps transfer speeds dependent on the drive you place inside. The entire housing is aluminum, allowing heat to be properly dissipated from the drive inside.
These adapters are great for both professionals and hardcore gamers alike and work for both PC or Mac setups, assuming that the system supports U.2, of course. They can be found as the adapter by itself (to make use of a drive you may already have), or you can buy them with a drive pre-installed. The adapter by itself has an MSRP of $44.99, which seems reasonable. The pre-built options range from 480GB – 8TB (MSRP ranges between $149 and $1,479). All of which can be currently found on OWC’s website and eventually other retailers that carry OWC products as inventory becomes available.
