While gaming laptops come with most of the bells and whistles, I’ve also noticed that they can be quite limited in their storage capacity, often only coming with 1 TB. It might sound like a lot, but once you account for space taken up by the operating system and the fact that most AAA games use over 100GB before any updates, you quickly find yourself deciding on what to uninstall to make space for the next big title.

Pre-built external SSDs can help alleviate this, but the cheaper options often use slower cards, and as we saw with the launch of the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, they might not be suitable. Of course, these tend to work perfectly fine for other requirements, but even then, you want them to be reliable, particularly if you’re transporting important files.

In either situation, you’d be better off with the ASUS TUF Gaming A2 SSD Enclosure. Compact and lightweight, the ASUS TUF Gaming A2 SSD Enclosure has been engineered to meet the TUF brand’s strict durability requirements while maintaining the high-speed performance gamers often demand.

The industrial-based design and apparent high-quality materials lend themselves well to the idea that this piece of tech could survive significant punishment. Appearances can be deceiving, and lesser brands often use a similar design language to hide the use of cheaper materials, giving the illusion of durability, but ASUS and the range of TUF Gaming products have a reputation to uphold.

Doubling as a thermal pad, the aluminium chassis features an enhanced silicone-rubber exterior, not only helping to absorb and soften impacts, but also providing IP68 certification, offering resistance to dust, debris, and submersion in depths of water up to 1.5 meters for thirty minutes. It also enhances thermal protection qualities, ensuring uninterrupted performance while operating in temperatures from 0 ℃ to 40 ℃, but they didn’t stop there. Focusing on their target with more intensity than a stream sniper, ASUS put it through hell, subjecting it to 1.22-meter drop tests to reach U.S. MIL-STD-810H standards.

Offering seamless compatibility with Windows 11, macOS, a variety of mobile devices, including the ROG Ally and Ally X, and the latest generation gaming consoles, interfacing with the ASUS TUF Gaming A2 SSD Enclosure is as simple as plugging the supplied USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 Type-C cable into your chosen device. Supporting transfer rates of up to 20 Gbps, the only thing that could negatively influence overall performance is your chosen SSD.

Being that the ASUS TUF Gaming A2 SSD Enclosure is just that, an enclosure, there is no built-in capacity. You have complete control over the transfer rate and the amount of storage available, capped at 4 TB. ASUS used a Phison PS5027-E27T Gen4 SSD while testing the performance, transferring a 100 GB file in a blistering 90 seconds.

They were also kind enough to provide us with a 1TB SSD so we could start testing it right away, and while it wasn’t as quick as the Phison they used, I was still amazed by how quickly I could move files from my five-year-old desktop to the device, before dropping them onto the benchmarking PC they graciously supplied.

Understandably, some readers may have concerns over the fact that the ASUS TUF Gaming A2 SSD Enclosure doesn’t come with any storage capacity, but I see this as a good thing. First and foremost, you have complete control over the capacity and the performance, as mentioned before, but secondly, because you’re not limited to a single drive.

Installing and removing an SSD is as simple as unscrewing four bolts with the supplied Allen/hex key, lifting off the cover, and twisting the Q-Latch before installing or replacing the drive. ASUS also included a dual M.2 interface into the ASUS TUF Gaming A2 SSD Enclosure, so it can accommodate both SATA and PCIe NVMe SSDs with form factors of 2242, 2260, and 2280.

Meeting strict requirements set by the U.S. Department of Defence and achieving data transfer rates that would make even the saltiest gamer smile, the ASUS TUF Gaming A2 SSD Enclosure is the answer to the age-old question, “What am I going to uninstall for this new update, and how long is it going to take?”

Written by: Mathew Lindner