ICY DOCK products are usually geared towards enterprise, industrial, and medical environments. Thus, from a home-user perspective, most of us would already consider the choice of interface a dealbreaker as we most likely don't have any use for U.2 connectivity in our daily lives.

However, if you are working in any of the high-impact fields in the industrial, governmental, or medical segments, cost becomes secondary. You will want the device to work and do so reliably, which puts far less weight on noise or cost. I mention noise as the Intel Optane SSD 905P is a beautiful example of the thermal properties enterprise drives exhibit, which is why you cool these type of components actively inside the server rack at the heart of your infrastructure. That cooling most likely is not geared towards noise but meant to push enough air to keep things cool. As we have seen in our tests, the massive 1.5 TB Intel Optane SSD 905P is toasty even with the massive heatsink, so any real-world environment employing these drives needs some serious airflow pushed through the chassis and, thus, the ToughArmor MB601VK-1B as well. That said, slightly larger ventilation holes in the top of the enclosure would also be beneficial.

On the other hand, if you have a scenario where you need quick and portable accessibility to your data, cost doesn't matter as much as long as your investment increases chances of being able to keep or secure your data. The ToughArmor MB601VK-1B is built to last. It is made out of metal, so it can withstand far more than a plastic offering, but for us humble end-consumers, there is no reason to grab the ToughArmor MB 601VK-1B—it would be overkill in every sense.

As an example, this unit is for those in charge of the IT in a hospital, when, however unlikely, an earthquake has struck the building and there are fires everywhere, the server farm with patient records in the basement is in shambles and you are frantically popping trays and pulling drives; where anything goes to give you even the slightest of better odds. Thus, if I had a friend who might end up in such a situation, I would end up recommending this unit.