I've been buying these when they dip below $130 and parking them in these for super fast cached action. I don't use them for Channels but I bet they'd out-perform a thumb drive.
Long story short: Crucial 2TB SSDs with cache with a Sabrent SATA to USB enclosure. I use them here and there as portables then they eventually get installed on one of my 2 rigs when I need more space.
I stopped using Crucial ssds. Had too many early failures over the last 10yr or so. And when I worked in a tech shop most of the failed ssds were Crucial or Sandisk. Never had a single Samsung ssd fail on me.