Vantec NexStar 3 3.5" IDE to USB 2.0 External Hard Drive Enclosure (Midnight Blue) - Model NST-360U2-BL

Pros: Mine is working as advertised. The aluminum case seems to do an adequate job of dissipating heat. I like the blue VANTEC LED/logo. I have repurposed an unused HD to do iMAC Time Machine backups. No problem with spin up/down in the iMAC energy saving mode.

Cons: As noted elsewhere, during setup be careful with both the internal and external connectors. It's all a tight fit.

Pros: Looks pretty nice.

Cons: Has built-in idiotic power management that wears drive off by spinning it down. Not to mention long wait every time the drive is accessed. Operating system is supposed take care of hardware, not enclosure! Incompatible with smartctl.

Other Thoughts: May serve as an adapter to connect PATA drives temporarily, I wanted to add a rather new 750 GB drive to a SATA only box permanently and it is no use for that.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Customer,
We try hard to provide excellent customers service. If you have questions about our products, or anything that are not functioning the way it is advertised, please feel free to write to us for assistance at support@vantecusa.com. We will try our best to support and answer your questions. Thank you for looking into our products.
Best Regards, Vantec

Pros: Inexpensive, looks good on desktop, pretty much plug&play with no trouble. Easy to install hard drive.

Cons: Build quality is not robust. LED did not work right out of box. Power connection felt as if it would break as I tried to seat power cord into unit.

Other Thoughts: The 2.0 USB connection is slow, as expected, but works OK. Pretty much hook-it up and it takes over from there. Inserting the HD into the carrier takes a bit of "thinking" -- you kind of have to dip it down under the steel ears to slide the drive into the carrier -- instructions on it are a bit unclear.

Overall, not a bad piece of equipment for the price.

Pros: - Easy to use
- inexpensive
- worked on all 3 drives I had

Cons: - Power plug hard to get in
- One hard drive was a very tight fit

Pros: So reading the reviews on here made me a bit apprehensive to purchase this product but it had the highest amount of stars and was dirt cheap so I pulled the trigger. 3 days later, thanks NewEgg, and it arrived in fine condition. I followed everything by the book and it's working right now. Not really a con but I thought I could use this doubly for SATA drives as well but it seems to only be for IDE's? My mistake I'm sure. THe blue is really quite cool looking and the front LED isn't bad. Connectivity is good (as I'm typing this on a rickety bench of sorts while this things is transferring file).

Cons: Can't really say too many bad things right now... it's still day 1. I don't intend to use this as a 24/7 drive so keep that in mind.

Like everyone else say the cables in this thing make slipping a IDE Drive kind of a pain. Putting the HD into the cradle to inset into the chasis was a tight fit. So tight in fact that I assumed that this thing was going to short but luckily it didn't.

Other Thoughts: Other than that, for the price, it's a definite buy.

Pros: Slim, small footprint. Quiet. Elegant appearance.

Cons: minor, is a little tight managing the connections and getting drive back in case, but certainly do-able for this 71 yr old retired from tech industry grandmother.

Pros: Works

Cons: Power and USB cable are super short. Power cable i also difficult to get into the case.

Other Thoughts: Does its job just fine

Pros: none

Cons: maybe mymistake should of done mors reseaech but does not fit modern high drives, description should of been more
clear

Other Thoughts: mad at my self

Pros: Works perfectly and runs quiet and cool.

Cons: None.

Other Thoughts: Bought this to test three old IDE drives I had (2 bad, 1 good) so I have only used it those three times so far. It's a nice little case that worked perfectly for what I needed.

Pros: Very sleek case. Lights up in the front for added effect.

Cons: A little tight for the power wire to fit inside case, but not a real con