Vantec NexStar DX 5.25" SATA to USB 2.0 & eSATA External Optical Drive Enclosure - Model NST-530SU

Pros: Had 2 units. Worked fine for a while.

Cons: Had 2 units, one used with DVD and one with Bluray. Both used only a few times per month. Both failed in around a year.

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: * DVD burner installed in case functions when connected via USB 2.0

Cons: * could not get bezel and case to seal up flush despite several complete dis-assembly/reassembly attempts

* inserting media into the drive, while connected via eSATA, causes Win7 to freeze completely - does not make a grain of sense, but right about the time the disc info would display in 'Computer' the system hard locks.

Other Thoughts: Paid extra for the (practically only 5.25") eSATA model and I can't use it under that... DVD burner functioned without issue when used with a generic SATA-to-USB dongle, but the drive vibrated too much and kept spitting out coasters. Probably should have opted to test it earlier than 3 1/2 months after purchase, but my only eSATA port was in heavy use until recently. I have another PCI-e eSATA card I am tempted to put in to this rig to test if it's the onboard (ASUS P8Z68-V/GEN3) causing grief, but I would have to pull a USB 3.0 card

Pros: Moves air and makes a pretty blue light.

Cons: My particular situation: front panel a hinge was broken from the start, reading/writing to the end of a disc proved useless, eSATA interface did not work.

Other Thoughts: I initially had this 5 1/2 cd/dvd drive internal to my machine and it does work amazingly however when in this enclosure it is useless. I'll likely just ditch the enclosure and buy an already made external cd/dvd drive.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Customer,
We value your input about our product and will strive hard to provide our customer with good quality products. 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: Delivers what you would expect and a decent build too.

Cons: The enclosure has a small fan on the back which can get a bit loud.

Pros: good product that works like it should.

Cons: the indicator light on the front is way bigger than it needs to be. and the fan is quite loud. i cut the wire to it, problem solved.

Pros: great case with USB and eSATA support

Cons: Not compatible with MAC.

Pros: Convenient, somewhat affordable, Esata

Cons: Bulky, USB 2, newer PCs esp laptops do NOT have esata ports, ALL companies should use USB 3 esp. since it's backward compatible with USB 2!!

Other Thoughts: Missing USB 3; has internal room and slight gaps for air flow, good external exclosure saved existing BD internal burner as salvage from old PC, didn't to dispose of existing BD drive and save some money:)
Exclosure is portable but very bulky but has internal power pack.Relatively simple to build external drive and affordable.Noise level would would depend on the internal drive you buy.
It is a relatively tight fit as you slide in the internal drive but you get an inch of rear room for airflow to cool the drive, at least with my drive I owned.

Pros: I have successfully assembled and used two of these units. I used them with Liteon BlueRay burners that were short enough to leave extra space between the drive and internal electronics at the rear of the unit. I believe the majority of the case is metal and the metal is acting like a heat sink. The drives can get warm after prolonged use but I don't believe they are getting any warmer than they do in a decent computer case.

Cons: I don't know why Vantec would bother with an exhaust fan when there is no inlets except for the tiny gaps in the seams. I can see the fans are turning but I can't detect the airflow.

If you are going to use the tiny rubber feet on the sides, be careful not to knock them out of place. The rubber feet are in recesses of the plastic end caps and have some sticky stuff on one end. I was lucky to be working in a surface that made it easy to find them when I knocked out a couple during assembly.

The back plastic plate that holds on the nice aluminum shell in place didn't line up the bottom screw very well on either of the two cases I assembled. I managed to force the screw to engage with the threaded metal hole but it wasn't easy. The top screw on both was lined up well.

You need to be careful of the wire for the LED in the front plastic plate. There is little room allowed for the wires and they need to be bent carefully or else you will catch one or both when you put on the aluminum shell.

Other Thoughts: It is a little sad that this appears to be the best rated enclosure. It is close to being very good. I hope that they make a USB 3 version that eliminates the remaining nuisances.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Customer,
We value your input about our product and will strive hard to provide our customer with good quality products. 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: sturdy well built case. very easy to install drive and use.

Cons: n/a

Other Thoughts: a little pricy, but fairly good quality.

Pros: Excellent Pair with N82E16827135252 Blu-ray drive
Solid feeling by no means small.
No issues getting it all together and getting the BR drive in it
USB2 and eSATA (it was for BR drive else I would gripe for not having USB3 but it is as it says in the Ad.. ) so it fits the need which it was purchased for.

Cons: I haven't see our found any.