Pros: I wanted an alternative to an eSATA docking port because the eSATA interface doesn't recognize drive change unless you reboot or go to the device manager and tell it to scan for changes in hardware. I've also had several drives that had file system corruption when they are unplugged without shutting the system down. The problem persists after turning off write caching for the drive. This adapter does seem to have some issues with recognizing a drive when one drive is disconnected from the adapter and another connected without restarting the computer or without unplugging the USB cable. Sometimes it recognizes the new drive quickly. Sometimes it takes about a minute and sometimes it won't recognize the new drive at all (at 10 minutes, the drive wasn't recognized, it may have been recognized if I would have waited longer). This was the same on Windows 7 Ultimate and Home Premium. If you use the 'safely remove hardware and eject media' option in Windows before disconnecting a drive, it appears to have more trouble recognizing the new drive. It seems to work best when you unplug the USB cable from the computer, swap the drives and then plug the USB cable back into the computer. There are two LEDs. The Green is lit when there is USB 3.0 connectivity. The red LED is illuminated whenever it's plugged into a USB port. The red LED blinks when there is activity (with either a 2.0 or 3.0 connection). The green LED never blinks. Drive: Crucial M4-CT064 M4SSD2 USB 2.0: sequential read and write 40MB/s and 40MB/s USB 3.0: sequential read and write 206MB/s and 110MB/s Drive: Western Digital WD5003ABYX USB 2.0: sequential read and write 30MB/s and 29MB/s USB 3.0: sequential read and write 133MB/s and 131MB/s For comparison, the following numbers are with the drives in a Thermaltake eSATA docking bay. Drive: Crucial M4-CT064 M4SSD2 eSATA: sequential read and write 244MB/s and 64MB/s Drive: Western Digital WD5003ABYX eSATA: sequential read and write 254MB/s and 70MB/s

Cons: Doesn't recognize drives as easily/quickly as I had hoped.

Pros: Fast when they work.

Cons: 1 of 3 DOA (CT120M500SSD1). Getting the replacement was painless other than having to pay return shipping. Crucial's tech support was very responsive.

Overall Review: I've used Crucial's SSDs from the C300 to the M4 and now to the M500 series and this was the first time I've had a failure. All others are still in service.

Pros: See other thoughts

Cons: See other thoughts

Overall Review: The 'Single Package Included:' contents is misleading. It states that you'll receive one of each of the items. There is an inner tray that has the items in the list but that tray is in a larger box that contains the items in the photo. The shipping is supposed to be from Hong Kong. I used the $9.95 shipping and received it in 2 days. It was in stock in California via USPS priority mail. The siren is difficult to plug in fully and if it's not fully plugged it it will not work. The siren is very loud when you're close to it. If you're testing and are near the siren, cover it completely with your hand and only uncover it slowly after the siren begins to sound off if you want to know how loud it is.

Pros: Convenient, easily worth the price. This is the third Thermaltake docking station I've purchased and the first one I've had trouble with. The others still work like new.

Cons: Blue power LED worked for a few minutes, intermittently. Now it never works. The docking station works well otherwise. It's not worth the cost of shipping to return it.

Overall Review: Hot swapping works well on USB. With an eSATA connection, the computer doesn't readily detect drive changes. Even going through the device manager to detect hardware changes, it won't always detect the new drive. This problem occurs on both Win7 and XP. Using a PCI eSATA card (rosewill rc-210), the drive swap will be readily detected if the docking station is switched off, the drive swapped and then the docking station switched back on. These problems are probably not the fault of the Thermaltake docking station. Maybe these notes will help others.

Pros: Plenty of room and thicker metal than some of the budget cases I've purchased. This case was double-boxed and was not bent in any way. The fan included with the case is very quiet. There are very few sharp edges. Most are rolled or folded.

Cons: One of the doors for the optical drives was rattling around inside the case. As hard as it was to reattach it, this had to be done when it was being boxed up at the manufacturer. It was too well protected in the packaging to have been done in transit. The audio cable had to be re-routed (couldn't go through the intended slot with the other cables) to reach the rear of the motherboard but that's an absolutely minor issue.

Overall Review: The top two drive bays with the flip-down doors won't work with the Plextor drive I have because the drawer is the entire width of the drive. I had to use a lower bay, which isn't a problem but the plastic knock-out panel was wider than the drive. This left a 1/4" wide gap on each side of the drive. It's not a problem for me but it may be for others.

Pros: Inexpensive

Cons: None, with the card itself.

Overall Review: This card was initially very disappointing. The integrated graphics adapters on two other motherboards initially outperformed this card. After installing the latest drivers, it performs as expected (far better than the integrated graphics adapters).