VANTEC NST-225MX-S3 Aluminum / Plastic 2.5" Black Dual 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s to USB 3.0 HDD/SSD RAID Enclosure

Pros: 4x configuration lots of Raid options Fan can be controlled!

Cons: The 80mm fan is not the best as far as noise on full blast its louder then my 120 and 140mm fans (idle) in my case that are load driven

Overall Review: So, had this unit for a while in RAID 10, with old but proven drives. The drivers are few old ones that I was not using anymore for a few years, and had about 5 of them, so this was perfect to create RAID10 and have good portable backup system (bought about 1 year ago) Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS 320GB 7200 16MB cache Esata was maxed at 100MB/s I believe, which USB3.0 gave better results as you can see, my results are due to old drives but still good strange how my writes are better, which is perfect since most time I am backing up and writing stuff. The design is not optimal for flow. Top bottom air setup is not good for drives that are right in the path of the flow, if the drives were sideways then maybe it would work fine top bottom, but not sure if life of HD's is less if they are designed to be in used in flat setup. Desktop towers have best flow design from the front intake fans. They could have went with a left right approach, possibly dual low profile 80mm one on top one on bottom creating a flow of left to right (horizontal one) and having vents on opposite side along on top The air would at least go through and between the drives extracting the heat. Big plus is the info at the software side especially the advanced settings. For this price I would give this unit 3.5-3.9 out of 5 Crystal DiskMark results of 10 Raid: 4x Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS 320GB 7200 16MB cache ----------------------------------------------------------------------- CrystalDiskMark 3.0.2 x64 (C) 2007-2012 hiyohiyo Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- * MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s] Sequential Read : 93.265 MB/s Sequential Write : 131.252 MB/s Random Read 512KB : 43.628 MB/s Random Write 512KB : 31.146 MB/s Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 0.530 MB/s [ 129.5 IOPS] Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 0.812 MB/s [ 198.3 IOPS] Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 0.564 MB/s [ 137.7 IOPS] Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 0.892 MB/s [ 217.7 IOPS]

Pros: Runs individual drives or Raid, Hot swappable drives, shuts down drives when computer shuts down and 90 sec later cooling fan shuts down, USB 3.0 works flawlessly. Nice modern design looks clean, not industrial like so many other drive bays, Giving a 4 only because first unit not completely functional. Just bad luck I guess.

Cons: First one I got wouldn't recognize drives on pc power up without power cycling the drive bay. Called Vantec Tech Support and they were quick to trouble-shoot problem was with their drive bay. Got replacement from Newegg and everything is working great

Overall Review: I'm using it with a Dell XPS 17 L702x Win7 laptop and Plex Media Server Freeware as a media server loaded with 4x2TB WD2002faex drives . In this configuration using usb 3.0 I can feed hd video wirelessly to 3 DLNA compatable tv's without stutter

Pros: Runs Cool, Very Fast USB 3.0 Speeds, Works Great

Cons: Involved Set Up, Instruction Manual Is Wrong and Not Very Helpful

Overall Review: I bought this enclosure and set it up with 2 x Western Digital SE WD2000F9YZ 2TB Hard Drives in a RAID0. I use it exclusively to back up my home server. The setup of this enclosure was very cumbersome. The included instructions said to press the reset button for 10-15 seconds, which is wrong. I downloaded the set up manual it says to press the reset button for only 5-7 seconds, which is correct. This would have saved me a lot of time setting it up of sealing the enclosure and finding out it my computer is still seeing 2 separate drives and having to reopen it to press the reset button again - had to do this about 3 times. I recommend when setting up this enclosure connecting it to your computer with the USB cable and have Disk Management open before sealing it. When you press the reset button you will see the enclosure disappear when you have pressed it long enough and reappear with your correct settings, in my case 1 drive in a RAID0. I installed a USB 3.0 PCI-Express card in my home server to connect the NexStarMX and the speeds are incredible. I was using a USB 2.0 NexStar3 with a 2 TB drive and using Backup Exec the backup was running at 1,800 MB/min and taking 7.5+ hours to back up over 800 GB of data. With the NexStarMX connected using USB3.0, the same back up runs at over 6,000 MB/min and completes in a little over 2 hours. A huge improvement and I am very satisfied with the results of this upgrade. One of the other reasons I purchased the NexStarMX is my NexStar3 would run very, very hot. However the NexStarMX with its rear exhaust fan runs very cool. It is barely even warm to the touch and feels like its running at room temperature. I would definitely recommend the NexStarMX and give it 5 eggs for it speed and performance.

Pros: I got the VANTEC NexStar external hard drive enclosure so that I could utilize several of it's features. I needed to get away from Intel's substandard on-board HDD controller, as implemented on my ASRock P67 Extreme4 Gen3 mobo. I normally dual-boot Windows and Ubuntu on a RAID 5 array, and it was a pain to get it working. I needed to retake control of my computer. Enter VANTEC NexStar HX4R. I fitted the external hard drive enclosure with 4 WD VelociRaptor 250GB HDDs. Here's what I noted: 1) It was extraordinarily easy to install the hdds, just follow the pictures. Yeah, pictures. 2) It has a built-in HARDWARE SATA RAID CONTROLLER!! Yay! It's a JMicron SATA RAID controller. 3) It was crazy easy to configure the RAID, just follow the pictures to set the switches on the side of the enclosure. I caution you to read the instructions too. There are special "FIRST TIME BOOTING" procedures you got to follow. It's so that the RAID controller can build the RAID. After that, it's easy. 4) Linux AND Win7 installed without any issues (except for that UEFI thing you have to deal with between Linux and Windows - But once you get the UEFI thing straightened out, it works really great). 5) I've been running my PC 24/7 for the last three months, only rebooting after Windows Updates or to switch between Ubuntu and Windows. Otherwise, my machine is running 24/7 - not on power save mode, except for the monitor shutting off after a minute of inactivity. There have been absolutely NO ISSUES. 6) My 4 WD VelociRaptors are turning 10K RPM, and the cooling system this enclosure uses keeps them cool. The airflow is pretty good, entering from the bottom and exiting through the top of this black-finished, brushed aluminum case. Yes, aluminum. The 80mm fan is pretty quiet. AND My Raptors are QUIETER, in this enclosure, than the ones in the PC case - MUCH QUIETER. 7) The green LED power indicator light is a refreshing change from the normal red LED power indicator, and the blue LED HDD indicator are also nice to look at. The hdd enclosure is nice to look at and does not take up a lot of space. 8) It came with optional USB 3 and eSATA interface connections. I opted to use the eSATA connection. The on-board hardware RAID is SATA III capable, and backwards compatible with SATA II, and I. 9) It comes with its own power supply. It automatically shuts off and turns on when I shut down or boot my machine. 10) The price is SO darned right! Plus, it looks and feels like a solid piece of hardware! I can't think of anything else to say....

Cons: There are none for the hardware. However... I had an issue with missing screws which are needed for assembly. I emailed VANTEC customer support - twice. They never replied to my emails. The screws used are not the normal machine screws used in computers. These are countersunk screws. I was unable to assemble it for a long time because of it. Newegg dropped the ball, too. I emailed Newegg customer support. Their response? The picture (product images shown on the product page) does not show screws. Therefore, you don't need them. (Reader's Digest version. The email response was polite.) I'm thinking... 'Open up a box and look inside?' I ended up going to Grainger and buying the screws there. I didn't RMA it, because it was after the 30 day period. I didn't open the box until way later, after I got the hdds, more than a month later. Next time, I'll open boxes and inspect right away before my RMA period expires.

Overall Review: Aside from the missing screws, and the substandard customer support. I really, really like this product. I'm really glad I got it. I'm thinking of getting a second one, purely for file storage. If anyone else comes across the missing screws issue... It is a 6-32 .25" COUNTERSUNK screw. You need eight of them, two for each hdd tray.

Pros: Fast data transfer Solid-feeling metal case Both USB 3.0 and eSATA connections Easy to install the drives

Cons: Had a little trouble setting the drives up in a concatenation system, but a quick email to customer support solved that Fan could be a little quieter, but I don't have the enclosure powered on too much so it's not a big deal

Overall Review: I'm using this enclosure to hold two 1TB 7200rpm drives from my old desktop and have set it up such that the drives are in a JBOD mode, essentially giving me a single external 2TB drive. I'm storing backups of my pictures, documents, etc. on this drive, and only have it connected during backups. I was having trouble initializing the drives into the JBOD mode, so I contacted tech support and this is what they told me: -Install drives into chassis -Set DIP switches to desired mode of operation -Connect to power -Connect to USB to MX and connect USB to PC -Go into Disk Management in windows, and power on device -Wait for Windows to detect the device and show the two separate drives -When drives appear, press and hold the reset button until both drives disappear (20-25 sec, NOT 7-10 sec), and then release it -A single disk will now appear and will need to be initialized -Initialize as a MBR (2TB or less) or GPT (greater than 2TB) drive, then create a new volume, then format I did that and it worked like a charm (I think it initialized after ~7 seconds of holding the reset button). Overall I'm quite happy with this enclosure. I just built a new computer from the ground up. Primary use is going to be photo editing, with the occasional video editing, gaming, Office work, and modeling/number crunching. I have the Samsung SSD set up as a scratch disk for Photoshop CS5 and Adobe Premiere and the location where I edit my pictures before they get stored on my HDD. Build specs: Asus P8Z77-V Pro motherboard Intel i7-3770K processor at stock speeds for now Hyper 212+ CPU cooler 16GB (4x4GB) G.skill Ares DDR3 1600 RAM HIS IceQ X AMD HD 6870 1GB DDR5 video card Intel 520 Series 180GB SATA III SSD (for the OS and programs) Samsung 830 Series 128GB SATA III SSD (scratch disk and temporary photo storage) Western Digital 2TB 7200rpm HDD (media storage) Asus DVD/CD-RW drive Rosewill Challenger U3 case Windows 7 Pro 64-bit

Pros: Price

Cons: Disconnects during large data copy over USB. JMicron USB chipset

Overall Review: I have "lived" with the limitations of VANTEC NexStar HX4R for near 3 years in a JBOD configuration. It has always had issues disconnecting when copying large amounts of data. Over the time I have tried everything; driver updates, different PCs, dedicated USB card, even the firmware update listed in reviews. Nothing works. It does appear to be an issue related to the JMicron 539 chipset used in this product. I assume there is no real fix for it since the vendor does not even bother to provide firmware updates themselves. I needed to copy several hundred GB to one of the drives this week and started my normal procedure of removing the drive to use with an external pluggable drive (also USB, works great). It then occurred to me why am I "living" with this. My esata multiplier card is full so I could never try it with that. I am ordering another esata card and if it does not resolve issues with HX4R I am getting rid of it.

Pros: Nice Sturdy case, Raid 1

Cons: Not free, need to buy drives for it. Need to download app to setup device.

Overall Review: I did not have any screw issues. I did run into a weird scenario: I configured the jumper for Raid1 and push the button to initialize the drive but after resetting the unit, It still showed 2 drives in the disk management. I played around and tried Raid 0 jumpers and reset, and it still would show 2 drives. It turns out that you have to download the app here: http://www.vantecusa.com/system/application/media/data_file/jmb39x_raid_ap1.zip in order to create the Raid array. Once the array is created in accordance to the jumper setting, 1 drive is showing in the disk management. Mission accomplished. Tried to upload a video to the review but keeps failing.

Pros: Simple Setup Excellent Cooling Compatible with 3TB drives Compatible with Windows 8 True USB3 Compatibility

Cons: Must be setup in Windows first

Overall Review: Have bought enclosures of several types from Buffalo and Mediasonic as well as this one. Of all of them this one has been the easiest to setup (with one item I'll mention shortly), and is the first one I've had that runs at "true" USB3 speeds. The only "gotcha" is that the dip switches are ignored if you put disks in that have ever been formatted before. Using the software from their website (Windows only), you can force the enclosure to be seen as any type of RAID you want. Once you have done that, the enclosure is then seen properly even if you uninstall the software or attach to a Ubuntu or Mac system. Of all the USB3 enclosures I've tried this is the first one that appears to truly use the full USB3 channel., Buffalo enclosures in RAID 0 had typical rates of 70mb. Mediasonic was between 30-50mb. The Vantec is reliably over 100mb and peaks at 140mb. Makes transfers almost as fast as my internal SSD. Case is cool looking, and the fan drawing air vertically through the stack keeps the disks cooler than the back cooled systems used by the other manufacturers. This enclosure also lets you install/remove drives individually rather than having to remove a common cage first. If you are going to get an external RAID enclosure, I can not recommend this enough!