VANTEC NexStar HX4 NST-640SU3-BK Aluminum / Plastic 3.5" Black SATA I/II/III USB 3.0 & eSATA Quad Bay HDD Enclosure

Pros: This enclosure has an elaborate cooling system using plastic ductwork and a top mounted exhaust fan. The rear-loading drive mount system is interesting. The fan seems fairly quiet, although mine does not merely have an on/off switch, but rather an adjustable speed thumb-wheel. Supports eSATA (w/port multiplier) and USB 3.0. This enclosure is extremely lightweight.

Cons: It uses the JMicron JMS539 USB 3.0 chipset, of which I'm not a fan. Depending on the host controller used in your computer, you may or may not have trouble with the JMS539. This doesn't effect eSATA at all. I'm not sure how they can claim "Up to 5 Gbps w/USB 3.0", when the JMS539 chip bridges USB 3.0 to 3 Gbps SATA II. The eSATA chipset is JMicron JMB391, which is an ok chipset when used primarily for its port multiplier functon, as it is in this enclosure. I'm rating the enclosure 5 because of the design and the features, but I was tempted to go lower because of the chipset. If you've had no problems with the chipset, this is a non-issue for you.

Overall Review: This is a non-raid enclosure. Each drive will show up indiviudally using USB 2.0/3.0 or eSATA (port mulitplier required). This enclosure is almost all plastic. The aluminum panels are like wallpaper on the plastic, they do not even have any air contact with the innards of the enclosure. But that is ok because the cooling is accomplished though the channels of the plastic ductwork, not direct transfer to the aluminum. The top-mount fan is 80x10 mm and is easily removable. The power transformer is a Sunny 12vdc 5.42A 65W, which should be enough to handle the four drives. I'm currently using the enclosure with the eSATA connection only, connected to a PCIe card that supports port multipler with the asmedia ASM1061 chipset.

Pros: Nice little enclosure once you get it working.

Cons: ALL MAC USERES (and Windows 7 apparently). You NEED to upgrade the firmware for the drives to work without DISCONNECTING. I was about to send both units I bought back until I figured this out. Using them with 8 drives to serve media to my 2012 Mac Mini media center running Plex, Sabnzbd+, Sickbeard, and Couchpotato See below

Overall Review: You need to connect to something running Windows to upgrade the firmware, it says something about using a USB 2.0 cable but I just used the one that came with the HX4. You can download the firmware upgrade from:http://www.station-drivers.com/page/jmicron.htm Look for the JMicron JMS539 which is the USB 3 superspeed controller this product uses. In the release info under JMS539 you'll read: Version 255.00.03.42.22 - Improved PCI-E USB 3.0 compatibility - Improved MBR/GPT support - Mounting/Dismounting issues in Windows 7 / Windows 8 and Mac 10.7 (Lion) / 10.8 (ML) So you must install version 255.00.03.42.22 of the firmware for your HX4 to work. Cheers

Pros: I have this and the SANS DIGITAL TR4UTBPN. I got the SANS because of the hardware raid. However, I found the hardware raid isn't really needed, and the vantec has a sort of hardware raid already. The Vantec is excellent, looks different and has great cooling. The SANS nor Vantec would work with windows raid (win7 pro 64) so don't listen to anyone who says it does. I contacted the manufacuter of the SANS and they confirmed this. You must use the included (or downloadable) software. Here's the great thing. The SANS can be configured with the software to act just like the hardware raid, and so can the Vantec. The cool thing about the SANS is you set the dial to whatever you want and the enclosure can be moved to any PC without haveing software installed. The Vantec has the exact same ability with the SANS software. You'll notice a lot of these types of encolsures are the same. Some have more or less ports, but that's pretty much it. Well, I think they all have pretty much the same chipsets (between similar models), just the absense or presence of dials or ports that they can charge more for. It's more cost effective to make the same enclosure and tweak them at the end. Using the SANS software, I was able to make any kind of raid I wanted on this Vantec. I then moved (at the time a raid 0) the enclosure to 2 different dell laptops that are confirmed NOT to have port mulitplier on the esata ports and both worked with the Vantec flawlessly. I then removed the raid, back to default and the same laptops would not see more than one drive on the esata ports. This was done with no raid software on either of them. So, what you can easily do is connect this enclosure via usb, use the SANS software to set your raid, and your are golden! The Vantec does indeed save your raid settings when powering off and moving and it will work on a non port mulitplier esata port. I paid 95$ with free shipping for mine and I wish I had just gotten another instead of the SANS. But, I didn't know and there was a restocking fee on the SANS, so I kept it.

Cons: It is hot swappable, but it's kind of a pain. A tool less soloution would be great. But, I don't really use this feature. The fan can get loud, but the plus is it works quite well. It's adjustable to a reasonable level that still cools better than the SANS in my opinion.

Overall Review: I'm sure SANS or others don't want you to know about using their software (free download from SANS site) for other enclosures, but too late. I see others have had trouble powering 4 drives, but I havne't. They must have had faulty units. I have not tesetd any of this with usb 3.0. Only 2.0 and esata. I recommend esata if possible anyway.

Pros: Well designed, USB 3.0, JBOD, whisper-quiet 50mm fan draws air through grills on the front, across the drives and exhausts out the back. Soft blue glow from drive LED's. I get the same sustained transfer rates with USB 3.0 from my two Western Digital Green's as when they were connected SATA in my computer - about 100 Megabytes p/sec, typical for most hard drives except VelociRaptors or SSD.

Cons: Occasionally not detected if I cold-start my computer with the enclosure having been in standby mode; maybe my motherboard though. Power off/on the enclosure resolves it.

Overall Review: Highest quality product from the manufacturer I've trusted for years. I've done the research and have many of their products, they're the best. Follow the manual precisely. Leave the case open until you've booted windows, installed drives, set the Individual/JBOD switch, connected/power on the enclosure, held the internal reset button for 15 seconds, initialized, created and formatted the partition. Then you can close it. If you use JBOD, you're drives WILL be erased. Make sure to use the GUID partition (GPT) if the total of both drives is more than two terabytes. I'd like to see it in 2.5"/SSD and Candy Apple Red ;)

Pros: 4 Drives , up To 3 Tb each , eSata 6Gbp/s, fast as can be for an external unit love the speed. Perfect solution for storage on a to-go basis. It does it's job and then some , can't really speak for the USB3.0/2.0 sides of it since i prefer eSata and being able to hot-swap the drives " which if you try to do while using it as a USB device causes the drives to cycle." My System: Antec 1200 Gaming Case ASUS Crosshair V Formula-Z AMD FX-9590 Cooler Master Eisberg 240l 16GB Corsair Vengeance EVGA GTX 780 SC 3gb x 2 " Using EVGA Pro SLI Bridge " Creative Recon3d Fatality Professional Samsung 840Pro SSD 128gb "System Drive" Western Digital Black 3tb "game drive" Corsiar AX1200 " PSU " Vantec HX4 "with 4x2tb Seagates" Icy Dock Quad-bay "with 4x2tb WD blacks" Both running eSata

Cons: I was running 4x2Tb Western Digital Blacks in both mentioned units! HOT , Drives are running anywhere from 45-55 Celsius Under Load in the Vantec NST-640SU3-BK. Decided to crack it open , thought maybe the fan or cooling fins might be dusty, Guess what the drives are completely surrounded by PLASTIC with no metal contact for heat dispersion , that fancy Aluminum outer casing ? yeah it's just for looks. If you Value your drives pay the extra money and get the Icy Dock or something similar. My ICY DOCK "MB561US-4SB-1 runs the same drives @ 30-40 Celsius under load.

Overall Review: The eSata cable that came with mine may have been damaged since i couldn't hit 6gbp/s speed with it, no biggie i have spares.

Pros: It's an inexpensive way to get lots of external storage. The case while plastic isn't too bad.

Cons: Is spotty working with Mac OS X.

Overall Review: I worked directly with Vantec trying to sort out why drives in this unit kept disappearing from the desktop. After upgrading firmware (only possible with Windows) at their suggestion the problem got worse not better. I decided it was time to call it and purchased a unit designed to work with Mac OS X. It cost more, but at the end of the day, it worked and worked well. This unit probably works just as well with Windows, but certainly think twice if you are going to try this with Mac OS X.

Pros: Nice construction, easy to place the drives in, quiet.

Cons: Loses connection randomly and for no apparent reason especially when connected to USB 3 ports. Tried USB 2.0 and the loss of connections was far less but still would happen. Purchased a new USB 3 cable, same issue. Not 100% sure it isn't my motherboard but a USB 2 drive bay from Rosewill is attached that never lost connection ever.

Overall Review: Hoping others may chime in on their connection issues if any. Once the connection is lost a power cycle or USB plug pull and reinsert works. I am using two 3TB drives in this device and it does not feel hot.

Pros: -Easy HD install. Two screws per and slide in. -Fan is manually adjustable for top speed and adjsuts itself based on temp. With only 2 drives keeps them cool without using hiest speed. -Using two existing drives, windows recognized drives first time with correct letters. -Connected by esata, transfer rate to/from internal drive is limited by the drives, not the link. (Both in the enclosure are SATA II and one is a WD Green variable speed.) -Instructions are not too bad, especially compared to some others I have seen. -Main case is sturdy aluminum. Trays and top are plastic but adequate. Drives fit snugly, no vibration. Empty tray covers feel loose, but don't vibrate.

Cons: These are small and not worth a deduction so I'll put them in comments.

Overall Review: - Fan is a little whishy loud at highest speed. Annoying more for the type of noise that the volume. (And not as loud as computer fans when it cranks them up for high load.) The reason seems to be slots in the plastic top for the fan outlet. If it is annoying I may cut away the plastic and install a wire grill. - Instructions are not bad, but sparse. A few things left out: Drives do not start up until the computer is turned on. If room is cool the fan may not start when unit is turned on. So the only indication at first may be the green power light. When computer starts the drives start, each indicated by separate blue light. (Remember this is connected by esata. USB3 might behave differently.) Instructions don't say which trays to use for less than 4 drives. But as far as I can tell it doesn't matter. Fan is at top of case, blowing upward. - Temperature sensor and SMART readings are reported only for one drive. But otherwise both are reported, for example by windows device manager and disk manager, and AIDA64, and of course windows explorer. Reversing tray position switches which drive reports temp and SMART, so it does appear to be the enclosure doing this. - This is more a comment on an advantage of esata, but computer has never failed to recognize drives at start. My experience with USB enclosures has been that whether U2 or U3 they are sometimes missed in boot up. But I did not test USB with this enclosure.