VANTEC ST-530S3-BK Aluminum 5.25" SATA USB 3.0 External 5.25" Optical Drive Enclosure USB 3.0 External Interface

Pros: I have been buying Vantec products for many years now and there are quite a few around here still in use. I find them to be well designed, but cheaply made: my complaints are all electronics that fails intermittently or after a few hours/days of use. I have had a few duds over the years, including with the previous model of this very enclosure. In general they either fail right away or begin to fail after a year or so of constant use. Usually the failure is expressed in them failing to register consistently, or at all. Yet for all my complaints I have been unable to find better quality replacement for products from this company: the "other guys" are the same, except they are much harder to find here and therefore more expensive. These products are the known evil and I keep buying them. Doesn't mean I am happy with them. This enclosure is designed exactly like the previous model, but sports a few odd decisions like the use of USB 3.0 type A connector on the back, even though the proper connector would be USB 3.0 type B (seriously, standards anyone? Type A is for USB Hosts!). Beware, misuse of the USB A-to-A cable to come with this enclosure can interfere with or even damage your USB ports! As with the previous model, the bezel tends to come off on its own. The enclosure itself works, however. I have not had my optical drive disappear on me so far, not even intermittently. I have no problems using it from both Linux and MacOS without any special driver. These enclosures are getting hard to find for some reason and are not coming down in price anymore, so get one if you think you will need one in the next year or so.

Cons: cheap electronics, improper use of a type-A connector on the back, bezel tends to come off on its own, no eSATA port

Overall Review: It gets the job done, but I wish manufacturer would stop sacrificing quality just to save a few bucks. Heck, I would happily pay a few extra bucks for something I can depend on to perform well and lasts 5-6 times longer.

Pros: USB 3 speeds, though not sure how much that is needed for a blu-ray burner.

Cons: Failed after a year. Powers the drive but not recognizable as usb device. Was very lightly used.

Pros: One of the few 5.25" SATA USB 3.0 enclosures available.

Cons: Died after 6.5 months of light use, ripping discs.

Overall Review: In the middle of a BD read, the drive disappeared from my system. Restarted laptop, then kept trying to R&R the USB cable, using both USB 3.0 and 2.0 ports. Laptop recognized BD drive intermittently. I finally figured out that when I inserted the USB 3.0 cable into any USB port, the enclosure's LED would extinguish and the (loud) fan no longer spun. Appears that the enclosure's power supply went Tango Uniform. I subsequently removed my BD drive and completed the rip using a separate SATA/USB 2.0 interface. The enclosure is faulty. I'll probably order a new USB 3.0 A-A male cable as I've had problems with USB 3.0 cables. Hopefully the cable I received with this enclosure is the problem. In any case this assembly is not robust. My suggestion is to stick with USB 2.0 enclosures, they are more mature and reliable. (He says after his second USB 3.0 BD burner croaked...)

Pros: I installed a Bluray recorder in the case and it worked well for a while. Installing a drive in the case was quite simple.

Cons: It's been a few months now and it crapped out. The power supply is okay - the installed drive powers up but the USB interface is dead to the world. It had been intermittent at one point with my Windows 8 machine and now it's a doorstop.

Overall Review: I may end up having to buy another just to be able to read my backups but I'm not happy about pouring more money down a rathole.

Pros: Aluminum construction; feels solid. Quiet. Easy Installation.

Cons: None so far.

Overall Review: Installation was very easy. The only slight glitch was that my PC wouldn't recognize the hardware when I connected it to a USB 3.0 port. I rebooted, my PC saw the drive and loaded the drivers. Now it works great. To those who have complained about fan noise, either I got lucky and I have a super quiet unit or you guys have a very low tolerance for fan noise. Even with then fan running, I don't even notice it.

Pros: All aluminum chassis and cover. Really incredible in this day and age of flimsy steel and plastic. Only the front and rear faceplates are plastic. You could probably use this to chock the wheels on your car...it's that solid. No wallwart needed! I love that you can use any standard IEC computer power cord. Fan is near silent. I was worried because most small fans are annoying but not this one. Supplied USB 3.0 A-A cable is about 3' long and fairly flexible.

Cons: Big and heavy. But awesome has got weight to it. Suck it up Sally. Uses a rectangular USB "A" connector. This is not standard. Most peripherals have square "B" connector. This means that if you loose the supplied A-A cable, you are stuck until you mail order another. I knocked off an egg for this.

Overall Review: This would be perfect if it had a normal USB 3.0 connector and an eSATA port. Any drive up to 7.5" long will fit. I'm using a LG WH14NS40 Blu-ray burner which is only 6.75" long. Don't drop it on any small animals.

Pros: Solid construction, good performance , portability, Windows 10 compatibility

Cons: None as yet. As usual, it's impossible to assess product longevity on something you recently purchased.

Overall Review: To answer the question, I've owned quite a few DVD and Blu-Ray burner drives. Even though Blu-Ray burners are technically read compatible with DVD disks, occasionally some DVDs read much faster and more reliably on a DVD drive. So, if: 1) you don't want an external DVD or Blu-ray drive 2) you're out of 5-1/4" drive bays 3) you don't stream ALL of your entertainment 4) you want portability, fast USB 3.0 interface, Windows 10 compatibility, etc. ... then this is a good product to consider. Of course, you can put any SATA compatible drive you want in this unit. It may be forward compatible with upcoming UHD drives, but we'll have to see.

Pros: The Vantec ST-530S3-BK Aluminum Case is perfect fit my Pioneer BDXL Blu Ray read / White drive. You can install the faster internal drive with this case and make it become an external drive and faster than you brought the off-the-shelf external Blu Ray drive and cheaper.

Cons: None