Vantec NexStar TX Single Bay USB 3.0 Hard Drive Dock, Black Color, (NST-D328S3-BK)

If you're a storage junkie or do media editing (or game dev, in my case) this thing is a lifesaver. Might sound paranoid, but any time you are running electricity through a computer part (however little it may be), you're still "putting miles" on something. With many iterations of my game's source files, videos I edit, or other projects I need a safe place to do local backup in addition to cloud backup...as cloud retrieval can be slow.You can leave a drive docked, or do your backup/transfer and then stow it in an anti-static bag or elsewhere. This is particularly great for SSDs since it has proper guide slots for both 2.5" and 3.5" drives. It's pretty smooth and has a power button on the back so the drive can be disengaged before you swap it out.Another use option that is a *Your Mileage May Vary* scenario, is using this for swapping in and out SSDs with installed game files on them. I have limited space inside my PC case and also like playing games on various PCs I have (HTPC or a laptop) and storing Steam or other game client installer files on here means you can simply take it over to the other computer using this dock to play the games. I will add, it need to be a USB 3.0 or faster port to utilize it properly, but the games load and run perfectly fine for me with this method. Saves you from excessive writes or installs on multiple drives and is a great quality of life hack.So far it's worked very well for me and the price is definitely fair for what you're getting. If any of the above sounds good, give this dock a try.

My old computer died months ago. Thanks to this device I was able to recover the data on that computer's OS drive. I like that I can turn the drive on and off (something that seems to be lacking on most regular USB external drives). The only qualm I had with it was a product of my own ignorance - for those who aren't familiar with eSATA, it's a high-speed data cable similar but not identical to USB. This "toaster" apparently requires that all three cables - power, USB, and eSATA - be connected in order to allow access to the drive. If you don't have a newer model of computer, you may not be able to make use of this (then again, I doubt you'll be purchasing something like this if you aren't having a problem with one or replacing one).All in all, I think it was worth it for the money (though if I were planning to still use the drive as an OS drive for some hairbrained reason, I would've bought a permanent case instead of this).

The unit works as described, but you should have a SATA extension cable and an adapter for the back of your PC to take advantage of SATA speeds (not included). I have not used the USB with it. The drive I am using is a Hitachi Nextstar 1 TB...and it is very quiet without any fan. Cooling is via the ambient room temperature only. The drive activity light is the long blue strip at the bottom, with the blue LED circles for the power status and in the center the on/off switch. You must shut the unit off to remove it, or use the Safe Remove function from your desktop OS. Very nice and simple solution for extra storage.

I bought this drive dock along with the Thermaltake BlacX model with USB hub. The Thermaltake went back (huge, drive kept dropping off) and this one stayed.I've gone through many drive enclosures over the years as they tend to have fans that fail (and can't be easily replaced), or they're just too bulky or awkward to fit in available space. This is intended to be an easy way to easily use some of the extra drives I have around for a quick backup, video project, etc.Technology wise, it's the same as any other USB-SATA bridge; it works, it's not as good as Firewire, but it's as fast as I've come to expect, etc. Based upon the design with the drive being above the rest of the electronics and open to the air, I don't expect to have any heating issues so maybe it'll last longer than some of the others.I think the biggest issue I have with this is its size. It's significantly larger than seems necessary, though that's probably just to provide a stable base. It seems like Vantec could make this about 5% thicker and have a dual drive version. I don't currently have an eSata port so I couldn't test that, but I may try it out on the HD Tivo as it would make a quiet, fanless drive "enclosure". Not sure how well it

Purchased this item along with a brand new Seagate Barracuda 1TB drive. Unit looks good and the idea behind it is genius but like Eugene Vasserman's review I too noticed that the drive wobbled a bit in the slot. Installation was a snap and the first time I used it everything worked beautifully.The second time I used it, I placed the drive in the socket making certain it was pressed all the way down and pressed the power button on the front. The pretty blue light came on and I waited for the drive letter to show up on my screen but it never showed. I looked over and the blue light was out which evidently means your toast is finished. I ejected the drive and was greeted by the smokey smell of sizzling silicon, mmmmm, what a delight!In my case I believe the socket was just sloppy enough to allow a short between two or more pins on the hard drive. Take a look at a sata drive and see how close they are together, it wouldn't take much play in the socket connection to cause a problem.My suggestion is that you get one of the self-contained external drives. My wife got a WD drive and while it does make a bit of noise it's not excessive and it works pretty well. The only problem with it is that when you re-boot the computer, unless the usb cable is pulled or the power to the drive is turned off the boot process hangs until you do so and re-boot. I think it's due to a wrong setting in the bios boot sequence but so far everything I've tried has failed.