---
product_id: 59189888
title: "NexStar Gx USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C 2.5” SATA SSD/HDD Enclosure for 9.5mm & 7mm Height Drive; Comes with C to C and C to A Cable; Aluminum Casing; (NST-271C31-BK),Black"
brand: "vantec"
price: "758 DH"
currency: MAD
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 8
category: "Vantec"
url: https://www.desertcart.ma/products/59189888-nexstar-gx-usb-3-1-gen-2-type-c-2
store_origin: MA
region: Morocco
---

# USB 3.1 Gen 2 SuperSpeed 10Gbps Supports 7mm & 9.5mm SATA SSD/HDD Full aluminum casing for heat dissipation NexStar Gx USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C 2.5” SATA SSD/HDD Enclosure for 9.5mm & 7mm Height Drive; Comes with C to C and C to A Cable; Aluminum Casing; (NST-271C31-BK),Black

**Brand:** vantec
**Price:** 758 DH
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Summary

> 🚀 Elevate your storage game with speed and style — don’t get left behind!

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** NexStar Gx USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C 2.5” SATA SSD/HDD Enclosure for 9.5mm & 7mm Height Drive; Comes with C to C and C to A Cable; Aluminum Casing; (NST-271C31-BK),Black by vantec
- **How much does it cost?** 758 DH with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.ma](https://www.desertcart.ma/products/59189888-nexstar-gx-usb-3-1-gen-2-type-c-2)

## Best For

- vantec enthusiasts

## Why This Product

- Trusted vantec brand quality
- Free international shipping included
- Worldwide delivery with tracking
- 15-day hassle-free returns

## Key Features

- • **Sleek & Cool Design:** Premium full aluminum enclosure minimizes heat and vibration, keeping your drive safe and stylish.
- • **Plug & Play Mobility:** Convert any 2.5” SATA SSD/HDD into a portable powerhouse with no drivers needed—just plug and go.
- • **Blazing Fast Transfers:** Experience up to 10Gbps USB 3.1 Gen 2 speeds for seamless data flow and zero lag.
- • **Smart Power Management:** Auto spin-down syncs with your system’s sleep mode, extending drive life and saving energy.
- • **Universal Compatibility:** Includes both USB-C to C and USB-C to A cables for effortless connection to any device.

## Overview

The NexStar Gx USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C enclosure transforms your 2.5” SATA SSD or HDD into a high-speed external drive with up to 10Gbps transfer rates. Crafted with a full aluminum body for superior heat dissipation and vibration reduction, it supports both 7mm and 9.5mm drives. Compatible across Windows, Mac, and Linux, it includes dual cables for USB-C and USB-A ports, features plug & play convenience, UASP support, and smart power management for optimal performance and longevity.

## Description

The NST-271C31-BK is a simple well design enclosure ready for 2.5" SATA HDD or SSD. This first of GX Series offers well-crafted aluminum casing for heat protection and minimize vibration. This portable enclosure features latest in technology using USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type C interface for speed and convenient using reversible connector. It offers good design, speed and portability.

Review: Awesome way to use Solid State drives for critical backups - Many of us we don’t really think about backups until its too late, then we wonder why we never got around to having a backup, or if we did have one, why we didn’t update it. Prior to my purchase of the Vantec NST-266S3-BK, I was using portable USB drives which unfortunately have a high failure rate due to their use of Shingled Magnetic Recording (SMR) technology. These manufactures never let the consumer know that they were buying an inferior product just so they could make larger profits, that is I'd have gladly paid the same amount of money for a portable USB drive that used Conventional Magnetic Recording (CMR) technology i.e. a 750GB CMR is much better than a 1TB SMR drive. My backup scheme is as follows: Copy 1: On a 2nd drive on the local PC Copy 2: On a 2.5-inch solid state drives Copy 3: On a 3.5-inch hard drives used in earlier systems In addition each machine's boot drive is duplicated in a standalone USB Disk Duplicator (Syba SY-EN50071) and stored in a folder for each PC in the file cabinet. I bought my first Vantec NST-266S3-BK in February 2021 to replace a failed SMR based USB portable drive, and have since purchased 5 more to replace the rest of the SMR based USB portable drives as they begin to fail. The Vantec NST-266S3-BK design uses the ASMedia ASM 1153E controller and when it was first designed, the largest commercially available hard drives at the time were 4TB in size with 6TB just beginning to be sampled but not in volume production. The ASM 1153E controller uses LBA48 addressing mode which means in theory the largest drive that the device can support is about 144.1 PB (the same as 144,000 TB) so there should not be an issue supporting larger drives. This device is cool to the touch, has a design which minimizes fingerprints on its case, was easy to install (they even provide screws and a screwdriver). As for ventilation, the device has many holes on one of the sides. A 2.5 inch HDD may get a little hot, but SSD's should not get that hot and many SSD's have built in thermal sensors which will throttle the drive until the temperature drops to comfortable levels. The 2.5 inch drive fits nicely in the enclosure and can be attached via the supplied screws. I used two at the far end which is enough to hold the SSD in place. Once the tray is back in the outer enclosure, another 2 screws secure it. Vantec supplied 5 of the screws needed to secure the drive to the tray and 3 to secure the tray to the enclosure i.e. 1 extra of each. On Windows 7, I was only able to see 228/222 MB/s Read/Write speeds mainly due to Windows 7 not supporting the USB Attached SCSI Protocol (UASP), however on Linux I was able to get 441/432 MB/s Read/Write since UASP support was enabled. One should get similar performance for Windows 8/10 as UASP support exists in those Operating Systems. Even though the SSD is capable of 560 MB/s (read), the top speed is capped by USB 3.0 which has a theoretical max of 500 MB/s and after accounting for overhead the results are pretty good. The SSD was recognized as an SSD and I was able to use TRIM. For those who are having problems using TRIM, open up an elevated command prompt in Windows and type the following command: fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify. If DisableDeleteNotify is set to 1, rerun the command with a 0 on the end: fsutil behavior set DisableDeleteNotify 0 (thanks to programmers it's a double negative). In addition both HDD and SSD support SMART through the USB cable. We use the Vantec NST-266S3-BK on both Windows (7, 8.1, 10) and Linux (Linux Mint 20.1). Again, it's a little slow on Windows 7 due to a lack of UASP support but it's acceptable and it's very fast on all the other systems. With many manufactures resorting to the use of Shingled Magnetic Recording (SMR) technology in external USB drives, this devices lets you use Conventional Magnetic Recording (CMR) technology drives which are far superior. In the attached photo I have circled the asmedia controller chip on the circuit card. Some additional notes: If you are running Windows, Windows has a feature that is enabled by default that will turn off power to USB ports. You can verify this by going into Device Manager, expanding the Universal Serial Bus Controllers, and then selecting any (and all) USB Root Hub, then in the pop-up, look for Power Management and uncheck "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power". If you don't do that, it's possible that windows shuts power off to your device and you experience a "disconnect". Hope this helps other potential buyers or those who have purchased this product and may not have had a positive experience (i.e. they blamed the device instead of Windows).
Review: What a premium 2.5 SATA enclosure - What a premium enclosure. This enclosure is rock solid. I had my drive installed in seconds and I was able to run the drive just by plugging it into my USB without having to use the separate power cable. The device has two LED lights that show disk activity. On the back side it has air holes to disburse heat. it also has a clip on stand which is certainly a nice add-on. Anyone looking for an enclosure for 2.5 SATA drives will be VERY happy if they order one of these.

## Features

- True USB-C enclosure with best SuperSpeed plus USB 3.1 Gen 2 transfer speed; comes with 2 cables for compatibility with any USB Type-A or Type-C port
- Full aluminum (enclosure and tray) for heat dissipation and elegant design; support ultra-fast SATA III, 6 Gbps interface, also backwards compatible to legacy SATA standard
- Converts 7mm or 9.5mm 2.5'' SATA SSD/HDD/hybrid Drive into an external Hard Drive for ultimate mobility and convenience, support UASP and Plug & play; No drivers needed
- Compatible with Windows, Mac and Linux, activity LED, on/off switch, and optional power connector; comes with all necessary accessories for installing (Hard Drive not included)
- Smart Features: spin down with your Windows/Mac system sleep/hibernate/shutdown; Lifetime and easily accessible technical support

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| ASIN | B072YLWP4Z |
| Best Sellers Rank | #246 in Enclosures |
| Compatible Devices | Laptop |
| Connectivity Technology | usb |
| Customer Reviews | 4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars (3,951) |
| Data Transfer Rate | 10 Megabits Per Second |
| Date First Available | June 20, 2017 |
| Global Trade Identification Number | 00844767022598 |
| Hard Disk Form Factor | 2.5 Inches |
| Is Discontinued By Manufacturer | No |
| Item Dimensions LxWxH | 4.7 x 3.1 x 0.8 inches |
| Item Weight | 6.4 ounces |
| Item model number | NST-271C31-BK |
| Manufacturer | Vantec USA |
| Max Number of Supported Devices | 1 |
| Memory Storage Capacity | 8 TB |
| Operating System | All Windows |
| Product Dimensions | 4.7 x 3.1 x 0.8 inches |
| UPC | 844767022598 |

## Product Details

- **Brand:** Vantec
- **Color:** black
- **Hardware Interface:** USB
- **Hardware Platform:** PC; Mac; Linux
- **Material:** Aluminum

## Images

![NexStar Gx USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C 2.5” SATA SSD/HDD Enclosure for 9.5mm & 7mm Height Drive; Comes with C to C and C to A Cable; Aluminum Casing; (NST-271C31-BK),Black - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71al64UfQvL.jpg)

## Available Options

This product comes in different **Style** options.

## Questions & Answers

**Q: Does this fit a 7mm, 9mm, or 12mm (or all three) thickness types of 2.5 drives?**
A: The answers you have received are correct. This is designed for the 7mm and 9mm 2.5" drives that are 2TB or smaller. However, I can admit that without the outter case on (like John said) it will work with 12mm drives. I currently have 2x 5TB Seagates 12mm drives in mine. You just have to live with the drives showing. As for String Theory's answer, putting Firecuda SSHD's is a good idea only if you are using them as single drives or Raid 1. Raid 0 eliminates the use of the SSD caching system like indicated over on the Seagate website.

**Q: How many GB does it have?**
A: To make sure what the topic is here, my comments are just about the Vantec enclosure and not about whatever drive + enclosure Vantec may sell. My drive, for what it's worth, though, and it doesn't matter, was a 225 GB HP drive pulled out of motherboard-fried HP laptop. I wanted to keep it because there was nothing wrong with it to hook as an external USB drive to either my desktop or a tablet.

**Q: Can this be powered by sata port?**
A: Thanks for asking.
This 2.5" drive enclosure (NST-266SU3-BK) has two external interfaces, eSATA or USB 3.0.
If you are using USB 3.0 connection, the USB 3.0 cable will provide power to the drive, this called Bus-powered.
If you are using eSATA, it comes with eSATA cable and a power cable to connect and get power via USB port.
Here is a link to the QIG that shows the connection in step6 and step7. https://www.vantecusa.com/CKEdit/images/files/nst-266su3_qig_copy.pdf
This is not an eSATAp device.

**Q: Has anyone converted their old ps4 hdd using this?**
A: I just upgraded my ps4 hd to a 2tb and used this device to turn my original 500gig into an external for my WiiUWorked like a charm

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Awesome way to use Solid State drives for critical backups
*by D***J on February 24, 2021*

Many of us we don’t really think about backups until its too late, then we wonder why we never got around to having a backup, or if we did have one, why we didn’t update it. Prior to my purchase of the Vantec NST-266S3-BK, I was using portable USB drives which unfortunately have a high failure rate due to their use of Shingled Magnetic Recording (SMR) technology. These manufactures never let the consumer know that they were buying an inferior product just so they could make larger profits, that is I'd have gladly paid the same amount of money for a portable USB drive that used Conventional Magnetic Recording (CMR) technology i.e. a 750GB CMR is much better than a 1TB SMR drive. My backup scheme is as follows: Copy 1: On a 2nd drive on the local PC Copy 2: On a 2.5-inch solid state drives Copy 3: On a 3.5-inch hard drives used in earlier systems In addition each machine's boot drive is duplicated in a standalone USB Disk Duplicator (Syba SY-EN50071) and stored in a folder for each PC in the file cabinet. I bought my first Vantec NST-266S3-BK in February 2021 to replace a failed SMR based USB portable drive, and have since purchased 5 more to replace the rest of the SMR based USB portable drives as they begin to fail. The Vantec NST-266S3-BK design uses the ASMedia ASM 1153E controller and when it was first designed, the largest commercially available hard drives at the time were 4TB in size with 6TB just beginning to be sampled but not in volume production. The ASM 1153E controller uses LBA48 addressing mode which means in theory the largest drive that the device can support is about 144.1 PB (the same as 144,000 TB) so there should not be an issue supporting larger drives. This device is cool to the touch, has a design which minimizes fingerprints on its case, was easy to install (they even provide screws and a screwdriver). As for ventilation, the device has many holes on one of the sides. A 2.5 inch HDD may get a little hot, but SSD's should not get that hot and many SSD's have built in thermal sensors which will throttle the drive until the temperature drops to comfortable levels. The 2.5 inch drive fits nicely in the enclosure and can be attached via the supplied screws. I used two at the far end which is enough to hold the SSD in place. Once the tray is back in the outer enclosure, another 2 screws secure it. Vantec supplied 5 of the screws needed to secure the drive to the tray and 3 to secure the tray to the enclosure i.e. 1 extra of each. On Windows 7, I was only able to see 228/222 MB/s Read/Write speeds mainly due to Windows 7 not supporting the USB Attached SCSI Protocol (UASP), however on Linux I was able to get 441/432 MB/s Read/Write since UASP support was enabled. One should get similar performance for Windows 8/10 as UASP support exists in those Operating Systems. Even though the SSD is capable of 560 MB/s (read), the top speed is capped by USB 3.0 which has a theoretical max of 500 MB/s and after accounting for overhead the results are pretty good. The SSD was recognized as an SSD and I was able to use TRIM. For those who are having problems using TRIM, open up an elevated command prompt in Windows and type the following command: fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify. If DisableDeleteNotify is set to 1, rerun the command with a 0 on the end: fsutil behavior set DisableDeleteNotify 0 (thanks to programmers it's a double negative). In addition both HDD and SSD support SMART through the USB cable. We use the Vantec NST-266S3-BK on both Windows (7, 8.1, 10) and Linux (Linux Mint 20.1). Again, it's a little slow on Windows 7 due to a lack of UASP support but it's acceptable and it's very fast on all the other systems. With many manufactures resorting to the use of Shingled Magnetic Recording (SMR) technology in external USB drives, this devices lets you use Conventional Magnetic Recording (CMR) technology drives which are far superior. In the attached photo I have circled the asmedia controller chip on the circuit card. Some additional notes: If you are running Windows, Windows has a feature that is enabled by default that will turn off power to USB ports. You can verify this by going into Device Manager, expanding the Universal Serial Bus Controllers, and then selecting any (and all) USB Root Hub, then in the pop-up, look for Power Management and uncheck "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power". If you don't do that, it's possible that windows shuts power off to your device and you experience a "disconnect". Hope this helps other potential buyers or those who have purchased this product and may not have had a positive experience (i.e. they blamed the device instead of Windows).

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ What a premium 2.5 SATA enclosure
*by M***Y on January 22, 2026*

What a premium enclosure. This enclosure is rock solid. I had my drive installed in seconds and I was able to run the drive just by plugging it into my USB without having to use the separate power cable. The device has two LED lights that show disk activity. On the back side it has air holes to disburse heat. it also has a clip on stand which is certainly a nice add-on. Anyone looking for an enclosure for 2.5 SATA drives will be VERY happy if they order one of these.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Nice Enclosure.
*by C***H on December 25, 2012*

It serves its purpose. It's built of durable aluminum, but don't expect this to protect your hard disk from drops. If you drop it, you'll likely still damage the disk itself, but the enclosure will probably survive to be used again. ;) Over all, this suits my needs, so I don't have to buy a SATA cable. It's worth noting, though, that I wouldn't recommend keeping your hard disk inside this enclosure unless you're planning to travel with it inside the box. That's to be said with most portable external hard disks, though, because they don't take abuse very well. If you're not willing to spend much money, this enclosure is definitely the one for you. Just be very careful and don't drop or travel with it in a rough fashion. (You should always use the most respect and care when handling all hard disks anyway.) If you're up to spending more money, I'd suggest finding one that will provide protection for the hard disk when it's sealed inside the case, especially if you plan to travel a lot. Pros - It looks good - Hard disk fits snugly inside, preventing movement from vibration. - Aluminum construction is best for hard disks, as it doesn't require fans and dissipates heat. - Comes with a plastic guard for the board of the disk itself (Does anyone know where to find more of these things?) - Includes wires, and even a small carrying pouch to slip in and out of briefcase or laptop bag pockets easily. Cons - No drop or any real travel protection from enclosure - While construction is optimal, it doesn't appear that the ends of the enclosure would survive a drop. - Hard disk seems to just "hang" in place on the board/ports inside the enclosure, making traveling with a hard disk enclosed inside it a scary task. Over all, I say this is well worth the money I spent on it (less than $10.) I don't travel with my externals much, and I honestly would've bought something better if I were to do so with one inside an enclosure like this. If I were to travel with this model enclosure, it would definitely be securely inside of its box.

## Frequently Bought Together

- Vantec NexStar Gx USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C 2.5” SATA SSD/HDD Enclosure for 9.5mm & 7mm Height Drive; Comes with C to C and C to A Cable; Aluminum Casing; (NST-271C31-BK),Black
- Samsung 870 EVO SATA III SSD 1TB 2.5” Internal Solid State Drive, Upgrade PC or Laptop Memory and Storage for IT Pros, Creators, Everyday Users, MZ-77E1T0B/AM

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*Product available on Desertcart Morocco*
*Store origin: MA*
*Last updated: 2026-02-15*