Customer Reviews

Vantec NexStar DX NST-530U2 5.25-Inch IDE to USB 2.0 Optical Drive External Enclosure (Black)

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Before even opening this product first thing I noticed was how solid and durable the case feels. Definitely high quality workmanship and built to last.

Once it came to putting my existing drive into this case it fit perfectly! The connections fit just fine and there was plenty of room left over to store excess once I put the entire unit together.

The fan is extremely quiet.. almost forgot it was there. And once a disk was inserted, I experience no vibration what so ever.

*Since I am very cautious when it comes to purchases, I've included photos on this product as well

My iMAC recognized the drive as soon as I put a audio disk in.. just to test it. iTunes kicked immediately and there I was now with 2 drives that I can use on and off as much as I want! I already have plans in a few weeks to get another! Needless to say that I would recommend this to a buddy..

First off, this is probably one of the best IDE to USB external 5.25" enclosures out there. It is very well constructed, and is slightly larger than a typical lesser 5.25" enclosure. But the extra size is there for all the right reasons: It has an internal power supply, and uses a standard power cord, rather than a proprietary external power supply brick. And most noticeably, this thing is Solidly constructed. It is worth the money, and is a solid first rate enclosure.

I can understand why most people give it 5 stars. I will only give it 4 stars, but will still recommend it... Why?: Flakiness in Lightscribe support. That was my primary reason for buying this case... Most people are going to stick a nice DVD burner inside this thing, and very many DVD burners now come with LightScribe as a standard feature. I was hoping to use this primarily for LightScribe labeling of my burns.

LightScribe support is hit or miss with this unit: After I put mine together, I was very impressed with the results, very professional looking. It has a humungous blue LED panel on front, which I covered up with black tape, as it is the biggest brightest light panel I have ever seen on a single bay enclosure. My unit is very quiet, fan seems very efficient, and I like that it has a toggle on/off switch on back. I have burned dual layer DVDs perfectly, and even burns reliably on both highest quality and cheap quality media. I have had 100% reliability on my burns. My Plextor PX-870A works perfectly in it, EXCEPT for LightScribe labeling. I can never get it too work without an error...
(Lightscribe worked when I temporarily internally mounted the burner in a tower, but never worked in this external case...)

In my after the fact research, I have found this to be a hit and miss issue with many DVD burners assembled into an external case. LightScribe is of course the mostly responsibility of the DVD maker, but some other external enclosures are now "certified" for LightScribe support. This Vantec does not make that claim, unfortunately. I have now found that No DVD makers really recommends using a LIghtScribe Internal DVD burner in an external case, and they blame the external case if you have failure. BUT, just as many people do claim to have success using an internal burner in an external case for LightScribe support successfully. It is almost 50/50. The case bears part of the blame for LightScribe failure...

So if you are going to use this case for Lightscribe labeling, please research first. Try to find someone who has posted that a particular Internal drive has been successful with LightScribe labeling in an external case. My Plextor PX-870A definitely does not do LightScribe work in this case without error: It always fails . I have definitely made sure I have the latest Firmwares, latest OSX updates, latest drivers, latest version of burning application, and definitely the latest version of all LightScribe support files. My cables and assembly are perfect. Lightscribe just always fails, but data/music/video burns always work. And after much research, I have found this to be a common complaint with external cases.

But otherwise, this is a top-notch enclosure....

This works great. I installed a Sony 16x DVD drive that came out of my old desktop and have had no problems.

A very solid case. Easy to assemble with your veteran drive. Fan is noticeable but not disturbing.

I bought two cases:
One to keep my DVD-RAM Cartridge drive Panasonic SW-9574 in use. No issues here.

And one for my old Plextor Premium CD-Burner, which I like for the PlexTools C2 Error readout for quality checking of written CD-Rs. I had been skeptical, but this now still works with a USB connection between drive and computer!
However I had to limit the ripping speed to 40x (CD) as otherwise the drive sputters, spins up and stops a few times, and finally reduces speed to minimum 4x. Looks like a data transfer speed limitation of the IDE to USB adapter, which is why I don't assign the highest rating.

With Windows XP both my Vantec NexStar DX NST-530U2 cases worked on first USB plug-in without third party driver installation, and ever since.

I bought this about 9 months ago when I upgraded my pc which uses SATA instead of IDE. I still wanted to use my dvdrw dl drive. I have had no problems when I used this with my Dell 4550, Inspiron 9330, and XPS420. Never have any trouble burning, ripping, and playing dvds and cds in XP, Vista, or 7. It also works great as a external HDD. I love it!!

Pros: It Works, No issues with drivers, Vista recognized it. Enclosure feels very rugged, doesn't seem like it would break easily. USB and power cables have good length.

Cons: The IDE cable was rather temperamental. Computer didn't recognize the drive until the cable was bent the right way.

Point for being generous on the IDE cable length, but too much cable makes it hard to fit in the enclosure. I believe trying to fit the cable in had something to do with it being rather sensitive. Overall it's seems like dependable...but because of the IDE cable I wouldn't feel too comfortable carrying it with me.

easy setup no rocket science needed. Great product saved me a lot of money on upgrading my devices didn't need to install it in a desktop I use it for all my laptops.

thanks
Vantec NexStar 3 NST-360SU-BK 3.5-Inch SATA to USB 2.0 and eSATA External Hard Drive Enclosure (Onyx Black)

I had fits with getting windows to ID this device at first (64-bit 7 home premium). I reset the jumper on the dvd-rw drive several times and then just removed the tab completely. It works now. Make sure your drive is set to CS or cable select.Vantec NexStar DX NST-530U2 5.25-Inch IDE to USB 2.0 Optical Drive External Enclosure (Black)

It was a perfect fit for my 3.5" hard drive. Wires were easy to connect. Turned it on and it worked great. Thanks to the reviews that I read on this product helped me decide to buy this enclosure.

Recently I was lucky to locate a reasonably-priced legacy cartridge-type DVD-RAM burner. DVD-RAM unlocks the full capabilities of Panasonic DVD Recorders, and one of my Panny's will no longer read the plain RAM discs but still works fine with quality (=NOT Maxell!) cartridge-type DVD-RAMs. Besides, I like the way the cartridges protect the disc. Problem is, my pc's are laptops.

So I was happy to learn that there are external enclosures for 5.25 IDE optical drives, and even happier to find the Vantec. What a quality product...solid as a rock and works beautifully. As a nice bonus the power supply is internal instead of an external brick (how many of those can a person stand??), and I also appreciate the cooling fan (very quiet) and the traditional (not toggled) on-off switch.

I know that very few (if any) others are buying this to use burn or edit DVD-RAMs for use in Panasonic DVD Recorders, but for the sake of completeness I'll mention that the hardest part of the whole process was finding a program that would burn in the DVD-VR video format for DVD-RAM -- and getting it to work! But that mission was finally accomplished after weeks of trial and error. The Vantec was a big part of the complete solution.

Great product.