Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)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....
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Vantec NexStar DX NST-530U2 5.25-Inch IDE to USB 2.0 Optical Drive External Enclosure (Black)
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