ROG Strix Arion S500 Portable SSD - USB-C 3.2 Gen 2, NVMe SSD with DRAM, up to 1050 MB/s transfers, 256-bit AES Disk, 500 GB Capacity, NTI Backup Now EZ Software, Aura Sync

I have had a bad experience with a different product and decided to give a shot for this one. So far it works with Late 2014 iMac as supposed to. I am using it with 2TB WD M2 NVMe SSD to keep TimeMachine backups.

Love the product. The enclosure is fast. Is a very tough high quality build. Have bought 5 of them.

After struggling with other brands, went with this unit. Solidly built, but easy access to internals. Ran perfectly first time out, recognized instantly by PC. Perfect solution for cloning an SSD.

I love the feel and look of this enclosure. Probably let the sexiest looking enclosure I have owned to date. However I could not get it to close with the internal screw holding down the NVME. I tried removing the heat sink layers and yet that screw prevented it from closing. For now I just left out the screw and it’s basically closed and NVME held down by the casing. I was able to get over 900+ on read and write. Which is sufficient for video editing. In comparison, My 2019 MacBook 16” internal NVME gets about 2600+ read/write speeds.

Was skeptical about an nvme enclosure actually having good read and write speeds but its surprisingly great.

1. If plugged into a 3.2/3.1 gen 1 port (usually blue on motherboards) it works flawlessly. (5GBps ports) (I have no 2.0 ports to try unfortunately.) 2. When plugged into any type-A or type-C 3.2/3.1 gen 2 ports (type-A usually red on motherboards) will crash your comouter in a spectacular nerve wracking way. If it doesnt full on crash (usually trying to transfer under 1gb of data) it will come back with error 0x8007007079 (semaphore timeout expired) No matter how many cables you try. (These would be the superfast 10GBps ports) my really cool but slow 2.0 usb flash drive works on these ports this enclosure is the only thing I own that doesnt. 3. It looks so very cool，like a piece of artwork. Fun to just stare at it and zone out 4. If you dont care about the 10gbps speed and dont mind plugging it in to a slower port its wonderful. I unfortuantely have very few gen 1 ports (only 4) and i prefer to use these for keyboards and mice type stuff. Most of my ports (9 total) are the 3.2 gen 2 ports and its super annoying that i cantjust plug this into any port and have it work I dont want to be mindful of what im plugging it into. Currently talking to asus support to get this worked out. Will be keeping cause its so nice looking and does work overall jist not totally plug and play exactly.

The product is built well with quality components. I turned mine into a bootable PC using Windows2GO operating system. Just plug it into any PC and boot from the USB connection for a full featured portable PC that you take with you without adding or modifying anything on the host system. Works flawlessly for my purpose. Only drawback is the LED control. If used as a regular USB drive on a PC with existing LED Aurora control software, it conflicts and gives unpredictable results. Often the result is the LED cannot be changed or controlled. As a USB PC, it does not suffer that problem and is easily controlled by the Aurora SW on the operating system in the flash drive. Bought a case for it and used the foam in the shipping box to create a custom portable case. Turned out well I think

Using this to clone a Kingston A1000 M.2 NVMe SSD 240GB to a Samsung 970 EVO Plus 1TB. Nice piece of hardware. Solid. Only problem is, you will have to file the hold down screw. Absolutely will have to file the hold down screw. No way to close the cover without doing so. RGB is sweet. If your into it. Very well made but havent cloned my drive yet and havent connected to my system yet. I dont anticipate any issues but will update this review if needed. Nice piece of hardware even if it showed up a day late. Would buy again. Update: 11.28.20 Samsung Magician useless as it doesnt recognize its own 970 Plus M.2 while its in the enclosure. Drive shows as Asus ROG Strix. Used MiniTool Partition Wizard Pro to clone drive and it worked very well. You will have to file down a considerable amount of material off of the screw in order to close the enclosure completely. Other than that, a very well made item and expect it to last years unless the board goes bad. Well done Asus. Almost

USB 3.2 Gen 2x1 is supposed to have 10gbps speed. even factoring in transferring loss, I should have got around 8 to 9 gbps speed. but this enclosure can only get me around 480MB/s (4 gbps) speed. I used a 2TB WD black SN770 NVME drive. The 1 ft cable is too short. 2 ft should be optimal. The TUF Gaming A1 build quality is top notch. It is heavy and sealed well. The Q latch is plastic so how durable it could be remains to be seen. Overall, Im not satisfied with the price and speed I get.

I purchased this NVMe enclosure to bring with me to work. I work on specialty computer systems that power Immersive/shared reality, and often need access to a large and portable storage solution. The quality of the actual enclosure is top notch and I love it. The drive stays within adequate operating temperatures and the sturdy aluminum enclosure keeps the flimsy NVMe drive very safe and secure. I had purchased this enclosure specifically so I would be able to tote around the drive and have quick and easy access to it on my hip or key ring, which is why I was happy to see it came with a carabineer. The carabineer is awful quality and would not keep the enclosure securely fashioned to anything. Flimsy, easily breakable, a total joke. However, if youre like me and you intend on actually using the carabineer function, I highly recommend getting the Spidgen Rugged Armor Compatible with Apple AirTag Case Cover AirTag Holder to replace the crappy stock carabineer. The Airtag case portion can come off, and you can slip the NVMe enclosure on in its place. Together, these two products make for a highly portable and highly durable NVMe SSD enclosure. Were it not for the awful construction of the carabineer, I would have given this product 5 stars.