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

Great quality enclosure, comes with thermal tape and the LEDs add a great wow factor BUT the engineers at ASUS seem to have not tested their creation. All NVMe M2 SSD enclosures have a mounting screw for the SSD. In this model, the screw does not sit flush and is very high (3/8 inch high) and despite a cutout on the top lid for the screw, I could not get it to close and click (locked into place) with both the ssd and screw in place. So I called ASUS support and they were unable to help. FYI, they (every department not able to help because you pressed the wrong #) will take your item serial#, name & phone# and THEN (try) to pass you to the correct department. 45 minutes and 3 departments later, I was at the correct department but they never heard of this problem. Maybe its me but the click to lock the top plate into place worked fine without the SSD inside of it (meaning the screw sat lower by the thickness of the ssd board). Once I removed the screw from the socket, attached the top plate and pressed down, finally: CLICK! So I reopened and took the extra piece of thermal tape to add cushion and take the place of the screw for a very tight fit and to keep the SSD in place and not move. If anyone googles SSD mounting screw vs tall ssd mounting screw, youll see the difference. I could order a low profile screw but the thermal tape should work fine.

The design is great looking and construction is solid it also protected my ssd when I accidentally left it on my pocket and went through the washing machine and dryer. I was scared they were both ruined but apparently it held up everything is running just fine

Best external do it yourself design for a housing option. Easy to use and cool piece on the desk. Cord is short so if laptop is on a stand you’ll need a different one. Door to secure card seems loose but isn’t coming off just slightly rattles

It is exceptionally build and looks great just like most ASUS products. BUT. At no fault of theirs but I have no use for it. I needed an enclosure for a WD Blue m.2 so I bought this. But it only works for NVME M.2s. So definitely read the specs before hand. It does look great though.

I bought this ASUS ROG STRIX Arion external SSD enclosure primarily so I could clone my Samsung 970 EVO Pro PCIe SSD onto a new drive in case I had a system SSD failure. Who want to have to reinstall everything again and start over on settings, etc. Not me. And I was looking for something that would be glitch free and something Windows would recognize as well as cloning software so I could do a reliable clone. And also something I could use to execute and play games. And this is the product in my opinion. It is not a flimsy product. Very well made with ample aluminum case and thermal pads to VERY EFFECTIVELY dissipate heat, which is a real concern with these SSD enclosures. After hours of use it is just warm to the touch. I was quite impressed and surprised. It comes with a A to C and C to C USB cable and everything you need other than a screwdriver to install you SSD disk. Just be sure to use the SSD install screw properly so the enclosure lid closes - place the SSD in between the grooves on the screw and tighten. I have an ASUS ROG STRIX Hero XI motherboard, and this enclosure uses the same lighting scheme Im using on my system. And BTW, this enclosure is pretty cool to look at - shiny black surface with the RGB lighting very pleasing to the eye. All I did was install the SSD, plug the enclosure into a USB 3.2 Gen 2 port (it is backward compatible also) and I was off and running. And I mean Running - with the 3.2 connection you get blinding fast speeds. I cloned, which takes longer than simple copying, a 115GB system Windows drive in under 7 minutes. One caveat that I was aware of before buying the enclosure you need to keep in mind if you intend to use this to clone your system disk. Windows WILL NOT recognize the SSD brand (Samsung, etc) as a branded product - i.e. Samsung 980 Pro, etc. It will only recognize the enclosure but will know it is an SSD with 512GB, etc. Just not the brand. Which means Samsung or any OEM cloning software WILL NOT work to clone your system disk. However, products such as Acronis True Image 2021, which I used will and will accurately clone the drive. This is not a limitation with this enclosure - its a windows USB thing. I highly recommend this product.

Very solid well made, thick aluminum case. Thumb screw may need a bit if grinder love to get latch system to work perfectly. Worth it.

This is an overpriced piece of art and well worth it in my opinion. I had a 2tb m.2 that I wasnt using, and I didnt want just some crap enclosure that wouldnt be quick enough for the m.2. I know that looking at the results the m.2 still isnt near the speed its capable of, but my laptop only has 2 m.2 spots and I already have 2 2tb drives in there. Im using it mainly as a media drive and things go so quick. My only con is the size, its kind of bulky when compared to the size of a m.2 drive, you could put two m.2 side by side and still have room and its about as thick as 3-4 m.2. That being said, I know the controller needs a lot of room to operate at the speeds it does. So, I tested my 2 drives in my laptop, a 5tb western digital black hdd external drive with usb-c 3.0 and the asus arion with a samsung 980 pro. Its 10 times faster than my hdd and about a quarter to a fifth as fast as the m.2 pcie slots.

Does exactly what it needs to, I bought it on sale which is what I would recommend you do. Its got all the good gamery aspects to it, and its nice thats its portable and comes with a little hook thing. One thing though is that once I have my drive in there, I cant really close it well? Maybe Im doing it wrong, but it seems like other reviews are pointing out the troubles with closing the thing.

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.

I had to modify the screw with a Drexel just so I could get it to close and when I tried connecting it, my phone just started acting weird like it wanted to charge the hard drive and not transfer anything so I just returned it.