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

This is a really sleek, unique drive enclosure for M.2 NVME drives. I like that it has thermal padding on the inside that I dont have to mess with. Other external M.2 NVME enclosures require you to peel off adhesive and stick it on the drive; this one just has it built in and it makes contact with the drive once you close the case. I like the lighting, which can be controlled with the Asus app you can download. I cant give accurate speed test results because I dont have a direct USB-C device. I am using mine with the USB A to C cable, not the C to C cable (it comes with both). NOTE: If you have a NVME drive in this that has manufacturer tools (Western Digital, Samsung, etc), you should not expect to be able to use those tools. This drive presents itself to the PC as ROG STRIX Arion and nothing about the actual drive contained within it. Then one thing I would say is not on-par with the rest of the premium-ness of this drive is that the clip intended to secure this to a bag or something else is made of plastic. The spring on the closure for the clip isnt very strong and doesnt keep it closed very securely. The plastic doesnt seem very strong either, kind of 3D printed quality. It looks nice, and I might clip it to something INSIDE a bag, but I wouldnt trust it to hold my drive securely to anything external like a belt loop, MOLLE strap, etc.

Five stars for serving its intended purpose well. Of note, the thing is thick aluminum. It is deceivingly heavy. To me, this is great. I have no intention of testing its submergeability nor its dust resistance, however, it certainly appears and feels TUF af. The build quality is excellent, as one might expect for a $50+ enclosure. The drive didnt get excessively hot as the entire enclosure acts as a heatsink and when I benchmarked the M.2 I installed, it fell within the normal anticipated range. Just remember to initialize whatever drive you install in disk management. I am pleased with my purchase. One thing I do find disappointing is that Asuss entire line of M.2 enclosures only support 2TB. SSD prices are cratering whilst I type this. It would be nice to be able to grab a few 4TB and Ive not found an enclosure I appreciate more than the Asus TUF. I could complain about it being quite a bit more expensive than others, but Ive not seen another enclosure that feels, in the hand, as solid as this one. I value it greatly, but the same may not be true for everyone.

Excellent product.

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.

Reasonably priced, extremely quality built, easy install of drive. I also own an ORICO housing which is not weatherproof but much faster transfer speeds. This unit averages about 900 read speed and 800 write where the ORICO runs about 2500 both read and write but at a $100 price difference. The ASUS is still more than fast enough for most uses and I am using this for my drone photography and videography. Highly recommend.

Buena carcasa ssd, buenos materiales, robusta y funciona muy bien.

ASUS ROG strix is best enclosure out there, especially on the thermal pad!

+Works great on PC…>500mb/s speed. - it DOES NOT WORK as storage on TVs, receivers etc. (tested on LG OLEDS and Denon/Onkyo receivers). I have other adapters that do work on those (sabre something…) - You cant close the enclosure if using M2s with heatsink such as the 2TB WD black I got. It still works if you dont need to close and secure the lid.

Great product. Does what it says. The enclosure feels premium with the metal surface. Has some weight to it, doesnt feel like it will break if sat on or something. LOOSE COVER? Ive seen a number of reviews mention this. If youre having this problem I can almost guarantee you screwed in the SSD wrong. Theres a little notch/lip in the middle of the included screw. Make sure the SSD is resting on this lip and not clamped down underneath it. Otherwise, the screw cant screw in as far as it needs to for the cover to have the clearance to fully reclasp and lock.

I installed a Kingston NV1 SNVS/250G drive in this enclosure and I get around 700 mbps when copying from my WD Black SN850 1TB. Although speedy, I *think* I should be getting a little above that, even when accounting for USB protocol overhead. I mainly use it to ferry large files to and from my NAS, but I havent fully tested it yet. It gets slightly warm during use, but it keeps the drive working well within spec. I like that it integrates with Asus Aura (probably the main reason I bought this, after the performance). It has a few lights but nothing too fancy. You control the lighting with Armoury Crate, which a bloated mess of an app, but its better to have one bloated mess rather than several. Overall, Im quite happy with my purchase and would highly recommend if you are pursuing high transfer speeds and have other Asus Aura enabled devices.