ASUS ROG STRIX Arion Aluminum Alloy M.2 NVMe SSD Exterior Transportable Enclosure Case Adapter, USB 3.2 Gen 2 Kind-C (10 Gbps), USB-C to C and USB-C to A Cables, Matches PCIe 2280/2260/2242/2230 M Key/B+M Key

Beautiful, well designed totally plug and play enclosure – blazing fast speeds on external device
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 I’m 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 – it’s a windows USB thing.I highly recommend this product.

Great product!
Absolute value for the money. Easy to use and operate with the Asus appeal and quality. Extremely durable and built with upmost protection in mind. Transfer speeds have exceeded all my expectations and works well with my Samsung EVO 1TB SSD. My only complaint is my laptop doesn’t like to eject it before unplugging it, but havnt had an issue with that using any other computer, nor have I had an issue with corrupted data.

Looks and feels premium as hell! Though the thermal pads need work.
This thing is amazing. The assembly was easy and it worked immediately. I love it. Only issue I had was when I opened it and found a note inside with a thermal pad stuck to it. I had to peel the pad off to read the instructions that told me not to touch the thermal pads LoL. Hopefully this never leads to any issues but this was the only challenge to the assembly.I think the solid metal construction will help dissipate heat nicely and the RGB is a super premium addition that makes it look great with my ROG laptop.

GOOD QUALITY. ITS JUST WHEN I INSTALL THE SSD INSIDE, I CANT CLOSE THE COVER PROPERLY.

This case is a two minute tool free/screw-less install to put the drive in, after that the enclosure snaps together with a mechanism that makes it incredibly secure. The read and write speeds are by far the best of any enclosure I’ve used and it makes great use of the USB 3.1 Gen 2 capabilities.With previous enclosures I’ve tried, I found that some of the cheaper M.2 drives would create so much heat that the enclosure itself was too hot to even touch. The included thermal pads with the Asus have had no such problem for any of my drives, and at worst the case can feel ‘warm’.I tend to throw my drives into bags, suitcases, field toolkits and into various locations of workshops or desks, and they detect first team each time and have never shown a single scratch, bend, warp or fault, despite the rough treatment. The included harness for the drive is perfect for latching inside toolbags also, no more digging through kit to find it at the bottom.While I’m not a big fan of the RGB that the drive has, especially as it’s a power-on/always-on inclusion, it does work well and would tick the box for people who like their tech to gradually colourshift through the colours.Besides the RGB, the only other questionable points of the drive is build quality of the harness and the placement of the USB-C port on the enclosure.Having the port it at the bottom of the drive like that can make the port feel ‘exposed’. There’s no significant recessed port surrounds on the enclosure, so any force on that cable would go directly into the internal component. This also adds a risk because there’s no rubber grip pads or feet like a standard 2.5″ external drive would use, so a accidental swipe of the hand and the drive can easily skid off the working surface and yank or be left hanging directly by that hardware. There also could have been a easy win here by including a sliding dust protector for when no cable is plugged in.The harness included with the drive is unfortunately velcro latched, so with a bit of force it or with enough time, the velcro would eventually fail and come apart. The ‘R’ shaped carabiner clasp is probably the worst part of this drive all together however, it’s a very flimsy plastic feel with a horribly weak latch. It only takes a slight push of the thumb you can feel it flexing badly, to the point where I’m shocked I’ve not broken one yet.Easy solution to pick up a simple paracord style loop with a small aluminum carabiner and fit it on there yourself.Even with those few quality misses though, I’ll happily continue getting these enclosures until someone manages to build one that can outperform them, as they’re still the best value for money around.