Rosewill 3.5 Inch Hard Drive Enclosure to USB 3.0 / eSATA. External Hard Drive Case Aluminum Body, Built-in Cooling Fan and Fan Switch. Support 3.5” SATA III / II / I Hard Drive up to 6TB and UASP function.

This review is for the Rosewill RX-358 U3C BLK USB3.0 External Hard Drive Enclosure with eSata support.It was time to replace my aging 2TB USB2 External Hard Drive Enclosure with a faster USB3 Enclosure. After doing the research and knowing how hot the existing enclosure got during long backup operations I needed an enclosure with air-cooling. This enclosure, the Rosewill RX-358 U3C was my choice. This unit is very sturdy and made almost entirely of metal and has a quiet exhaust fan to remove the heat from the enclosure, which keeps the hard drive operating very cool. I installed a new 2TB Seagate Enterprise Value HDD, ST2000NC000, into this unit and this unit is working very well.Pros:1. Mostly metal construction, very well built. (Side panels are plastic)2. Active air-cooling using a heat exhaust fan.3. USB3 data transfer speed.4. Backward compatable with USB2.Cons:1. None at the present time.Other:1. My installed ST2000NC000 HDD is Advanced Format 4KB sectors with 512e emulation. The drive operates in the Rosewill RX-358 U3C enclosure with no problems. (Full formatted MBR within the enclosure)2. I would suggest installing a 2TB or smaller hard drive if using the enclosure on multiple computers to ensure the broadest range of compatibility.3. eSata works correctly, however, without hot-swap controller support the PC may require being shutdown to properly remove the attached eSata hard drive. (O.S. may freeze or panic otherwise)I hope this helps.

I purchased three of these enclosures in 2015, and have had no problems whatever. Not only are the enclosures sturdy and well-constructed, they stand on the side, permitting maximum venting through the enclosure fan to dissipate the build-up of heat. Despite the fact that the specs suggest only a 6 TB maximum, I use a variety of large capacity drives, including the 20 TB Seagate 3.5 hard drives with no problem.I've looked at additional, new enclosures and find they all either lack fans and or have fans with significant design flaws, reducing an enclosure's cooling properties. After doing a long backup of over 12 hours, I note that the enclosures keep the hard drives between 37 and 41 degrees C. Using a Sabrent enclosure without a fan, the drives heat measured between 47 and 49 degrees C after a similar period of use.These enclosures are intended for full-time use, but it is not at all difficult to exchange drives, requiring a screw driver and 6 screws. Certainly not as convenient as the Sabrent, where drives can be easily popped in and out with the press of a button, and the Rosewill is not set up for SSDs. But if you want an effective cooling system and a well-constructed chassis, this product fills the bill.

REVISED REVIEW: (original review is below)=========================================I've raised my star rating on this from two stars to four stars because of further testing I've done.My goal in ordering this was to use USB 3.0 instead of the eSATA I'm currently using on the USB 2.0 version of this enclosure. My motherboard doesn't have eSATA ports, so I'm using two SATA connections for eSATA brackets, but I need those SATA ports for other drives. I was hoping that using USB 3.0 would allow me to do this.I originally ordered two of this enclosure, but both gave me problems and so I returned them and wrote the two star review. However I've been using the USB 2.0 version of this enclosure for about four years and have been very happy with it. It's the ideal solution for my needs, so i took a chance and ordered another of the enclosure I'm reviewing here. I only ordered one, thinking that if it worked better than the original ones I bought, I'd order another one. I've done a lot more testing and found that the problems in the first ones I ordered might have been my motherboard and not the enclosures.When I tested the enclosures last time, I only tested them in the PC I use daily in my work, which has an MSI Z87-GD65 motherboard. This time I also tested the enclosure in a PC I built four years ago, which has an Asus Sabertooth X58 motherboard. The enclosure works perfectly every time with the Asus Sabertooth Z58 motherboard, but gives me all sorts of problems with the MSI Z87-GD65 motherboard (which is otherwise an extremely fine motherboard). The problems mostly seem to happen when I'm using 3TB drives; I assume this means it would be a problem for any drive larger than 2TB. I've tried connecting it to the PC both USB 3.0 and also eSATA, but both cause a variety of problems, some with no obvious connection. Sometimes the eSATA just doesn't work, sometimes the eSATA doesn't work, and sometimes there are unrelated problems that only happen with this enclosure containing a 3TB drive. On one occasion, the video signal stopped and on another occasion, my boot drive stopped being recognized. These problems always happen on the PC with the MSI Z87-GD65 motherboard. When the enclosure is disconnected, there are no problems, and there are also no problems when I connect it to the PC with the Asus Sabertooth X58 motherboard.I don't know whether the problem is in the MSI or in the enclosure. There's an incompatibility somewhere. That's the reason I'm giving it only four stars. However I suspect the problem is in the MSI motherboard. If I had only used this enclosure on the Sabertooth, I'd give it five stars.I've gone back to using my original USB 2.0 version of this enclosure and eSATA, but I still want to free up those two internal SATA ports, so I've ordered a PCIe eSATA expansion card (MaxPower eSATA 6G Pro PCIe Controller Card) that I'll use with the old enclosures. instead of using USB 3.0Here's my original review:=========================I bought two and both were very disappointing. I'm a computer professional with multiple PC's and I've been using Rosewill enclosures for eight years. I have several of this same model but with USB 2.0 and I've been completely happy with them. The same week that I ordered two of this USB 3.0 model, I told a friend how satisfied was with my Rosewill 3.5" and 2.5" enclosures. They've all been excellent... until this one.If you only use smaller hard drives, you'll probably like this Rosewill. I spent several hours testing them along with the older USB 2.0 model on various hard drives sized 250GB, 500GB, 2TB, and 3TB. The smaller drives were fine on both USB 3.0 and esata.The 2TB and 3TB drives however had intermittent problems, particularly the 3TB drive. When was using USB 3.0, the 3TB drive often prevented the computer from booting. It didn't even get to the BIOS setup screen. As soon as I powered off the enclosure, the computer would boot normally. The strange thing however is that about 20% of the time, it would boot normally. The 2TB drive didn't have a problem in USB.The 2TB and 3TB drives both had problems in esata. The problems were intermittent. Unlike with USB, they didn't stop the computer from booting, but they were not recognized either in BIOS or in Windows.The smaller hard drives had no problems at all in either USB or esata.I bought two of this enclosure in the hope that by using USB 3.0, I could avoid having to install esata brackets in a computer I've just built, but I am using 2TB and 3TB drives, so that's not going to work for me. I'm therefore returning these drives for a refund. However if you are using smaller drives, they will probably work well for you.I've been using the USB 2.0 version of this enclosure for about four years. I have four of them. They are reliable and keep the drives relatively cool, so I'm disappointed in this newer model.The one drawback to these enclosures is the number of screws required to assemble them, and the complexity of assembling the side rails. This is only necessary if you're going to fasten the drive with screws inside the enclosure. I actually never do this. The drives fit in the enclosure snugly enough that they never loosen in my experience. However this is because I don't move the enclosures around very much. If you are moving them regularly, then you should definitely screw the drive securely into the enclosure.I've been so happy with previous Rosewill enclosures that I really hate writing a negative review, but the two enclosures I received simply do not work well with larger hard drives.