Features:
The NexStar SX is available in two colours, either black or silver (which we're testing today). As you can see in the pictures below, this enclosure certainly has class. I was very impressed with the looks of it. The top plate has the NexStar SX enclosure name on it as well as the Vantec logo. Switching over to the back, it has a little information box and the plug labels. Around the edges is a stylish chromed strip which meets up at the back connector plate which is entirely chromed.

The back plate has a little bit more than usual on this size of enclosure. From left to right; a power switch, DC jack (incase your USB bus can't provide proper power), power/activity LED and of course the USB connector on the far right. I thought the power switch was a nice touch so you can flip the drive off when not in use and save some power and isolate it from the computer.

The included bundle was also very quick to catch my eye. A very stylish leather wallet-style pouch is included to cary the NexStar SX in. When secured inside, this pouch is held shut by magnets hidden under the material. Also included is a mini screwdriver to screw the included mounting screws onto the bottom of the drive when it's installed. No hardcopy of the manual is included, however, it can be found in PDF form on the included driver mini-cd.

I'm also going to make a quick mention of the included USB cable. The end that plugs into your computer actually has a choice of two different plugs you can use. One is just a standard USB connector but the other end is a pass-through end. This means you plug it into a USB port and it allows you to plug another USB device into the back end of the plug. You can see this in the picture below.

Installation:
The first part of installation is to remove the top and bottom panels allowing you easy access to the inside to install and screw down the hard drive. To remove these, you're suppose to depress the two chromed buttons near the back panel then slide them off. However, I found the latches to be very poor and if I pushed hard enough without using the latches the panels would slide off anyway's.

As you can see in the picture below, inside the enclosure there are two black rubber strips running down each side. I'm going to assume these are there to help absorb some of the vibrations. However, when I went to install the drive I found that these rubber strips actually elevated the drive's pins higher than the connector on the back! After countless tries I discovered that the only way to actually install the drive was to peel these strips off. After I did that, the drive lined up and installed just perfectly. I'm not sure if this is a problem everyone will run into, or if it was just because of the design of my hard drive that I encountered this problem. Either way, if you have this problem it's an easy fix.

 
(Click to enlarge)