ICY DOCK ToughArmor MB994SP-4S 4 x 2.5 Inch SATA 6Gbps/SAS HDD/SSD Mobile Rack / Cage in 1 x 5.25 Inch bay

Unfortunately took me too many months to get around to actually fitting this device otherwise I would have returned it. The concept is really good, the price is reasonable. There are two reasons for knocking off three stars:1) You need ultra short mounting screws to fit this drive cage into a drive bay (I'm talking 1 or 2mm long). Regular length screws (once tightened) protrude too far into the case which then catches on the drive cages so you are unable to insert or remove the individual drive cages properly!2) I have been using the icy dock for less than a month now and the fans in the unit have started to make an appalling grindy/buzzy noise.Fortunately (?!?) the unit disassembles quite easily so I will be able to replace the two 40x40x10mm 12V fans, however, I was not expecting to carry out such an operation after only a month. If I could I'd add half a star back on for the ease with which the unit comes apart (and goes back together). Just a matter of removing 4 screws (2 either side of the case) and the fans and SATA connectors come out easily . A simple but effective design.

A good dock, great looks, easy to fit. However, its fan is noisy and rattles, and it cannot be turned off as indicated in the details. The version sent is the double Molex powered version, and does not have these features, while the SATA powered one does. Consequently, my super quiet PC now sounds like it's on its last legs, simply because of the terrible fan. Replacing with something else and very disappointed.

Good value for money

Le produit est conforme à ce que j'attendais, très professionnel et bien fini.Mais il est trop bruyant pour un usage domestique (2 x Ventilo 40mm).

I use these Icy dock bays to achieve storage capacities that exceed what could be achieved with 3.5" drives. Using the 4 bay MB994SP-4S I can fit 4 Seagate 5TB 2.5" drives into a single 5.25" bay. I have a modified super tower with 12 5.25" bays, an Adaptec 72405 RAID controller and a lot of data to store. The densest (as of the time I'm writing this review) for 3.5" drives is 10TB per drive with a 5 in 3 drive chassis, which would allow for 50TB in 3 bays. Where as with these drive chassis, 5TB X 4 per bay allows for 60TB in 3 bays. The 5TB 2.5" drive is 15mm thick and the MB994SP-4S allows for 15mm drives. the 6 bay version only allows for up to 9.5mm and the 8 bay model MB998SP-B allows for up to 7mm, which is perfect my Samsung 850 SSDs. When I am done, I will have 7 MB994SP-4S, 1 MB998SP-B and of course, a port expander for to allow for all the Seagate drives (the Adaptec 72405 only has 24 internal 6Gb/s SAS/SATA ports.) With a 1GB cache and each drive having a maximum internal transfer rate of less 200MB/s, putting the Seagate drives on port expanders for double the drives per channel will not impede the performance. 8 ports reserved for the SSDs and 16 ports attached to the port expanders, I will have the storage capacity I need without compromising performance. For that matter, I could use the Intel SATA controller on the motherboard for my least critical array and avoid the need for the port expanders. I haven't decided yet. LOL. Now, why Icy dock and not any of the other brands out there? Because the Icy dock drive bays are the highest quality and most reliable. Also, if I ever lose or accidentally damage a tray, I can buy just a replacement tray. These are perfect for hot swappable drives in a RAID environment.