ICY DOCK8 Bay 2.5 SAS/SATA HDD/SSD Hot Swap Backplane Mobile Rack Enclosure for 2 x 5.25 Bay (2 x MiniSAS HD) | ToughArmor MB508SP-B

Been running this ToughArmor for about 8 months now in my Lenovo P520 and it's been rock solid. Was initially torn between this and some cheaper alternatives, but the full metal construction and MiniSAS HD connectors sold me - glad I spent the extra money.Installation was pretty painless once I figured out the cable routing. Fits perfectly in two 5.25" bays, though you'll want to make sure your case has enough depth. The included SAS cables are good quality and the connectors feel solid. My only minor gripe is that the mounting screws could be a bit longer - had to be careful not to cross-thread them.Hot-swap functionality works exactly as advertised. I've pulled drives while the system was running multiple times with no issues. The individual drive status LEDs are bright enough to see clearly, and the activity indicators actually help when troubleshooting. Build quality is genuinely impressive - this thing feels like it could survive a small earthquake.Running a mix of Samsung 870 EVOs and some older Intel enterprise SSDs with no compatibility issues. Temps stay reasonable even under heavy load, though I do have decent case airflow. The drive trays slide smoothly and lock securely - no wobbling or loose connections.Only real downside is the price, but you get what you pay for. This isn't for casual users - if you're just looking to add a couple drives to your gaming PC, there are cheaper options. But if you're building a proper server or NAS and need reliable hot-swap capability, this is worth every penny.Would definitely buy again for future builds. ICY DOCK clearly knows what they're doing with enterprise-grade storage solutions.

Works like a charm. Solid metal design, good airflow above and below for each slot, and a single power connector for all four (separate SATA data cables, one sata-power cable).Being me, I took the thing apart. Five screws and the backplane comes off, one more and its circuit board can be taken out and examined. Totally trivial, very well seated and secured... notches into the frame... zero wiggle room (good!). I counted 9 capacitors on the power distribution bus so they didn't cut any corners there. Inserting an HDD did not glitch the power for the other drives that were already in. I give the backplane a big thumbs up for design and engineering.The drive bays are solid. Considering that we are cramming four 2.5" drives into a 5.25" enclosure, the design is very good. The bottom of each bay drops out a little to give the bottom of the drive a little space. The areas near the screw holes are flush, though, but it didn't seem to have any issues mounting the seagate HDDs I had without a plastic protector (clearance on the HDD drive mounts is about 1mm to the drive's circuit board).It is not screwless... requires four screws (flatheads are included). Two are round holes, two are oval. Not sure why they didn't use round for all four but the two round holes are near the connector side so the drive's connector is guaranteed to be properly aligned. Easycakes, and honestly you only need to use two screws (in the round holes nearest the connector) anyway.The fan is the only downside, being small and noisy, but I still give the device 5 stars for several reasons. First, they included a fan control switch (OFF, LOW, HIGH settings). Second, airflow looks good for all four slots. In terms of the fan control, no point ever using 'HIGH'. Just use LOW or OFF. The LOW setting is definitely audible which is unfortunate but there isn't a whole lot of room on the design side considering the fan has to fit the height. On the plus side, not only is there an 'OFF' position (if you have SSDs, you don't need the fan), but if the case itself has good airflow you can physically remove the fan with two simple screws to open it up and allow the case airflow to handle any cooling requirements. The fan's power able goes to a connector and just pulls off, so its easy to remove.In fact, if you really wanted to and didn't want the hot-swap, you could unscrew the whole backplane and just use it as four permanent slots. Silly I know, but the case is so well engineered that it has that flexibility if you wanted it.Fan tests, Four 1TB Seagate HDDs. Writing mean all four drives writing continuously for 20 minutes or so. Temperatures taken using SMART info (all four returned the same temp within +/- 1C):idle, low fan: 26CIdle, no fan: 27C (i.e. PC case fan only, no direct airflow)writing, high fan: 38Cwriting, low fan: 41Cwriting, no fan: 47C (i.e. PC case fan only, no direct airflow)So with all those features and easy modding, ICY gets 5 stars.ADDENDUM - I had one issue with the dock. On one of the machines I used longer screws to mount the dock in the bay. They turned out to be too long and infringed on the tray area, causing damage to one of the trays which I didn't realize until I tried to pull the tray out and couldn't. This was my own fault. So remember to use the low-profile screws that come with the unit... or at least make sure they don't infringe the bays.ADDENDUM2 - If you purchase your own 40mm fan you may not be able to use the LOW setting. Depending on the fan, it might not startup unless you use the HIGH setting. I still definitely recommend purchasing your own low-noise 40mm fan and not using the cheap noisy one that comes with the unit. You don't need much airflow to cool HDDs (and don't need any at all for SSDs), so find the quietest 40mm fan you can and you will be a happy camper.The only downside to the unit is having to screw the drives into the hot-swap trays... in particular, losing the screws for the trays you aren't using atm. I recommend storing the unused screws in their plastic bag IN one of the unused trays.-Matt

What a great use for the useless 5.25 IN Bay on the Dell Precision 7920 ETC or any computer desktop. I even run one outboard off of another system with a SAS/SCSI Controller and it is a MAX cheap and works well device. Well worth the money spent. Also run one outside of another desktop that does not have the 5.25 in bay slot but I ran the ctrl cables and SATA power ext. Looks OK but a HACK. I would recommend these. By the way, construction is better than Dell's idea of a removable plus Doubled my SSD drives from 8 to 16 for my Broadcom 9460 16I controller on Dell 7920 ssd's don't need the fans. drive bay in size and engineering and PRICE!!! The Dell with all FLEX Bays installed limit you to 8 drives. This advanced my system to a real tool and big store.ONE CAVEATI am purchasing a second one of these and been involved in 3 other system upgrades using these and because the first is running so well. It is such a boost to have 8 more SSD drives available. You should note however to apply sufficient power rated supply to your system because I bet all the negative comments and "ONE STAR RATINGS" stem from people overloading their POWER SUPPLIES. Beware of using Power Supply Splitter devices to accommodate multiple devices especially in systems designed for single or dual drives. Even if you think the SSD Drives require less power. I note using a scope, that the B+ 5VDC especially gets dirty fast on overloaded supplies and can spook SSD drives as well as the Rotary Spinning ones on their DATA LINKS. If you have problems try to throttle back the DATA LINK speed if available. My Broadcom 9640 i16 controllers allow this and so do several of my Adaptec controllers. You might want to grab a decent controller before applying this ICY device to a overloaded noisy power source. These ICY back planes really work well when powered correctly. Remember avoid excessive use of power cable splitters! An intelligent power supply will not work with these devices and the DATA LINK is the first indicator i.e. drives dropping off line.Have Fun! Glad it's only a HOBBY!!!