Just set this up today, and I'm doing a stress test. I installed five drives that were recently replaced in my file server. All were recognized immediately on startup with no need for any drivers or other setup. Just plug in, turn on and go. I'm now running long generic tests on all five drives simultaneously and monitoring the temperatures using CrystalDiskInfo. All five are running cool and temps are holding steady after several hours. Tests are running at normal speeds and the device is providing adequate power, connectivity, and cooling to all five. If I had to mention anything, it's that the drive rails are a bit tight and despite that, the drives aren't aligned exactly with the SATA connectors and it takes a bit of wiggling to get them aligned and connected. The door on the front is also a little flimsy and you can't see the LED indicators through it unless you are directly in front of it. The latch is also a little finicky, in that you have to press it much harder than expected to get it to latch, and it doesn't spring open. You have to pry it a bit with your fingernail. Those "complaints" are nothing though. My plan is to use this as a JBOD setup for a software raid and this looks like a product that will do exactly what I need it to do for a very good price. Read more
The enclosure came in very secure. It worked right out of the box and once filled with drives and connected to my linux box, it worked with no significant issues (see below). I'm not using it for RAID or anything fancy just a raw drive enclosure. It was easy to add the drives to the included caddies and in to the enclosure. All the lights worked and were visible as were listed in the instructions. Previous reviewers mentioned the build quality. I had no issues. The drive door did seem a little light weight but it did its job just fine. Just don't go swinging or banging on the door and it will last. After getting one running I quickly ordered a second one and when the second one is full I'll order a third. I suggest anyone looking for a drive enclosure consider this one. I did listen to one reviewer and before adding any drives I opened it up and removed the 80mm fan. It was easy to do and I thought it wouldn't pull much air (I should have tested it first). An external 120mm fan was hot glued on the back of each enclosure. One was faced to "push" air in and the other to "pull" air out. The paper test was used to judge flow by holding a small piece of paper in front of the front grill and observing if the paper gets sucked or pushed from the grill. It showed both methods worked perfectly to move air. I do wish I set both to "pull" air as the 80mm did. Even though the paper test showed adequate air movement, when I put my hand behind the "push" fan it feels like alot of wasted air is being sent backwards out of the fan. Could this be lost pressure? The "pull" fan has no leaks or lost pressure. My Linux box seemed to have a problem seeing all the drives til I found the proper sequence in connecting everything. Put drive in enclosure and turn the enclosure on. Startup the Linux box. Once booted connect the enclosure to the computer and it will eventually (~1 minute) see the drive and load up the mount point. Once I figured it out I had absolutely no issues with the connection. Read more
UPDATE2: Well, now that its sleepig again, its now killing my drives. Its eaten 2 very healthy and new drives. Its time to trash this trash! UPDATE: after about a year of it working fine and not sleeping, it just decided to start sleeping again. And Ive checked every single setting, port, USB, sleep this and that a million times, it just puts all the drives to sleep and its annoyingly horrible. I give up, im tossing this garbage and will be buying a quality product. Setup was super easy, was recognized quickly under Win10, and the build, for the price was not bad. Super happy with my purchase, until it started falling a sleep. Like many here, I tried EVERTYHING, all power options, set nothing to sleep, but after 10 mins of no activity, the whole thing goes to sleep and the drive letter disappear. You can reboot the PC and it will NOT come back. Only way to wake it is to power off and on again. Then if no activity, back to sleep it goes, no drive letters, no wakie wakie. Man.. this sux, I have to return it and try a different one. :( UPDATE!: HOW TO FIX: So I figured this out, its not the drive, its not Windows XX putting the drive to sleep, its Windows putting the USB ports to sleep! goto DEVICE MANAGER>USB PORTS, Right click select PROPERTIES, then click on the POWER MANAGEMENT tab at the end, and un-check ALLOW THE COMPUTER TO TURN OFF THIS DEVICE TO SAVE POWER. Boom! she wont go to sleep. Working great now. Taking one start away for the seller not knowing this. Another for not having any form of GUI, but I still like it and im going to keep it as a cheap external HD solution! Read more
