SANS DIGITAL TR4UTBPN 4Bay USB 3.0 / eSATA Hardware RAID 5 Tower RAID Enclosure (no eSATA card bundled)

Pros: Aluminum casing.

Cons: Runs at 45 degrees Celsius with only 2 drives in there. Poor fan, poor I/O board, poor customer support. Spent 2 weeks trying to get another one cross shipped to me, which is unacceptable. The new one that they gave me has the same exact problems as the old one.

Other Thoughts: Honestly, I would completely avoid this product. If you're running 1 drive, that's fine, but I'm an HD video editor, and I need massive storage. This thing corrupts read/write data all the time, and with huge file transfers to and from the enclosure, this is unacceptable. They won't refund me my money, they will only replace or "repair" the module. I will be selling this on craigslist for cheap if anyone wants to buy. I'll be buying a professional module after this, no more cheap stuff that isn't worth the material it's made with.

Pros: I have set the box up with 4 drives.
2 500 gig RAID 1
2 2TB RAID 1
It was apiece of cake to set this configuration using the RAID software.
I am running Windows Home Server with Serviio (a free Media Streaming Server). It works well and streams to everything in my house including my Android Phones, TVs and an XBox using only USB 2.0! I'll upgrade soon.

I have Videos, Music, and Photos on the box and used RAID 1 because of paranoia and ease of use.

Cons: Gee the lights are too bright!

Other Thoughts: I don't understand all of the problems others described. It was pretty much a plug and play for me.

Pros: I love the CLONE mode. My highest priority is data safety.

I have a Mac, and the device works pretty well, though there have been issues with the utility software.

I like the hot swapping in theory, though in practice OS-X treats any ejection from the device as if ALL drives were ejected.

The controller lets you configure the bays separately via the RAID Manager software, so you can have a couple drive slots do cloning or other 2-disk RAID and others provide individually accessible drives.

Emailed support questions have been answered in a reasonable length of time, given the cost of the product.

Cons: Documentation is awful. Some features aren't available because they refer to non-existent documentation, or perhaps to nonexistent utility software features.

If you don't have everything set up perfectly at the start, there's no apparent way to fix things later - you have to rebuild your RAID, which reformats your drives.

The enclosure seems to store some essential configuration info on the hard drives themselves. So if you configure a drive to use in the enclosure, you need to find some way to erase that info in order to reuse the drive, say, to replace a dead RAID mirror.

Other Thoughts: This might actually be a mind-blowing product. I can't quite tell, because it requires so much experimentation to figure out what it can really do. And the last thing you want to experiment with is your backup storage device!

The hot-swap would work a lot better if the controller could help OS-X ignore "irrelevant" ejections. For example, if I eject one drive in a CLONE, the other remains on-line, and the ejection shouldn't matter. Or, if I have two separately configured volumes in the enclosure, I should be able to hot-swap one volume without creating a bogus "eject" warning on the other volume.

Pros: Works great by ESATA; albeit slower than USB 3.0 would

Cons: completely unreliable via USB 3.0. constantly drops out. tried updating my drivers w/o any help. even thought maybe it was the USB 3.0 ports on my MB so got an addon PCI-E USB 3.0 card. still no better

Manufacturer Response:

Thank you for purchasing our products.

There is firmware update for the USB 3.0 to eliminate the problem with disconnect and reconnect. We also recommend connect to a USB hub to check if there is any issues with the onboard USB 3.0 port. Some of the motherboard manufacture creates the USB 3.0 port out of USB 3.0 specification and hence, generating issues.

For USB 3.0 add-on card selections, please contact us and we can provide a controller card that qualified with our units.

If you are having problem on the unit, please contact us by calling 1-800-980-1988 for technical support and our engineer will try to resolve it over the phone. You can also contact us at tech@sansdigital.com for e-mail supports.

Pros: Fast ESATA conection, zero problems running 2 red drives in RAID 1. Solid case.

Cons: USB3 drops connection during large file transfers.

Other Thoughts: I haven't tested the recovery yet for the pair.

Pros: Don't know yet, since the unit has not performed to expectation.

Cons: . USB 2.0 connection to an EX490 only recognized one drive. Not sure whether something else is needed, or the unit is defective. Been trying to contact Sans Digital Tech Support at 1-800-980-1988. Could not get thru the phone. Tried tech@sansdigital.com as well. May need to request Newegg for RMA.

. SATA cables block the cooling fan.

Other Thoughts: Used Sans Digital product in the past with good result. Disappointed with this order.

Manufacturer Response:

Thank you for purchasing our products.

Our response time is within 1 business day and please check with your spam folder for e-mail response.

Unless it does not setup using as JBOD mode, you should be able to see 4 drives using 1 USB cables. Please contact us again if you cannot make it to work.

If you are having problem on the unit, please contact us by calling 1-800-980-1988 for technical support and our engineer will try to resolve it over the phone. You can also contact us at tech@sansdigital.com for e-mail supports.

Pros: Works as advertised. No complaints so far.

Cons: Nothing yet

Pros: Very easy set up using Raid 5 with four 1TB Western Digital WD1002FAEX Hard Drives.

Do not need eSATA card for raid controller. Self containing.

Cons: Average around 100MB/s through eSATA even though the specs list as 164MB/s.

SATA cable management is horrible. They block the fan and it barely lets any air through the system. The Hard Drives get very hot. I had to take apart and cut the cable ties to free up some room so the fan can be more efficient in moving the air. You will see for yourself once you install the Hard Drives.

Other Thoughts: Since I organized the SATA cables it is much cooler.

They should of added a fan in the front on the door. That would have been a much more efficient way of cooling the Hard Drives instead of cramming it into a small spot.

Manufacturer Response:

Thank you for purchasing our products.

The performance for the unit is based on PCIe controller card, using PCIe x1 2.0. 100MB/s seems to be limited by the PCIe x1 1.0 specification.

If you are having problem on the unit, please contact us by calling 1-800-980-1988 for technical support and our engineer will try to resolve it over the phone. You can also contact us at tech@sansdigital.com for e-mail supports.

Thank you.

Pros: Bought 2 more recently, for a total of 4. The new ones set up painlessly, 4x WD20EARX 2GB drives each, RAID5, working well after a week. The older pair have been running 24/7 for over 6 months in a warm, dusty, equipment cabinet, with 4x HD204UI 2GB drives each, RAID0. They've been fast, reliable, and cool under heavy use. (eSATA only -- haven't tried USB)

I was pleasantly surprised to find that these enclosures are compatible with the "Addonics AD5ESAPM-E" external port multiplier.

Cons: Have to remove take off the outer shell to add/remove drives.
Optional monitoring utility was unstable on one of the Windows 7 Pro 32-bit system.

Other Thoughts: All the basic RAID types can be set using a dial on back, like I did. You only need the software for advanced RAID configuration like a "hot spare".

Maybe it's my choice of drives, but I've had no heat issues -- the drives are just warm. Yes, the internal cables are bunched up in front of the fan, but I left them alone and still feel a strong flow of hot air coming out the rear. There are enough vent holes on the sides of the enclosures, that I'll probably just disconnect (rather than replace) the fans when they die.

Pros: All good in terms of does it work. See Cons for problems. I have two of the new boxes and one old eSATA box from the same manufacturer (still works). Running HDSentinel software to monitor drive temps. It hits 114-115MB/sec consistently and that transfer speed is generally maintained over an extended period of time.

Cons: Fan in each new box does not move enough air fast enough to do the job it is supposed to do (keep drives cool). Two identical boxes installed via USB3--just sitting on an open desktop (i.e. not recirculating heated air). Room temp is maybe 22C-25C. Just one drive in the first box--it is 39C. Two drives in second box (spaced apart) are 41C and 45C. Tested three drives in a box and temp ranges were 45C to 50+C. No air flow through front door (while it is closed) blocks effective cooling over everything--all drives and the bottom-mounted power supply get too hot. The old eSATA box has a perforated front door and the standard fan kept 4 drives at a temp that was slightly warm to the touch--and did it for 4 years. The 39C drive and the 45C drive were both in that old eSATA box--so it is not the drives generating *more* heat.

Other Thoughts: I replaced the fan in the old eSATA box when it died--no big deal. They need to replace the existing fan connection with a standard 2- or 3-pin standard 80mm fan connector not attached to the circuit board. That way, the fan can be easily replaced and no wire-cutting or splicing is required.