Mediasonic ProRaid H8R2-SU3S2 RAID 0 / 1 / 3 / 5 / 10 / 50 8 3.5" Drive Bays USB 3.0 / eSATA 8-Bay External Hard Drive Enclosure

Pros: 8 Drive Capacity
Many Raid Level
Quiet on low fan setting
Fairly Fast

Cons: Little to no Documentation
Instruction references steps that doesn't exists

Other Thoughts: My last review was pretty negative, where I couldn't find any help or documentation on the website. I finally follow the leads of one of the review and looked into their forum section. Found a firmware update, and updated both controllers. Now I am getting a steady 60 - 70Mb write speed. Disregard the forum thread that says firmware update for raid 50 only. I am using raid 5, and I took a change to see if performance would be better since I was getting topped out at 8Mb write. And sure enough the firmware did fix the major issue.

Pros: Single connection interface, not like the competition where they include a 2-port PCI-e card or make you use 2 connections.

No need for port multiplier to access all 8 disks

Software to monitor the RAID health, visit their forum and gram the JMicron HW RAID Manager.

Auto detect USB/Esata interface

Great if your requirements are in need of 16TB to 24 TB over a single interface.

Everything comes in the box you need, cables, screwdriver, etc

The unit auto sleeps when it detects no connection

Cons: The setup!

Reading the instructions is a must before you even put your first HDD in.

Cannot use RAID5 using all 8 disks, only option is to use RAID 50 which is 2 sets RAID 5 in RAID 0.

Bright blue LED always active for any bay that is currently occupied by a HDD, then flashes purple for read/write access

The keys are exactly the same cut as my H82-SU3S2,this means if you have one of these units your keys will work on any unit, there goes security!

Uses dual 80mm fans instead of a single 120mm (personal preference.

A bit slow to me when using 4x Samsung 750GB HDDs in RAID 0 via USB3 or Esata, although Esata seems to handles a bunch of smaller files faster than USB3 such ad a folder with 1000 JPEGs.

No SSD support but i knew this a long time ago

Other Thoughts: I brought the H82-SU3S2 back in may and wanted this to run in RAID 0 to back up everything and i wanted it to show up as a single HDD.

On initial setup i could not get the thing working for hours, it would just turn on then a few seconds later turn off, then i got a bright idea "lets try reading the manual" lol. In order to use certain modes the HDDs must be loaded in preselected bays or the unit wont work. I had 4 HDDs and could not use RAID 0 when i loaded bays 1-4 to use that mode, i had to use bays 1,2,5, and 6. Now if i wanted to use 2 sets of RAID 0 then i could use bays 1-4.

The unit lost my RAID 0 when i moved it from my Windows 7x64 box to my WHS V1 unit the first time around, received "no active partitions found error" after checking HDD management i fount it was split in 2 partitions, both not active and needed to recreate a single partition again.

Seems a bit slow to me when using 4x Samsung 750GB HDDs in RAID 0. Although all transfers started at 80MB/s using a 4GB video file the speed dropped in a few seconds. Using a PCIe X1 card with VLI chipset and latest drivers for USB 3 it dropped to 40MB/s while transferring data. On Esata using Intel ICH9 AHCI controller it leveled off at 30MB/s, same for the onboard JMicron JMB36X controller and 60MB/s using Silicon Image 3132 PCIe X1 card. All using latest drivers along with the unit using the latest firmware for the RAID 50 fix from Mediasonic forums. I transfered the same file back to my desktop at 120MB/s though. About 45 minutes to transfer 180GB of 1786 files over Esata Sil 3132 chip at 65MB/s, not bad at all.

I still cannot believe that Newegg shipped this thing from CA to NY in the original retail box, the same thing was done when i ordered the H82-SU3S2, this box came in better condition though, just the adhesive seam came loose.

Im still waiting for HDD prices to become sane, i need 8 2TB drives to fill this thing ASAP.

Pros: Lightweight, Small Form Factor, USB 3.0, eSata, Raid 50, & Plug n Play Setup.

The caseing is Plastic yet looks and feels nice, so expect it to be lightweight. To the users below, you must read the manual and specifications this unit does not support 8 disc raid 5 configurations. You must do a raid 50 configuration to utilize all 8 drives in a single drive. I read this so I respond accordingly. Running 6 (was 8...) western digital red drives, getting on eSata/USB 3.0 80-100mb's writing, and 150-200mb's reading in the raid 50. So raid 50 is a plus.

Very touchy on the S.M.A.R.T errors, if your drive reports ANY, the enclosure marks the drive as bad. I count that as a plus that way your data can be safe. May work both ways thoe... then again if you want to replace a bad drive your just asking for data failure :)

Cons: No Interface to Manage the Unit, no 100% way to read S.M.A.R.T data.

USB 2.0 speeds were only 20-30mb's a second. Not sure how normal this is.

Other Thoughts: If you expierence Disconnects/Reconnects of the drive, VERIFY all drives are 100% S.M.A.R.T Pass, no warning parameters. If you are using Etron USB 3.0 chipsets, give up; its a terrible Chipset, thats my lot. Get NEC for USB 3.0 Chipset.

You CAN read the S.M.A.R.T data of these drives, IF YOU USE raid 5 (not raid 50) with USB (not eSata), you must use a program called HD Sentinal, hope this helps someone wanting to see this data on there drive. Otherwise the data is unavailable with any other configration I tried.

I still rate it a 5/5 becuase the unit essentially hasn't caused me any issues and is exactly as expected.

PS. If you need support, their forums are great and they do have phone support, its on the non canada website for MediaSonic.

Pros: Does what its suppose to do!
It has a Key Lock with 2 set of keys as well as a Kensington Security Slot. No one can easily take your data.
Good speeds and good quality build.
It has a great sustained transfer rate.

Cons: The only Con i would give it is not being able to do Raid5 with the entire 8 drives but i knew this and have no other choice. They offer Raid50 which is 2 sets of raid5 in 0 which is not bad as all and almost like Raid6 with the ability to sustain 2 drive failures as long as it is not in the same layer.

Other Thoughts: I wish the USB 3.0 cable was at least 1' Longer.
I will Be putting 8 x 3TB Seagate 7200RPM Drives but for now i have 8 2TB (4 WD black and 4 WD Green)
One drive is 2.5TB I (am just testing.) Keep in mind you can always raid with different capacities but will only use up to the smallest drive capacity across each disk.

8 x 2TB in RAID50 gives you 10.9TB in a NTFS formated disk. (To calculate your estimated size just subtract 2 disk size after format size for mine =
2TB in Windows =1.82TB
1.82 * 8 = 14.56TB
14.56-3.64= 10.92TB (Subtract 2 drives worth)
So if you had 3TB drives you would have=16.32TB
4TB drives (if it works, which it should)= 21.6TB

Pros: Easy to setup, works as advertised, hardware raid within the box itself means I can plug and play into any computer/notebook. No hiccups on 500gb+ transfers

Cons: Not as fast as other RAID boxes (but still far faster than any single internal HDD), but that's the compromise I was willing to make in return for ease of connectivity to any computer via esata or usb3.

Other Thoughts: Eight 2TB Seagate enterprise drives in a single RAID 50 array working smooth as butter so far. People complaining about their eight drives being split into two 4-drive arrays should have read the manual. It clearly states that RAID 5 will give you two arrays, whereas RAID 50 will give you one big one. RAID 50 is better anyways.

Pros: It sets up a raid 50! It reads and writes fast and I'm getting super fast speeds through the USB 3.0. Runs cool and has yet to give me a single problem.

Cons: The other reviews make sense if all you want is a raid 5, but the box does a lot more than just that.

Other Thoughts: I would love to see this box be able to set up a RAID 6. This would help with a 2 drive failure.

Pros: Setup two 4-drive 2tb arrays in a couple seconds.

Cons: Like two other reviews here, I was surprised and disappointed when this device split 8 2tb drives into 2 4-drive arrays instead of one 8-drive array. what a waste of time and money. this is the only reason that many people will buy this drive. mediasonic should advertise this thing better. i can't find any enclosure that will do an 8 drive hardware raid 5 array

Other Thoughts: i feel deceived by mediasonic

Pros: Easy plug and play, no problems with usage.

Cons: As the other reviewer stated, no where on the product page does it state that this unit can not operate in 8 bay RAID settings. It splits the RAID configuations into 2 4-bay setups. (Except RAID 0) Wanted this for a RAID 5 setup with 8x3TB for usable space of 21TB. Can't happen, using RAID 5 with 18TB space.

Pros: This is a Mediasonic RAID storage box with 8 drive bays. If you are looking for two sets of RAID drives in one box, then it works nicely like the other smaller Mediasonic PAID boxes. You might want this if you have only one USB3 connection etc. In those ways it works, hence the two good eggs.

Cons: This is poorly advertised. You CAN NOT set this box up using all eight bays in a single useful RAID configuration. For instance You CAN'T use all eight drives in a single RAID 5 array. It maxes the RAID array at four drives, so you can only get two sets of four drives with RAID 5 THIS IS NOT GOOD! Similarly with RAID 10, you can only use four drive bays for the RAID 10 configuration. You can get two RAID 10s going with four drives each, but you CAN NOT set it up as a single ARRAY with all eight drives. -WORTHLESS! Don't be decieved, it does not support usable RAID 5 or RAID 10 in a configuration using more than four bays for each RAID array.

Other Thoughts: This is our seventh Mediasonic unit. The other six are 4-bay units which, for the most part, work fine.

Pros: Hardware raid is the best. Solid contsruction, easy to setup, raid 50 a big plus. I have eight 3tb hitachi 5400rpm and getting 100MB/s on transfers and the drives run cool.

Cons: The included instructions were not too clear on setting the raid. So listen, make sure to connect the unit your pc. To set the raid there must NOT be any drives in unit. After setting the raid, press and hold the confirmation button at the back until the unit shuts off. Now add the drives and it will set up automatically

Other Thoughts: I plan on buying another in the near future