iStarUSA BPU-340SATA-BPL 3x5.25" to 4x3.5" SAS/SATA 6.0 Gb/s Hot-Swap Cage - OEM

Pros: Works well in hot-swap once you convince Windows to use the AHCI drivers instead of standard sata.

Cons: One issue which is easily remedied... power button on one drive triggers others to drop as well. Simple fix is to just eject drive in windows and pull it without pressing the button. Then when you put it back in, just slide the drive in and lock. Drive spins up and windows recognizes the drive.

Pros: Bought this for my Beyondtv HTPC. Installed it my server with 1tb drives (JBOD) with no problems at all ever since.

Cons: None

Pros: Easy to install and implement. Fits right into (3) 5.25" slots. The HDs fit well and are easy to install and remove. I did not test hot-swap capabilities, but it runs reasonably quiet and seems to keep the HDs cool. I used this for a RAID 5 on a promise FastTrack 4650 controller (also bought here) and it controller had no issues with this setup. You do have to power the unit on the first time you power up the machine, then it will come on every time after that by itself.

Cons: None that I can find so far.

Other Thoughts: It just works and it a great buy for the money.

Pros: - Keeps drives cool. Disks that were burning hot when mounted in the case, now are barely warm.

Cons: - Switching off one of the drives causes brief shutdown of a drive in an adjacent bay!
- Noisy fan, almost impossible to replace with a quieter one.
- Tray locks difficult to operate.

Other Thoughts: I bought this cage to improve cooling of the disks in my computer, and it does a terrific job. Drives, that were burning hot when mounted in the disk bays in the computer case, now are barely warm. This comes at an expense: the fan, even if set at the lowest setting is the biggest noicemaker in my computer. I wanted to replace it with a quieter one, but it is so tightly integrated with the enclosure, that I just decided that it wasn't worth the effort.
The reason that I gave the cage only two eggs is the fact, that an attempt to remove off one of the drives, causes a brief shutdown of the adjacent drive. I have the drives configured as 3+1 (3 disks in RAID5 + one independent). Every time I switch off the independent drive in order to remove it, one of the RAID drives shuts down for a fraction of a second and trips array rebuild. I didn't dare to repeat the experiment on one of the drives from the array.

If you want to keep the disks cool - buy. If you care about hot-swap - forget

Pros: Good, solid hot-swap bay. Keeps my drives cool enough. Serves its purpose well.

Cons: Lock design is not the best. Also, the power buttons don't line up directly to the bay they power.

Other Thoughts: Love this cage. I've had one in my media server for about 2 years, and just bought a second one to add more drives to it.

Yes, this does have a fairly loud fan. You don't get a 4-drive hot-swap cage for your bedroom computer. You get it because you have 4 hard drives, and hard drives need to be kept cool. Quiet fans are quiet because they spin slowly and don't move much air. Cages like this pack drives close together, so they need to have a fan that's capable of keeping the drives from dying. There's a reason people don't sleep in data centers.

Pros: I've ordered a couple of these type of hot swap cages, this one is the best one I've ordered. The fan keeps the hard drives nice and cool. You can "lock" the hard drives so you can't accidentally open the tray. You can use either SATA power or molex power. LEDs are bright for easy viewing.

Cons: No cons really, see other thoughts.

Other Thoughts: Although the trays can be locked, if they're unlocked they're easy to accidentally "eject" if you press on the right spot but it hasn't happened to me because I keep the trays in the "lock" position.

Pros: Works effectively for the purpose of adding a few hot swap bays to a case.

Cons: The latch mechanism for the trays leaves a bit to be desired. It's entirely too easy to pop the tray out while trying to lock it in place - you have to hold the latch in place so it doesn't accidentally pop loose.

Also, it is VERY noisy. Just the noise of its one fan dwarfs the combined noise of my hard drives, the CPU cooler, and the case fans. Don't use it if you're wanting the computer to be left on in your bedroom.

Pros: This cage has great mechanical design. Drive bays fit snugly. Solid feel with inserting/removing bays.

Nice SATA cables included.

It does have a cooling fan but it doesn't seem to do a lot of good. At the low-speed setting the HD temps are less than 5 degrees C lower than before with no fan. But it's better than no fan at all I guess.

Points taken off for a design that doesn't seem to lend itself to good cooling and noisy fan.

Cons: Cable layout could be improved. It can be hard to insert power connectors because of their location. Fan is very noisy. Solid sounding, just loud. You don't want this fan in a media center PC. There are none of the shock mounting grommets we're so used to seeing these days.

The documentation included in the box is next to useless. They never tell you anywhere for example that you have to push on the LEDs to power up the drives. But that's what reviews are for I guess.

Other Thoughts: Beware of cases that use rails for installing drives. My Antec P180 case has no provisions for screwing in the cage. I had to use drive rails. It works but it's not as snug as if it could be mounted with screws. I prefer screws for things that will never be removed.

Overall it seems like one of the better cages of it's type.

I'm not sure yet if I'll be keeping or returning it. I'm thinking that a normal 1-hotswap-drive-per-bay will better for cooling/airflow.

Pros: Nice and clean. Solid construction

Cons: This arrived with one of the lock buttons broken. An RMA was approved. The one thing I don't like is that you can not lock the drive without releasing the latch. You have to hold the latch in while turning the lock "dial" to lock. Poor design.

Other Thoughts: The amber power LED in the front is VERY bright. So if you are going to use this with a Home Theather PC you will probably want to put some black electrical tape on it. It would have been AWESOME if it was blue instead of Amber.

Pros: I think the ease of installation makes this product worth every penny it cost. It fits almost perfectly into a Centurion 590 case. No sofware or firmware installation required.
Just plug the power connectors in, plug the SATA cables in, put your drives on the trays, plug the trays in, and you're off to the races.

Cons: It doesn't quite fit the 5.25" opening width like a add-in CD/DVD device does. There is a 1/4" gap around all sides and top/bottom of the front. It doesn't look like it was OEM (it's not, but that is beside the point).
also, I'm not thrilled with the Power usage application. This unit requires power to be turned on via the HD1- HD4 buttons, otherwise the drives do not power on. If you have small children, make sure they do not have access to the buttons. The "pretty" multi-color LED's will be a major source of interest.
The latches and HD locks seem flimsy, but as long as you pay attention and are not constantly changing drives, they should last a good long time.

Other Thoughts: Overall, I'm satisfied with this product and I will probably buy another for my remaining drives.