BYTECC BT-135E-BK 3.5" SATA Aluminum Drive Case

Pros: Except for the cooling fan, these are well built metal devices. Save yourself the headache and buy spare 40X10mm high quality fans.

Cons: I boot to different OS and swap main drives often. I wish we could buy the drawers separately. The reason I gave it 4 eggs was because of the fan. If one of the fans goes out you just might fry your drive. Take it from someone who's been there.

Other Thoughts: The fan seems to die in less than 6 months on my PC that is always running. I have dozens of old similar IDE devices that I have been using for replacement fans.

Pros: Looks good, feels sturdy

Cons: 1. Doesn't work! Tried both the Molex and the SATA power cable, none works - not even the power LED lights up. I'm very sure the powerlines got juice in it since those are the ones powering my case fan and one of my other hard drives.

2. The SATA sockets and the 12V 4-pin Molex are placed to close. With my PSU which comes with small "handles" on the Molex plug, it was pushing against the SATA cable.

Other Thoughts: Definitely needs better QC. Fit and finish feels top notch, but...well... it doesn't work!

Pros: Sturdy and easy to put together.

Cons: 1 out of 2 was defective out of the box

Other Thoughts: They need better quality control.

Pros: Sturdy extruded aluminum construction. Handle racks drive case in and out rather than pulling or pushing. Key switch acts as power switch, so moving a spinning drive does not occur. Drive Active LED and Power LED work without motherboard connection. Spring-loaded door closes when drive is removed. 40mm cooling fan, in drive case, runs only when powered on. Very well made. Inexpensive.

Cons: Key has no real security value and will not stay put in lock for long. 5 screws used to secure drive within the drive case. Therefore, not ideal for using multiple drives with one drive case. Fan not very quiet, but easily replaced.

Other Thoughts: To use, without having to reboot before and after using the removable drive, this SATA port on motherboard must be set to AHCI in lieu of IDE. Note that Windows does not like such a change after installation.

Pros: Yes, if you're dumb enough to leave it on the ground outside like I did once, you can run it over with a car with the HDD in it and you will not have a problem. Aluminum beats plastic anyday for this application. Other then that it performs as advertised.

Cons: It's a straight thru connection, meaning it uses the HDD's actual SATA & Power Connections. So if you're going to swap this out alot keep that in mind. Also the fan is useless, but if you're using a proper case it's not needed anyways.

Other Thoughts: It does very rarely not hot swap (requires a reboot to see the drive). I've only tried it on this one MOBO and controller card so it could very well be limited to my equipment.

Pros: Nice, Solid construction.
Looks Good...kinda cool looking.
The drive rack slides in and out very easily.
Front Power & Activity lights.
Accepts Both SATA & 4-Pin Power Connections.
Cheap Price.

Cons: The fan is of low quality.

Other Thoughts: I own 6 of these, and on every one, the fan has failed spectacularly in 6-8 months.
However, it is not a big deal to replace, or simply remove the offending fan with a higher quality one.

Other than that, this is very good for what it is.

Pros: Easy to put together. Very sturdy drive cage. Has a little fan (thats not too annoying) to keep things cool.

Cons: It turns off the drive and fan when the lock is in the "open" position.

Other Thoughts: I use it in a RAID 1 array with 2x 1TB WD low power drives. Great for data redundancy and easy drive removal.

Pros: Very well built and solid. They fit my Antec server case like a properly fitted glove. There is no slop in the fit and the lock is solid and tight - so is the handle. The key lock turns the power on and off simply and easily. Two keys are supplied with each case. A heavy SATA date connector is also supplied - it was plenty long enoungh in my large server case. Inserting and securing my Western Digital RE3 SATA drives was a breeze using the supplied screws. Both the power LED and the activity LED work exactly as they should, and neither is overly bright. Windows 7 found my hard drives using these, and rated the OS drives at 5.9 - the same as they rate connected without this added drive case. Data transfers were no issue and as fast as the Enterprise WD hard drives allowed.

Cons: There is no con - unless you let someone con you into thinking there is. The LEDs may not function with all hard drive brands - BYTECC does warn of this in the supplied literature.

Other Thoughts: I checked all connections, secured my drives, and let Windows 7 x64 Ultimate do the rest. I have zero problem hot swapping with these drive cases, and like them better than much more expensive ones I've used in the past. They not only look good, they have a good military spec feel in your hands as you use them. Nothing about them is flimsy or weak. They also have a small (40mm) internal front-mounted fan to help cool the mounted drive. Those fans have been very quiet in my use over the past two months they've been installed and running. They aren't needed if your drives run as cool as mine do - so you can disconnect them. Like any new component, you could get a bad one - just pay attention while setting these cases up.

Pros: Construction seems sturdy.

Cons: It fried one of my drives.

Other Thoughts: Pass on it.

Pros: As other reviewers have noted, this drive caddy has EXCELLENT build quality. Very sturdy aluminum construction make for a no-worries installation. I honestly don't know how BYTECC is managing to move these at such a low price, given the solid construction. Key mechanism feels very solid, not loose like so many other small barrel-key mechanisms do. I purchased this as well as a Western Digital Caviar Green 640GB drive to replace an aging WD USB external backup drive. Basically, the only reason that I opted for the caddy vs. a fixed internal drive is that I figure if the house is burning down, I can quickly remove the drive and save my data - not an option with a fixed internal - without having to deal with slower USB transfer rates.

Cons: Fan is loud. HOWEVER - if you are using this as a backup solution like I am, the drive is spending 90% of its time spun down. I also chose the WD Green series because they run very cool. If you have good case ventilation, you will get enough airflow through the front grill to keep things cool. I disconnected my fan after about an hour - very simple, 2 pin plug accessible from the front panel - no disassembly required.

No "top lid" to the bay means that if you have extra PS wires bundled into your "spare" 5.25 bays, you will have issues inserting the caddy. Simple solution - install the caddy below a DVD drive to prevent any accidental incursion into the boy.

Other Thoughts: If I was running three of these with WD Blacks or Velociraptors in a RAID 5 (continuous use) like a lot of people on here are doing, I would NOT disconnect the fan, and would probably upgrade the fan to a quieter model. But in a light-usage situation like mine, no real reason to have an extra fan cranking away.