ICY DOCK MB994SP-4S Full Metal 4 x 2.5" Hard Drive in 1 x 5.25" bay SAS / SATA 6Gb Hot Swap Backplane Cage

Pros: Metal with a nice powder coat finish.

Cons: Rail screws are only a few threads deep and 3 stripped out from the forces of basic manipulation of the case shortly after installation.

The two 40mm fans are ridiculously loud. Louder than the other 6 120mm fans (Noctua NF-P12/Cougar CF-V12HB) and CPU cooler (Noctua NH-D14) in the case combined. Luckily they can be disconnected from the printed circuit board easily.

Other Thoughts: I'll be replacing it with another brand asap.

Pros: Good use of space, well ventilated, hot swap, takes 4 bare WD velociraptors.

Cons: Difficult to believe that such a small box could be so useful

Other Thoughts: Got mine for under $50

Pros: • Sturdy, all-metal construction. Keeps things cool, and feels like quality.
• A single 5.25in bay turns into 4 hot-swappable 2.5in drive bays: great if you're low on expansion space, or just have a lot of drives to connect.
• Drive carriages interchangeable with other Icy Dock products, and extras available on NewEgg--see item #N82E16817994125.
• Easy to install, and for me, everything worked as it should out of the box.

Cons: None so far. Maybe slightly quieter fans would be nice, but they don't exactly bother me.

Other Thoughts: Bought two of these (along with its cousin, the 2 x 2.5in + optical bay--see item #N82E16817994146) and couldn't be happier with them. Drives are easy enough to swap, and the metal carriages provide extra protection when outside the computer. Two of these give me eight hot-swappable SATA/SAS bays from only two 5.25in slots--a very efficient use of space for me.

Some other reviewers have noted that they don't see the HDD activity LEDs working. I can confirm that they are there, and they do work, under the correct circumstances. As Icy Dock says in their documentation, the amber activity lights depend upon the disk and controller you use to provide the correct signaling. For example, SATA drives I have used running in Windows don't seem to show any activity lights, but on my SAS controller in BSD, the amber lights start flashing.

Pros: Fits four 2.5" drives in a single 5.25" drive bay.
Has cooling fan built in.
Includes drive cassettes.
Quiet.
FAST.

Cons: Needs two power cables.
Documentation is sparse.
non-raid

Other Thoughts: Easy install, mounted four 256gb SSD in a single bay to attach to a add-in sata card. Copies to drives run at full 6 Mb/sec SATA-3 speed. Requires two power connectors for proper operation, and each drive has individual SATA connection. Drive cassettes slide in and out easily. Contains a cooling fan to keep drives cool.

All in all a great product which met all my expectations and was well worth the money!

Pros: great construction.heavy duty.built to last and great for multiple ssd drives.

Cons: this is a follow up review.i have purchased 2 of these now and the only issue's i have are the fans keep getting load after just a few months of use.i blow my tower out bi-monthly to avoid to much build up in fans.they look to be cheap sleeve fans or something else?perhaps a change to 2 ball fans would be a better option.

Other Thoughts: i am ordering my own 2 ball fans,from newegg of course, to replace the 4 fans that now that have become very loud.that is going to cost an additional 45 dollars?icy dock did offer to replace the fans, but i fear it will be the same fans!

Pros: Fantastic build.
HDD lights do indicate activity for each individual drive.
Only two ide power connectors required for 4 drives.
Makes great use of old laptop drives that I have outgrown.
I now have easily swappable O.S. drives.
Much easier than opening the case to test/swap drives.

Cons: A bit pricey ... but ... after reading reviews of the cheaper plastic ones I knew that those who can afford this one deserve to have it.

Other Thoughts: If they make a 3-bay unit with mem-card slots in the 4th bay then I would buy it and give this one away.
Beware that it requires ide power connectors - not Sata power connectors so order convertors if you need them.

Pros: I have a pair of these cages connected to a HP P410 RAID card in a Corsair Vengeance C70 Case. So far it has been working very well. I am using the machine as a VMware lab server so the extra room for all the drives is a big plus. I am running SAS and SSD drives with no fitment issues so far. I read other reviews about issues with the fans and mine have been quite to this point.

Cons: None, it's doing the job I got them for.

Other Thoughts: For a custom/home build it is really good, I would say this is best drive cage setup out there for SAS & SATA. If you are a server guy and used to drive backplanes with the extra "intelligence" you wont get that here, but you are not paying server parts prices so you do get what you pay for.

Pros: 4 drives in one bay!!!

two cooling fans

All metal construction.

large mounting area for thick 2.5 hdd.

separate power connector for fans.

Cons: mounting screws are very precise. There is no room for error or screws that are too long and they will run into the drive trays and prevent removing/installing the drive caddies.

My case has an aluminum mounting bracket and it's too thick for the screws that came with it.

I used the case screws on the back holes as the trays don't reach that far back and it seems very sturdy. I put both rear screws in on both sides.

Didn't take off an egg as compact things are always finicky needing mods for tight spaces. You can get longer screws from the hardware store and a few washers for less than a $1.00 and get the front screws in if you want them. Take your provided screw with you to make sure you get the right thread/size. Or just use the rear holes only like me.

If you have a tooless case you'll probably be fine.

Other Thoughts: All-in-all this is a very good unit. I didn't need the fans as I have all SSDs. The bottom (Power 2) connector runs the fans and I just unplugged it and all seems fine. saves a few watts on my home server that is on 24/7.

Pros: Good cooling, good power connections, good metal construction. The internal connections are solid and the latches are stiff to open. No inadvertent removals are likely.

Cons: The trays are for 12mm drives, which seems fine until you realize that it wastes a bit of space for 7/9mm SSD's. Better cooling is the benefit if using 9mm 10K or 15K rpm SAS drives. It is moot if using SSD's.

Other Thoughts: For multi-drive SAS bays, this is the best option I've found. The price is nice, too, but really if you're cramming $2000 of drives in a cage, price isn't THAT important. ICY DOCK has enough other decent products out there to give them credibility, but this is a particularly good product from them.

Pros: This is a well made cage! Metal construction perfectly matches the rackmount chassis.

Fans were easially removed as my chassis has sufficent cooling to draw air through the bay.

Cons: All of these are minor:

Both fans are powered from the same input, would be better to have one fan each input.

The power LEDs are on even if there is no drive present.

The activity LEDs flash on and off at a fixed interval and for a minimum time for any access, would be better if it was an actual activity LED that would stay on solid for constant accesses instead of turning on and off.

Other Thoughts: Watch out for mounting in a custom chassis bay. I was unable to use provided screws as my chassis requires custom screws, but got it working anyway though with only the rear-most screws attached.