ICY DOCK MB994SP-4SB-1 4x 2.5" SSD/HD in 1x 5.25" Bay SATA Hot-Swap Backplane Cage

Pros: Cheap.
When it works, it works very well, easy to swap trays/nodes

Cons: Seemingly Design Flaws that lead to Major Frustrations

Other Thoughts: SSD's must be secured if your swapping somewhat frequently, or even infrequently to avoid damaging them.
When mounting the tray to drive bay, mounting brace screws locked trays in (never had this happen before) due to the poor design of the trays (they placed the mounting holes properly, but did a flaw in the trays causes even the slightest (about .5mm) excess in length of the mounting screw to lock the trays in. This resulted in me using only the rear mounting screw's, the frustration was just the inconviennce and problems it caused when a tray needed to be moved and disassembling everything.

Another interesting thing is that some of our SSD's did not work! All our SSD's are of the same brand/model with nearly identical formatting/partitioning, and about 20% of them would not work in these trays! We had to use 3.5'' - 2.5'' brackets, costing us both space and time.
I have no idea why this was the case, we swapped those SSD's to other tray locations and they would not work, they were properly mounted like all the other's we triple checked...

Basically, if your using $500 SSD's do not buy this device, I cringed mounting them in. The metal is flimsy and cheap, it is rebranded OEM manufactured from likely a CAM type factory in Asia that is new to server-grade products and can't follow the blueprints that icy provided them.

Overall I would recommend spending extra to get a "slightly" higher quality tray, to me the amount of lost time and hassle not to mention the scraping (if you slide it in as they recommend in the manual, I recommend opening it up to properly insert it, sliding it in will have the metal rub against the interface ports and may damage them).

If the drives are not properly secured within the trays, even off slightly, you may misalign the interface ports and if you were like me, and its your first time with these trays, then you will think its just a little stubborn and give it a push (this was before I realized that a tiny indentation caused by a screw was causing so much friction), then you will bend the rear interfaces, I do not blame them for that, I should have assumed that it would slide in as easily as previous trays, but as it was my first tray, I did not, that SSD ended up working fine in another slot, but that slot no longer worked. However I had 3 more tray's on three different server's so I learned quickly.

I would not recommend this to a colleague, perhaps it is suitable for a workstation and/or a server that has administrator's who have low hourly rates as buying these in bulk will likely cost more then you saved purchasing them.

Just my thoughts, I know a-lot of you had good experiences, and well, dealing with the purchasing of mass amounts of hardware I have experience with foreign (primarily CHN since their big shift in trade integrity governance two years ago from national to regional) companies and I would not be surprised to see that many of these reviews are in fact manufactured, if they are I a

Pros: When the description lists it as "full metal" they aren't kidding. This sucker is heavy and the trays latch in very securely.

Though the fans can be switched off I found the noise with them on was an acceptable level, though fans often vary so keep that in mind. However, the computer is in a relatively noisy room as it is so I'm not sure I'd notice anyway.

By having only four instead of six drive slots, each drive tray can easily hold a thick drive and cooling seems like it won't be a problem.

Cons: The screws holding the latch to the trays may have to be tightened periodically because opening and closing the latches seems like it slowly backs the screws out. If the protrude they will interfere with the tray sliding in smoothly.

The screws to hold the outer case are very short, so if your computer case has any sort of quick removal sliders they may not reach properly.

Pros: Great product. Does what it was made to do--holds four 2" drives and has LEDs to indicate HDD activity. I also REALLY like the one (1) power receptacle for ALL drives. My, how that reduces cable clutter! Just ordered another for my wife's pc.

Cons: None that I have found.

Other Thoughts: Screws are short, but easy to work around...only fasten the screws a couple of turns, and don't tighten any of them. Or, go through your PC scrap box and find some a tad longer. Be careful you don't use one too long, or you won't get the HDD in or out.
I have a large CoolerMaster case, and it has a neat push button device for securing peripherals without using screws, unless you just feel you have to on one side (?).
I also found it was easier to mount the hard drives by just trashing that metal top plate. Seems to work fine without it. A caveat here:::don't lose those screws that come with it for mounting the hard drives, and don't substitute any!
Overall, a well engineered product by a company who really knew what was needed for up-to-date PCs. Kudos to Icy Dock!

Pros: All metal construction is solid. The drive cages are decent. Though the mechanism to remove/insert them is fidgety, since it's all metal I'm not worrying about breaking anything when wiggling with them or trying to get them all the way in. SSD fit in the cage with plenty of room to spare.

Cons: The supplied screws for attaching the whole unit in your case are far too short. They provided short screws to avoid you going too deep into the cage and interferring with the sliding action of the drive cages or worse hitting the drives. The problem is, the screws are about half as long as they should be. You could screw them through maybe a paper thin sheet of metal, but in my case the screws only barely stuck through the metal of one case, and similar for rails for another case.

You have a couple options, you can safely use longer screws on the holes towards the rear of the unit. If you used all 4 of these then it'd still be secure despite nothing near the front of the case. In my case though I needed to use rails which only screw into 1 spot in the back and one in the front. I ended up using regular screws in the back, and cut some custom length screws using my dremel for the front.

Other Thoughts: If they would provide slightly longer screws they'd still be able to avoid interfering with or damaging the drive cages or drives, but actually allow you to screw the cages in through anything thicker than a piece of aluminum foil.

Pros: 1. Being able to turn the fan off, this is great for SSD'd.
2. Just 1 power plug.
3. Love being able to take SSD's/HDD's out at anytime with AHCI enable. ( Hot swap )

Cons: 1. The one power plug is the older style 4 pin. Not much use for that plug anymore except for this drive bay. I wish it used the SATA connector with the 3v rail wire added to the plug.
2. The fan is loud when turned on. ( No need for it with SSD's )

Other Thoughts: Over all this is better then the other one. The other one (MB994SP-4S), that fan is very loud and you can't turn that one off..

Pros: Easy way to mount your new SSD array. Supports SATA III

Cons: Screws provided to secure this in your case are incredibly short. Depending on the thickness of your case or rails they may not work at all. In looking at the depth of the holes in the unit it seems normal length drive screws would work fine.

Other Thoughts: I bought this to mount into my new home system, Lian Li PC-Q08 and it just didn't fit the case opening very well and the all metal cages just looked too "industrial" against the aluminum case. I ended up going another route. The unit worked perfect, that is why this is in the other thoughts and not in the "Cons". I'm hanging on to this, it should be perfect for little home server with RAID SSDs.

Pros: -Full metal cage
-Switch to turn fans on/off
-Fan module easily removable
-HDD Bays swap out easily
-Single Molex connection powers all four HDD

Cons: -Drives bays are ventilated which is good for airflow but bad for drive noise
-The case/cage screws provided are too short to work with my Antec Solo case's removable 5 and 1/2 bay system. I ended up using poster tape to attach the cage to my case's quick release system.

Other Thoughts: I really like the flexibility of this enclosure. Of the 4 drive bays I have two SSDs and two single platter, 7200 RPM drives. The temperature is not and issue so I removed the fan module and placed noise dampening foam in the bays on top of the HDDs which significantly reduced noise. The temperature increase is negligible.

Pros: With the gradual move to SSD and laptop drives, this offers a good step toward those devices. I installed this in my Zalman Liquid Cooled Mid Tower case. It fits well in this case, which is a plus, since slight deviations often mean I need to modify something to make it fit. The front of the cage has small LEDs to show the drive status (Green = drive present; Yellow = drive activity). Being able to leave the fan off is a plus. Since they are small they are noticeable, but not intolerable (noisy). The solid construction is a BIG plus. No flimsy parts that mean the drive might not engage with the SATA backplane. Also, support for SATA III is a HUGE plus for SSD owners. I had no need to remove the top of the tray for my laptop drives or my Samsung SSD device.

Cons: As the other reviewer noted the screws to hold the cage to the case are much too short. My case has thicker than normal metal construction, so the screws that case with this cage are ridiculously small. But with my case, I have learned to expect the need to modify connecting hardware.

Other Thoughts: This cage does not have a SATA power connector. It uses a molex connector. It might be an issue with some power supplies. Also, this cage does not have any keys. Of course, lost keys are a major nuisance, so that might be a plus for some of us! 8^) .. This is the perfect add-on for for a high end case. Just attach the drive (SSD or HDD) to the tray, insert the tray, and go!

Pros: All-in-all in is a good product. The fan has an on/off switch since SSDs don't really need one and the whole drive bay has 1 power connector. SSDs slide right in (see notes). Everything else about them works just fine. The screw that mount the hdd/ssd inside the removable chassis work just fine.

Cons: 1. Right angle sata cables fit on the upper drives, but the cable mashes into the lower drives cable because the bottom ones can not have a right angle cable due to a useless metal lip on the back.

2. The provided "case screws" that mount the icy dock into the computer case are to have a screw head that is too small and short. I don't know if this is a case specific issue with the "RM-4120 12 Bay Fortress". I am now forced to scour the internet to find a screw with precise dimensions. Meanwhile it is loose in the computer case. The screw heads are about 0.039 inches too small so they drop through. The threaded part is approx 0.071" so if your cases metal is a little to thick you can't screw in one side. If you get a screws to long it will either damage your drive or prevent the tray from sliding out. The threaded outer diameter is .108", head diameter .21 or higher, threaded length probably around .08", and a thread match.

Other Thoughts: If your are installing SSDs you need to take the top cover off the drive tray. Otherwise you will have to force the SSD to slide in. Once the top cover is off the drive bay the SSD drops into place like it should. Avoid right angle SATA cables.