Athena Power BP-SATA3051B 3 x 5.25" Bays to 5 x 3.5" HD (SATA) Backplane

Pros: Simple to setup and use. All parts included (don't lose the flat drive screws!) Good individual control and LEDs for each drive and status. Keeps drives cool (35-38C) - better than I expected. Acceptable noise level (can't distinguish over case fans on dedicated disk server. Build quality and construction good for the price - but don't expect this to handle enterprise needs where you swap drives alot.

Cons: Directions are pathetic but not really needed. Individual on/off pin switches hard to locate but put some small dots of nail polish to make them easier to see/find. LEDs for drives are not "aligned" with the corresponding drive (on the edge of the enclosure) but marking the switches better made it easier to make sure to turn on/off correct one.

Other Thoughts: Put two of these into a tower case for my Bluray ripped collection (read: eats disk space mucho fast) and connected to WHS via Port Multipliers from Addonics. Will be adding another for 15 drives and 15TB+ of storage.

Pros: Simple to setup and use. All parts included (don't lose the flat drive screws!) Good individual control and LEDs for each drive and status. Keeps drives cool (35-38C) - better than I expected. Acceptable noise level (can't distinguish over case fans on dedicated disk server. Build quality and construction good for the price - but don't expect this to handle enterprise needs where you swap drives alot.

Cons: Directions are pathetic but not really needed. Individual on/off pin switches hard to locate but put some small dots of nail polish to make them easier to see/find. LEDs for drives are not "aligned" with the corresponding drive (on the edge of the enclosure) but marking the switches better made it easier to make sure to turn on/off correct one.

Other Thoughts: Put two of these into a tower case for my Bluray ripped collection (read: eats disk space mucho fast) and connected to WHS via Port Multipliers from Addonics. Will be adding another for 15 drives and 15TB+ of storage.

Pros: holds a bunch of disks.
relatively cheap.

Cons: fans are loud.
disks rattle unless you jam little pieces of paper between them.
after 2.5 years, the power buttons for the disks no longer stay on powered on. so now I have to jimmy-rig some kind of bent paperclip shim chinga dilly to keep the power buttons depressed at all times. or maybe just solder them on or something.

Pros: - Does exactly what it is supposed to do.
- Power lights (green) for each drive, they change to amber on drive access.
- Takes old 4-pin power connectors as well as SATA, or a combination of both.
- Includes SATA cables and flat screws

Cons: - Eject buttons on the trays
- Difficult to lock without pressing eject button on the tray; they tray ejects and you have to start over again. If the drive is being written to when this happens, you'll have data corruption.
- Fan is very loud and doesn't move much air. When I replaced the fan with a better one from newegg (37CFM/26dba), I found that the pwr connector on the unit is a nonstandard design. If you plug the fan into your MB, then the unit will buzz, thinking the fan had failed. In order to do it right, you're going to have to splice the fan wires and connect your new fan to the unit itself.
- lights and power buttons are not aligned with the drives so its not readily apparent which goes with which.
- Empty trays in the unit will vibrate, creating a buzzing noise.
- Airflow over drives could be a lot better. I hope they put a 120mm fan in their next model.

Other Thoughts: - I strongly recommend that you twist the lock button after the drive is snapped in place, but BEFORE you turn it on. Otherwise you can easily trigger the drive eject. If the unit is tilted down when this happens -even slightly- the drive tray WILL slide out onto the floor.
- An aftermarket fan from newegg is highly recommended, not just for the noise, but to keep your drives cooler, which will prolong their life.
- The unit looks like it would be inserted into 3x5.25 bay with the drives in the same orientation but it will only install with drives perpendicular. This usually means that the drives will be side-by-side rather than stacked on top of each other. Installing the unit with the power lights on the bottom works well for me.
- The drive slots get different degrees of airflow. Some slots are cooler than others.
- Most HD trays require screws with flat, thin, heads in order to properly slide in and out.

Pros: See other's comments. Maybe once I get it working I'll have more good things to say.

Cons: Am I the only one having problems with the drive mounting screws? Tried to use the drive screws that came with my CoolMaster Centurion 590 (4 of my cases would not work for this product, so bought new case) Mounted drives in trays, and to my surprise, the trays would not slide past each other because the screw heads hit on adjacent drives. Must need very thin flat-head screws to install drives in this unit. Was it supposed to come with drive screws? If so, I didn't get them. The drive screws that came with the CoolMaster 590 are not flat, so I ran into this problem. Hoping I can find some flat screws that will work, or I may have to grind off some of the ones I have.

Other Thoughts: Clearance between trays is much too close, and not enough to use some drive mounting screws. If special screws are needed, it should come with them. Mfg site is useless, as is "User's Manual". Better be pretty handy and have workshop to install this product.

Pros: The stylist in my phone can turn the power on and off for each hard drive, Power buttons are small and hard to accidentally push, Very good cooling, I only need to connect 2 power dongles to power 5 hard drives.

Cons: Will not fit into most computer cases. I had to hammer down the little metal guides that you generally lay a disk drive onto, when you slide the drive in. The other enclosures Athena Power makes have grooves to work with these metal guides.

Other Thoughts: Three of these plus one of the 3 in 2 enclosures allows me to put 18 hard drives into my Antec Twelve Hundered case. Throw a Promise Supertrak EX16650 hardware RAID card into the mix and you have a very nice high performance NAS with 16 hard drives, plus one slot for C drive and one slot to carry a out-of-array spare.

Pros: Lets you pack a lot of data into a regular case.

Seems to keep the drives sufficiently cool, which I was worried about.

They provided all sorts of peripheral cables (SATA and power splitters/adapters) which was a pleasant surprise.

Cons: I had to use a hacksaw to get it in the case I was using to trim a couple of little overhangs.

Other Thoughts: I haven't tested it at full capacity, yet. I have 4 drives in there now.

Pros: Individual power switches for each drive; internal fan; fan and temperature indicators, although they haven't had to go off yet so I'm not sure how well they work; power lights double as activity (green to orange color shift).

Cons: As often mentioned here, the instructions are not much help, especially concerning the power connectors. Because of this I am subtracting one egg. I've only tried the SATA power connections so I cannot comment on if connecting all 5 will fry your drives (and I don't plan on trying).

Metal (not plastic) handles would have been nice, but I don't plan on taking drives out all the time. Only when they fail, actually.

Too easy to pop open handle when trying to lock them down, but once you know to be careful it's not a big deal. Just do it with the power off if you're worried.

Also, this seems a tad expensive for the purpose it serves, but other options are just as expensive, if not more so. Still, for the convenience it offers, I find it worth it.

Other Thoughts: Goes perfectly with my Rosewill R901-P BK case. I almost want to buy 2 more now (don't need it really) just in case they stop making these. Like they were made for each other!

I have 5 1TB drives in this connected by 2 SATA power connections. HD temps hover around 30-33C.

Lastly, it does what it says and does it well. If you need a 5-to-3 SATA backplane I highly recommend this one.

Pros: this BP works like a charm. I put 5 drives inside and run it as raid 5 in my box. The drives stay cool and I haven't seen any issues.

Cons: the tiny buttons to turn on the drives and the mechanics to insert and remove the drives requires some delicate handling. you can easily break it using too much force.
the power connectors are confusing and it's not clear how many and which of the SATA or Molex connector you have to use. Stick with one kind.

Other Thoughts: I had some trouble installing the case into my tower.
the tower has rails fo holdinge 5" drives. These rails are in the way and I had to mechanical remove them with a power tool. You should check your case before you purchase if you don't feel like fixing your case.

Pros: Comes with locking sata cables. Holds 5 drives in 3 slots. Drives run cool (26-31C) with the fan set on low. Excellent use of power/activity LEDs. Great location of power switches for each drive (no turning off by mistake) and the locking latches are a welcome addition.

Cons: Instruction guide (1/2 sheet of paper) is completely inadequate for those less knowledgeable.

Other Thoughts: After some minor modifications in my case (bend up drives ledges) the cage fits perfectly flush and is completely secure. Will add one to my other machine shortly. Well worth the time, effort and cost for its convenience.