Customer Reviews Of ICY DOCK MB561S-4S Aluminum 3.5" eSATA Quad Bay Removal Hard Drive Enclosure

Customer Reviews

Customer Reviews for ICY DOCK MB561S-4S Aluminum 3.5" eSATA Quad Bay Removal Hard Drive Enclosure - Retail
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Review Summary (17 Reviews):
Excellent	9ReviewsExcellent	52%
Good	4ReviewsGood	24%
Average	3ReviewsAverage	18%
Poor	1ReviewsPoor	6%
Very Poor	0Reviews	0%
Excellent	0Reviews	0%
Good	0Reviews	0%
Average	0Reviews	0%
Poor	0Reviews	0%
Very Poor	0Reviews	0%
Excellent	0Reviews	0%
Good	0Reviews	0%
Average	0Reviews	0%
Poor	0Reviews	0%
Very Poor	0Reviews	0%

Reviewer	Product Review
kappelmeister Tech Level: somewhat high Ownership: more than 1 year This user purchased this item from Newegg	5/24/2009 10:27:53 PM Solid, Secure, Runs Cool Pros: I've been using this enclosure 24/7 for 3+ years. Quick and easy to set up. Currently populated with 4 x 1TB Samsungs in Raid 5 running off a RR-2322. Formatted and built the entire array in under 2 hours. Runs very cool. Cons: None from me . . . Some have commented on the slightlyt loud fan - not an issue for me as the fans on my OC'd computer drown it out. For those who need something quieter, just change out the fan. This unit is too good to pass up. Other Thoughts: Asus P5W DH Deluxe, E6600 OC'd to 3GHz, RocketRaid 2322. Also using an Icy Dock MB455SPF-B 5 bay backplane in my tower populated with assorted WD + Seagate drives. That has also run cool and quiet 24/7 for 3+ years with no problems. 3 out of 3 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
Poindexter Tech Level: high Ownership: 1 week to 1 month	12/17/2008 9:59:37 AM Works great! Pros: -Stays Cool I have been transferring data for about 40hours across my network and it has yet to even feel warm, has a nice fan on the back keeps a constant cool airflow threw it, the fan is also detachable for stealth mode ;) -Easy to use Didn't really mind that the manual was vague, its pretty self explanatory what you do with a external enclosure. -Good look Looks good, case feels solid, the trays do feel a little on the cheap side, but unless your going to be using it as a projectile its not going to be a problem. Also it has some nice little rubber pads on the bottom to keep it sitting directly on the ground. Cons: Price - WOW $400 when not on sale? I ordered this for work purposes so my company paid for it, otherwise I don't think I would shell out this much money for personal use :-/ Other Thoughts: Using with: -2x Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive -Addonics SATAI/ SATA II Controller Card Works great, I would def suggest if you have the money or someone else does :D 3 out of 3 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
cannonbear Tech Level: somewhat high Ownership: 1 month to 1 year This user purchased this item from Newegg	10/9/2008 4:15:07 PM ICY DOCK - Is that like a OXYMORON Pros: Its what i wanted - an external Esata 4 disk enclosure Cons: The Frinkening thing will roast your drives if you leave it on for an extended period of time - i actually have to get a house fan and blow directly into it - if its on for say 5 or more hours - i would take 1 drive out just to get better air flow - also the fan on the device is annoying Other Thoughts: arggg 4 out of 8 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
Monster Tech Level: high Ownership: 1 month to 1 year This user purchased this item from Newegg	9/10/2008 5:06:53 AM Not worth it Pros: Nice idea; build a small array with affordable sata disks Cons: As others note, this unit is loud. I didn't mind as I attached it to a server which is also loud as opposed to my desktop system where noise level matters. The problem is that several times now I've had data corruption from read and/or write errors on each disk. I've swapped disks (from 4 seagate 500gb to 4 wd 750gb re2) and the problems recurred. I changed cables now 3 times, rebuilt the arrays and within a month I lose my data. I've attached the array to my workstation with a different sata controller and still had problems. I took the disks out of the array and mounted the disks directly inside my workstation and they work perfectly. Other Thoughts: Avoid this disk enclosure 2 out of 5 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
Mannion Tech Level: high Ownership: 1 month to 1 year	7/2/2008 9:42:28 PM Fantastic enclosure Pros: Wicked cheap (with $100 May rebate; Icy Dock varies rebate amount by month, though). Surprisingly solid. Hot-swappable drives. Small footprint. Easy to use drive trays. Small LEDs (unlike blindingly-bright ones on BYTECC enclosures). Comes with 4 eSATA cables and 2x2 SATA-to-eSATA brackets - everything you need but the drives. Cons: Can't access power supply / power supply fan (but noise problem is solved in current model, so not a big issue anymore). Drive activity lights turn off when drives are busy; not really an issue, it just catches my eye and makes me think that the enclosure is offline. Seems backwards compared to other units. Other Thoughts: Entirely satisifed with this unit. Looking to buy 1-2 more in the coming months, as my budget permits. I'm using this with a RocketRAID 2314 controller and 4 x 750 GB Western Digital Caviar GP (new low-power, variable-speed) drives. Compatibilty is great and performance is excellent (after 2 weeks of intensive benchmarking for use with an Oracle database server). I was very concerned about the noise issue, based on earlier posts. I spent several days talking to Icy Dock pre-sales support, who was outstanding (and I don't say that a lot in this industry). They indicated that the power supply noise problem had been fixed within the last two weeks, and hooked me up with a vendor who would guarantee that I got a new model (unfortunately, not Newegg). Unit is no louder than the fans on any of my PCs (esp. the fan on the NVIDIA Quadro FX 3450 - yikes!). Great product, great company. 5 out of 5 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
N/A Tech Level: high Ownership: 1 week to 1 month This user purchased this item from Newegg	6/4/2008 7:48:26 AM Good enclosure. Pros: Very solid design. Stacked four drives in this enclosure. SATA drives fit and perform perfectly. Cons: Expensive. Loud cooling fan, which can be a dealbreaker if you really need a quiet computer. Other Thoughts: Worth the cost, esp if you can get the rebate, and can deal with the loud cooling fan. I imagine an intrepid hobbyist could replace the cooling fan with a quieter version. Did you find this review helpful? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
dcpete Tech Level: somewhat high Ownership: 1 day to 1 week This user purchased this item from Newegg	4/28/2008 11:20:33 AM Way too noisy Pros: This is a suprisingly sturdy case. When loaded with drives, the case seems to do well in terms of vibration. The unit looks good and is about as small as possible for a 4-drive case. I loaded up 4-1TB Seagate drives and run RAID-5 from a HighPoint 2322 card. The cabling configuration is fine for me (mini-SAS to 4 eSata). I paid about $60 for the cable. But I have the IcyDock right next to my case. Cons: I can't get over the noise and will be returning this case as soon as my replacement case arrives. It's really too bad becuase everything else about this case seems top-notch. There is a bigger fan on the back that appears to cool the drives. It's quiet enough. In fact, you can remove it, but 99% of the sound comes from the tiny fan that is in the power supply. There is no way to shut this fan off. I have two other computers in this room, as well as a Front Projector and this tiny box is by far the noisiest device in the room. Other Thoughts: The size is very nice. I could see this being a useful case for carrying upto 4TB on the road. It's fairly heavy, but really compact. If you put this case in a noisy equipment room, then I suppose the noise is comprable to other devices. But the noise in my application is a deal-killer. 3 out of 3 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
studmuffinmacdude Tech Level: somewhat high Ownership: 1 week to 1 month This user purchased this item from Newegg	2/27/2008 5:02:08 PM SCHWEEEEET. Pros: This little guy is a doozy. It is much more solid than I expected. Very well built with solid connections. Drives can be inserted/removed with ease. Drives are accessed at great speeds. Cons: It's a pain in the behind to plug into my SATA connections on my MacPro. The only flaw I've seen from Apple... It's a little noisy, but not that bad. Other Thoughts: Buy this thing! It's definitely worth the money. 1 out of 3 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
Tigey Tech Level: high Ownership: 1 month to 1 year This user purchased this item from Newegg	2/11/2008 4:46:18 PM Great enclosure Pros: Comes in good looking packaging. Easy to disassemble and add drives. Phillips head screwdriver. Keeps drives cool and is fairly quiet (compared to other fan noise from computers). Cons: No cons to speak of. Other Thoughts: If only they made one of these for 8+ drives... 1 out of 2 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
earwax45 Tech Level: average Ownership: 1 week to 1 month This user purchased this item from Newegg	11/22/2007 8:45:17 PM Storage outside of the cpu Pros: Good construction,drives fit right in easily. Easy to remove for on the fly change out of drives. Little white winky blinky lights. Cons: The cooling fan is fairly noisy. You do have those 4 cables running to the ports on the back of your cpu. This setup is not something you want to move around a lot. Other Thoughts: I used this on my server. I had a 1 TB PATA RAID5, and now with 4 SATA drives and the external box, I have 3 TBs more. I used the Areca card for RAID5. Fast, big storage now for all the pictures and videos I store. I suppose I could have started over with a new server, but this one was running fine and paid for. 2 out of 2 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
N/A Tech Level: high Ownership: 1 week to 1 month This user purchased this item from Newegg	11/7/2007 3:23:08 PM Nice, but loud Pros: Nice unit. Looks good and consolidates all of the various external hard drive enclosures I have. Cons: Fan is loud. Sounds like a hair dryer when it warms up. Better for use in a situation where sound is not an issue. Wouldn't want it in my living room. Other Thoughts: Works well for how I use it, in my computer room for backups. 1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
N/A Tech Level: high Ownership: 1 week to 1 month	7/8/2007 9:42:27 AM Works like a champ, med loud fan Pros: 4 - eSata drive connections, white LEDs (I'm color blind). Easy setup and worked out of the box Cons: Fan spins faster as the drives warm up. Other Thoughts: For my home office with a HighPoint 4 port eSata x1 board on Linux, this box provided what I was looking for. Give me a raid solution for my nightly backups. I'm sure with a saw, duct tape and a new fan I can make it quiet. 0 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
MICT Tech Level: high Ownership: less than 1 day This user purchased this item from Newegg	5/17/2007 6:45:40 AM Good, but not good enough Pros: Very small and compact. Easy to setup. And it works as advertised. Cons: My issues with the unit is the fan. It iv very loud and being that this is attached to my HTPC, its not acceptable. They should have included a pot to regulate the small built in fan. (I might have to take it appart and disable that fan all together.) Also I dont like that the unit stays on all the time. They should have included a 12v trigger so when the pc is turned on it turns on as well. Other Thoughts: Overall I think with a few custom tweaks it will be perfect. But until then if you can mind the noise and the constant on status, then it does a good job. 1 out of 2 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
N/A Tech Level: average Ownership: less than 1 day This user purchased this item from Newegg	5/6/2007 11:45:40 AM Pros: enclosure is well built. nice and sturdy. Cons: Plugged in 2x 500GB seagate (SATA II), I can't even get both drives to complete formatting. I had to format the drives directly conencted to the motherboard. Afterward, I tried to expand the MFT on the drives, OS just hangs or rebooted. Once again, I connected both drives to the motherboard, the MFT completed. I just gave up on this point and returned for a refund. Other Thoughts: I guess it would have work if I set both hard drives back to SATA I. 1 out of 4 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
N/A Tech Level: high Ownership: 1 week to 1 month This user purchased this item from Newegg	4/14/2007 5:07:34 PM Solid, solid, solid! Pros: This thing is well built. Had it up and running quickly and have been using it ever since. Cons: Fan might be a tad loud but that's easy to fix if it's a problem. Other Thoughts: I buy 500GB hard drives and use them like floppies. Who needs Blu-Ray or HD-DVD? 1 out of 2 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
Murph Tech Level: somewhat high Ownership: 1 week to 1 month This user purchased this item from Newegg	2/6/2007 11:36:26 AM Beautiful! Pros: 4 drive capacity, not too big for desktop use, runs cool, sturdy construction, BIOS configurable, sexy! Cons: Hadn't found it sooner, would be 100% perfect if it was network-attachable. Other Thoughts: LOVE it! I'm running 4x500GB Seagate drives in RAID5 on a Dell OptiPlex. That's 1.5TB on a desktop machine, high performance, high redundancy. Had some trouble finding a suitable eSATA controller, but settled on the Addonics 4-port eSATA RAID5/JBOD model. If you're looking for a local, redundant data solution, look no further. 4 out of 5 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
N/A Tech Level: high Ownership: 1 day to 1 week This user purchased this item from Newegg	11/5/2006 8:52:19 AM Solid eSATA RAID enclosure Pros: Sturdy case construction, easy setup, good ventilation. Cons: None. Other Thoughts: Installation was very straight-forward - less than ten minutes from UPS dropping off the box to having four drives up and running in the enclosure. Construction is solid with thick case walls. Drive brackets slide in/out smoothly, but hold drives securely - no vibration/buzzing. I've got this sitting on a shelf inside a home rackmount cabinet, and the Icy Dock is keeping a RAID of four WD 5000KS drives at 49C or below, even after hours of continuous access - well within spec for these drives. (Pretty decent since the cabinet also contains three rackmount servers and is relying on room-temp air.) Noise level from the cooling fan (a Young Lin Tech DFB802512M) is decent - specs on the Young Lin website rate it at 27.85 dBA, and I'd say that sounds about right. 11 out of 11 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!